River Theta, Have Your Way (snippet!)

10

The instant I was enveloped in the darkness, I could feel the hairs on my arms prick up from the drastic drop in temperature. Amidst the freefall, I raised my arms to my face, and my consciousness allowed me to see the outline of my limbs clearly.

How is it all this real? Am I really feeling this? I could feel what was supposed to be the hair on my head whipping against my face violently as the speed of my decent rapidly increased.

Tumbling and flipping through the emptiness, I searched the endless space for an escape from the void, but I soon found how helpless I was: I was at the complete mercy of its grasp. Screams naturally began to erupt from my throat, but no audible sound was produced from them. The complete irony of it all; I became the god of all that was around me, yet had no control over my own power.

The speed of my plummet was now to the degree that my mind began to emulate the feeling of the very breath being sucked from my lungs. I drastically pounded my head with both hands, and internally wrestled with the very core of my consciousness.

"Stop it, stop it, stop it! Neveah, snap out of it!" I screamed with all my might, but not a single word could be heard.

The feeling of death was consuming my very being, but could I actually die here? What was the possibility this would end me? A fire ignited inside my chest as I began to see my own mind as an enemy.

"Neveah! Quit doing this to yourself! Wake up, please! Wake UP!!"

My breath continued to drain from my lungs, and the feeling was now beginning to make me nauseous.

It's no use. Surely, I'll soon be swimming with the fishe-

Instantly, my body was dunked into the crisp embrace that only water could provide. Outside of my body, I watched my arms and legs drift upwards as I slowly sunk deeper and deeper, hair wrapped around my face, bubbles of pure shock shooting from my lips and nostrils. Opening my eyes was a difficult task at first: every natural instinct told me that there was no use underwater. But soon, my consciousness regained control, and my lucidness allowed me crystal clear vision.

I turned my head in every direction to take in the sudden and extreme change of my environment and realized that what once was an empty abyss of space had now turned into one of water. I was submerged in and surrounded by the color blue, other than the occasional section in the distance that was highlighted by rays of light beaming from above.

Great, I heard my mind say aloud. Now, I'm drifting away in the ocean.

My voice echoed and bounced back to me, and I could hear myself saying the word 'ocean' being reflected from all around. This quickly sent me into a puzzled state of mind. I searched my surroundings once more to find what the cause of this could be, until I suddenly hit what I initially believed to be the ocean floor. I flattened out on the ground beneath me, then quickly sat up. Upon recognizing the fluidity with which I arose, I came to my feet and stood there, realizing that buoyancy seemed to suddenly no longer have an effect on me.

As I trekked the bottom floor, I realized the peculiar nature of what was beneath my feet; the ground below me was multitudes of brown colored stones, all hulking and massive in size, at least three times larger than my own body. And yet.....something about them seemed so familiar. I kept studying them as I continued walking the ground level.

"I've seen these rocks before..." I spoke this aloud with my lips, the water seemingly having no effect on breath or speech.

"Come on, girl. You know your mind is only capable of pulling from what it knows. Where did you get these rocks from, Neveah? The chance of-''

My head suddenly thumped into some sort of invisible barrier that was in front of me.

I shook my head in surprise and was once again in awe of how real everything felt.

"This is going to take so much getting used to."

There was an echo once more, but this time, it was deafening, and I could feel the wave of sound rebounding from inches away. I reached out and ran my hand along the wall in front of me.

Its surface was perfectly smooth to the touch, and tapping it brought a rather familiar sound to my ears.

It can't be that simple, surely, it's not what you think it is....

However, once I brought my face to it, cupped my hands around my eyes, and peered through it, I realized it was exactly what I thought it to be. I gasped in pure shock, attempting the best I could to come to terms with what I was seeing.

Through the glass, all of my dearest childhood memories were in plain view before me: my old bed, my old television and VCR set, all of my dolls, my toy chest, stuffed animals, and posters.

"Oh my God...."

The echoing was gone now, but I barely even noticed at the time. I turned around and placed my back against the wall, searching the water above and around me for another precious memory. The water had now transformed from an ocean blue to a perfectly clear transparency, and my eyes fell upon my old friend almost instantly.

Hard as I tried, I couldn't help the tears that began to form in my eyes as the waves of nostalgic love began to pulsate through my very core.

"Giddy...."

His precious name only came out as a whisper. My childhood seahorse seemed to have heard my call, because he soon after looked in my direction, and slowly and playfully started to make his way to me, like a dog to its owner. I covered my mouth with my hands as I watched him trot through the water as fast as his body could take him. His bright orange hue seemed to beam and dance in the water around him, and he moved his head from side to side with glee as he slowly inched in my direction.

I remember realizing at this moment how microscopic I was, because even with the distance apart from each other we were, he towered above me by at least ten feet. I was small enough to be his dinner. But I didn't care. Once my friend reached me, he extended his tail out towards me in greeting, and I wrapped my arms around it and embraced him like one would a person.

"Hi there, sunshine!" My brain was able to accurately emulate tears running down my face.

"Look who's bigger than who now, huh baby? You can't wrap your tail around these tiny fingers!"

He hovered in place with a stillness of tranquility as I held him, and when I looked up at him, I was met with his beady eyes peering back down into mine.

"What, you don't have anything wacky going on? No superpowers, no weird voice or talking abilities, you're definitely not trying to kill me, so that one checks out...."

A few bubbles came from his snout. I brought my lips to his tail and kissed it, then buried my face back into him.

"Nothing. Just my favorite little boy. Look at how pretty you are...."

There was a sudden rumbling that pulsated the tank to a familiar rhythm, and the rocks below me slightly gyrated in time with its beat. As I looked behind me in confusion, I could feel Giddy's tail slip out of my arms, and I turned back to find him moving upwards towards the top of the tank. As the sound and rhythm got closer and became more solid, my mind finally put two and two together, and I whipped my head back around in the direction of the glass, tension rising within me. It can't be.

Don't do this to yourself right now Neveah, you're going to be an absolute mess.

But no matter what I tried to tell myself, I knew precisely who my mind was bringing to me. Through the glass of the tank, I watched as my old bedroom door opened wide, and in walked the man that I loved more than life itself.

My shoulders began to shake uncontrollably, and what started as singular tears quickly turned into complete, breath-taking sobs. My hand clutched my chest as I attempted to take a moment to find the air to speak.

"Dad.....Daddy?"