Random Writing

CW Prompt for 2/01/2022

Prompt: Write about your biggest fear (the prompt was longer than this but I didn't have time to write it out. We had 10 minutes to write this). Enjoy :)

The amount of people that say they're afraid of drowning is a lot. So many people, in fact, that the true horror of this event has become diminished. Not for me, though. Drowning is still just as terrifying as it was when I first learned about it. The idea of falling into the sea, especially at night, sinking down into the inky black water that typically looks a shining blue when the sun is out, with no one around noticing that you've disappeared until it's too late. You sink deeper and deeper, arms flailing against the water as you fight to break free. Looking up, you can see the moon shining through the barrier where the ocean meets air, the salty water stinging at your eyes, but you keep them open. There have been far too many cases of people getting disoriented, swimming down rather than up, and you aren't about to be part of that tally. You've heard of people's eyes bleeding once they drown, and for a second you wonder if it's true, but you quickly push that thought aside; you won't drown, so you won't find out.

Or, at least, that's what you tell yourself, but you can feel your chest tightening, the pressure of the deep sea and your lack of oxygen pounding at your head. Every instinct you have is screaming up, up, GO UP, but no matter how hard you try to swim, it seems as if you're getting nowhere. The second you even get remotely close to the surface, a crashing wave is sending you back down, spinning and tumbling as the current throws you around as if you're just as light as the seaweed that is stuck in an endless cycle of floating wherever the sea decides to take it. Finally, your lips are going blue, and the muffled sounds of your own struggling, and the waves crashing just above, are all you can hear. Salt burns your senses- eyes, nose, tongue- but it's all overshadowed by the looming fact that your time is very numbered. The aching in your limbs is enough to tell you that you really won't be reaching the surface, and a final thought, a flash of regret, crosses your mind before everything darkens for good.

How will you look when they finally find you- if they finally find you? Will you be bloated, full of water to the point where your own family won't recognize your face. Or, perhaps, there are parts of you missing, used to fuel the food cycle of the ocean. Better yet, maybe you're never found at all. The ocean is left majorly unexplored, you could have sunk down, down, down, until you joined the rest of the unknown victims of the sea, settled in the darkest corners where you'd only be discovered by chance, traumatizing an unsuspecting diver. Your family could be left wondering what happened; did you run off? No, you had so much excitement for your future, so much drive to do great. Did something bad happen? It couldn't have. How could you be involved in anything dangerous? You always played it safe, so what had happened? It was something that would remain unanswered until there was no one left to remember you.