Bogleech.com's 2018 Horror Write-off:
When the Oceans were Above Us
Submitted by The Bee Keeper
When the Oceans were Above Us
"I awoke drenched in sweat, screaming silently at my bedside table. Shaking my bedhead like a wet dog, I slowly reentered reality. It be only a nightmare I whispered to myself. Just like the many night terrors that plagued me when I was a wee child. Oh, how daft writers were, publishing those...
"...beasts! How could anyone find those tales child friendly?!
"Or perhaps I was being a bit dramatic? My disposition that morn' was that of a long tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs. I would have had a nice n' bitter cuppa, were it not that my nerves were obviously havin' a fit. I sank down into the cushions of my button tufted seat, clearly defeated by the imagination of my unconscious mind.
"I had dreamt that the braw beasts of the ancient ocean came into view above me and then ever so slowly, at the pace of dripping candle wax, the biggest of them glided towards me. I was powerless n' jelly legged, as its many slender silky arms reached for my face. Their fur was bright like nothing any beast or bird could ever hope to possess. The giant locks of fur waved to and fro in a silent breeze like flags in a gale.
"These furred arms were too numerous to count and encircled a disc like face. Like the bowl of a barn owl, but instead of a bird's face, I saw a massive wrinkled face almost like my grandmother's. Her eyes were crinkled in a smile as her boundless arms reached ever closer to my face.
"She gently touched my cheeks with her warm hands. Somehow, it felt familiar and pleasant. I wanted to stay there forever in her caress...
"...
"...
"But then, everything erupted into orange flames! The flames licked up onto every building and tree. Nothing was left untouched by the spreading fire.
"Her hands began to squeeze my cheeks until she was pinching me. The heat from them burned like nothing I'd ever felt before. My face turned beet red and then blistered horribly!
"The beast released me and sank back into the sea...
"...
"...
"She took everything with her.
"There was blackness, darkness, cold, freezing cold...
"...
"...
"The village was gone. Nothing remained but a stabbing breeze that howled through the emptiness.
"I wept like a newborn. I could feel the the tears running over my cheeks and dripping onto my hands. Though I was no longer with hands or even a body to cry with.
"I too was gone...
"My consciousness still glued in place to this arbitrary location within a void of nothingness left in the wake of the passing beast.
"...
"...
"And this is how half my nightmares have gone. Now the other half have been just as troublesome, for then I dream of the other beasts. I blame the books they always had us read in grade school and the ones that my cousins persistently gifted me at Yule Tide. No matter how tame the story was itself, the pictures would show the old oceans, and the creatures of unfathomable size that lurked within.
"Now that's not to say these were scary stories. These were far less, well, brutal than the even older fables, such as the original Grimm tales. These generally cheerful stories were even creepier I believe, because up in the corners of the pages were these strange beings swimming in a pool of water that changed constantly from one color to another or was all the colors at one time.
"It made little sense to me as a child. There's never water in the sky. At dawn the sky is white and at dusk it's white. What was all this nonsense about floating seas and sea monsters?
"Some say that those floating oceans really did exist. However, the great beasts, are just like the ones on old maps of the actual seas, merely there for decoration and nothing more. Illustrators continue to draw them for the aesthetics. And children continue to have nightmares about them.
"Though if that's true? Why then must so many old tales end in everything burning away? Is that really necessary?! Is this just another "quirk" of ancient publications? The characters all live happily ever after, until everything bursts into orange flames and ends with blackened sky and earth?! No wonder I've been troubled by these confounded dreams.
"After contemplating my awful night, I finished my brekke in relative peace. Maybe my mitts would stop shakin' by the time I moseyed on down to the general store. I fumbled a bit with my shoes and headed out.
"As I walked along, something tickled the back of my neck.
"I jumped, almost thinking it to be caused by the roving fingers of the beast I dreamt of.
"In my palm was orange sand?
"Where did this foreign soil originate? I gazed upward...
"...
"There was a stripe? Or a fissure in the sky? How was that even possible?
"Orange sand trickled through the fissure and a knee high hill of sand formed within minutes just behind me.
"An unearthly twangy sound radiated across the village like a cross between the rubbing of steel cables and the crushing of metal sheets. The fissure tore open!
"An opening in the sky the size of a house revealed an angry red atmosphere beyond. Then it came.
"Even brighter than I'd imagined. My skin bubbled to a crisp instantaneously. Then I could see nothing. Only my raging pain told me I wasn't gone. Not yet.
"I awoke drenched in sweat, screaming silently at my bedside table. Shaking my bedhead like a wet dog, I slowly reentered reality. It be only a nightmare I whispered to myself. Just like the many night terrors that plagued me when I was a wee child. Oh, how daft writers were, publishing those...
"...beasts! How could anyone find those tales child friendly?!
"Or perhaps I was being a bit dramatic? My disposition that morn' was that of a long tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs. I would have had a nice n' bitter cuppa, were it not that my nerves were obviously havin' a fit. I sank down into the cushions of my button tufted seat, clearly defeated by the imagination of my unconscious mind.
"I had dreamt that the braw beasts of the ancient ocean came into view above me and then ever so slowly, at the pace of dripping candle wax, the biggest of them glided towards me. I was powerless n' jelly legged, as its many slender silky arms reached for my face. Their fur was bright like nothing any beast or bird could ever hope to possess. The giant locks of fur waved to and fro in a silent breeze like flags in a gale.
"These furred arms were too numerous to count and encircled a disc like face. Like the bowl of a barn owl, but instead of a bird's face, I saw a massive wrinkled face almost like my grandmother's. Her eyes were crinkled in a smile as her boundless arms reached ever closer to my face.
"She gently touched my cheeks with her warm hands. Somehow, it felt familiar and pleasant. I wanted to stay there forever in her caress...
"...
"...
"But then, everything erupted into orange flames! The flames licked up onto every building and tree. Nothing was left untouched by the spreading fire.
"Her hands began to squeeze my cheeks until she was pinching me. The heat from them burned like nothing I'd ever felt before. My face turned beet red and then blistered horribly!
"The beast released me and sank back into the sea...
"...
"...
"She took everything with her.
"There was blackness, darkness, cold, freezing cold...
"...
"...
"The village was gone. Nothing remained but a stabbing breeze that howled through the emptiness.
"I wept like a newborn. I could feel the the tears running over my cheeks and dripping onto my hands. Though I was no longer with hands or even a body to cry with.
"I too was gone...
"My consciousness still glued in place to this arbitrary location within a void of nothingness left in the wake of the passing beast.
"...
"...
"And this is how half my nightmares have gone. Now the other half have been just as troublesome, for then I dream of the other beasts. I blame the books they always had us read in grade school and the ones that my cousins persistently gifted me at Yule Tide. No matter how tame the story was itself, the pictures would show the old oceans, and the creatures of unfathomable size that lurked within.
"Now that's not to say these were scary stories. These were far less, well, brutal than the even older fables, such as the original Grimm tales. These generally cheerful stories were even creepier I believe, because up in the corners of the pages were these strange beings swimming in a pool of water that changed constantly from one color to another or was all the colors at one time.
"It made little sense to me as a child. There's never water in the sky. At dawn the sky is white and at dusk it's white. What was all this nonsense about floating seas and sea monsters?
"Some say that those floating oceans really did exist. However, the great beasts, are just like the ones on old maps of the actual seas, merely there for decoration and nothing more. Illustrators continue to draw them for the aesthetics. And children continue to have nightmares about them.
"Though if that's true? Why then must so many old tales end in everything burning away? Is that really necessary?! Is this just another "quirk" of ancient publications? The characters all live happily ever after, until everything bursts into orange flames and ends with blackened sky and earth?! No wonder I've been troubled by these confounded dreams.
"After contemplating my awful night, I finished my brekke in relative peace. Maybe my mitts would stop shakin' by the time I moseyed on down to the general store. I fumbled a bit with my shoes and headed out.
"As I walked along, something tickled the back of my neck.
"I jumped, almost thinking it to be caused by the roving fingers of the beast I dreamt of.
"In my palm was orange sand?
"Where did this foreign soil originate? I gazed upward...
"...
"There was a stripe? Or a fissure in the sky? How was that even possible?
"Orange sand trickled through the fissure and a knee high hill of sand formed within minutes just behind me.
"An unearthly twangy sound radiated across the village like a cross between the rubbing of steel cables and the crushing of metal sheets. The fissure tore open!
"An opening in the sky the size of a house revealed an angry red atmosphere beyond. Then it came.
"Even brighter than I'd imagined. My skin bubbled to a crisp instantaneously. Then I could see nothing. Only my raging pain told me I wasn't gone. Not yet.