It was disgustingly hot outside as the sun beamed right overhead just before the afternoon heat settled in. The swimming pool was the only way to cool down, so the young boy took the opportunity to visit.

It was crowded to no one’s surprise. The boy jumped in holding his knees tightly against his chest. When he bounced up, he barely stood above the 3 foot waterline and found his head tilted up as he gasped for air. Since he couldn’t swim he walked to shallower waters.

He dug his face into water and came up for air. This was his version of swimming. It wasn’t much. Once he cleared the water from his eyes, his friend Alex appeared . He hadn’t seen him since well, yesterday at school.

“Hi Cody! Want to play rings?” Alex asked as he held a several rings in his hands.

“What’s that?”

Alex gestured throwing the rings like a frisbee as he explained the rules to throw the rings and race to see who catches the most. Cody agreed to the rules.

“1-2-3 Go!” Alex yelled as he spun in circles and launched the rings in the air in all directions. The game had started and they both swam, or whatever their versions of it were, I different directions to seek the rings.

Not paying attention the depths, Cody migrated to deeper waters. He saw a shiny blue ring near his feet and dove. What felt like a few feet at first, the ring appeared to go deeper and deeper. “No way!” Cody said in his head, “it’s got to be right here!” He knew deep in his core that the ring was just within his reach.

It wasn’t within his reach, though. He kept going, holding his breath for as long as he could. He opened his eyes and felt the chlorine burning them. “Why is it getting further?” He wondered as the sounds of children dissipated.

Cody attempted to give up and turn upwards toward the surface, using his burning eyes to find the water’s surface. He couldn’t find it. Up was down, or was down up? He felt a tug towards his feet. It wasn’t like someone was pulling him. Instead, it felt like gravity turned on near the bottom of the pool and pushed his body. Cody flapped his arms while trying grip the water around him, but to no avail.

The gravity forced his body to tumble. The water became darker and he felt pressure against his head like he flying in an airplane taking off. He closed his eyes and tried to scream for help. He could hear his voice, though, almost as if there was air surrounding him. He took a breath. “Wait,” he thought for a second, “why can I breathe?” Cody opened his eyes and looking where he thought was down. He was standing in a small pool of water where it just surfaced his ankles. The ground was black and looked like a reflection of the night sky. He looked up and it was a mirror image. If he hadn’t been able to stand, he wouldn’t know the difference between up and down. But, where was he?

“The ring!” He thought as he frantically searched around his feet for the blue ring. He found it just inches below the water’s surface. He bent over and started to reach for it before he paused and asked, “isn’t this how I got here? What if I touch it again? Will I return to the pool?”

Cody decided to search around this world and stood up straight. Circling as he looked in every direction, he found no horizon like he remembered. Typically, when one looks at the horizon, there’s a sudden disappearance of the land amongst the sky. That wasn’t the case here. This reflected water seemed to go until his eyesight reached its limits. In other words, the world seemed flat.

He took a step forward and immediately returned his foot. “I’ll get lost here if I leave this spot,” he said to himself. “I have no way to find my way back since everything looks the same.” He tapped his finger on his chin as he continued to think, “maybe if I find the brightest star and walk toward it, then I can use the opposite direction of that star to return back here.”

He searched for the brightest star in every direction, but none spoke to him as brighter than the others. He sat down and wrapped his arms around his legs. “Now what?” He asked no one in particular. A dense mist began filled the air, circulating right in front of him. As it shrank into itself, a ghostly figure with wings appeared. It was almost womanly like and completely pale without any color. She was floating maybe a foot or more from the water’s surface.

The figure spoke, “End is nigh when the water’s black.”

“What?” Asked Cody. She faded before he could answer just like she had appeared as mist.

The water started to climb up his legs and back. He quickly stood up to avoid the rush of water, but it kept climbing his legs. It reached his waist and he began to panic. “Help!” He yelled to the black star-filled sky. “Mist lady! Help!”

The water crept to his head and he was gasping for air as he started flailing his arms trying to stay above it. Then, he used his last breath and jumped from the ground as best as he could while he closed his eyes. This was his last chance. He got a good push from the ground and he began to hear the sounds of children once again. The surface of water reached his head and he tilted his head up for air. He gasped as he opened his eyes and found himself back in the pool.

“Wow you held your breath forever!” Alex proclaimed as he swam towards him.

“How long was I gone?” Cody asked.

“Underwater? I don’t know. Maybe a couple of minutes?” He brightened his eyes again, “did you find the ring?”

Cody frantically looked around him again. “Crap!” He said, “I don’t-“.

“- Found it!” Alex interrupted as he dove into the water and grabbed it. “Well, I guess you’re not good at this game. You didn’t get a single ring!” He laughed. Cody wanted to laugh, but he was still confused about the lady of the mist. Who was she? What did she mean when she said, “End is nigh when the water’s black?”

Decades had passed as Cody had that question in his mind that never went answered, until today. Cody was visiting the ocean with his family when the water started to appear darker than before. It was blackening. He looked up at the sky and while dusk was starting to settle, the waters became completely black. Corpses of fish floated up to the surface as did other crustaceans and other species. He knew at this point that the end was nigh. Whatever oracle came to him many years ago that predicted this, he knew that this was the time and he had not prepared for it.