Synesthesia #PlanetOrPlastic

Synesthesia

It felt like a nightmare but it wasn't.

One minute I was content under the hot sun and the next I felt like I was drowning. I couldn't breathe. It was as if something was choking me. But it also felt like a dream. I sat up from my beach towel.

"Mason." I tried to wake him up from his slumber.

"What? What's wrong?" He asked when he saw my distraught face.

My hands were wrapped around my neck, the feeling of something around it still lingered.

"It's like something's choking me." I said, my eyes now filled with tears. I didn't know what to do it was like living a nightmare.

"Let me see." Mason said leaning forward to check my neck.

"That's the thing!" I exclaimed. Tears are now pouring from my eyes. "There's nothing around my neck! But I can still feel it. What's wrong with me?" I cried. The feeling was intensified and my heartbeat was faster.

"What do you mean?" Mason said on the verge of panic now. "I think you're having a panic attack. I'm not expert but this may be it. There's nothing around your neck. Just try to calm down." He said, trying to soothe me.

"I'm not panicking. I'm not.. I.. I just need to breathe." I said getting up, my feet digging in the sand. I made my way towards the rocks to sit down. My legs felt like jelly. My body wasn't cooperating with me.

That's when I saw it.

A small turtle. It's flippers mimicking my hands trying to remove the plastic bag that was now wound tightly around it's neck.

The feeling of suffocation now intensified when I realized what was actually happening .

"M.. Ma. Mason." I struggled calling out his name.

He was immediately by my side. "Just breathe. "

"He.. Help." I tried to say. I was coughing and it was taking a lot to even speak.

"H- help that.. turtle." I said pointing at it. His eyes widened when he saw what I was pointing at. He was shocked but quickly got to the turtle to remove the plastic from it's neck.

The plastic was wound even tighter now with all the struggles and it was lot harder to remove.

"I can't get it out. It's wound too tight." He said struggling with the plastic.

The feeling was intensifying with each moment. But my heartbeat was getting slower, it was a weird feeling.  I looked at the turtle who had stopped struggling. It was moving but looked  exhausted.

Then I felt it. It felt like a heavy weight was crushing me, making me dizzy to the point of passing out, then it all went black.

.

.

.

.

I gasped for breath and sat up.

"Hey, are you okay?" I looked at Mason's concerned face.

"Where's the turtle?"

"It's gone." His sad eyes held concern and sympathy but what I felt was death.

Death of an innocent creature that wasn't supposed to die like that.