Lights.

That’s the last thing I remember, the only thing I can recall correctly. A city full of lights.

I think….

A big one, full of huge buildings that reach the clouds; every light twinkles like stars in the distance… it’s beautiful. I’m so far away yet I can feel a soft glow warming me, the cold breeze hitting my face and a subtle feeling consumes me, it feels nice.

For a second I feel at peace. “It’s late…I’m tired” I think to myself; I close my eyes just to open them again not even a second later. The peace, the memory is gone…

I’m still here.

Submerged in dark waters, so deep that there is no light or darkness, an infinite nothingness is all that surrounds me. I don’t know how long this will last, but here I am…drowning in an empty ocean. On the brink of death but not quite; I still breathe, clinging to that miniscule speck of life left in my soul, holding the air back as much as I can before my lungs burst.

There’s something…someone else here with me.

Those here are not drowning. No, they swim peacefully around me, waiting.

They wait for the water to crush me under its colossal weight, to overpower and finish me…for it to invade every crevice of my being. They wait until I forget the lights.

The thing does not attack, for it doesn’t need to. It swims and hums around, they come and go, checking, looking at me from the darkness. I’m not cold or warm but I can feel it touching my skin, it wants to consume me, conquer me.

It wants me to drown.

I rest… just for a second, I give up and lose my strength. The one that waits looks at me anxiously, I can see a small glimmer stand out from the darkness.

“Let yourself BE FREE.” They beg me.

“DO NOT WAIT ANY LONGER.” They say. “you can’t be here forever…time to let go.”

Ignoring the pleads. I start to recall the lights, the breeze, the city…

I recall the stench of blood and the bodies, the destroyed buildings and the fire that lights it all. It wasn’t my fault…

Was it?

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