A/N

Hey guys, just to give you fair warning; this isn't exactly fanfiction. It was inspired by a holiday my family took to Pompeii a couple years back and I remembered I wrote it after watching the film Pompeii staring Kit Harrington (great film by the way, I would totally recommend it!) so I decided to find and post it. Anyway, enjoy!

Dark Waters

It's dark. I feel like I'm sinking into deep water. The pain stopped a while ago and now I can't feel anything. I wish it would come back, that dreadful searing pain that I begged the gods to relieve me of then, at least, I would feel something. This nothingness frightens me, I can't move, and I can't breathe.

The gods are cruel - they give us pain and leave us with nothing. The emptiness of death is lonely, and I wish there were something, anything to hold onto in this sea of darkness. The gods have stolen so much from me - my life, memory and everything I ever knew that made me who I am... or rather, was. All I have are these feelings that are tearing me apart. I'm angry, so angry that it hurts. It feels like a thousand demons are attacking my body, ripping at my flesh and driving me insane. I shouldn't be dead. I don't want this. These two thoughts are the only things I seem to be able to focus on. If the gods exist, if they truly do exist then I reject them with every single aspect of my being. There's nothing here but my emotions and a fog that covers my memories.

What's this? A light? I want to reach it but bound by these invisible chains movement is not an option. Wait! The light is coming towards me, yes, moving closer and closer; I can see it better now it seems to be a picture, but I can't quite make it out... There's a girl and she's laughing. She looks so familiar, but yet not, like someone from a past life. My past life?

Wait...

Is that me?

Oh, the picture has changed. The girl isn't smiling now, she's crying as dark skies surround her. She's scared and she's all alone - there are no people to laugh with her or comfort her. There is a tightness in my chest that I can't explain. The girl feels so foreign to me and so familiar. I don't get it. Why am I about to cry?

Through the fog that used to be my memories, I feel like I remember the reason but it's just too far away. Having no conscious reason for having these feelings is a real drag, like being led into a crowd of shouting people blindfolded and being told to find your best friend. My emotions are completely turned around right now, and all I seem to be doing is sinking further and further away from the truth and into this inky nothingness.

The picture has changed again. She's running now, as fast as she can but I can't see what from, now she's not just scared, she's terrified. That much I can tell that from her eyes. They're full of tears but behind that, there's a desperate plea for help. Just looking at them causes me to feel the same desperation. This kind of feels like déjà vu and yet not. It's more personal than that.

I'm trying so hard to remember. I'm combing through the fog but the deeper into it I get, the more lost I become. I am drained from all emotion but I'm tired - I wish more than anything to sleep but something keeps pulling me back. Again and again, I am plucked back to this image of horror, to this girl. So many times I have tried to move, to escape but my limbs are deadened and there is nowhere to go. Maybe the gods are keeping me here, forcing me to stay for their own sick amusement. Or maybe my death is the reason I'm stuck here, deep within my subconscious. Perhaps these images are to help me remember so that I may escape this prison of mine.

She's hiding now, but I can't tell where - the background is too dark. Her hands are covering her head. She's curled up in a tight ball and if I concentrate hard enough, I can make out her voice as she pleads; "No... Make it stop...I'm scared…Someone, anyone please help me!" I want to comfort her and tell her everything will be alright, but the despair I am sensing is building - something is coming, and it can't be stopped. I want to apologise for not being able to help her - I hate that I can't, but what I hate even more is that I'm afraid as well. I hate my fear, I hate that it consumes me from the inside out, and I hate that I don't know why.

Fear controls the mind. It stops the senses, prevents rational thought and brings to mind things many would prefer to forget. As my fear takes hold, I realise that I am no exception.

I remember everything.

I am the one who ran, and I was running from the mountain. I was running from the stench of sulphur and the rumbling earthquake. I ran and ran but still I was not fast enough. They left me behind to save themselves and even now the betrayal cuts deeply. Fear changed those people, it changed them into cowards who abandoned all other thoughts but for themselves. They left those who were too slow behind to die in the blackness of the smoke that fell upon them.

I remember how I died. I remember choking on ash and foul smelling smoke, and I remember the fear that froze my mind and prevented me from running. It did not prevent the pain though; my death was painful and cruel. The mountain killed me and buried my body amongst hundreds of others. My once energetic body now lies still and will stay that way for eternity. But who knows? Maybe someone will find me and the many others with me and liberate us from the dark prisons we are trapped in. The mountain will kill again, I am certain, but not yet. For now, its victims lie under the ruins of Pompeii.

A/N

Hi guys, thanks for reading. I wrote this for an English project a couple years ago like I said at the beginning of this fic and I want to thank my English teacher for pushing me so hard when I was writing this, if she hadn't then I wouldn't have written this story that I am now so proud of. So yeah, in the unlikely event that you do ever read this: Thanks Dr. B!

Anyway guys, thanks again for reading and please review. Also feel free to message me at any time, I love to chat to people. :)

A-chan-senpai