Blades of Grass

Water

    My moms' voice gradually became audible amidst the high pitched ringing in my ears.
    "SE-LI-NA!" She was shouting, paniced by something, but I didn't understand. She used a tone that made me think she was warning me, but about what?
    "SE-LIII-NAAA!" She begged, elongating the syllables. Everything seemed morphed, like time had slowed down, yet my heart raced and the world rushed by me. But, where was I?
    "SELINA!" She demanded. It reminded me of when I was a child and I ran too far ahead of her when we went out. Was I in danger?
     I looked for her, my eyes laboriously searched for the face I'd seen a thousand times. Why couldn't I get my eyeballs to move faster?! Then she came into focus, her brows were furrowed and it made her eyes pop with warning even more than they should've. Her bottom jaw was forced forward with anger and urgency, her mouth was open slightly ready to scream the next warning. She shouted my name, but this time no sound came out, only the ringing returned. It grew louder until it deafened me.
    Silence.
    Everything suddenly and extremely sped up to what would be considered a normal level, but the contrast made it debilitating and drastic. Before I could think about it, sound returned and the deafening static of a crashing wave made my heart stop. My head was forced forward as I was plunged into a blur of fizzing salt water. I clawed for my return to the surface, my return to safety. I reached and I grabbed for any leverage, frantically kicking my legs. All I could hear now was my heart, surrealistic in its sporadic beating. It didn't make sense. It was as if my vital organ had started giving up before the fight was over.
    Keep beating! I willed myself to survive despite the burn in my lungs. Nothing seemed to be working. Hell, I didn't even know if I was kicking in the right direction. Instinct told me to keep kicking, to despair and panic and flail, but I overid my urgent thoughts and stopped.
    I floated. My arms naturally lifted out to the sides, my hair swished as if it were gravity-ridden and arrived some moments after I'd turned my head to observe my surroundings. I could see nothing! I looked above my head hoping to see the bubbles that escaped my lungs dance to the surface, but not even that. I was in the abyss. All of a sudden I noticed a pressure on my right ankle, what was that? I swooped my head down and stuck my leg out, my blood ran cold at the sight of a chain attached to me leading down into the darkness of deeper waters. No! NO! I frantically grabbed at the chain after trying to shake it off, I pulled so hard attempting to get the thing off my foot that the water around it tinged with a rust colour. No good. Now what? I can't die! I won't die!
    I closed my eyes hoping for clarity but all I could think of was my mom, standing there on the shore, shouting for me, warning me. None of this makes sense. I don't understand. Oh, mom... I'm sorry! The shout in my own head resonated deep into my soul.
    I felt relief... my ankle... the chain had disappeared! I kicked with all my might, I didn't care why, I needed air! I used up all the blood my system could afford to reach the surface. Time sped up again, but faster than it should've been. I couldn't help but be startled that my kicking was replaced with a force that I didn't control, it pushed me upwards at an alarming rate. This is too fast! I looked around but bubbles obscured my vision. Everything raced. My lungs suddenly emptied themselves and the vast bubbles escaping my mouth eroded into the jets surrounding me. Air! I need air! I look up to see the surface fast approaching. This is it!
    My head burst into the open air, exploding splashes in every direction, I gasp in desperation and the air being forced into my lungs made a noise that resembled a backwards hiccup, the water cascading down my face from my hair only added to its traumatic sound. Short, sweet slurps of air followed as I tried to regulate my body's functions again. I needed time to regain my senses and recover, but my attention was taken elsewhere.
     I looked out to the horizon- it was plagued with black, menacing and dangerous storm clouds. I couldn't make out anything in particular... at first. Before I could evaluate my new predicament, the horizon unceasingly produced clearer images of what it held; buildings, trees, lorrys, vans, cars... my brain finally registered that I was getting closer and closer to the shore at an alarming speed. To comprehend what I was seeing I flailed in the water, moving my body and head side to side, back to front, around in a circle... then down.
    I was on the crest of a tsunami wave, travelling at a high velocity speed towards sudden death. My eyes widened, the corners of my agape mouth turned downward in horror and anguish. There was no way out. I couldn't stop this. If I swam backward it would only delay the inevitable by mere seconds. I watched the shore approach, it made the weight of the humongous wave even heavier, I could literally feel the tons of ocean that formed the wave, the mass of water I was unable to stop, that for some reason I was in the middle of. The shoreline lit up as lightening encased the sky. Mom! Mom, no! Move! Mom! No! Please! The wave was relentless in its speed and my lungs lurched as my front row seat dissipated my mom into its unforgiving force. She was gone. As though she'd never existed. A lifetime, no, my lifetime we had built together... and she was gone, just like that. Why? What was going on?!
    I screamed, cursed, balled my fists and struck the wave that devoured my only parent but my rath had the effect of a feather landing on titanium; completely undamaging. Once I'd depleted my energy, I accepted my fate. I lost all fight. I had no willingness to survive. It took my mom from me, it could take me too. With fresh tears forming in my blood red eyes and stale tears drying on my cheeks from the wind that struck my face, I watched my death approach.
   Mom...