Imagine you’re a diver. You know, with the whole tank and hoses and mask and flippers and everything. Let’s say you’re working, not diving recreationally. You’re there with a very specific purpose, and you’re aiming to do the job and get out.
You’re descending into the depths, very aware of your surroundings. You check your gear and keep time on your watch, ever mindful of the limited air supply strapped to your body. The water is not clear. You’ve been in worse conditions, but you make a note to be extra cautious as you attend to your tasks.
Below you, you see a shape that’s wrong. It doesn’t belong here. It’s right where you’re supposed to go.
You continue downward, and the shape becomes clearer. The first thing you can make out is… antlers? Antlers. Broad. White. Attached to a large white form. It’s a skeleton. It’s not a deer, it’s too big. You get closer.
It’s a moose.
But it’s more than it being a moose skeleton, here, in the ocean, that makes it wrong. It’s… standing? How can it be standing, in these moving waters? Did it catch on something that happens to be holding it upright, as though it was a museum specimen?
You find yourself drawn to it, like it has its own gravitational pull. You barely register your limbs propelling yourself toward it. In fact, you’re not even sure that your limbs are moving. The pull feels heavier, more dense than a simple current. You are being pulled to a specific point in space, floating ever closer to the skeletal form before you.
How long have you been down here? How long have you been breathing this heavily, sapping your air supply?
You approach. The vastness of the moose’s body almost gives you a sense of vertigo. You are so small. The pointed skull turns to face you, direct, with intention. The murky waters somehow darken further.
There is a light within those eye sockets. You long to be there. You need to be there. You want to be home.
The skull drops its jaw, a sonorous note rumbling through your surroundings, resonating in every atom of your being. You would expect the force of the auditory vibration to repel you from your position, but instead you feel yourself being drawn in with more force. The pull is more than physical, you feel the desire to be inside the light from deep within the smallest pockets of your spirit. You can feel the warm tears spilling from your eyes and filling your mask, a direct contrast to the cold around you.
“Please,” you whimper within your thoughts, knowing that your plea is being heard, “let me come home.”
