Forms twisted and turned in the blackness of the sea. Nature out of balance, supernaturally driven beyond its domain, the water rushed in cold, spinning torrents through the mountains, propelled to crush everything in its path until that one pivotal moment—the apex of energy— where its reach met the end of its force, and it began to play in reverse. Fleeing, the dark blanket was dragged off the land, slowly back toward where it belonged.

Everything was so dark. There was no up, down, left, or right—just water, pouring, rushing, and still falling from the sky. Even still... there was some sort of peace in the chaos—a distant warmth that seemed to pulsate through the cold fluid, matching its rhythm with a faint glow, far, far away in the darkness.



***


Two bodies lay intertwined on top of a small diner next to a quiet cliffside road littered with crooked, empty cars. Droplets still drizzled from above, scant, soft, and chill. Cold air blew; they were warm in spite of it. The first rays of sunlight peeked up around the edges of a purple-orange sky.

He looked in her black pupils.

He remembered spinning in the flood. Lightning. Holding on, and being able to do nothing else.

The grumbling diesels of military trucks snapped him back to reality. They came from far away, far below, bringing from the city their rescue crews and supplies up wrecked mountain roads. The metropolis towers still stood in the distance; they'd gotten their feet wet, but they were going to be alright.

He gave her a kiss, once, maybe twice—maybe a few more than that—before he sat up from the sheetmetal roof and let his eyes wander, just... happy to be where he was.

She replied with enthusiasm, only permitting cessation and distance with quiet groan and accompanying pout. Her eyes were still closed. Eventually (begrudgingly), she sat upright, and cast a sweeping, disoriented stare at her surroundings.

"We're alive?" she asked with all the weight of asking if pancakes were for breakfast.

People chattered and talked excitedly below. Some kids actually played in the street, unharmed. A lot of people seemed to be sharing her reaction. Rock looked down at his own body, still covered in water, but not bruises. He felt better than he had since the whole ordeal even began. He stared at one of the water droplets on his arm, and could have almost sworn that it had that same glow he remembered from the flood, like so much of the water from the blast out at sea had. Daybreak grew too bright too quickly, though, until he could no longer tell through the sunny glint.

He looked up, and finally answered, "Feels like it to me."


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