Rose Blumen ~ Exogignesthai

(Rose)

I woke up with a lingering unease. Blume noticed, and held me warmer as if she had a body against mine.

It’s one of these times with a sad mood in my mind.

B – It will be alright Rose.

R – Thank you.

Nightmare dives. I soon follow. In the distances, the sea and the clouds are beginning merging.

~

In the relative peace of the world underwater, we head toward the set of most interesting structures. If the tree themselves look like a new form of coral, something surpasses them by far in might.

It looked like a sunken ship from a distance, a gunboat of some sort, with many towers. But it’s much bigger.

It’s a city.

And the sheet of the sky, the surface of the water, almost brushes the tip of its mightiest spires.

A city is sunken here, and by its mighty architecture still clear on spots, I can tell it was a modern one. A city that vanished on the fateful day, not prior to it. The sunken city is a new haven for everything alive in that sea, but not many plants have invaded it.

Some surfaces still glow and reflect the sunlight when the rays hit them.

The brightness is so much more intense when everything around is in penumbra. The sight is surreal.

Because to some extent, I don’t see the water itself, so I can forget for glimpses of time that I’m really surrounded by it. These shorts instants, the sights are of a land fascinating with its array of lights, colours and softness in mood. It has an ambient mood of mysterious tales. I wish I could imagine them further.

Unfortunately I can’t fathom a good mystery or tale to fit this gift of forgotten city. Such a shame.

More importantly, I follow my sister in her swim toward the sturdier-looking buildings.

Blume makes my ears pop regularly. She only told me not to worry about that. I trust her entirely. She possibly knows my body better than I ever will.

Nightmare can’t shut up about biology if I’m not careful of the approached topic. I’m still quite confused about her elixir of life that doesn’t relate to life itself. (Ok, I’m completely clueless. I thought I understood, but the more I think back about what she said then, the less I understand.)

~

We swim inside sunken buildings.

I can’t see any pocket of air anywhere.

Blume informs me that we’re looking for a place that could withstand a tsunami mostly. Air is a secondary issue.

We dive further into the depths of the underwater city.

The sights at street level, again under the oscillating sheet, laced drapery of the sky, are surreal.

It’s all surreal.

That bleak light brings back an old scary memory and sight of a dead city under bleak light. I feel myself shivering.

Blume holds me tighter from within. She doesn’t have to ask nor say a word. She knows. I know.

This city is simply dead. There’s no ogre haunting it and preying on its last survivors.

I swim away from the shades for a moment. I wanted to breathe in deeply, but it doesn’t work that way here. So I head to the surface, even though I still have a few minutes of oxygen in my blood.

~

I sit on the edge of the ship of flesh, looking at the upcoming storm now darkening the horizon. Blume’s wings are pushing themselves against me like a pet.

B – A worrisome peaceful day eh?

R – You sum it up well.

Maybe I miss a little bloodshed to put things in my mind back to balance?

R – Maybe I’m on a loop again.

B – You’re only human.

That’s somehow funny enough to make me laugh. Mostly human.

My skin has aged.

I’m mortal.

R – I’m mortal, right?

B – Just as us gods are. Everything dies.

I repeat the words, these words I’ve made my definition of mortality.

Even that rose...

Nightmare resurfaces while I’m lost in my melancholia.

I see her teeth as she smiles. I may be gloomy today, but someone is clearly having fun. That lifts my spirits a little.

She found a place for us to stay while the storm passes. I dive after her, while the wings craft something otherworldly behind us.

A throat and its pipe are growing along us as we dive.

The ship is being repurposed as a wind pipe as we swim through the dim skies of the twilight city.

How distant is the time when I was a child in clean clothes, under a warm blanket of wool, hearing of such tales.

I... Don’t regret a thing.

~

I followed Nightmare into a dark subterranean area beneath the city.

A kind of warehouse I think, or parking. It’s mostly empty, aside for the various animals fleeing our presence.

The pipe she dragged begins pumping air in the corner of this area.

I realise from the complicated swim we had to do to come here that we’re in an isolated pocket.

If the ceiling isn’t cracked, once air is brought here, it should remain there for a little while before it’s flooded again.

The pipe that looks like the ripped throat or intestine of an animal begins bubbling.

Bubbles coalesce above us, and a sheet appears, flowing. The light is dim with my torchlight about to give up, but it’s enough.

Slowly, that corner of room sees water level drop.

And then the walls start shaking. A minute later, the throat is ripped away.

There is barely enough space for our heads to fit above water. Still that should be enough to last us for a good few hours.

It just won’t be the most comfortable few hours of our lives.

I would sigh if I could. I save my air.

My light dies.

It’s dark. There’s only water, a distant and close deep rumbling sound. A storm is around and the sea is in turmoil.

I’m panicking.

Nightmare grabs me and hugs me from behind. It might have been on Blume’s request, but I appreciate it. Feeling that pressure, warmth and close by heartbeat, it keeps me reasonably calm. I still feel stressed.

Nightmare gets inside my head I can feel. I really have little intimacy with them.

Nightmare makes a spark in a corner of my mind, bringing the focus of my thoughts toward that specific idea.

A memory of her own dream.

It’s like when two mirrors are facing each other. The perspective between Nightmare’s dream and mine becomes so confused I just can’t remember anymore who dreamt this picture first.

She made me drunk, or feel as if I was, instantly. I’m completely confused about my thoughts, myself, her and our current situation.

Retrospectively, I understand now that she simply wanted to keep me from thinking about our situation and panicking.

I was lost in thoughts and dreams, my body numb between her arms.

While outside, the world was at its end.

~