by Cordelia Riordan

Created on: January 19, 2009

It was quiet there. The first thing I noticed was the silence, the overbearing silence where I couldn't even hear myself breathe or think. Was I breathing? I couldn't tell. There was Nothing, no sound, no emotion, yet there was also a lingering fear on the edge of it all. I knew that it was bad; it was evil, and there was nothing I wanted to do more than leave this state of nonexistence disguised as peace.

I couldn't be certain, but I felt I knew what it was: it was insanity, a sense of loss beyond the edge of good or evil while evil still reeked about it, beyond the edge of death or life. It was insanity, and I'd fallen into the abyss of silent white and black, of everything and nothing all at once. It filled me, and I tried to push it back out. I didn't want it.

Water suddenly began to filter in. Cracks appeared seemingly all around me, pushing out water and before I knew what was happening, I was waist deep in water. I'd no idea what was happening around me and as the liquid level grew to my chest, I opened my mouth and screamed. No sound escaped me, however, so I was left in silence, screaming and thrashing as the water filled up around me until it covered my head and there was nothing left but me in a watery grave.
Forever had passed, and yet less than a second had passed all at once. I opened my eyes, blinking at the depths around me. My hair floated around me in a halo, wet and dry, curly, wavy, and straight. I felt no clothes, but yet that was fine. I moved my legs up, intending to swim, and yet I had no legs. Instead, a mermaid's tail flipped and propelled me through the water of Nothing. I looked back, examining the new limb. Sparkling scales of obsidian trailed down, starting with a few scales around my bellybutton, condensing together and transforming into a tail down to where my ankles would have been. From there, two fins erupted. They were sheer and gossamer, beautiful and black.
I realized that it came as no shock to me. I felt no surprise, as though my tail was supposed to be there. It had always been there, somewhere deep inside of me.
Could I find my way out of this nothingness? Could I swim my way back to sanity, back to where I was meant to be?
Without explanation, it was dark around me and I could no longer see anything in front of me, including my own hand. The panic welled up inside, but there was no sound and I refused to let it get the best of me.

I had no solid idea of how long I'd been swimming along in an attempt to find my way out of

• 1
• 2
• Next Page >>