bioluminescence
The planks of wooden boards are uneven under his feet, never having been sanded but, through years of pacing, still worn. The wind slices through his soaked clothing as raindrops welt his skin. Charles’ face wrinkles as the entrance to the Sick Bay enters into view, nausea rolling through his stomach. Working to counter-react to the elation he felt from his most recent expedition into the Atacama trench, his hands tightening their hold on a heavy cloth-wrapped aqualung. Its weight, unwieldy with the occasional pitching of the deck, causes him to stumble, then catch himself.
Turbulence stirs from the west, a fight, maybe?
More importantly, the door’s handle, brightly winking at him, only a hairbreadth away, tumbles out of Charles’ grasp. His shoulder rammed into the frame, fireworks lighting under his skin, gave sensation to the action of his blood vessels.
In his haze, Charles blindly slams on the door with an open palm. The glinting knob, smeared with hasty fingerprints as he tumbles in– ankles over head — different spots of ecchymosis blooming across its pale canvas.
The steady land beneath his feet, sinking as up becomes down. The home he once knew entering its final resting place.
________Falling,
________________________falling,
________________________________________falling,
higher through the starry skies.
Dancing amongst Hydros, Argo, and Kyon. Their figures twisted and turned around the slender form of the boy, welcoming and urging.
The weight of his bag, pulling him away.
________Flying,
________________________flying,
________________________________________flying,
further away from home.
The darkness threatened him, suctioning him into its inky crevices- leaving all that he knew. Charles’ arms outstretched, trying to reach onto the serpent’s tail, hoping that releasing the bag would allow him to sink back down into their embrace.
Understandably, this does not work. Dark tentacles wrap around him, pulling him upwards, enclosing him in darkness.
“My love, do not look away, for an amazing sight shall appear.” Emma’s voice encourages eyes that cannot tell whether they are open or not.
Adjusting,
slowly,
ever-so-slowly,
more constellations appear.
Constellations that have never been mapped before, his eyes alight with happiness. Their uncertain movements quickened, growing brighter, creating a halo around the mouth of a cave.
Charles fights against the arms hugging him, their tugging motions preventing him from travelling to the unknown. Freeing himself, he flies towards it, lured by the promise of something greater.
His fingers brushed against the lip of the cave, gently propelling him forward.
Sharp twisting talons protrude just inside, enclosed around him, and too late does he discover he is trapped- in the mouth of one of his beloved Lophiiformes, which he’d been fascinated with minutes earlier.
