Journey to Atlantis
Theme Thursday Challenge
Theme-Resurrection
Max Words: 500
She opens her eyes, seeing a great white belly above her. A whale maybe? She then becomes aware of the water all around her and sits up as if to gasp for air. But there is no gasp as she continues to breath normally. Looking around, she finds herself in an aquatic wonderland. She scoops up a small round rock from beside her and climbs to her feet. Is this Atlantis? How did I get here?
She scoots her feet across the sea floor while the round rocks kick up like the plastic spheres in a children’s ball pit. An aquatic tree is close by, and she continues over to view it. She reaches for it then does a double take. WTF? Is this plastic?
She is startled to notice a figure next to her, a goldfish giving her the side eye. “Sebastian?” she asks. Suddenly, there is an earthquake. She spreads her stance, throws out her hand for balance and crouches. She flicks her head back for the full Black Widow effect, causing her to notice the large Levi logo and a jean pocket with a bandana hanging out of it. Dad? The lighting shifts and she looks up to see a partially submerged shirt in the top of her aquarium. The logo on the shirt is distorted but she knows the symbol well enough to recognize her mom’s college branding. She looks back towards the bandana as a pair of legs leap and lock around the hips of the Levis.
She covers her eyes with both hands. “Oh God, oh God, oh God. This is not happening.” Something brushes her, and she chances a look to find the fish next to her. “Hey, don’t get any ideas pal.” She turns back to the activity outside the tank then back to Sebastian. She squints at him. “Are you watching that, you pervy fish…wait, you’re not Sebastian.”
Her world then blurs as her reality is yanked away from her before her experience slams into a toddler. She is in her father’s arms, while wearing floaties on her own. She splashes at the pool’s surface. “I think we have a swimmer,” her father says, before her world blurs anew. Next, she cries on her bed as So Below performs Fear in her headphones. “Yeah it’s no fair,” she hears as she stares across the room. “Got me running in my place,” as she glares at the second-place medal. Again, her perspective leaps. She lands in her lane, in a pool. Her goggles are down, hand over hand and counting until —nothing. It all goes black. She then sits up, to a spray of water over her face before rolling to her side and curling into a ball. Coughing ensues as a bloody towel is pulled away from her head and replaced with another. Her gaze is cast across a pool but then shifts, under her own power, to the first-place medal pressed into her palm.