OXYGEN

2 - Sinking into the Greatest Abyss

I was supposed to feel numb.

That had to be the one thing I longed for the most: the absence of pain.

Instead, I was freezing and burning all at once. The water, fused with my tears, viciously strangled me and I gagged from the excruciating pressure. My arms and legs involuntary thrashed around, becoming the very definition of desperation, reaching out only to grasp nothing. Immediately after I charged into the lake, my first instinct was to head back up, but somehow, I was able to heave away the agonizing urge for air. I choked, an inexplicable pain furiously biting into every part of me.

Just let me die already, I mentally shrieked, my body disgracefully convulsing. God, just let me die. Please, please, please.

The thoughts tore through my mind and after a lingering moment, my pulse began to lose pace. I didn't realize that I stopped moving. I didn't realize that I was now sinking into the greatest abyss of all.

A black haze began to consume the corners of my vision. Soon enough, I was blinded completely. I couldn't tell if my eyes were still open.

All I could manage to comprehend was that I was diminishing. It was as if a shot of serenity hurtled through me, but it failed to be reassuring like the way I wanted it to be. It felt false and menacing, striking terror into my veins because all it did was render me incapable. Truly helpless. I was being pulled into the dark and I was cut with the razor-edged awareness that nothing could save me now.

This is it.

I . . . am . . . dying . . .

Something seized me, wrapping around my waist. I was positive that it was death, in the flesh, grabbing me. I hadn't anticipated it to be lunging at me like this – so rough, so vehement. However, I lost control of everything, unable to move at all . . . so I simply let death's arms drag me towards the unknown.