Drowning(Hiatus)

Chapter 12

I paced around the large room and only one thought was going through my head:

Dang it, he's coming back in an hour. In an hour! I looked at the clock hanging by the wall to my left and saw its rusted arrows standing still at 11:20. Oh dear God, he's coming and I have no way to tell the time.

I could roughly estimate how long it had been since he left but for some reason time felt like it was moving at the speed of light. I wanted to escape. Not this place but him. When I'm around him, I feel like I'm not myself anymore but an entirely different person. Always nervous and jittery. In short: a total wreck. I wanted some time to myself to get my perplexed feelings sorted and over with but with the time limit he gave me, I only felt rushed. This wasn't what I asked for.

I glanced at the door, my willpower wavering.

No!

I scolded myself. I'm not going to repeat that stupid mistake a second time. It hasn't even been a day and if I get lost in the twisting hallways of this castle again, I'd be too embarrassed to face him. But the time limit he gave me was constantly making me nervous. No matter how much I wanted to close my eyes and distract myself, his face kept popping up in my head, saying, "I'll be back in an hour." Repeatedly. Over and over again.

"Who does he think he is!" I vented out loud.

Oh that's right! I slapped my forehead, derisively. He's the fu^^ing king.

I plopped down on the bed, my hands cradling my face. A deep scowl had fixed itself on my expression. I groaned aloud as I closed my eyes and tried to think. Suddenly, I got off the bed.

This won't do.

I walked over to the glass door of the balcony, opened it and walked out on to the terrace. Feeling the stone of the paved railings underneath my palms, I looked at the beautiful garden sitting tranquil below and thought,

Dear rational judgement, I tried.

And then I jumped off, diving straight for the far etched parts of the castle grounds before it was cut off by the chasm. I swam over the varied assortments of corals and aquatic plants and felt small fishes rushing out of their holes in the ground as I swam past them. I observed my surroundings as I swam and saw that there were inconspicuous stone statues situated every which where. They were camouflaged by the green slime and corals growing atop it which made it difficult for me to make out their forms. But as I focused on their shapes, I noticed that they were all symbols that I had no clue about. Sometimes, I could make out an eye or fish tails out of them but most were just plane triangles.

I swam past a moldy fountain and landed next to a hooded sitting area that overlaid the deep never ending chasm at some distance from it. It was draped with stocks of weed at each of its sides providing for the right kind of privacy that I wanted. Looking around me to make sure that I wasn't being watched or followed, I pulled the weeds to a side and stepped on the stone pavement. Inside were benches, all facing the chasm and the city beyond it. From here, I could see in detail the hustle and bustle of the underwater kingdom.

Amazed, I wondered how an entire underwater civilization could exist without getting noticed once by us humans. Our ignorance to the species beyond our imagination is astounding. I took a moment to take in the scenary before me and then sat on one of the benches, sighing heavily.

What do I do now? I thought wearily as I felt exhausted from all the stress I was put through. I was left with no room for a breather. Right now, all I wanted was to just sit down and get familiar with my surroundings. I looked up to see the city lying beyond the chasm, alive with activity.