Independend Shortstories: Song of the Depths

After a particular long night of drinking, playing games and brawling, Lucius and Neve slept together on a couch, legs and arms tangled to single mass, two opposing bodies, blue and red, melting into one. Lucius snoring was the only thing that broke the silence of the early morning, it was a miracle, or too much alcohol, that Neve hasn't woken up from it.

 

Suddenly the snoring grew more quiet as the man woke up from his slumber. Shuffling, Lucius tried to untangle himself from the mass of arms and legs, shoving Neve away from him. The woman looked up, confused and sleepy from just being ripped away from the warmth of her pillows body. Blinking she needed a moment to fully grasp the situation.. and she quickly caught that something was not going right. "Lucius.. buddy? You alright?" she asked concerned as her new friend was just.. walking out of the room, neither saying anything nor reacting to her voice in any other manner, without shoes, just in his shirt and pants. "Hey where' you going?!" She jolted up from the couch, quickly following the man who walked out of the door, down the hallway. She tried shaking him, yelling in his ear, even trying to grapple him and stop him from walking entirely, but he didnt flinch, he didnt stop and he always broke free from her grasp. His eyes simply stared empty into nothingness. Neve eventually had to give up trying to stop him, even if it didnt sit right with her. She walked next to her friend, who slowly but very purposeful made his way towards the portal room, as if he was being commanded to do so, to the blueish glowing frame of the city of lost songs. Neve hasnt been there before, she didnt knew what was on the other side.

 

//Time to find out where this goes// she thought to herself as she followed Lucius through, a wooshing noise ringing in her ears, and a blinding light taking her vision for a moment.. and her breath. Wait what?! For a split second her mind panicked as cold water engulfed her, taking away her ability to breathe. Luckily she could hold her breath just in time and the rational mind was able to take over. She looked around, taking in the situation she found herself in. They were underwater now, in an ocean, since she tasted salt on her lips. The deep blue went on as far as she could see, only broken by greenish kelp and other underwater vegetation. Lucius swam in front of her, towards a woman with bright red hair and greenish skin. Instead of legs her lower half continued as a green and yellow shimmering fishtail, the thin membranes of the fins swaying gracefully in the current. She sang an eery melody that sounded distance and incredible near all at once, haunting and beautiful, luring and repelling. She had her gaze focused on Lucius, a single sentence suddenly breaking her song "I finally found you, Ronin".

 

Lucius snapped out of whatever spell was cast on him. All the sensations of the situation plumeted onto him all at once. He felt the cold water on his skin, nothingness under his bare feet, the salt burning in his eyes. The masses of water were towering over him at impossible height, pressing onto his body from all sides. He gasped for air where none was. The water rushed into his lungs. He grabbed at his chest in pain, coughing, swallowing more water, as he slowly sank deeper into the dark blue abyss, a hungry maw which was waiting to swallow him whole and never let him reach the surface again. The light penetrating the waves darkened in his eyes until it was no more.

 

Neve swam as fast as she could, completely ignoring the merwoman as the horrifying realisarion kicked in //Lucius cant swim//. His limp body was sinking deeper, his desperate struggling against the water seized. She dived down and with one, two, three strong strokes with her limbs, her hands grabbed onto his shirt. Immediately she janked him up, pulling him towards her chest and securing her arms underneath his. Her lungs started to scream for air, the only thoughts racing through her mind were to get to the surface. The light came closer and closer, pushing away the darkness of the depths. And then finally her head shot through the waves, out of the watery prison. The two were free.

 

"Lucius wake up!" She immediately started to do the Heimlich manoeuvre, trying to get the water out of his lungs. "Dont you die on me" the desperation weighted heavily in her words. Violent coughing finally shook Lucius whole body and he spit out water. "Ah-rgh.. fuck-" he cursed in pain. His lungs were burning, he gasped for air. Neve squeezed him tight, taking his breath once again, but it was welcome, as she had just saved his life.