I stood at the edge of a cliff above a vast, deep, churning sea. This was the last night of my life without a goodbye or even a reason to speak of. I lost my job, my car blew up, the one person I loved hated me, the friends I thought I had abandoned me. My mother never called anymore, she was 800 miles away anyway. I was losing it, I had nothing, no one to hold on to. No one to look for a swollen, broken carcass that might wash up somewhere I wouldn’t live to see.
I took my last breath and the gusts of salty wind gently pushed my torso like an invitation to the sea. My feet let go of the ground and I gave in to gravity. I was limp at first, at peace with the finality of my life. The wailing air rushing by my ears drowned out my self pity and I instinctually grasped for nothing. I saw darkness in front of me and heard the hungry water crash in on itself. The ocean opened up its mouth and swallowed me, consumed me like a drop in a bucket.
With that, I thought my life was over, but my heart was still beating. I was being thrust against my will in the current. It felt like I was being punched in the stomach, all the air was being sucked out of me and I knew it was coming soon. My chest burned, my head throbbed, I was cold and disoriented, but that wasn’t all that was wrong.
Something from the darkness began to swell and rise up to meet me. At first I thought it was the first scavengers hungry for the meat of my body, maybe it was.
Individual figures shifted, they reached up with human hands. Their faces had been picked clean of skin and muscle, their entrails were exposed, clothes still clung to their bones. Their teeth clacked together and a low hiss filled the water with noise.
“Join us.” They grabbed my ankles.
“Join us.” Another grabbed my thigh.
“Join us.” They each had a piece of me firmly in their grasp. I was weak and without air, my eyes rolled back into my head. I joined the half rotted corpses haunting the bottom of the sea.