Descent (non-definitive title)

Depth

The ground was hard and cold as stone. Maybe because it was, in fact, made out of it.

It seemed like he had awoken into the depths of a great cave carved out by the sea, or at least he deduced so because of the amount of freezing water pools that formed on the floor and the lonely drops of water that ran down the stone walls.

A groan escaped his mouth as he placed his hands on the ground and tried to lift himself up. He felt his joints sore, as if he hadn't moved in days, yet somehow he felt light as a feather.

He looked down at his own body, just to check that he was completely naked and also verify that his abdomen was still swollen. The protuberance on the left side of his belly looked horrid, it extended out of his already bloated guts and it wrapped itself into an amalgamation of new blood vessels. It was almost as if it was pulsating, always hungry, always begging for more.

He was still sick, but he felt no pain at all.

He looked up and felt the presence of some shy moonlight which leaked through the hole that communicated the cavern with the exterior.

"So this is a cave formed by the ups and downs of the shore," he reasoned to himself, "but how in the lowest hell have I ended up here...?"

The whole logic of the situation seemed unreal. And just as he was thinking about that, it settled in his mind.

The urge.

The necessity.

The call.

A whisper coming from deep waters, from the depths of neverending seas where the light of the sun shines no more and the most abhorrent creatures lurk.

His legs responded without his brain sending a proper order of movement and soon he was heading straight into the huge pool of water that laid at the bottom of the cave.

The unbearable cold of the stones stroke against his bare feet with each step.

Soon an immense feeling of distress and unnatural fear began spreading through his veins.

He didn't want to.

He commanded, ordered his legs to stop. To detain this madness.

But he heard no response.

And so he kept walking.

Just as he touched the surface of the frozen water pool with the tip of his toes, his eyes shut down again and he collapsed backwards upon the stone.