The Enigma's Anomaly

Impossible is Really Only For Weaklings

My first instinct of the water is that it's fucking freezing. I don't know what I was expecting. It's like the middle of the night and it's spring, so yeah, obviously it's cold. Holy shit is that cold though.

It's the type of cold that is literally so cold that it's hot. It feels like I'm being burned at the stake or something except the fire is everywhere. It's in my hair and in my clothes and in other places that don't like being cold.

I don't hear anything immediately because my head is flailing for air. I'm trying to get to the surface, but without my hands or my feet it's practically impossible. I manage to get my head above water for about two seconds and I hear the car pulling away.

I honestly don't know what to do. My heart is pounding and my body is already starting to give into the pull of the water. The harder I flail the more I'm dragged under and it seems impossible to get back up that one foot to the surface. I just can't. I push so hard wishing there were rockets in my feet to boost me upwards, but sadly there are not.

My lungs have a little bit of air left in them, maybe a minute at best, but after that I'm going to have to take on water and as soon as that happens I'm done for.

I can't give up though. I did not spend twenty plus years suffering through school, and puberty and finals just to die like this. I will not have studied the bloody constitution in vain, I just have to get to the fucking surface for air.

I open my eyes, but all I see is blackness. There are no lights down here, and there's no reason for there to be. Why on earth would they illuminate the docks? The underside of the docks especially? Oh god I hope there aren't any fish that bite. Why do I care about fish, I'm about to die?

It wasn't very smart to leave me like this though. Eventually I'm going to end up floating and someone will find my body. If they'd tied a cinder block to me than it would've been smarter. I'm not complaining though, I would kind of like being found. It's not that I really want to end up as a slab on some morticians table looking all lifeless and pale, but I think that's better than never being found ever. There's a possibility of justice if people know you're dead. Gerard might know where I went then, I guess that's a silver lining I can get out of all this. You can't say I'm a pessimist at least. I'm literally dying as we speak, but I'm still finding the positives!

I've forgotten which way is up and which is down. I can't tell any direction from another so I try my hardest to kick at my surroundings and maybe that'll give me some clue as to which way I should angle myself, but it's useless. I kick harder wishing I knew what to do, but I don't. I never took a class on how to escape from zip ties while drowning in the ocean. They should teach that at the community center.

Okay settle down Frank, how do you get yourself out of this one? My best guess is that if I stop struggling I might go back up. I might float better if I'm not acting like a lunatic.

It takes quite a bit of willpower not to thrash and scream, but I calm myself down the best I can for a moment. I blow bubbles out through my nose to try to calm my brain. My eyes are still open and irritated from the grimy water, but I don't close them because I'm waiting to see some light.

The surface breaks over my head which seems impossible and I actually breathe in real air, though it's not very good air. A second ago my lungs were ready to burst, but now they're feeling a little better. I'll take any air I can get at this point. My head hits something painfully hard a moment later and I actually do yell out because it fucking hurts.

I didn't just hit something hard though, I hit something pointy that would have rammed through my skull if the force hadn't been so mild. What the hell is that? It's a pretty low dock so there's only three or four inches of space between the dock above me and the water.