I awoke to the sound of rushing water. Taking a glance at the hatch I noticed that water was seeping into the small room. I bolted to the port hole of the steel hatch, the hall way was filled to the brim with murky seawater. Pressing my face to the surface of the porthole a crack appears in the thick frigid glass.
Taking a step back the crack widens into a small rivet in the otherwise clear glass. My heart pounded as I considered my few options of my quickly fleeting life, open the door and attempt to swim to the surface of the ocean in which the ship was sinking in or wait to drown in the room as it flooded with water like a trapped rat.
I made the logical decision of trying to survive and escape this prison.
I place my shaking hands on the cool metal of the hatch door as I twist the opening mechanism. I inhale what may be the final breath of oxygen I may take in my life as the hatch door opens and I am greeted by a bone chilling wave of saltwater.
The numbing water instantly rushes around me. Heart skipping a beat I dove into the water. Swimming against the current of the water pouring into the lower decks of the sinking ship I swam to the ladder leading to the deck of the boat. As I gripped the metal rungs of the ladder with my numb hands I felt a slight tug at my ankle.
Not wasting a split second of oxygen I continued up the ladder. Reaching the top of the later I propelled myself though the open hatch. The boat was about twenty feet under the surface of the ocean. My oxygen-deprived lungs protested to take a breath of the murky salt water.
I felt so heavy, as if my body was held down by an invisible anchor. Every stroke I took towards the surface I felt hands tighten around my lungs.
I had learned to hold my breath for long periods of time from playing trumpet through school. Even as my oxygen supply diminished as I moved as fluently as my incoherent brain tried to comprehend my need to survive and keep a steady pace as I moved through the frigid water.
The light shining though the water was slowly growing brighter as I swam closer to the surface. I remembered when I was a child diving into the swimming pool after diving rings, chlorine from the pool stinging my eyes as I reached for the brightly colored rings.
I felt the soft warmth of the suns gentle beams pierce the oceans surface. I was almost there, oxygen. I had been in the water for several eternity's. Has it been days or years or has it been it been a breath? My lungs seemed like shriveled paper bags. An invisible noose choking me to my watery grave.
The world has a dull haze a teal haze. The salt in the cruel waves tormented my eyes. I felt so dizzy. The world spun in a salty teal haze.
I gazed up at the sun though the waves of my prison. I gave one last paddle towards the surface. My finger tips inches away from the fresh air I so desperately craved. I reached upwards to pull my self above the surface of the water, I felt a soft tug at my ankle.
My heart sank like the boat that damned me to this hell. I looked down and saw a chain cuffed to my ankle leading down to the bottom of this watery prison. A chain, I was chained to the boat, the carriage to this inescapable purgatory. With my last ounce of energy I inhaled a breath of salt tainted water, lungs burning with the sensation of pain. Fire in a water purgatory. Fire the last thing I felt before I lost consciousness.