The Ocean's Call: Part One | ✔

Part One

Part One

There are theories that say having reoccurring dreams are related to unresolved difficulties or conflicts in your life. Some also say they are signs of anxiety and depression. I don't really know why I keep having the same dream, night after night. A haunting tale of my own death that torments me again and again.

My dreams are trying to tell me something though.

The dream starts with me floating alone in the vast open ocean, the sun setting in bright oranges and pinks. The water below me is very dark, the deep depths a mysterious void beneath my wading feet. A constant reminder that I am not alone in the ocean is always in the back of my mind during the dream.

The sun gets lower and lower until its just the darkness, me and the water. Sometimes the sequence is different, sometimes I get pulled under the water before the sun goes down giving me the opportunity to see my life being dragged away.

Most of the time I never see or know what is pulling me under the water, dragging me down until I have no choice but to take the water into my lungs. It's a burning sensation, the feeling a little too real for my liking as my lungs fill with water. I usually startle awake at that point, gasping for the breath I was so desperately trying to get in the dreams.

During my awake hours I stare at the ocean sometimes wondering what those dreams are trying to tell me if they are telling me anything. The waves crashing onto the beach are almost a torment, teasing me that the ocean knows something I don't.

Today the stupid dream has me staring at my ceiling as I lay in the bed a little longer than I should. It's taking a little longer to process the dream. This time the thing that pulled me under the water was a woman, a woman who strangely looked like a mermaid. Which is totally random because mermaids are just tales, they tell around here to keep kids dreams alive...or to scare them half to death.

My grandparents used to tell me all kinds of stories about mermaids when I was younger, one particular story scared me a lot. My pop told me the story several times, claiming it was a true story, but nana continually reassured me it wasn't real. But hey when you're a kid...everything feels real. You believe everything adults tell you until you get older then realising adults lie sometimes.

Pop used to tell the story of the night he met a mermaid, an evil mermaid who tried to lure him out of his boat and into the depths. He used to flash a torch on his face when he would say loudly the evil mermaids like to feast on the flesh of man after dragging him down to the deep depths of the ocean.

Makes sense that in my reoccurring death dream that I would be dragged down into the deep depths of the ocean. I used to have nightmares after pop told me that story. The nightmares only stopped when nana would tell me better stories about mermaids, happier ones.

Now that I'm old enough to know better I find it odd that I'm still plagued with dreams like the ones I have all the time. Perhaps it's a sign, from who I don't know. Maybe they are premonitions, we all have to die someday. I have heard of people having premonitions about their own deaths, perhaps this is mine.

A gentle knock at my door brings me out of my deep thoughts. I blink, looking over at my closed bedroom door. My older brother, Alex, pokes his head inside grinning at me. "Nan's looking for you."

I check the time on my watch, it's only five am. Today is market day. Nana and I make ocean themed jewellery with the shells and trinkets I dive for in the ocean, we sell them at the bi-weekly markets to the locals and the tourist visiting Horseshoe Bay. Normally we'd be up and in the car by this time, I'm normally better with my time management than this.

I slide out of the bed, shooing my brother away so I can get ready. I pull on a simple black bikini, shorts and a random singlet. Another impatient knock comes on my door as I brush my hair up into a high ponytail. Nana steps into my room, smiling at me in the mirror. "Late night?" she wiggles her brows.