The floodwaters, the colour of a deep bruise, clawed at their shoulders. Kacy's bloodless lips parted, but the scream was swallowed by the roar. A half-submerged tire bobbed past.
"Mom—grab it!" Kacy rasped, her fingers digging into the slick rubber. Anna seized the other side, her face a mask of grim determination, just as the current tore Kacy's legs from under her. The rooftop, their last island of hope, vanished beneath the foam.
They were rag dolls in the torrent. Kacy thrashed, her nails scraping against the tire's tread while her mother kicked with a desperate, failing rhythm. The water, a malevolent force, hurled them toward the dark maw of a two-story building. Anna fought the flow, muscles cording in her arms, but the current laughed, twisting them like driftwood in its merciless grip.
Then—a sickening CRACK.
Kacy's spine hit brick, pain splintering up her back. She blinked water from her eyes. "Mom—?"
Anna floated eerily still, her chest skewered by a broken metal pole. The water around her bloomed crimson, her eyes already glazed.
"YOU!" A shout cut through the roar. A rescue boat teeming with lifeguards surged toward her. "GRAB THE BUOY!"
Kacy didn't move. "I won't leave her."
The lifeguard's voice was raw. "She's gone. You drown here, her death's for nothing."
A shuddering breath. Kacy let go of the tire and swam towards the floating red and white buoy.
The lifeguards hauled her into the boat. On board, a volunteer pressed a blanket and coffee into her shaking hands. The boat was an ark of weeping survivors, their sobs and prayers a fragile chorus against the flood's roar. Kacy stared past them, at the endless, churning water.
First, diabetes had claimed her father. Then the war had stolen her brother. Now the water had taken Anna. The coffee steamed untouched in her hands.
Not cold anymore. Just empty.