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Ana Maria Găzdaru is participating in the 5th International Literary Creation Competition, from Bucharest, Romania and she is 19 years old. We thank her for her participation and wish her success.

       Desperate remedies

	All it ever takes is for the wall to break, for the bridge to crumble, for the road to shatter.
	I want to cite to my men the stories of long ago, to remember that Apollo’s remedy was turning his lover into an ethereal, eternal flower. I want to build sense to my actions, to form meaning behind my choices, not just leave them as masks hiding my distress. But all it ever takes is for the snake to bite, for the weapon to hit, for the waves to break one’s heart.
	When we left the port, shinning above us in His full glory was the Sun, taunting as ever. There was no celebration as we took off, for the men I had gathered were alone in the world, souls wandering amiss. And, without you by my side, I was not any better than them. Just a woman with her mind poisoned by loss. The people of the city, they had warned me of towering waves, of stormy days and nights, of winds so strong they could gather one in their arms and throw them across the sea, of ruthless Fates and shredded destinies. I hadn’t cared, there had not been a shivering sliver of fear within my mind, for I do not break promises. So, with crimson strings wrapped around my fingers, guiding me, I set upon the sea, even as waves crashed into the ship’s bow with threatening might. 
	Not long after our departure, as the lands dissipated into the seas of the horizon, I took to isolation in my chamber, mending my wounds with fiery hope. Though every fire can be put out by enough water. I was determined, I was going to find you no matter what, be it in this world or the one under. So, even as the chandeliers lighting my room kept rotating over my head like a dizzying spell of planetary orbit, a cosmic warning, I stayed upon my ship.
	The letters we had sent to each other were the wood to the flames of my heart. You had told me of the air, the sky, the unknown, uncharted space; how your dreams had been wandering along the lines of stars. You touched the paper with rose water, kissed it gently with your soft lips, closed it upon my heart. I, on the other hand, had told you of the sea, of places under the water, of creatures that had not yet been discovered. I slept with pillows around me, pretending they were you. Now, though, you’re stuck beneath the waves and I’m suffocating in a bubble of air. 
	Everything happened so fast, too fast. The ebony desk I had set in front of me rushed from beneath my arms, hitting the wall as I fell to the floor. The chandelier moved dangerously to the left and with the clink of breaking chains, it crumbled to the ground. The candles that had decorated it with playful flames before, set the carpets and the wood ablaze. I gasped as screams and shouts filled my ears. Rushed and panicked footsteps were almost breaking the ship’s boards. I ran outside, dodging flying chairs and glasses. The shrieks of their breaking became like a trail of wails behind me. It was all happening too fast. Up, on the deck, everybody was running around, screaming their throats out and shedding fearful tears. There were puddles of water on board, perhaps from the rain, perhaps from ever-growing waves. Before us there were waters splashing foam over everything, on our left and right the same, behind us the angry sea was not any less unforgiving and surrounding us, like the hands of a merciless God, there were clouds, breathing fog over us all. There wasn’t any hope left. It had been put out. The men had become blurred forms around me, spinning with the ship, while thunderous waves crashed into us, overtaking the deck. I could hear somebody closer to me, they were louder though I could barely make out what they were saying over the wind deafening me. Then, lighting hit the ship.
	“The main mast! It’s falling!” These words echoed through the storm, silencing the world of human voices. I stood, frozen. Something brown, with a cylindrical form, rope and white cloth wrapped around it leaned left ‘till it vanished within the darkened, hellish sea. I could see it happen, as if it was going in slow motion, waving me goodbye with melancholic honey on its wooden body. I was powerless to do anything before this monster of a storm. The men, far more lucid than I, ran to the safe-boats, fear stuck in their pinpoint pupils. Beads of sweat had begun to form on their foreheads, or, perhaps, they were only droplets of rain. I just stood there, turned to a statue by the image before me. 
	The wind blew, crazed and invisible hands shoving us in every direction. There, at the top of the ship, on its figurehead was a shadow, a human form perched on it like a ghost haunting my eyes. Perhaps, it was only a phantom, a ghoul of my own mind, a reminder. 
	“You promised you’d find me…” its mouth moved, words carried on silent waves of air only to my ears. 
	“It seems I will. Soon.” I answered.
	The salty waters never felt so warm.