Drowning...

I came to slowly, dim shadowy light playing across my face in small fuzzy waves. I was laying on my back, trying to focus my eyes.

Why did everything seem so blurry?

Why did the light shift every couple of seconds?

Why did the dripping of water sound so thunderous?

I brought my hands up to my eyes to try to clear them out, but my arms seemed so heavy, they came slowly, the patterns of the light shifted visibly and the sounds around my ears became steadier, rushing sounds.

As the waves caused by my motions made oh so clear, I was underwater!

A moment of panic rose in my throat, a remembered instinct from my life before perhaps, before I realized that being (un)dead meant I didn’t need to worry about drowning for lack of air. Still, I did start trying to scramble up and see if I could get my head above water.

Standing up, I found myself in a vastly changed chamber from how I found it.

Besides the truly obvious difference of being nearly five feet deep in water, every single formation that I had marvelled at before showed serious damage. All of the hanging stalactite formations had been knocked down or broken up, as if a giant child had come and cleared away the dangling icicles from an eave. The massive stalacmite formations, besides being under water for the most part now, were broken down in nubs, or were massive stumps of cracked stone.

The two mirror smooth walls that may once have served as magickal doorways into this formerly wondrous place were now nothing more than ragged falls over broken and battered stone, any previous likeness to the mirrors they once were now long gone. The rushing water in those two places now formed the fawcetts that were quickly drowning the place, probably because whatever small holes once provided for the water to flow out of here were now blocked up with the debris of my...our?...rampage.

The sole remainder of the wonder of this place was the dimmed and sputtering orb of light that still hung above me, but was clearly damaged in some way by the assault of my alter-ego.

A voice spoke up, one I didn’t recognize. “Well that was quite the demonstration of useless rage.”

The voice surprised me, I turned around looking for anyone else in the chamber. No one else was here with me, that I could see.

A second voice, this one somewhat familiar, if a little distorted, spoke, “That is why I recommended this course, Master. He is unpredictable and quite dangerous. It took all of my skill to keep him Charmed for the trip here.”

“Who’s there!” I shouted, splashing around the chamber to see if I was missing them somehow. “Where the fuck are you, Zulu?”

The First Voice spoke up again, ignoring my cries. “Yes, I can see that you were right in your assessment. I only wish I didn’t have to sacrifice one of my favorite meditation chambers in the process.”

“That is indeed unfortunate, Master,” said Zulu’s distorted voice again, “but I am sure you have other places to visit when you have the need. This chamber was the most secure. I shall mourn the damage to this sanctuary myself.”

“You bastard (Zulu),” I used his real name, at least I thought it was his real name, “You’re gonna have a lot more to mourn when I get my ass out of here than this stupid fucking cave!”

The First Voice replied to Zulu, “Yes. Well we will have much work to do with this one. I don’t know if he is salvageable. He seems quite savage.”

I was feeling the Rage well up inside again. I tried to tamp the urge to explode again back down. I definitely felt the need to keep my wits about me, but the whispers began to surface again...

“Destroy the Light before it consumes us...”

“Hate is strength...”

“Summon the Shadows, they will gladly serve us...”

“Hungry....”

I began to move about, trying to look for a way to escape the voices, both inside my head and out of it, to find a way to return to normal, whatever the Hell that was anymore, to escape this place...

Zulu spoke up again, replying to the First Voice. “Yes, Master, he is savage, but we must try to redeem him, he is far too valuable to destroy just yet.”

The First voice replied, “A dangerous game we play, he could very well destroy us all.”

“A desperate gamble indeed, but a necessary one.”

I was floundering in the water, tripping over broken formations I could no longer see, growing more and more frustrated about being talked about...the whispers inside grew louder, more insistent. Finally, I turned an ankle on some slippery, hidden remnant of a formation, I heard one last sentence before the Rage overcame me yet again...

First Voice again, “Very well. Let him exhaust himself first, then we shall restrain him again....”

I slipped back into dark, watery Rage...drowning in more ways than one in forces I could no longer (if I ever could) control.