Below The Waves

Beneath the Waves

I felt air rush past me as fell farther into darkness, devoid of all senses and feeling apart from the fall. That was when I hit the water. The moment my body met the water, unbridled agony was conducted throughout every fibre of my being. The instant assault of water in my ears was deafening and the impact left stole the air from my lungs and sent me deeper and deeper into the unknown. I flailed blindly in a frenzied battle to obtain oxygen. My overwhelming need breathe filled my lungs with fire, and the crushing weight on my chest overpowered my ability to hold in my breath. I felt ice fill my lungs, and I struggled harder for the surface.
Then for a moment existence itself ceased. The serene emptiness of the void was numbing, soothing almost. I felt it beckoning to me, willing me to come join the nothingness of eternity. The darkness stripped me of my very consciousness. I know not my identity, nor where it was that I fell so far from, nor where I am.
In an instant I felt myself break the surface. Reality and feeling flooded back to me in a disorienting wave. I surfaced just in time to see the last of the craft disappear into the shadowy abyss below. The border between the water and the sky wasn't clear, and the ashen liquid appeared to be lapping hungrily at the stars that were gradually, one by one, enveloped in the same inky darkness that seemed to have swallowed the earth. For an eternity, it seemed, I floated aimlessly over the secrets below, kept carefully cloaked by unknown aeons of darkness. I let my mind wander, pondering the ever-copious possibilities of creatures that could exist shrouded in the murky infinity below.
When I first noticed it, I believed it must have been my imagination running away with itself, which truthfully wasn't uncommon. At first I saw steady streams of bubbles, rising from the darkness, but it slowly turned into small eddies and disturbances in the water about me. I reasoned that perhaps it could be some form of marine life, perhaps a school of fish, feasibly a submerged volcano or earthquake. I kept my mind away from the happenings by straining my eyes in search of land. When I finally decided it was no hope, there was no land in sight, I brought my attention back to the water around me. The exuberance of the water hadn't yet ceased, if anything it had become more animated. Clouds of red and black had begun to materialize in the water around me. Though there was not a wisp in the sky or the smallest breeze, the waves were becoming more and more strong. I stared down and amidst the sudden pigmentation of the water I thought I saw movement. Forcing myself to remain calm, I stared down, searching for whatever creature was stalking me from below. Abruptly, the disturbance in the water slowed, then stopped altogether. I decided whatever it was must have retreated to the tenebrous cloak of the unknown below the waves. Just as I had resumed my prior occupation and begun to calm down a tone, I saw what appeared a limb of some kind. It was ghastly humanoid, it appeared to be an impossibly elongated arm, with many jutting bends and concluding in an outstretched, skeletal, hand complete with hooklike talons atop each finger, reaching for me. My immediately searched for possible ways to escape, realizing I was far away from any land or any possible way out of the water. With no possible way out, I figured the best course of action would be to remain as still as possible. I let the waves carry me and I closed my eyes and focused on regulating my breathing. The waves rocked me about the water in a calming rise and fall. The waves beneath me rose, and were paralleled with my breath.
I allowed myself to get lost in the infinite shades and shapes of the clouds. The beiges, greys, light creams and ever so soft rose of the graceful wispy veil, blanketing the sun. In my mind I could see a great city in these masses of vapour, streets of polished granite, great stone walls bleached white from the sun, houses of pink marble, with most intricate and complex windows of stained glass, towers of rose quartz and shone in the sunlight.
My phantasm of a peaceful city in the sky came to an abrupt end as I felt pressure on my right leg, and was dragged down below the surface. I struggled and kicked at whatever had a hold of me and fought to get back to air. Whatever had grabbed me must have let go, because a moment later could see the light and made my way frantically back to the surface. The moment I broke the surface I noticed a discolouration of the water, it had went from grey-blue to a rust coloured cloud that was rapidly spreading about me. The remaining adrenaline from my escape faded completely and I realized the crushing pain in my leg. I looked down to see two deep gashes on either side of my calf, I could see muscle and bone. I didn't even have the time to assess my wound before I felt something wrap around my waist and was pulled back under. This time I made an effort to get a look at my assailant, which I deeply regretted. In the darkness I saw flashes of luminescence sent from the unknown reaches below. I pried at the thing wrapped around me, it was the arm I saw before. It had wrapped itself around me twice, with the clawed hand gripped on my stomach, reaching nearly all the way around me. My vision started fading and going red from lack of oxygen, and I gave one final halfhearted attempt at escape. I struck the thing wrapped around me with as much force as o could muster, and slashed at it with my fingernails. The thin flesh of the abominable arm tore and exposed the ivory bone beneath. My attack didn't seem to hurt the thing, but it increased its grip considerably, and I felt it's razor-sharp talons press hard into my midsection and pierce my flesh. The hand bent impossibly upwards and dragged its knives up, tearing through my flesh up towards my throat. I screamed out in pain but the only thing that came out was a crimson cloud and bits of what I can only assume were my lungs. As I was dragged farther and farther into the unfathomable abhorrent chasm below, I looked up and saw the last few fluttering beams of stained red sunlight fade to black.