With every breath

Her face was on fire, the attempt she had made at patching up her shoulder was less than ideal, and these goddamn bugs wouldn't just leave her the hell alone. Salt water, she thought to herself, would at least be a start. Sure it was going to scar horribly without proper treatment and suturing, but chicks dig scars right? At least she could hope.

It was with this in mind that she had followed her nose, down to the black stone beach. What should have only taken a few short hours took all the daylight that was afforded to them at the moment. She wasn't sure how keen she was on swimming in the dark, just in case there were sharks or something, but it needed to be done, and maybe it would give her some respite from the bloody fireflies.

As she waded out into the water, a glowing stream spread out in the water behind her. It made her skin crawl, the fat, frozen moon overhead, the strange glow of the bugs warping all perception of depth and time and now the ocean itself lighting up. Maybe this wasn't such a good idea after all? Throwing caution to the wind, the girl dropped to her stomach, head barely remaining above the surface, and she even submerged that. The water was icy with a deep winter chill and this alone might kill her, but freezing had to be better than going out from an infection, right?

"speech".