19. Panthalassa
And I'm in the bathroom, laying in a full, lukewarm bath, my nose just above the waterline, puckering my lips and blowing a myriad of different sized bubbles. I'm watching them rise and break at the water's surface when suddenly my high is gone and the pain comes. It hits my skull like an invisible lightning bolt, sharp and hot between my eyes, and zips down my spine like searing, raw electricity. It shoots into my extremities and into my toes and fingertips, and my muscles clench up so hard that I spasm suddenly, hitting the back of my head on the tub. I gasp for air and instead take in a mouthful of bathwater and begin to claw uncontrollably at the sides, my fingernails scraping violently across the white porcelain as I begin to sink.
I'm underneath the water and I'm deprived of oxygen. My lungs are tightening in a silent, panicked protest and all I can hear is muted splashing and maybe... Maybe something else. I think maybe I can hear birds, seagulls, hundreds of them squawking, distant and hungry. And there's another sound, a muffled thumping like masonry shifting and scratching underwater. Aquatic ghosts. Paranormal plecostomuses. Mystical mollusks. Ancient buoys, maybe, barnacle covered and lonely, clinging and clanging together on some distant wave. Giant sucker covered tentacles reaching up and squeezing the life out of me, dragging me under. A supernatural squid.
My stomach turns over in anxiety. It's full of pharmaceuticals and my blood is full of opium and I feel nauseous. The human body isn't built to be able to handle so much sweetness at once. A mortal can't live like this, her veins chemically coated and her guts synthetically stuffed.
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