Into The Unknown

Chapter 17

Famous for its remarkable stalagmites and stalactites that hang and rest like chandeliers and crystals, this entrance cave that leads to the facility is astonishing. Apart from the limestone structures that pierce clear waters and add to the beauty, marine life too swims freely in the crystal-clear water. There were cardinalfish, soldierfish, red bar anthias, and the colorful Mandarinfish. If I'd be claustrophobic, I'd surely avoid entering this cave via scuba diving, luckily, I’m not and so henceforth I dived my way to my starvation which began in this magnificent cave.

“Stay together, stay close, and follow me. Don’t lose each other”, Ayan shouted these words in the manner of hasty instruction before diving into the water of Arbmtys.

Kelly surely was scared to jump into the reservoir but she had to jump because she trusted in her fear of death. That was the first time I heard her silence in the waters and it was so calming. Keit was his usual self, the blank face which looks so intellectual in his personality. It was my first time looking at him without his glasses. Zain was practicing his breathing exercises for we had to hold our breath for a quite long time. It was the first time I saw him doing something with such seriousness without being in his usual gay self. Xavier was being Xavier, there isn’t anything special to mention about him. Everyone had a suitcase to carry and fill food with.

We did what we were told to do so, we stayed close, didn’t lose each other, and followed him. The waters were blue I but felt a ping of grey due to their coldness, it felt calming. I was the second one to dive after Ayan, ignoring the shouts of Zain who wanted me to follow after him. As I slowly sank listening to a louder pop in my left ear, I began to take shape and come into focus. It was green and blue and yellow, my eyes sting even though I wore glasses. Flapping my hands, keeping the suitcase in one, and flapping both of my legs gracefully, I slowly maintained my shape and focused on Ayan who already started swimming towards our sustenance.

I must admit that it was a surprise for me to realize that for the very first time in my life I didn’t care for things like survival, I was in the process of enjoying this calmness, and I mostly don’t care about the stuff either. When my body hit the wavy surface of the liquid, I experienced the ultimate calmness after I maintained my balance and focus. My heartbeat slows down. All my problems and worries are left behind, on dry land. A sense of deep relaxation takes over. After all, I only focus on my breathing, and Ayan because I don’t want to get lost. I hear nothing else and thus nothing comes in the way of me enjoying the beautiful images I see before me, which also most of the time was Ayan’s butt and it was not a great scene I must say. Between admiring the beauty of the underworld, I cannot help secretly reliving that joyful childhood memory of mine of desperately wanting to be a mermaid.

In the process of almost living my childhood dream, I didn’t notice when Zain crossed over me. He has this weird habit of saying, ‘Follow me.’ He must’ve stunk that the fishes who came to take a closer look at me suddenly swam away when Zain passed by me.

It was rushing water that made it difficult to swim but soon this hard phase passed away when we followed Ayan into the tunnel where water flow was stable making it easy to cross the underwater.

Three basic rules of not getting lost in these deep waters were, to stay together, do not lose each other, and follow the leader. Some, not some but many, many people are good with following the lead, no they are not lambs but they need someone to lead them and show the direction, then they will do everything on their own. They just need a starting lead, like students who ask their exam partners in the exam for just the starting sentence and then they could write a whole story on it, whatever the question is. ‘Tell me the starting, then I’ll write everything on my own’, ‘Okay, starting is THE’, I found this so funny when my classmates made this joke but I never laughed out loud like them. I never because I was alone and they were in their groups. Having a group is fun sometimes, maybe.