A Study in Drowning

by Ava Reid

The better you knew someone, the more terribly you could hurt them.

But didn’t all drownings begin with a harmless dribble of water?

No. It wasn’t enough. As long as that was the only thing he believed, she would always be just a scared little girl making up stories in her head. She would be infirm, unstable, untrustworthy, undeserving of the life she wanted. They put girls like her in attic rooms or sanatoriums, locked them up and threw away the keys.

You can die as easily of thirst as you can of drowning.

But if fairies and monsters were real, so were the women who defeated them.