Cindy felt a longing for death after her life was ruined by the death of her parents in a tragic car accident a few days before her high school graduation. At her graduation when she went to speak, her words were overpowered by the emotions of sadness and grief to the point where the words she spoke were undecipherable. The only thing that could be extracted by the sobbing was that the girl was in immense emotional pain. She had no one to turn to.

A few months after her graduation Cindy was homeless and wandered the streets of the city. She had been surviving off of the scraps of food dumped by the restaurants of the downtown area and the spare change people gave to her. Her life was a mess and was only going to get worse. Winter was coming, and she had nowhere to go. She tried finding a homeless shelter, but the one she found was already at maximum capacity. She started contemplating suicide.

She went to the lake that rested on the side of the city with the intent of drowning herself. As she prepared to submerge herself in the water to die, there was a power surge and the lights of the city went out. Cindy thought to herself "No one will miss me. They will remember this power outage more than they remember me."

She stood at the edge of the lake and stared at the water. As she gazed upon the rippling surface of the water, she could swear she saw the faces of her parents gazing back at her. That image resonated within her entire being, she went limp with sorrow, and then let gravity bring her down to the waters. Her life was about to be over. Or perhaps not.

Cindy was in the waters for what seemed an eternity. She took a gulp of water into her lungs and let the rest happen on its own. However she didn't expect to be grabbed by a figure that came from the bottom of the lake. The figure took her deeper into the waters. As she lost consciousness, she could swear she saw light coming from the bottom of the lake.

When she awoke, she expelled the water from her lungs. She coughed and gasped for air. She could only see a haze being in a semiconscious state. She felt warm lips upon hers and then air being pushed into her lungs. She started breathing again, and the scene started to clear up. She looked at the person who saved her. It was a handsome man who seemed to be her age, dressed in a tuxedo. "Cindy, thank God you're alive!"

Cindy was perplexed, "How do you know my name?"

The man said "How could I not know your name? You must still be disoriented by what you just went through."

"I wanted to die..." Cindy said wistfully as she dropped her head back, laying down. "Why did you save..." Before she could finish her sentence she was shocked to see her parents' faces standing above her. "Mom! Dad! I must have really died! I'm so glad I can be with you again, my life was miserable after you died."

"All that water must've messed with your head" said her father, shaking his head, "You were the one who almost died."

Her mother's eyes were wet as evidence of the tears she had been shedding. "To think you almost died on your wedding. Thank God my little girl is still with us."

"What are all of you talking about. You were the ones that..." Cindy stopped her speech after noticing that she was wearing an extravagant white dress. "What am I wearing?"

"Wow honey. You need some rest, that experience sure left you disoriented." said the man. He got up from his knees and offered a hand to Cindy. "I'm Luke, your husband now. You fell from the dock after a strong wind blew you off as we were taking wedding pictures."

Cindy looked at Luke, then to her parents wondering what in the world was going on. "No... no... that can't be. You see, my parents died, my life turned to hell. I was homeless for a while and was going to commit suicide, but you stopped me."

Cindy's father laughed and said "If we were dead, why are we standing right here? You must've had some crazy dream while you were unconscious."

Cindy furrowed her brow and looked at the lake. She turned her head towards the city. She tilted her head to the side wondering why everything was backwards. "That's not what the city looks like. Where are we?"

Luke sighed "Just come home with me. I'll tell you everything you must've forgotten."

"I'm not about to go home with a stranger" she scoffed. "I'd rather stay with my parents."

Cindy's mother put her hand on her own cheek and shook her head "Maybe you should wait until her head clears, Luke."

"That's fine. Totally understandable. She must still be in shock, or she got amnesia from lack of oxygen." Luke said. He sighed and walked away, "Give me a call when she gets her memories back."

Cindy was confused, but nonetheless was happy to see her parents again. "I don't know what's happening, but I'm happy to be with you guys again" she said, then hugged them.

"We're happy that you're alive" said her father as he stroked her head.

Cindy said "Let's go home."

They got into their car. Cindy wondered why everything was she saw was the flipped from the ordinary way she had seen it before she attempted suicide and why she was wearing a wedding dress.

-To be continued?-