Snippet #1396236

Things... were... slowerthanusual... Icarus... thought... but... couldnotthinkatall...

He felt that he was adrift in a great ocean, sadder than he ever was in the air. In the air Icarus felt free of constraint, but now he was bound by the choppiness of waves. Great white foam choked him up, the salty taste bitter and true. Icarus moved his arms but they could do nothing but flail, violently to keep above the water and alive. Alive... why does that seem so difficult right now, to live?

Far above the surface, the heavens began to darken. A single ominous cloud shot across the sky like a black obelisk, churning into one thousand rain drops that fell about him like ash. The water rippled at their touch, welling into craters that Icarus sank into and slammed against. Every bone in his body was wracked against a wall of icy saline, again and again. The sky roared and a magnificent bolt of lightning came down at Icarus, missing him by just a mile, singeing the skin of his face.

The dark pillars of the sky fell apart into white bullets, dropping in formation and careening towards him. Seagulls. Their wicked approach was marked by caws, harsh raven caws that were everywhere, every moment, cawinglikehell. Each gull tumbled as if dipped in plaster, stitched in a pale and impish skin that reflected Icarus' own colors. Frightened. The war birds crashed into the water around him, exploding on impact and shrieking helplessly. Each splash crackled into boiling steam and deafened him. Stop it... Icarus couldn't will the words to his mouth. "Stop it, you're killing yourselves! You'll die, every one of you!"

Distant, a single gull now screamed. It twisted idly in the air, each wing in bondage, strapped down with a rusting cable that cut its cold white feathers. The infant bird struggled, bled, and fought without release, crushing its own frame against the constraints, wanting only freedom. "Please... No..." The weakened dove struck the water's surface, falling to the ocean floor as a lifeless stone.

Icarus felt his face wet against the waves and bitter water. His eyes were sore and his stomach was an empty pit... He felt his world collapsing into itself. The light which was once great stars beyond the onyx sky had dimmed into faint glints and he couldn't will his arms to fight the waves any longer. Even the ocean, which had fought him with great vigor, now seemed to fall dead like a vast graveyard. Then, there was light.

The sky opened and before Icarus was a fiery pool of kerosene. The great lamp, a buoy of Revelation, set a calm over the Fleeter and every wicked thought. All of the panic and worry and urgency he had felt... was gone. The waters settled around him and it occurred to Icarus how absurd it all felt. I've never been submerged before... I've never even seen an ocean. His body kept afloat, held by some inner buoyancy that tugged at his core. It tethered him to some powerful life force that brought him out of the dark. Icarus felt that, if only he could see beyond the black sky's veil, he would see a savior.