The moment my fingers touched the cold water, I felt a shiver. Then the same cold rushed into my lungs and the pond swallowed me whole. I clawed at the water, flailing my hands up and down as if I could ever do it properly. Well, the monastery had never taught us swimming, only meditation. Not that I ever managed that either, no matter how often Master ordered me to.
But when darkness pulled me deeper, I tried to scatter useless thoughts. Only then I stopped struggling, when silence fell. I waited for pain, for the end… for an absurdly death. Yet, my thoughts still lingered. If I could think, had I truly died? And if not, so for how long I might stay alive?
This seemed a torture I couldn't escape, until I finally tried to open my eyes. But I couldn't. I felt nothing and I had no control over my entire body too, even a part. What a death game it was?!
"You're doing it wrong." The sudden voice sharp and obviously irritated came all over me.
"What?"
"Stop thinking. Open your mind."
"Open… my mind? Huh?! Is it some kind of a joke?
"Heavens above, you're as dense as a mountain ox. Just do it...or you'll die." The voice let out a sigh heavy enough to shake the mountain. The mountain? What mountain? Why did I ever have a thought of a mountain? I was just going nuts.
"Okay, okay, okay! Step at a time! Open your mind… what's that?" I was more than just confused.
The voice sighed, "To think I'd be trapped with such a fool… of all mortals in this realm. What a turture!"
"Trappeded?" I asked again, still not getting anything.
"Yes, trappeded," the voice said, sounding even more irritated. "No ideas where we are? Open your mind and see for yourself! Come on, don't be a dump! Or you'll stay in this darkness forever!"
The words struck harder than the cold.
Trapped ? Darkness? Die? So, I really died or not yet?
The shock of it all turned into a kind of panic within my consciousness.
"Calm down!" that same voice snapped.
"No way you are saying this?! You mean… Calm down after I just realized that I'm like almost dead? No way!?" I argued back.
"Celestial Stars! Your Stupidity is the yin to wisdom's yang. Keeps the balance, you know."
Not like I wished to be lectured at this very moment.
"Breathe slower, fool. The Heavens might mistake your panic for a prayer and silence you themselves." the voice warned.
Wait, what? Could it all get somehow worse?
*Thx for reading.