using prompt 243

The regret was overwhelming, however the time was not allowing for much more self cursing or even panic. She was still fumbling frantically her hands desperately grabbing at anything on any part of her baggy cumbersome outfit and her fingers found nothing she recognised, for christs sake what the hell do I pull? I pull something I know I do, the words raced, tumbling, around her mind.
The beauty of the scene was astounding, clear crystal blue waters, so clear you could see right through to the sand, and rocks. The waterfall was particularly appealing, would have made for the perfect background to any holiday snap. Quite majestic the way it flowed gracefully over the edge of the cliff and tumbled poetically over the boulders so gloriously framed by deep green foliage, the odd brightly coloured bloom highlighting this already nirvana like pool of paradise.
It was however all left unappreciated by Helen as she was rather engrossed in finding a way to save her life. The clear blue water was coming up close and the rocks it splashed against were very much going to be of her immediate though possibly short lived future.
She didn't realise she was screaming, she didn't realise that even if her now red raw fingers still grabbing desperately at her body would not actually do any good if she did find the cord to pull as she was now plummeting passed the perfect waterfall, and no matter how good a backdrop it would seem to be when taking a picture, being in the picture falling at extreme speed, well it lost any sense of picture enhancing qualities.
The boats had increased from tiny dots to recognisable shapes and she could almost make out the upturned faces staring in horror at her descent, except she wasn't seeing people or boats, the rocks had just now added a new dimension to her terror.
The day had started so well, held promise of being fun, time spent having adventures with friends, parachute jump, it would be fun they said, be a good laugh they said, you got to live a little, get out there socialise, do things, you can't sit at home moping because some man you fell in love with turned out to be a player, get over it, move on , plenty of fish in the sea.
The sea was not something she wanted to think of right now, the fact that it was rushing towards her with a kind of finality about it was making sure that she was in fact very much aware of it.
Would the splash of hitting the water kill her first? Would the rocks be the first to smash her body beyond recognition? Would it be painful? Its amazing how the mind can rationalise the most horrific of situations.
Her mind was in the middle of praying to any deity that would listen to come up with a miracle, when the pain ripped through her body, it lasted only seconds then oblivion thankfully flooded through and she knew nothing.
It was the lack of pain that struck her first, it wasn't like the movies, no perfect, still, face gently beginning to open her eyes to blink at the world marvelling at existence, no, this was simply oblivion then why doesn't everything hurt? She cautiously tried to move just a finger, surely the fall had broken every bone in her body? She now realised that this meant she was alive, yet she was felt nothing. Surely she should be elated? shouting I'm alive? Instead she had only one thought, why doesn't it hurt?
The finger moving experiment seemed successful, as far as she could tell she had moved it, only a fraction, and it hadn't hurt. She determined to try moving her hand maybe even her arm see where the pain would kick in. Her mind also suggested there was a lack of sound. As she began slowly moving more of her fingers she thought that maybe the fall had burst her ears and deafness would now be among her challenges in life. Small price to pay for being alive she thought and was happily surprised to realise she had moved her whole arm and still nothing hurt.
Strangely she had not felt anything, not just the absence of pain but the absence of all feeling, the thought occurred to her perhaps she was paralysed and she just thought she was moving her arm.
At this point she decided it was time to be really brave and open her eyes, she needed to see if she was moving and not just thinking it.
There seemed to be no change, the inky blackness enveloped her just as much as when she hadn't opened her eyes. Could her eyes be paralysed? Is that a thing? She had no idea, she also had no way of being able to tell if she could see or hear or move, or where she was.
Don't panic, always good advice, hard to follow when your last memory was of falling very quickly from a great height towards water with rocks, and now she had no sight, no sound, no feeling. A coma? is this what it's like being in a coma? She thought she remembered vaguely of people who survived and came back from a coma and they said they could hear people voices, it was strange to hope that meant she wasn't in a coma except if she wasn't in a coma where was she?
Maybe, she hoped, this was just some part of the recovery process and over time something would come back even if it was just her hearing, how basic our desires can become when placed in the right situation, how much she would give just to be able to hear.
Time, how much it stretches, how much it expands, how much it can fill the mind with dread, no way of measuring time; no light to break the dark, no noise to break the silence, each second, becoming fluid, merging it's elongated existence into the next second, and that second which slow to start then seemed to expand into eternity. How long had she been like this? Had she been awake a long time? How long was it since she had tried moving? Should she try again? The thoughts now felt heavy and sluggish, it seemed to take a while to register she had even asked herself a question, what was it again? Oh yes had she tried moving her limbs, it felt like trying to think through a haze, maybe she had been drugged. She faded in and out of awareness and wondered at one point if dying was in fact a lot slower than she had first been lead to believe, perhaps dying isn't an end at all, perhaps it is endless time being aware yet unable to do anything other than exist.
She wondered if she should be feeling hungry, if she was alive then hunger would definitely be a thing, and thirsty, she had read somewhere once that you can longer without food than water so surely she should feel thirsty soon? but then if she was in a coma would thirst be a thing? After all she figured; if she was in a coma there would be medical stuff going on, a drip for food, a drip for fluid, a bag for toilet needs, oh god she hoped that if she was alive she still had the use of her bowels, her brain quietly reminded her there was no pain.
For some reason she didn't like to wonder too much as to why there was no pain, at first it had been a surprising relief, now though as time played its elastic tricks on her she was worried, her only hope was the coma theory and that maybe they had her being fed with painkillers in all these drips that must surely be connected to her.
Was it her imagination? She had been in this senseless world for so long. no stimulus of any kind, and all she could discern now was an flood of excitment, or was it nerves? and why? There was no input from any part of her body, no feeling, no sound, no sight. She felt fear and excitement though, unmistakably was filled with a sense of soon, very soon, things would change.
There was sound, her brain immediately responded, it was muffled, distant, but she heard something, the darkness continued but she drifted back to the unconscious floating, happy; she had heard something.
There was whooshing, a sort of whooshing feeling and more sounds, still muffled, there was an accompanied lower sound now though, it was, comforting, she felt excitement, fear, and comforted and she drifted back to the familiar floating time, it was no longer something that bothered her, she never thought about it much now, she was content, floating in her inky blackness.
She felt hungry, her brain didn't rejoice, she moved, she no longer thought about whether she could or not, her mind was now firmly accepting and did not question anything any more, warmth and comfort enveloped her and then without warning a huge convulsion shook through her environment, now it all happened quickly though she had no awareness of time only of the flood surging along, carrying her through a tunnel so tight her natural instinct to fight to breath came through and as the light shattered her darkness she let out the loudest scream and continued screaming.

The immediate pain over, panting and drained Sally was covered in sweat and she hoped all had gone well and looked frantically at the woman stood, smiling, next to her.
"There you go Sally" said a kindly voice " A beautiful baby girl, What are you going to name her?"

thank you for reading

written as flash fiction for the 365 days of writing using prompt 243, I wouldn't normally write twice in one day however I noticed that my previous post, my first entry, had in fact been written in response to a post from three days ago so in an effort to catch up to the current prompt I have written this as well, there is however so much writing I want to do in one day so I will write on the next prompt tomorrow and then I should be up to current and can try to keep up with the writing every day thing. I can't promise I will manage every day, I will try though
many thanks to @mydivathings for the posts and prompts and encouragement check out original post here https://steemit.com/fiction/@mydivathings/day-243-365-days-of-writing-challenge