The Depths

Falling, I could barely feel myself drifting downward against the waves. Each more cooling than the last, my warmth escaped me like a bird does the nest at the beginning stages of flight. First in small bits, but slowly growing larger and larger until it has vanished completely. I cast my right hand out to the side to see the bubbles flow past it. The ripples of my movement showed as the stream of trapped air billowed beyond my fingers.

Turning to the side, I take notice of how truly black yet illuminating the dark night seas were. The moon’s bright fangs of light chomped downward against the cobalt rock pillars jutting forth from the depths. Though well into the evening, I felt certain that it was as it appeared: daylight was full and lively amongst the withering shadows of the depths.

I clenched my fists tight as I began to curl into a ball, cupping my knees into my chest. I just tumbled downward even farther, farther from the light and farther from the skies, the air, the warmth. Rolling back, bubbles began to flow around me as I made one last attempt to breath in failure. Gills would have been nice, fresh air even better. I was slowly drifting into that dizzy state between consciousness and imagination. I felt so lucid, but the control seemed to slip through my grasp as I drifted closer to the bottom.

Suddenly and without warning, I felt my feet sink into the floor of the sea; I crinkled my toes to assure I was really there, really alive. How long had I been without air? How long had I been without hands to hold me or words to sooth me? Turning, I saw a skeletal torso half buried in grainy rubble. It sprouted several ornate horns similar to that of a stag. It was lacking a lower jaw and the spinal column was adorned with a row of protruding dorsal vertebra. No longer sure why I was taking notice of such a thing, I smacked myself to assert there was a certain degree of complete idiocy removed from my mind before I took a step forward forward.

Losing breath that I somehow regained, I began to stride on into the shades of murk. Catching a strand of seaweed that floated beside me, I observed how it wriggled in my palm. It swayed left and right with the currents, and I took note of the small brown dimples along its flank that marked the age of decay and organisms that resided within it. Letting go, I saw it flow freely into the eye socket of the skeleton, vanishing from sight.

I crept onward, feeling my feet drag along the ground as my body wavered through the solid mass I was constantly falling through. My pants and shirt swayed against my chest, loosely ajar on my frail form. Pocketing my hands, I strolled onward to a particularly massive rock pillar. It stood higher than my vision could reach, possibly stretching into the heavens and father still. Pressing a hand against the smooth surface, I felt something of sand paper along the side, but it was so fine a grit that my skin felt polished from the gesture. The structure was of a deep cobalt, but I was certain the interior was most certainly of a warmer hue.

A cool rush surged past me, and I knew a wave past overhead, new a sea breeze flew beyond me. I turned and walked along the crag separating the floor. It was certain to be deep, but by how many leagues further down it ripped I could not with assurance declare. I will, however, make note of the exceptional lack of chill emanating from the seemingly endless micro-canyon. Suddenly it hit me. That hallow feeling.

Falling to my knees, I just knelt there. I was certain that I was nothing but a massive shell with nothing holding the inside together. I tried to move, but coldness gripped my bones and muscles. I felt an overwhelmingly powerful, crushing sensation, that hammered me into the ground. Nothing would let me move, my body, my mind, my soul were all frozen in place. I couldn’t even lift an arm, nor the fingers onto them. The feeling of a vacuum within my chest formed and pulled me from the outside inward. But nothing was there, no substance or matter. I was an empty shell, with glossy eyes that sat there, ornamenting the sea floor with my frail form. The sand stirred around me, though I didn’t move an inch. The water moved through me, but still I just remained. My hands began to dissolve into ashy black sand and float on along the waves into the deep. I saw my arms and shoulders go as well. My legs spread out into the sand, my torso and neck follow soon after. A head that was vanishing quickly was all that remained. My eyes dulled and darkened to a rich black that swirled, hallowing the life away of what little I did have. Disappearing completely, the ocean was still and calm. Suddenly, I felt once more as though I were in existence. I held out a hand to see it once more, but not a solid one did I seem to raise; ghastly and pale white was the palm lifted before my eyes. Ghostly was the form I now had, wisp of nothing swaying with the tides. Damnit. Moving along the seafloor with my legless form, I glided towards a coral reef, shimmering in the moonlight as it stretched its fingers smoothly through the structure. There I waited for the dawn to come.

Dec. 30 2013