Cold Water

I stand on top of the bridge. The skies are coated in a thick veil of dark gray clouds. It’s almost as if the world is in a state of mourning, in a state of despair. The rainstorm is getting heavier. There are no sounds around me, other than the sounds of the raindrops colliding with the steel behemoth on top of which I stand. Even the turbulent ocean below seems to be quiet.

The rain is getting stronger, and I am drenched in water. My skin has reached its limits, any more downpour and it will begin to crack. Unfortunately, that is bound to hurt. However, I have nowhere to go. I am standing on the edge of the bridge. I have nowhere to go but down. I’ve made my decision, and I am a man of my word. The only road I can take leads down. To a watery grave.

The wind has turned cold, I can feel the hair on the back of my neck stand up. My muscles start to shiver to resist the frigid air. My whole body aches. It gets harder to breathe. My breaths have become shallow and quick.

The pace only ever rises as cold water falls down upon my head.

Fear grips at my heart, grasping at my organ as if it were the hand of a titan. A crushing pain surges out of my center and the breaths are more laborious. It’s like, there’s a liquid in my lungs. The air sacks are overflowing, and my chest fills heavy and stiff. I can’t breathe. The touch of water steadily turns painful. The sky is no longer raining droplets of water upon me. Millions of tiny razors crush upon my skin from the heavens. They are making microscopic incisions into my dermis while my brain struggles with the sudden barrage of its pain receptors.

My heartbeat sinks from my chest to my guts. The beating and pulsating courses through my digestive tract leaving it in shambles. A knock forms in my lower abdomen and I can feel the liquid rising.

Water comes out of my mouth, suffocating me in the process, it keeps flowing and flowing. My throat burns and my head feels heavy. The skies start spinning, and the rain of microscopic razor blades appears to take the shape of a whirlwind. The heavens groan out in pain as the waters keep flowing out of me ceaselessly.

A gust of wind blows right past me.

My clothes and skin are torn, beneath them are no bones or muscles. The organs are gone, beneath my useless exterior there’s nothing but a blueish clear liquid. All feeling turns numb even the constant flow of water from my mouth.

The whirlwind of blades undetectable to my eyes tears right through me. The impact of our collision sends me falling straight into the turbulent ocean below the bridge.

The fall seems incredibly slow and prolonged.

Eons are passing as I fall, and I grow old painfully slowly. As I continue to fall, the remains of my external shell slowly dry up and shrivel. Finally they detach themselves from the liquid substance beneath. Each piece of skin detaches itself with a wet splat, sending torrents of hellfire straight into my mind.

By the time I am at arm’s length from the ocean, nothing remains of me but the internal liquid.

I hit the water with an inaudible splash. My body feels as if it’s being stretched beyond its limits. Every cell of mine hurts, every cell is being pulled at and stretched in all directions while a sudden bout of nausea courses through my entire existence. I only see water all around me. I can’t feel anything other than the nauseous feeling.

Everything is moving up and down, it’s like my consciousness is moving in a wavelike fashion. The repetitive swaying increases the nauseating sensation and tires me out. Everything seems to grow more and more distance. The water is losing its color and focus.

Just as I am about to fade, I hear a voice – it’s painfully, hauntingly familiar.

I opened my eyes to a crowd of disturbed onlookers. The horror was evidently etched onto their faces. A man was about to throw himself off the bridge, a macabre spectacle that most people wouldn’t want to behold. I didn’t care, though, I wanted to throw myself off that bridge. I had enough of living with the memory of her being swept away from my hands by the ocean’s current. We were young, and it was my fault she even got shoulders deep into the water. I shouldn’t have told her to follow me. Ever since that day, I keep seeing her face bobbing up and down in the waves as the violent current forces its way into her throat. She sank right in front of me. She sank and later floated to the shore next to me.

When I stood on that bridge, I saw something in the waves below. A feminine figure, barely visible. Her features, they were horrible. A bloated thing; skin pale and translucent. A spiderweb of greenish-blue veins dimly glowed at me through her thin dermic fabric. Her lips were almost the exact same shade as her eyes used to be. Bluer than human tissue should be. Her mouth was opened wide and torrents of muddy water kept on pouring out of her orifices.

I could see her moving up and down with the waves, like she was a part of them. In fact, there was no distinction between her and the ocean.

Her voice, it came from everywhere, it called my name, it called for me. The storm carried her calls over the sky. Every syllable felt like a bullet being shot straight through my heart. My breath turned shallow and fast, the skies spun all around me, the onlookers twisted and turned into odd angles as I nearly collapsed off the bridge.

I slipped, but I’ve managed to grab onto the railing as hard as I could. My heart was pounding in my head, the flash of lightning nearby blinded me forcing me to loosen my grip. I mustered the will to go back on my words and the strength to call for help. My cry was barely strong enough for two strangers to hear. In my panicked state, they barely seemed human. Just two outlines barely resembling anthropomorphic beings. That was enough.

I’ve found a new purpose to life; I’ve been wanting to reunite with her for years. After seeing what she had become, I must avoid her at all costs.

Unfortunately, every time cold water hits my head, I freeze and begin to hyperventilate. At those moments, I can hear her choking voice calling out to me.