Chapter 32
The green haze is very peaceful.
Despite the swirling water at the surface, it is inexplicably calm and still below. For the first time in ages, I feel no fear, just a fierce determination that overrides everything else.
The sea is mine. You don’t belong here.
The seabed stretches out below, but it doesn’t look right. Instead of green vegetation, everything is all gray-yellow and withered. Nothing is growing. All the algae and sea plants have been replaced by a formless sludge, just like in the video we watched at school.
Grief tugs at my heart.
I’m alone down here, but something tells me that it shouldn’t be this way. I should have friends under the water, allies and relatives flocking to my side. Together, we would have been strong.
Where has everyone gone?
Out of the corner of my eye, I catch a small movement, something behind my back. It’s still far away, but much closer than I’d like.
I sense danger, and my whole body screams at me to escape. Then instinct takes over.
I open my mouth and draw seemingly endless amounts of water deep into my lungs. Then I let out a mighty howl, the likes of which I had no idea I could produce.
My voice shatters the sea like glass.
A cascade of notes travels in all directions. The water bubbles and roars, but this time it’s all my doing. The watery whirls are coming from me. I throw my head back and cry out, singing as loud as I can as the water pulses, surges, and seethes with the sound waves.
There is a crack like a whiplash and then another sound—something twisted and pitiful, the sound of something retreating, damaged and weakened.
The green haze has become cloudier, but I just about see the shadowy thing shrink and disappear.
I feel stronger than ever, but now my vision is going dark. My chest is blazing, just like in my nightmares. My lungs burn, and my limbs have gone numb.
I’m no longer floating, but sinking.
I hear a sad voice in my head.
You can’t breathe underwater.
You don’t have gills anymore.
My field of vision shrinks to a tiny dot.
Humans die if they try to breathe in the sea.
Then everything goes black.