Ocean
The air hisses at your lungs, cutting your nose and throat to penetrate your airflow with coarse ground salt. The exhale is the only relief you get, repeating itself in a cycle of torment. Suffocating your every breath. A cooling sensation that whips your hair and flesh in a tumble of tantrums that freezes you over and forces you to twine your arms around each other. To have to comb through your winded hair with your hands and gently wrap yourself in soft cloth, one bare arm exposed to the wind. Warmth crashes into your temple and shoulder as the clouds wisp away and reveal the hottest star in the sky. The flares bring you warmth and forces you to turn towards the deep blue laid out in miles ahead of you. The trenches are unknown to you and the sensation of stepping into the foaming edge is a force unforeseeable that beckons you to the end of the deep. The waves begin to crash into your legs as the tide pulls you in slowly rising higher up to your thigh. The squishy earth that digs itself between your toes is grainy but pleasantly pulling on your feet as you sink yourself deeper into the deep blue. The salt fills your mouth as you try to breathe. The bitter taste is enough to break you. Clawing for air, a hand is grabbing you by the arm and hoisting you up. You breathe in again and a crisp air fills your lungs.
The air no longer coarse but refreshing, sweet and clean. The flow around you is warm and rewarding as your body is pressed softly against the plush ground. Every sensation is filled with warmth, longing and crisp clarity as the world comes back into focus all around you. Your head fills with daisies as the perfume of your surrounds is scented with wet roses and red velvet that cleanses your soul. The crunching of sand beside your body is apparent as you start to see a stranger softly talking to you over the fuzzy conceptions of your vision. The mellow drowned out tone is what is calling out to you. A deep hum fills the space within your ears and as you begin to open your mouth you shut it just as quickly to savor the flavor the hum brings to you. A full bodied impression appears boldly throughout your body in the presence of the air that fills your lungs. It’s slightly overwhelming and filling the spaces in the back of your head with a hefty weight that throws you down and forces you to lean into your back. A face appears beside you, hovering slightly over your body. The figure is knelt down beside you and appears to be swaying slightly. Your head matches their flow and as you swing yourself softly from side to side you are greeted with a new face. The presence of their body tastes clean and forms a simple smile along your lips that expose the front teeth. The breath you are able to inhale is soft, warm, gentle, and clear. Your smile widens at the stranger and your eyes are open too soon for you to realize who they are. The stranger smiles back as they stand and extend their hand.
Like that, as soon as you take their hand you stand firmly on your feet and remember the feeling of the sand, squishy and plush beneath your weight. Your surroundings are warmer but lingers with cold throughout your body, as refreshing as it may seem it starts to become overwhelming. You begin to look around for the stranger, to thank them for saving you and making you smile. As you look around you see no one but yourself. They left and you are forced to sit within the newly found cold. You have a choice, to sit with the cold, or remember the warmth. The warmth is slowly pushing itself away and the taste of the ocean fills your mouth. You hate the way the ocean tastes. Salty, bitter, mellow dramatic and fresh as the newly formed day.
***
Despite your efforts, you push through. Breaking all boundaries that are your own. You discover new marks along your body, impressions from where the stranger was able to grab you to save you. You walk along the shore to find the stranger, meeting new people who are only blurs to you now. Faces whip by but none as you had seen the stranger. You want to find them, run into them, relish in their warmth again. It’s hard to find but your body persists and keeps moving itself forward. The only thing between you and the stranger is your stamina. You keep up the pace, push yourself to every boundary you are capable of and break each and every one. You rush yourself to find them, the warmth fleeing from your body the faster you move. You pace your steps to savor the warmth and when you start to stop you feel your breath wavering and unsteady, shallow and coarse. Your knees collide with the plush ground beneath you, on impact it turns to grain and the feeling of the cold rushes over you once more. Curling into your body the only feeling that flows through you is the cold. Shutting your eyes to shut it out is the only way to remember and savor the warmth. You drift off and away as the sand edges you closer to the ocean and the waves take you over.
***
As you rock back into consciousness you find yourself feeling warm again. The feelings starting in your heart and spreading throughout your body as the blood travels through you. The feeling of the strangers hand is grazed against the back of your neck while the other is holding you up close across their body. It feels like a hug but they are carrying you, so gently as though they didn’t want to disturb you. Waves crash in cresendos on the shore around you. The stranger takes you further away from the shore this time. The hands are gently lowering your body down to the ground and you see them, the stranger, he stands above you and smiles again as he looks into your eyes. The warmth falls over you again and everything feels better within you.
Your eyes are slowly difting down again as you are focusing on the man in front of you. He begins to stand and walk away but you sit yourself straight up.
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“Stay.”
He turns his attention towards you and squats down onto his knees and tilts his head to the side. His smile widens.
“Okay.”
His voice fills the air with bliss. It’s the deep hum that you’ve heard before, the sound is immeasurable and fills the void of the air between you two. As you bask in the light of his eyes, a stunning hazel, the deep blue seems further away from you than it is. The air is filled with mellow hums as you drift into sleep and allow the plush sand to take hold of your body. The warmth stays still beside you, waiting patiently for you, watching over you; remembering you.
Turning to your side you see him staring and smiling. His face seems peaceful and eased. Raising your hand to feel his cheek he settles himself further into the sand with you. Holding your hand atop his cheek he places it in between you two. Kissing it gently before allowing it to fall to the sand and hold him furthermore. Conversations fill the air as sweet nothings and forever after promises. Fresh waves crash against the shore, and this time you don’t feel so cold.
~~~
Thank you to my readers.
This piece is written off of a dream and a discovery that go hand in hand with each other. Writing this is a dedication to my newest muse who reminds me of the way the ocean flows and surrounds the body. Their energy is complimentary to this piece and without discovering them I would not be able to complete this story or compile these sentences.
Thank you to my muse.
Forever yours, Scarlett ❤
