Sinking into your subconscious
Scarlett spread apart the waves with her hands to eke out a path. Making her way through the waterfall columns, the salty green seawater doused her hair and clung to her drying skin. The nuclear sun bore warmth on her exposed back and arms. Scarlett liked the feeling of swimming in the nude, or at least she had no perception of wearing any clothing.
Suddenly, she ducked beneath the water. Her vision, oddly enough, was as clear as ever. She descended, each layer of waves moving above her head before she reached stillness. Dark navy blue obscured any frame of reference for depth. A hollow choir began to ring out, seemingly in sync with the waves. It was as though the voices were the water, encompassing her entire being, and her body became a violin rod that shifted the harmonies with each push in the water.
She kept descending and descending, each few kilometers becoming barrenly colder. Then, in a flash, a door appeared. The door was lit up, as though it were the bulb of a lantern. Ah, the seabed! She reassured herself she was near the exit of whatever this realm was. She outstretched her hand in slow motion in the thick seawater, the pressure weighing down on her arm. She gripped the copper knob, and twisted. Surprisingly, with no resistance, the door opened. She stepped into the room, emerging into it like she had left the insides of a waterfall. No water seeped in, and the room was as dry as ever. Scarlett’s relationship to gravity had returned, and she walked around the room, leaving no wet footprints. Papers that were crepe-like lined the corners of this secret room buried miles beneath the ocean’s surface. She touched the surface of one letter, and slipped a finger beneath the seal.
“Hey, wake up-” Elias poked her nose. “You’re contorting your face. Are you having a bad dream?”
Scarlett opened both eyes with no remark. She held them open to readjust her surroundings. The interior of the cabin was lit on one side from the bright moon.
“I feel like something is going to happen, and there’s no way to divert it. Or if I can, I don’t know how to. My dreams possess me. I dip out of reality into whatever world my subconscious creates. Worst of all, where does this fucking imagery come from? I mean, swimming in an ocean and finding a room of letters I can’t open? What was in them?”
Elias held her closely. “It’s going to be fine, this happens to you sometimes. Maybe you’re stressed.”
