Once, There was A Library in my Closet

It took me to the Bottom of the Sea

Sometimes I feel like such a helpless child trapped in the reins of my parents' advice. I am to be their words, not mine. I am to listen, be obedient, and play it nice like a good little girl. I shouldn't make a fool of myself anymore. That's what I've done. I have done everything in my useless power to be a daughter they could be proud of. So why is it that they test me so often? Do they think I don't care just because I don't fight against them?

I was only a helpless little daughter when my checkered freedom was stolen and cut to pieces behind my back. My own parents wore what was left of my own respect like the sweater it was, only now torn and shredded. It mocked me. It made me upset. But they weren't used to me being upset. They smiled and spoke sweet nothings to each other without a care in the world, wearing my pride like it didn't matter. I looked down at my hands. They weren't yellow anymore. The yellow glow had been passed on to the two who had stolen it from me. Now my hands were just a soft pink. Sugar, spice, and everything nice, but lacking in yellow and black.

The choke in my throat returned like it did many times before, but with more force than I had expected. It drove me to let out a sudden blood curdling scream. The scream itself was a million tiny frustrations, tucked away in a jar over the years only to be let out on the last nerve that had been ticked. It echoed through the air and shook the clouds above, soon enough making little water droplets fall to the ground as rain. The first drop fell on black and yellow, where I silenced myself and glared at their surprised faces. With fists clenched and drops of rain crashing down like hail, I ran.

Their eyes followed me as I fled but I already knew their bodies weren't. They were too stunned to do so as I ran closer to the unknown area beyond. A huge mound of dirt stood in my path, but years of practiced patience pushed me up. I cried and cried as I crawled up the steep hill on my hands and feet. Only the heavy rain and increasingly slippery hill were trying to stop me now.

Water dripped down my face and into my nose with every breath. I felt the ground beneath me flatten a little and I made myself peer up to look. Even though the dark storm clouds blocked the sun now, I saw the dark figure of a massive bear standing on its hind legs. A flash in the distance revealed the glint of two eyes glaring down at me, unblinking and fierce. A bear, I thought. It's come to save me. For a split moment, I felt near relief. But the bear erupted in a low growl and raised its paw, giving me only a moment to blink the rain out of my eyes before lashing it across my face. 

The impact twisted me around. I made out the light yellow smudge in the distance to be the checkered pride. The stolen pride. I felt so lonely without it.

The smudge faded away and the sound of the rain dulled, and all I thought of before I blacked out was that when they would come running to me, they would not have seen a bear. They would have seen nothing but a tree.

The silence was what woke me. 

The faint clink of quiet chimes was everywhere in the black. Like someone was playing sad, longing notes on a marimba. I tried to look for the faint, sweet sound, but all I could see in the dark were tiny specks of dust floating aimlessly in every direction. Perhaps the dust was singing to one another from so far away. It looked like stars, but it was much, much lonelier.

I rise slowly, and see nothing but flat, grey sand, stretching forever and fading in the darkness. The bear... I tried to process what had happened. It took me to the bottom of the sea?

The water above was endless. There was nothing but black in the far distance wherever I looked. There was no movement. It was still, and quiet.

"There are many things in this world that divide us."

A voice. I turned my head every which direction, but I could not see the source of the unfamiliar voice. The flat sea bottom stretched on, empty and dead.

"There are things that are precious and things that are less so. Whichever side something goes to, there is always a force that wants to destroy both."

Movement above caught my attention. I looked in the distance and saw a shoal of squid gliding through the dark water. There was such an odd feature about the squids, however. They wore things - human things - on them like shells. One had a small clock tower, another had a tall, thin apartment building. It was like someone had cast away their antique toys into the ocean and they sank to the sea to be found by the squid. The abandoned toys must have felt so cold before the squids found them. It was surreal and peaceful, even melancholy.

"That desire to destroy both corners comes from those who are tortured or born with power. Too often are they lured into using it against the weak."

A shadow lurked adjacent to the squids, so slowly that the many squids didn't notice. It turned and grew larger without a sound. Suddenly the shadow split in two to reveal a gaping mouth with hundreds of sharp white teeth charging toward the shoal. Fierce jaws crashed against the "shell" of the clock tower squid, startling the rest and causing an uproar of dull-sounding struggle. I watched helpless as the poor squid seemingly prayed for its clock tower to shield it from the toothed shadow, which I saw now to be a shark with black eyes like beads. 

Just when I heard the pitiful crack of the clock tower, a jet of water thrashed across the fight, forcing the shark and squid apart. The shrieks of a whale furiously vibrated through the water, and I covered my ears. The whale was massive, and it didn't seem to appreciate the shark's deep sea hunt. With one fell swoop of its tail, the whale plunged itself forward to frighten the shark away. The shark receded, fading back into nothing more than a shadow lurking in the deep distance.

The whale seemed to be the assertive type. It allowed the squid to cautiously swim alongside it but it paid no heed to me. I felt a strong need to aid the squid. It seemed unharmed but its shell was still cracked. I tried to walk along the ocean floor but I found my body unable to move, so I instead beckoned the poor beast to swim to me. Rather, the squid floated above the whale. It was still incredibly dark under the water, but when I watched the squid gently find its place on the back of the whale, I saw the oddest appearance of what looked like many other little buildings on its back. The whale drifted away and slowly faded into the dark, eventually taking an astonishing resemblance to that of a moving Atlantis.

"There are those who cannot resist the heart of a battle, but the strongest fighters are the ones who cannot bear to see others suffer. They become the haven of those who have been saved, and find a place in their hearts forever."

The Atlantis left without me, without a second glance.

I slip into an eternal slumber as though I had drowned without knowing.

-- End.