A single dive down breaks the boundary between one world and the next, like a weighted ball rolling towards the center of an outstretched fabric piece. The dive is sudden and immediate, waited for and forever.
Forced down by the greedy pull of gravity, a figure sinks, its previously controlled limbs floating at different levels down into the murky water. It's surprised by the undistinguishable effect of the gloom; everything is smudged into a monotonous gray blob that surrounds him utterly. Yet the cool water laps, alive, at its small patches of bare skin.
The figure is I, Teddy Lupin.
The first image that reads clearly enough in my mind to understand is of flotsam and jetsam, born into the ever-moving waters by some force of wind, water, or man. It's tendrils of green leaf, looking somewhat like kale, the most despised of force-fed greens, children would say. I leer at it, offended by its presence, and drift ever downwards. But who am I to complain about my surroundings? I chose this path for myself.
I next see manmade debris lodged into the walls of the Black Lake: crushed remnants of a broomstick, a broken baby's rattle, wisps of fabric bearing the Hufflepuff crest, a teacup laced with spidery pink lettering ─ R.E. It must have belonged to someone long ago, but now the cup and other objects have settled into the lake for a wicked eternity. They do not live, but they are cursed to remain until the lake itself is no more ─ an eternity away.
Ghosts of wizardly things flicker in front of me, silvery images dancing mournfully in the waves. They tell a tale of grief, love, loss, life ─ I know nothing about their owners, but don't need to; I can imagine their stories well enough. These artifacts of another's life are long eroded into nothingness, yet I can see them plain as day.
As my descent continues, I feel the pressure build, and shut my eyes, receding into the familiar darkness of sleep, yet I am still awake. But my thoughts have begun to mush together, I can't finish sentences I begin to fathom, but pictures remain, and I may think with them until I wake again in another life.
The sound, vibrations and echoes in the deep that once hauntingly graced my ears, now have faded from my consciousness, leaving behind only memories and discomfort.
A strand of hair, multicolored, ever-changing, that comes from a face. It stares down at me, but I cannot see the expression nor the features, it begins to fade and then disappears. I feel the loss and want to cry, but can no longer will myself to cry.
Another image replaces the first. I see another face in my mind; again, the features blur themselves away, but I think of scars, and scars appear along the face. I can't imagine what they are from. I can distinguish ragged hair, and then the picture dissolves to be replaced with a moon. But I am still sinking, down, down, and either way there is no moon tonight.
Finally, I feel a strong emotion taking hold of me: pain, both in my body and in my heart. The pain of loneliness, loss; emptiness, fear. I have nothing in the world, and I live in constant fear of tomorrow. Well now, tomorrow will never dawn, and I will be happy once more.
Rods of pain, shoot up my limbs and I jerk away, but there is nothing to collide with, just cold dark water. It sucks my breath away. I have none left. I am going to die now, and I know it.
My chest is finally empty. I start to panic, opening my mouth to take a gulp of air ─ for I am still above the Black Lake, am I not? This is all a sick dream, and tomorrow I will be awoken in my bed to the light of sunrise.
But only water, and seaweed, and a small shrimp fills my mouth. My lungs burn; there is nothing to breath here, the oxygen in the water is impossible to attain, and fearful, I successfully cry away my pain.
But my tears wash into the waters of the lake, swallowed up by its massive size. They are nothing, just like me. My tears are nothing now, escaped into the void of the water.
I black out, and the lake is still once more, as my empty body comes to a halt on the lake bottom. I am gone, and no one knows where I went. I will keep my demons until the end of eternity, and maybe now I can feel the happiness I lost upon being born.
Or maybe not.
Written for:
Game of Life Competition, Prompts: Black Lake, rattle, and Hufflepuff.
Let's Dig Holes Challenge, Song: Demons by Imagine Dragons.
Snakes and Ladders Challenge, Character: Teddy Lupin.
