Drowning

"There's nothing here," I muttered as my mentor and I trudged along the hallway. "It's empty."

My mentor smiled warmly, "keep looking. You'll find the beauty in it somewhere." She told me and took my hand, leading me further into the hall.

A light peeked at the end of the hallway, a small door was illuminated by the tiny orb of light and both my mentor and I walked toward it. My bare feet scuffed against the cold stone floor while my jeans pooled around me, I fiddled with the hem of my shirt. The feeling that something wasn't quite right kept ebbing away at the pit of my stomach.

"I-I don't like this...let's go back," I said quietly, trying to pull away.

My mentor tightened her grip on my hand, "no, you're staying with me. Now come on!" She snapped, her voice going from a soft, motherly tone to a vicious, threatening growl.

My eyes widened and I let myself be dragged down the hallway toward the door. She turned the knob and we walked out into a garden. There was a cobblestone path that led to a small pond. The nagging in my stomach grew worse as we approached the pond.

"There isn't anything here." I insisted weakly.

My mentor turned to me, there was nothing where her eyes should have been, just the empty sockets. She opened her mouth to speak and a rat crawled out, landing on the ground and running between my legs. I tried to stomp on it as it scampered away but missed every time.

"You mean you don't see the beauty?" She asked, her voice hollow and ghostly. "It's everywhere." She yanked on my arm, bringing me forward with a jerk and held tightly onto the back of my neck. My head was just over the pond, I was staring down and under the water I saw bodies. White, writhing bodies that screamed underneath the water at me, reaching up to touch me but constantly falling short. They were almost invisible under the water but I felt their screams in my chest as though I had swallowed a rock. "Isn't it beautiful?" My mentor asked me, her voice laced with malice.

Tears flowed from my eyes, landing in the water below me, the bodies underneath reached toward the tears that had splashed lightly, landing above them. My mentor still had a tight grip on the back of my neck and she began dragging me into the pond. I kicked my legs at the corpses that rested below the surface who were grabbing at my feet and ankles, crying pitifully.

"If you can't see the beauty, then I'll just have to show you." She told me as she hauled me effortlessly into the water. I whimpered and sobbed, trying to swim away from her but my legs felt heavy underneath all the pressure of the water. "Would you just hold still?! Shut up and hold still!" She shouted at me, giving my neck a squeeze. I sputtered and winced at the pain and clamped my mouth shut.

Tears rolled lifelessly down my cheeks as I felt my fate creeping toward me, inching up my back and needling into the back of my neck, spreading into my chest and exploding. One of the corpses grabbed a hold of my foot and pulled, I let out a cry and my mentor kicked at the arm. Her foot collided into the elbow, causing it to be wrenched in the other direction leaving the arm broken. Even from above the water I heard the corpse scream.

"I have to show you the beauty..."My mentor kept telling me. Once we'd gotten to the middle of the lake she turned me around and grasped my neck in a crushing grip. Underneath the water, ground and muck seemed to me materializing underneath her feet while I remained dangling on her grip. She pushed me under the water with a smile.

Voices in my head screamed at me, telling me that it was right. But at the same time I had something telling me that I had to live and get through this. The voice telling that this was not good began to fade away and all I heard was something telling me that I had to die. I struggled underneath the water with my mentor who would pull me up and then plunge me back under the water again. I kicked wildly at the bodies who were grabbing my legs, trying to pull me further under. My mentor pushed harder and harder on my head, making my neck heavy and I heard a small crack that seemed amplified below the water.

Blood began to spout from my nose, staining the water and my vision. I felt myself weakening as my mentor added more pressure onto my body. I let out a scream, taking in large ammounts of water and choked violently. I felt hands latch onto my ankles and pull me down. I looked downward and saw two corpses, yanking on my ankles, dragging me further and further away from the surface.

My lungs screamed for oxygen as I was tugged into the abyss. I felt myself weakening and draining. I looked up one last time and saw that my mentor was walking away as though nothing had happened.

And it was beautiful.