Pressure surrounds me from every which way, pouring in. Pressing down, crushing bones, muffling screams.
No relief, no release. Pooling at my ankles, rising along skin until the last hope of air is long gone. Grasping at straws plucked from the waves, and held above my head with a tantalizing tease.
The last beams of light give way to dark, damp, muddy clouds of ink. Sinking deeper and deeper, freedom rising far into the skies I'd never know again.
My bones crack and shudder, giving way to the stress of volume. My ears burst and bleed, depriving me even the sound of my own choke. The water stings my eyes and fills my nostrils. All but touch and taste have left my battered body, and only then do I notice the salt.
Burning my throat, stealing every last drop of moisture from me. Consciousness begins to fade at long last, and the pain begins to dull ever so slightly... Slowly, but surely.
Leaving behind something I'd forgotten. A joy that hid so precariously in the darkest, murkiest confines of my mind. A name ringing in my ears, like the sweet music of angels. A face so bright and loving that it dares to warm my waterlogged heart even now, if only from the thought. A half remembered dream breathing life into these useless lungs.
It was only in my last moments, as the last drop of life was teetering on the rim of my existence, that the shadows parted.
In a glorious sight, the waves dipped in, as something had disturbed them. The dark in full shuddered and groaned, fleeing in great number at the angelic body slowly ascending, and catching my fall.
With a single touch, tender and soft as the shifting sands beneath the sea she seemed herself to embody, a golden hue overtaking my pale, white skin. Colour returning to these sunken eyes, and blue, breathless lips.
Porcelain skin guided my hands, while perfectly luscious lips eased my sorrow with sweet words, swirling in my ears like sugar and honey. My heart expands, pumping away a copper nectar of life, pulsing through my veins.
Her long, brown hair seemed to wrap around her and my figure, under the weightless dark water now brightly shining a cerulean symphony of light.
In the hands of my maiden, my life finally seems real. Carefully held, with long slender fingers, banded with a beautiful gold ring.
A gold ring holding within all the love in the world, all the love of a Mermaid's heart and soul.
It matched my own.
A ring that held all of me, all of my mind, body, and being.
Of course I'd forgotten. With her gone, what would I have to remember? With her gone, who would I be?
With her gone, I'd be but a distant memory, sinking further and further into the deepest, darkest seas.
Yet, with her here, I'm filled with light as golden and bright as the rings in her eyes, and the bands on our fingers. With her here, I could never drown. I could never sink, or be lost.
I wonder if she knows? This blindingly beautiful goddess of the great ocean... this guardian of life... The sole caretaker of my once dilapidated heart, taking tender care of all the light in my life. Even in my deepest, darkest hours on this earth, she gives me light.
With her here, I live and breathe, despite the world.
I live and breathe for the band on her finger, and the love in her heart.
