Captured by Asia Vieira

The water continued to boil astern, and I suddenly realized that it didn't matter what we were doing, it didn't matter where we were going. We weren't just in a boat, we weren't just on a lake. We were in the middle of this thing, and it seemed to have brought us there for a reason.

A gust of wind made us lean over, and I felt the boat moving further and further into the fog without stopping. There was more than just darkness around us - it was an emptiness that swallowed everything. Everything that had been before, everything that seemed important, suddenly disappeared, dissolved into this world where there was only us, the boat, and this strange force that was pulling us further and further.

"Robert, what's going on?! Answer me!" I shouted again.

But his face remained motionless, and only his strained breathing in the silence of the night confirmed that he was still there. I felt the bench beneath me seem to be torn from the ground, and then a cold wave struck me and threw me aside. In an instant, everything around me became an explosion of water. The water enveloped me, and I, losing all orientation, swam, unconsciously trying to stay on the surface. Panic rolled in with each passing moment, but my strength was fading, and I felt myself weakening. My heart was beating in my chest with such force that it seemed about to burst out. I tried to breathe, but thick, cold water filled my lungs.

Somewhere in the darkness, amid the roar of the waves and the noise, I lost sight of Robert. His cry, his words, may have disappeared in the noise of the water, or maybe they had never been there. I didn't know. All I knew was the pain, the cold, and the pressure of the water, which with each passing moment was drawing me deeper into itself.

I was flying along a black, steeply falling arc, in the embrace of water that seemed to want to take me with it into its endless kingdom. From all sides, streams of water rushed into the seething funnel, its cruel center was getting closer and closer. Only shadows and light, sparks flickered around - all of this was somehow distorted, devoid of meaning. I was sucked in, my entire body, from head to toe, was absorbed by the power of the water. I felt how it pulled me deeper and deeper, absorbing my fear, my struggle.

Gasping for breath, I struggled to rise to the surface, but my strength was leaving me. The darkness around me was thickening, covering me completely. I felt the ground slipping away from under my feet, pulling me, as if the universe itself was sucking me in. My chest was burning, and even the air was becoming unbearably heavy. I tried to call out to him - Robert, but my voice would not come out. I was losing control, losing the ability to think. Suddenly, pulsating red lights flashed before my eyes, like beacons flashing in a fog cloud. I wanted to scream, but I couldn't. Those lights were the last thing I managed to see before I lost consciousness.

I came to from vomiting, and everything around me was blurry. I felt water escaping from my mouth, heavy and cold, seemingly never ending, as if life itself was leaking out of me. I was lying on my stomach on something tight and elastic, remembering how everything had seemed normal recently. There was no more water in my lungs, but they would not give me peace, escaping again and again. I spat it out and coughed it up until I finally felt relief. But the feeling was unbearably strange, and I still did not understand what had happened. Where was I? Why couldn't I remember?

I lay there for a long time, perhaps minutes, perhaps hours, trying to collect myself. But then something flat, slippery, like rough cloth, struck me in the side. The movement was quiet and insistent, repeating itself over and over, like the fluttering of a living thing. At first I didn't know what to think. My strength was leaving me, and I was on the verge of losing consciousness again. But the feeling was so real and strange that it couldn't have been a figment of my imagination. I felt a chill creeping through me, and then suddenly - instantaneous awareness. I was not alone.

My brain got stuck in this thought, and everything around me instantly changed. This wasn't just an illness or a terrible dream. This was something alive, real. I clenched my teeth and gathered my last strength. Raising myself up on my hands, I felt an elastic surface beneath me, as if I were lying on something soft and alive at the same time. This sensation was familiar and alien at the same time. I sat up, not immediately understanding what I was doing. My legs were weak and my head was swimming, but I looked into the darkness, trying to make out at least something.

The sky. The water. The distance. It was all on the edge of my understanding. I tried to figure out what was happening, but everything seemed foggy. I looked around. There was something beneath me that definitely couldn't be the ground. A fin? Or was it part of a larger creature? Shocked, I struggled to my feet, listening to the unnatural noise echoing off the surface.

"What is it?" I asked out loud, but my voice seemed alien, weak and muffled, as if it did not belong to me.

The object lying nearby was Robert. His body was motionless, but despite this, his skin shone, as if it had its own light. It reflected the dim light filtering through the fog, giving the impression that he was not merely human, but something timeless, like an angel who had lost his way. For a moment I stood there, unable to comprehend what was happening, and then with great effort I pushed myself up, feeling my muscles refuse to obey, and crawled on my knees toward him.

I shook his shoulder, first once, then again. His body was cold and strange, as if it had been dead for a long time, but then suddenly his eyelids fluttered. Robert woke up. A weak, unclear gaze met mine, and I felt something cold and restless envelop me from within.

His eyes did not glow as they had before, and there was something frightening about the darkness they emitted. They seemed like dark spots on his face, motionless, as if he were not here, but somewhere far away, beyond this reality.