I'm… floating…
That's the only thought I can process right now. Nothing more and nothing less
But its more than just floating, the feeling of being enwrapped, no embraced by…
I'm cold… but… It feels nice…
Not to mention I can't hear anything.
No… I can hear something… Its muffled and feels like a flow… like… water…
Turns out my hypothesis was correct based on the fact that my eyes starting stinging like hell and my hazy vision shrouded by a soothing turquois pigment.
I don't know why I took me this long to shut my lids, I mean I was wincing from the pain, but hey better late than never, dumbass. I shake my head, forcing myself to snap out of whatever I was thrown into. I don't even know why my mouth just gape open like it did, I know I'm desperate, but all salt water is going to do is just make my stomach want to kill me. That is if the ocean choke the life out of me as my lungs are reminding me.
Fucking assholes. You know I only need one of you to live right?
But hey I guess they figure if they're going down, they're taking me with them!
Yeah, like fucking hell they are!!
My eyes are going to have to suck it up, because I peeled my lids back, forcing them to get a bearing of my surroundings. Thankfully, it doesn't take long for me to get a general direction of where the surface is and I force my limbs to go into overdrive and stroke myself upwards!
THAT IS NOT TO BE TAKEN OUT OF CONTEXT!!!
Mustering my arms and legs to swim for salvation could not be enough to stave off the desperate need for oxygen. The jabbing of my gut becomes sharper and I can feel as if my throat is being strangled!
Keep it together! Just a little more! Just… suck it up… for a little bit… a little bit…
Huge swaths of bubbles erupted from my mouth as my hand breaches the aquatic barrier!
Victory! Total Victory!
My triumph is short-lived, due to me forgetting the most basic rule of all that is science: You can't grip water to pull yourself up!
Witnessing my hand slip below the surface makes my heart sink. If only that's the only thing sinking right now!
My chest is crushing me as everything darkens, and I can feel the water slowly pulling me down from the surface.
I don't want to die… I don't want to die… no… no…
Right now, nothing scared me more than what is happening right now. To think that I'm cruelly being dragged away from the surface with everything growing darker and the only noise I can hear is the muffled flow drumming against my ears.
Dammit, nononononono! Let me breathe, dammit!!
My limbs for the few powerful brushes of movements I can muster. Thinking I'm close enough, my head rams the surface rewarding me with cold brisk air. My lungs harvest as much oxygen as they can carry at this point but water slipping through the wrong pipe hampers my efforts. My weary limbs continue to flail around desperately to keep me afloat, while my sight is temporarily blind, and my throat is struggling to take in air while choking on rogue water.
Not to mention a cold gush of wind brushing against my face! All while I'm trying not to sink back down to the cold dark depths!
After a few nasty coughs, my throat purifies itself allowing me to draw in air a little easier. And my eyes are quick to clear way the water clouding my vision.
This keeps my chin above water much easier.
Okay... just need to find land! Where is land! I don't see it! Why is there no land! Where! Why!
Despite my best efforts not to succumb to panicking, the more I look around, the more those small creeping thoughts grow a little louder, that I might as well be stranded in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.
I've remember reading stories and watching movies about people being trapped in these nightmare scenarios when I was younger. Seeing those guys going mad of heat stroke, starvation, or even thirst certainly left an uncomfortable feeling in kid me.
And here I am in the same predicament, likely to share the same fate!
"No… no… nononononono! Shit! Shit! Okay-okay!" I cock my head in all directions, trying to find anything, anything at all that point me towards anywhere but here! "Okay, okay- alright… just need to find… I just need to find…"
What can I find?! There's nothing out here! Not even a friggin' raft! Wait, is that… oh gods!
Even if it's for a moment, I feel as if the gods of fortune must be smiling upon me right now. I guess they must have a thing for panicked guys like me, because they must have coerced the wind to blow what I can only describe as a decorative raft with sharp jagged edges and railings that made my skin crawl over how razor thin, they are.
And it looks as if it is accompanied by other pieces of similar debris, though most of them are too small, battered, or inhospitable for me to rest.
"Okay... okay! That's a start! Yeah! Get aboard! Find land! It's somewhere! Somewhere!" I let out a shaky laugh and freestyle towards the raft pushing my fumes to the limit.
By the time my hands grip the ragged edges of the wood, I might have cut my hand as well as a splinter or two, but my big concern is this piece of debris rocking and rolling, denying me safe access aboard.
"Just let me on for fuAAGH!"
Nothing like a firm hold on the edge and a sudden dive down to slide aboard this uncooperative piece a junk. I mean, yeah, it did try to throw me overboard, but guess how well that turned out for it huh?
Whoever said 'don't rock the boat' is a total idiot. I'd say boats are made for rocking, even if they aren't exactly thrilled having you aboard.
But that's the 'boat's' problem, not mine. I got enough to worry about, like not trying to reenact a Titanic straggler.
Shit... that's kinda messed.
"Okay, can you stop being so fucking difficult?!" I know I'm not doing my body any favors, but if awkward positions keep me from getting thrown overboard, then anatomy and body mechanics can suck it.
Besides, that's the type of stuff people should worry about when they're in their 30s, so I'm off the hook.
Anatomy aside, the real pain are bruises, cuts, and Shivago forbid, even splinters, gods I hate splinters. But hey with saggy skin like this, with enough pinching and prodding I might be able to pop those little fuckers out.
Maybe if I just keep my hands of the glass I won't get, no. Then my dumbass will jus break it then I'll deal with deeper cuts and little shards stuck in me! Yeah, no fuck it, terrible idea.
"Hold up."
Huh, don't know why it took me until now to wonder why glass would be on wood. I mean it's a little foggy but when I look down I can see hues of turquois in that depressing void.
"Fucking window."
I guess I won the lottery because I must have made off with some captain's window that was once glued to his cozy quarters before it got blown off along with it.
"Well then... s'plains all the blood and guts all over the place."
I'm amazed I haven't thrown up or pass out from the carnage. I mean, yeah, it's scary, don't get me wrong, but aside from a little queasiness, I guess there just authentic props.
Definitely the kind of thought that makes me wonder if I'm a sociopath. Psychopath? Whatever the right term is, at least I'm not some... fucking necropath!
Well, either way, it doesn't explain how the hell I even showed up here! It's still a little hazy, but I still remember my name, address, family, my work, so that's a start. Maybe if I retrace my steps without being totally traumatized, I might piece together how I got myself in this mess.
Unless this is all a dream.
That theory has been quickly cast aside after a pinch and slap to the cheek. I even debated smashing my cranium against the wood, but given how I met the sharp edge of a coffee table when I was four, I decided to hold off on that until... yeah screw it I'm not doing that again.
"Okay... so... Wha- what happened? Where-where am I?"
Aside being on the verge of dying from hypothermia, my clattering teeth wrecking my body is making it fucking difficult to think right now!
I mean, it's almost like an episode of one of those trademark animes I watch. When the protagonist gets summoned, because they're chosen, OP off the face the demon king and then they...
Every single one of those thoughts hit me like a brick wall. And after a few more blinks, and smacking myself for good measure, I just came to the only two conclusions.
Either my dumbass got into a car crash and karma rewarded me with a coma and a potential lawsuit. Or... as the weebs would say: I got...
"No... no fucking way I got isekaied right?!"