Beneath the Waves

Chris

Things have been weird lately. Not the kind of weird that you can identify, that goes "OH, that just happened", but the kind of weird that sort of sneaks up on you and takes you by surprise. Not clown hiding in a sewer weird, more like your uncle Jerry wearing a clown costume to your Thanksgiving dinner weird.

Now, Chris was no stranger to weirdness, she was, after all, a horror film fanatic with a few niche interests. This was something different though, something that could be nothing at all, but she just knew it was SOMETHING. It started with dreams (yes it always starts with dreams, but your subconscious is a smart bitch okay). This wouldn't have been weird for most people, but Chris had never had a dream in her life. She just didn't dream at all, or she couldn't remember them.

Waking up in these dreams felt like having the wind knocked out of her. She always woke up heaving massive breaths as if she had been sprinting. At first, most of what she could make out was just that she was surrounded by a thick fog. Her dream self walking around in a fog so dense she couldn't see her hand in front of her face. She'd wake up, breathe like she was about to pass out, walk around without being able to see anything and then just wake up. This went on for a few days, a loop, a repeat, a rerun of the same damn thing. It then progressed to fog AND sounds. Someone calling out to her in the mist. Someone whispering her name right next to her ear, the sound so visceral that she would wake up with goosebumps and the heat of breath still lingering in her ear. She loved horror movies, LOVED them, but honestly it wasn't so great when it was actually happening to you.

Other than these strange dreams, her life was pretty great. She had a loving partner, their relationship was stable, healthy and honestly the best part of her day was seeing Ria. Her job was fine, it's a job. Her hobbies were...well... hobbies. So by all standards of measured normalcy, Chris was just a really normal girl. Nothing exceptional. Nothing crazy. Just normal.

There were times, few and far between, where she felt a little less normal, but this was mostly thanks to Ria, her girlfriend. At times when she looked at Ria, her smile like sunshine, her eyes like stars in the night sky, she just became so overwhelmed with love that she could hardly believe that she found something like this. THIS could not be normal. How could you love someone so much that you could feel it seeping out of your pores. Saturated in it. It was one of these moments, sat across the table from Ria that Chris thought about telling her about the dreams she'd been having. She also knew that Ria was trying to deal with her parents splitting up, pretending it's no big deal, but the little details had not escaped Chris' notice. Never getting a full night's sleep, being way more distracted than usual, in her head for most of the day. Part of Chris felt left out and uncertain, worried that something was wrong with their relationship. She always reminded herself in these moments that their relationship was secure, that for the most part, things were better than ever. Hell, she was even planning on asking Ria to move in with her.

"Chris I asked if you want more coffee", Ria's voice sliced through her daydreaming and brought her back to the real world.

"No thanks I'm still good" she quickly replied, trying to shake off the thoughts still plaguing her.

It all melted away a moment later when Ria got up and kissed her on the top of her head as she passed. A subtle gesture, a gentle reminder of what they have. A gesture to ground her and get her out of her head. She savoured it. Love. So real and tangible in a moment like that. The moment passed, the love left her pores, and she was back in dreamworld wondering what brought on the sudden change, the ability to remember her dreams.

It was like her subconscious was trying to tell her something with these dreams but as if her actual self was trying really hard to prevent her dream self from knowing the thing that she was supposed to be finding out. The nightmarish hellscape that had now become her thoughts stayed with her the entire day. Then the entire evening. Then it went to bed with her... waiting for her to fall asleep so the cycle could once again continue. All she could hope for was something new, something that would add some meaning, something that would give her answers. All she got, however, was fog and whispers. Weeks and weeks of fog and whispers. It was one night when she was so over it that she decided she just wouldn't sleep that this finally changed. So needless to say, she fell asleep.

She woke up the same as always, chest heaving, gasping for breath, a dense fog surrounding her and whispers of "Chris" filling her ears. She blinked and as her eyes started to focus she saw a path through the fog. Curiosity got the better of dream-her and going against the knot in her stomach she started along the path. It was dark and uneven and more than once she almost tripped, but at least she was finally going somewhere.

At the far end of the path she could see a dim light shining, the source being an old oil lamp hooked on a rickety curved stick planted in the ground. Beyond the light the fog opened into a clearing with a great wrought iron gate and beyond it the biggest cathedral she had ever seen. How she couldn't see it before baffled her as it rose high above the fog, stained glass windows emitting a faint light, giving the entire building and ethereal sort of glow.

Now why the hell was there basically a church in the middle of all of this? She wasn't even religious, never had been. She reached out to the gate, but before she could put finger to iron the gate swung open of its own accord, in a way welcoming her in. She accepted and stepped through the entrance, heading towards heavy wooden doors, wearing the signs of time in chipped wood and water damage. She walked up the steps slowly, really not sure what to expect once she got to the doors, even less ]what lies beyond that.

Regardless, she reached the final step, put her hand on the splintered wood of the ancient door and pushed.