China, 190 (BCE)

When finally her eyes opened, the first thing she realized was how badly she needed to breathe. The well-water was yet washing through her body, her lungs and throat clogged with it. Her crumpled self, lying at the bottom, had become stiff and difficult to move in conventional ways, but in that darkness she ached for air and it made her thrash. She tried to right herself, clawing at the stone sides surrounding her to propel her head up off the floor. Swirls of her own black hair were rushing into her eyes like seaweed, and she could not even see moonlit filtering down through the dirty water. She couldn’t kick, her knees unable to bend, and she thrashed instead. She continued to claw at the stone sides, and the water that had lain still for years churned with her efforts....

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