Water

Chapter 2: Eucharis Liem

Darkness. That's all that exists as she drifts through the everlasting void. She groggily glances around, a slow, drawn-out process. Blinking her eyes a few times, she brings a hand to her forehead and dazedly shakes it as the fog occupying her mind persists.

'Am I ...dead?'

She begins to move, and finds that the emptiness has a dense consistency, as if wading through a thick bog. Suddenly, a faint wave of warmth flows across her back. As she gradually spins around, she searches for the source of the strange feeling. Far, far in the distance, a faint light from a window can just be made out. She fights her way through the thickness and after what seems to be an eternity, she finally makes it close enough to the light to examine it. To her surprise, she discovers that the thing she once thought was a window is actually a rather curious pane of liquid. Cubical, thin, and illuminated by a soft, delicate light. As she studies, she notices its transparency. Gazing in to it, she sees surface ripples on the interior side of the water-like pane, as if there were a slight breeze. Sluggishly, her hands rise and begin moving towards the strange liquid slate, as if being called. It seemed to... yearn for her touch, and unable to resist the mesmerizing lure, her fingertips brush the surface of the pane, casting delicate ripples across the surface before she manages to recoil her hand.

'This... feels almost identical to the mucus-like stuff...' During her entrancement, she hadn't noticed herself drifting directly over the fluid's invisible perimeter, and, suddenly, the space that she was in decided to follow the laws of gravity, sending her tumbling into the strange, gooey film.

"AAAHHH-," she's cut short as the thick solution flows into her mouth. Her plunge through the liquid slowly continues, and she purses her lips, exhaling, trying to push out as much liquid as she can. Holding her breath, she desperately swims upward, but the density of the liquid is far too great for her to break free. As her decent slows and stops, her face pales and though she struggles to resist, her mouth instinctively opens, gasping for air. She feels the revolting liquid slide down her throat and flow throughout her body. Clenching her eyes and fists, she prepares for her inevitable fate.

After a few moments, her eyes flutter open, baffled. Thinking back, she realizes there was no pain or burning when she took in the fluid. In fact... there was a cool, refreshing sensation that ran over her; even the fog in her mind had dissipated. She thinks for a moment and, taking a leap of faith, breathes in the liquid.

There it is again, the chilling sensation sending shivers throughout her body, as if ripples on the surface of a pond. The sweet touch of oxygen tickling her lungs, feeding her body. A giddy feeling rises up from her stomach, and she slowly twirls around. Reaching for her belt to grab her new-found pets, the giddy feeling fades and is replaced with a much more unpleasant one... her belt is gone.

'They. Aren't. There... They're not there!'

Whipping around, her eyes frantically dart back and forth across the vast liquid space, searching for any sign of the miniature creatures. She finally sees it drifting off to her right, and struggles to make her way there. As she gets nowhere in the thick goo, she begins to thrash her limbs, earning her a few inches of movement. Desperately fighting, she gazes longingly at her amphibians; you don't find many friendly animals anymore, so they are irreplaceable beings in the cruel existence she's found herself in. She grunts as her limbs tire and slow down. Frustrated, she watches the tadpoles swim for several minutes, catching her breath. Suddenly, her face lights up and a smug grin stretches across her face. Getting into position, she begins to swim like a frog, cutting through the dense fluid. Finally arriving at the jar, she picks it up tentatively and checks on its inhabitants. She sighs as they dance in the jar, swimming around in cute little swirls and spins.