The Game
Underworld
With that pain and shock I fell into the water. Slipping between the layers, into an eternity of thick air, I rushed down.
My arms pushed and pulled at the waves, beseeching them to give me just a small lift up. But they swallowed me. The least they managed for me was to clean up the blood swelling away from my arrow. The point I so desperately wanted for myself.
I closed my eyes so many times to wait for death. Yet, soon after, my eyes sprung open again to catch another glimpse of speeding darkness pulling me into an abyss. The layers had gripped my core and back so strongly I saw bubbles for a brief moment before I lost my sight again. Breathing wasn’t something I could think about, so when I reached the bottom I knew I was done. That girl that wished for acceptance had been executed.
I felt the sharp point I was left with. Right above my heart, the pain escalated and suddenly sharp jolts touched every nerve and sparked the dying embers of life. It rushed to my brain and I couldn’t catch a glimpse of the darkness anymore.
And so, when I opened my eyes, I took my first breath of water. Although impossible, the pressure of my life had finally disappeared. Also, as I observed soon after, the arrow had been replaced with a bandage that covered both sides of my shoulder.
It was very dark when I looked down at the floor, and very dark when I looked up to the air world. Gravity was my only assurance that up was still up and down was me at the bottom of the ocean, and somehow alive…
I decided to crouch down, in as much of a sitting position as possible to collect myself. First my toes, and my ankles, my calves and my knees, and then my stomach and my shoulders and my elbows and my hands and then I realized perhaps I had a mask on for the air, but soon my hands were reaching for my nose and my mouth and my ears and my hair without a tube in place. The water had me floating partially off the ground, a platform of rock and deeply grained sediment that was glass-like to touch. I stretched out my toes to keep from floating away and I realized, I wasn’t wearing shoes.
How odd.
I dug my fingers in the smallest grooves. I held my knees down on the glass rock. My shoulder began to scream and the complaints went straight to my skull. I scanned the inky darkness. A stab seared across my back and the layers wrapped around my frame pulling me sweetly along the unwritten pages of the ocean.
***
The pain by my heart woke me up.
I opened my eyes to take in a bright light and soft unmusical sounds by my ear and I sat up sharply to pull several leeches off my wound. A man in black, with his face covered except for deep serious eyes snatched my shoulder in his hands. Smacking my head against the ground I imitated a loss of consciousness. I felt the water move in small waves as he moved further and closer in a task of wrapping my shoulder.
As he slowly moved away the bright light had faded somewhat. Perhaps it was the sun? I peeked a glance to see him swimming away.
An underwater doctor? Some sort of scientist?
I pushed myself away from the eerily large coral reef ledge and began to swim after him. He swam with the waves and I shrunk down in exhaustion, hardly a distance from the “medical” reef. I turned back and slid behind a boulder that sat a distance from the reef. I reached for my toes and my ankles and when I finally reached my shoulder I was exhausted.
I wondered why he wanted me here and if I should stay to find out why I was being treated?
I woke to the feeling of waves. He was back, He swam in circles searching for me. My eyes went wide and I would have screamed if I knew I had a voice.
Had I been clever I would have held onto something as I spied. He discovered me floating towards the surface with all the sunlight needed to catch me in an instant. He turned like a lion and was at my throat as I kicked and swam a mere foot from the boulder.
He stared. Seeming relieved. Perhaps the Lord of this Underworld would have his head for losing the captive. I could hear his watery breathing. After a few moments I screamed as any kidnapped person should eventually. He was unshaken and I was surprisingly shocked and shaken. What a shriek!
He pulled an arm around my back and swam me back to the medical reef. As he worked away on my shoulder I took many deep watery breaths of my own. There were two swords hanging off his leg and a sheathed blade wrapped around his bare arm and no medical supplies except the green bandaging in his hand and no shoes.
He glanced down at his feet as I took them into account. As he looked up at my face I am sure I turned red. And then, of all things, he laughed.
My arms pushed and pulled at the waves, beseeching them to give me just a small lift up. But they swallowed me. The least they managed for me was to clean up the blood swelling away from my arrow. The point I so desperately wanted for myself.
I closed my eyes so many times to wait for death. Yet, soon after, my eyes sprung open again to catch another glimpse of speeding darkness pulling me into an abyss. The layers had gripped my core and back so strongly I saw bubbles for a brief moment before I lost my sight again. Breathing wasn’t something I could think about, so when I reached the bottom I knew I was done. That girl that wished for acceptance had been executed.
I felt the sharp point I was left with. Right above my heart, the pain escalated and suddenly sharp jolts touched every nerve and sparked the dying embers of life. It rushed to my brain and I couldn’t catch a glimpse of the darkness anymore.
And so, when I opened my eyes, I took my first breath of water. Although impossible, the pressure of my life had finally disappeared. Also, as I observed soon after, the arrow had been replaced with a bandage that covered both sides of my shoulder.
It was very dark when I looked down at the floor, and very dark when I looked up to the air world. Gravity was my only assurance that up was still up and down was me at the bottom of the ocean, and somehow alive…
I decided to crouch down, in as much of a sitting position as possible to collect myself. First my toes, and my ankles, my calves and my knees, and then my stomach and my shoulders and my elbows and my hands and then I realized perhaps I had a mask on for the air, but soon my hands were reaching for my nose and my mouth and my ears and my hair without a tube in place. The water had me floating partially off the ground, a platform of rock and deeply grained sediment that was glass-like to touch. I stretched out my toes to keep from floating away and I realized, I wasn’t wearing shoes.
How odd.
I dug my fingers in the smallest grooves. I held my knees down on the glass rock. My shoulder began to scream and the complaints went straight to my skull. I scanned the inky darkness. A stab seared across my back and the layers wrapped around my frame pulling me sweetly along the unwritten pages of the ocean.
***
The pain by my heart woke me up.
I opened my eyes to take in a bright light and soft unmusical sounds by my ear and I sat up sharply to pull several leeches off my wound. A man in black, with his face covered except for deep serious eyes snatched my shoulder in his hands. Smacking my head against the ground I imitated a loss of consciousness. I felt the water move in small waves as he moved further and closer in a task of wrapping my shoulder.
As he slowly moved away the bright light had faded somewhat. Perhaps it was the sun? I peeked a glance to see him swimming away.
An underwater doctor? Some sort of scientist?
I pushed myself away from the eerily large coral reef ledge and began to swim after him. He swam with the waves and I shrunk down in exhaustion, hardly a distance from the “medical” reef. I turned back and slid behind a boulder that sat a distance from the reef. I reached for my toes and my ankles and when I finally reached my shoulder I was exhausted.
I wondered why he wanted me here and if I should stay to find out why I was being treated?
I woke to the feeling of waves. He was back, He swam in circles searching for me. My eyes went wide and I would have screamed if I knew I had a voice.
Had I been clever I would have held onto something as I spied. He discovered me floating towards the surface with all the sunlight needed to catch me in an instant. He turned like a lion and was at my throat as I kicked and swam a mere foot from the boulder.
He stared. Seeming relieved. Perhaps the Lord of this Underworld would have his head for losing the captive. I could hear his watery breathing. After a few moments I screamed as any kidnapped person should eventually. He was unshaken and I was surprisingly shocked and shaken. What a shriek!
He pulled an arm around my back and swam me back to the medical reef. As he worked away on my shoulder I took many deep watery breaths of my own. There were two swords hanging off his leg and a sheathed blade wrapped around his bare arm and no medical supplies except the green bandaging in his hand and no shoes.
He glanced down at his feet as I took them into account. As he looked up at my face I am sure I turned red. And then, of all things, he laughed.