Last Chance

What, Exactly, is this Place? -Preface

Still, musty air. Consuming hazy darkness. Tiny embers fluttering to the ground, like a bunch of angry two year olds in the clouds have been ripping up pieces of paper.

Scanning my environment, I can barely make out the lake where I had just broke through barrier of ash guarding the surface. I don't know why I was in that lake. All of this information is in my head with no memories of where I got it. My eyes sting. Water drips from my hair and from the faded, torn dress which barely clings to my body. The material is shredded and a bit puffy, possibly blue in color- it looks too old to tell.

The pond behind me is polluted with slumbering firedust, awoken only once my eyes fluttered open and my lungs screamed, communicating only in searing pain, for air. I knew I needed oxygen, immediately, and I dug through the thick, crusty dust layer sitting over the water.

What, exactly, is this place? Where am I? A geyser abruptly gushes mere inches in front of my face and I scream, falling back into the water. This water is icy and still, littered with ash. That water is boiling and active, foaming as it sprays. I don't favor either extreme.

My fingers fumble around in the water, my hands pass over something hard. I'm near the bottom of the pond. Light speckles through my vision as my mind goes blank. I kick and fight to the surface of the murky liquid. In order to live I must punch through the wall of embers, again. There is nothing beneath my feet to push off of, making it hard to find the power to break through. My fist weakly strikes the top. I try again, and again, and again, and again until the flecks on the edge of my stinging vision are overpowering and my skull to pulses with my blood.

I give up. The layer of ash is too sturdy, and I am far too frail. I allow my body to sink away until unconsciousness pulls at my eyes, drawing them closed. I drift into an endless sleep.