Chapter 1 - All It Took Was A Breath
Life in slow motion is clearer and easier. It can be the moment before a special event or before you do something nerve wracking. That moment before there’s always a pause. A pause where you stop and think, ‘yes’ or ‘no’. That’s kind of what I’m going through right now. Standing in front of a cliff. My older siblings waiting for me down below.
I take a deep breath before jumping off the cliff. It took a few seconds before I hit the sea leaving rippling waves behind. My body seemed to zoom deeper before slowing down. The sight before me was beautiful and peaceful. If this is what life is like down here, I wanna be apart of it. I swim up to the surface, feeling the need to breath. Once I reached the surface, I took deep breaths.
I heard laughter beside me and I turned to face them with a grin on my face.
“Did you fall asleep down there?” My sister Trèi teased. I rolled my eyes laughing along with my brothers, Ace and Cole, as I splashed her with water.
We swam for hours, just being young. It was amazing. Getting away from responsibility for a day, just being with the people I love.
“Alright, we’re gonna head off now. You coming, Saph?” I rolled my eyes. He knew full well what my answer would be.
“Nah, I’m staying right here,” I say floating around in the water. I’ve always loved the water, whether it be a river, an ocean, a sea or even a bath. My parents always had a hard time getting me out of the shower when I was little. I would spend hours in there, relaxed. I don’t know what it was but it just seemed to speak to me. Is that weird?
My train of thought is broken when Cole clears his throat, “We will see you then, okay. Be safe,” he said putting emphasis on ‘okay’ and ‘be safe’ looking at me with that stern but loving overprotective big brother look. I sighed and rolled my eyes but nodded anyways. That look is there way too often.
“Aye, aye, captain,” I say giggling. This boy is always trying to boss me around. I love my brother but he needs to let me be. The over-protective brother mode is starting to get old, I know I’m the youngest but come on. My thoughts were interrupted by their laughter as they waved goodbye and turned around to walk home.
Once they were off into the distance I dived into the water once again. I sat there again just taking everything in. Life, family, friendships. This was that moment. That moment when everything slowed down and you can see everything from a different perspective. I loved these moments the most. It gave me time to understand what is and what isn’t. It made life clearer and it gave me a better understanding of life itself.
I move to swim towards the surface to when I was suddenly pulled down deeper into the depths of the water. I struggled to get out of this death grip. What the hell is even holding me? I tried not to scream - because that would waste my air supply and it would be stupid to do that - but I couldn’t help the small screams and whimpers that did come out. I didn’t know what was pulling me but it was strong yet soft and graceful force that I couldn’t see.
Suddenly, everything stops. I’m cold. I’m really cold. I’m confused. The water down here is so cold it’s ridiculous. I look around and see nothing. The dark navy blue water went so far on, it seemed endless. I wanted so badly to wish that I miraculously just got pulled down by the current but I’m not stupid. I know that a current couldn’t have possibly done that. So what did? It seams that there’s more secrets of the big blue than the eye can see.
I still as a luminescent white light appears. It was beautiful and looked like it was moving on it’s own. But that’s not right. Surely that couldn’t be happening, right. Right? Okay, I must be going crazy because the light started to move. My eyes widened in shock as the light surrounded me. All I could see was a glowing bright white light. The closer it came, the more lightheaded I became. I felt the light touch my skin and envelope my body. It was warm and inviting but I had a feeling that what was to come was anything but warm and inviting. My eyes widen as I let out a gasp. Water flooding into my mouth was the last thing I felt before I everything went black.
I woke up sitting on a damp, cold hard floor. I was still wet and I was breathing hard. What the hell just happened?
