Prompted Story Snippets

Falling Underwater

TW: Drowning, Derealization

Water.

It was everywhere, but you weren't supposed to be in the water, were you?

You don't know.

Well, it wasn't everywhere, not quite yet. Your ears are still above water and you can hear something. Some crashing, like waves. That would make sense, there's water all around you.

You can also hear... voices? You don't understand.

And then you go under.

It's surprisingly peaceful. You open your eyes, ignoring the stinging, and see miles and miles of dark water.

And shapes, and you don't know if they're rocks or something else, or something... else.

There's a lot of things that could be hiding in the ocean, and you really don't know. 

(But is this even the ocean? You heard waves... it might've been a lake. You don't know.)

Water. It's just everywhere.

You can feel it, your ears are popping, and something's... wrong?

It's getting darker - no, not like a sunset, no it isn't turning all these - but it is turning all these colors. It doesn't make sense.

No, it's just turning darker. If you look far enough you can see the deep blue -

Something moved. You know it wasn't a rock, something moved. 

Why was it moving? What was out there? 

(Then again, you really don't know.)

You can feel something beneath you - a ledge maybe? It's not hard, exactly, it's slightly cushioned like - like a layer of sand or something.

But it feels rocky and you can feel your legs drifting over the edge but you don't know how to stop.

(Do you? Maybe you do but you don't want to, either.)

There's water in your nose now. It's flooding everywhere, and it stings. Maybe this is the ocean, maybe that's why it stings.

It's everywhere. You can feel it running into your mouth - 

Oh. Oh, that's not supposed to happen, right? Really not supposed to - 

Why are you fine?

No, that can't be right. People can't survive underwater, humans can't survive underwater. You thought that you were supposed to breathe air. 

Maybe you don't. 

It doesn't make sense, but you're fine. Sure, your ears have popped but you can't see any dark red floating out of them, it doesn't make sense.

Your feet are literally hanging off a ledge that goes straight into an abyss. How are you not - but you're breathing?

Your eyes are wide, they're staring out, and they don't sting anymore... they don't sting?

Something's wrong, but you don't really care anymore, do you?

I can see why you wouldn't. It's peaceful down here, just endless dark water and something is moving, something keeps moving.

You can tell it's coming closer but you don't know what's going on.

You see it. It's closer now. It looks like a horse.