The Death of Time

A moment in...

Hunted by memories and pursuing the future...

 It was the strange perception of the world around them that warned Chronos that he was in a dream state with Ananke. He was still in her body, but even the once god could tell that things weren't exactly as real as they were a moment ago. For once thing, they were floating in water. Not exactly floating though, deeply submereged and breathing through a portable apparatus that kept the mortal woman breathing. Through her skin, he could feel the memory of the pressure of the water, squeezing in against the wet suit she wore, the thick neoprin fabric not enough to entirely repell the bone numbing cold of the depths.

There were others down in the deep with them, safe in cages, underwater cameras at the ready, but only a small few were out in the water without that layer of metal safety, and Chronos quickly saw why. They were swimming with sharks. The deadly creatures silently flowed closer and more real as he was rooted in Ananke's body and he expected to feel the thrill of fear, the living rush of adrenaline. And instead Ananke was as cold inside as the water was outside. This memory must be from after whatever it was that happened to her. Was it a returned memory or was this something she had no problem recalling before?

I remembered this all along. A month after I woke up, I went deep sea diving. As deep as they would let me and only a lot of money allowed me to be outside of the cage. I didn't care how dangerous it was, I just wanted... something to make me feel alive. Ananke's voice whispered in her head and Chronos wasn't sure if he was being told the information, or just overhearing her thoughts.

Your memory seems to lack those usual cues of mortal frightfulness. Chronos replied after a brief hesitation. It was still strange to the Father of Time to be discussing the events of this mortals lifespan instead of just viewing the whole passage of her history. But as he had already discovered, that wasn't an option with this woman, either the corruption of the Pillars made it impossible, or there was something about her specifically that kept her story hidden. He found the whole thing very vexing.

I couldn't care less at the time. Although it gave my parents and my therapist heart palpitations when they learned where I'd gone and what I had done. They all knew I came back in one piece physically and yet, I received a very enthusiastic scolding and my shrink wanted me to discuss these 'life endangering' urges before I went on any others. Ananke sounded almost faintly amused as she recounted the experience to Chronos and he latched onto that faint emotional blush, seeing it as a progressive ste forward.

What led you to doing this act in specific? Chronos asked, some inner part of him realizing that this memory must be shown to them for a reason. There was a link here that they were missing, a tie to a memory that was just returned, and he had to tease loose those threads of what was forgotten and what was important.

The memory around them changed as he caused Ananke to start considering the previous sequence of her life. The parts that were still shrouded and painful to pull loose. I was numb. More so than I am now. There's a part of me that is gone and dead inside, but after I left the hospital, I was numb on the outside as well. I could feel the most basic things, hot and cold, wet and dry. But I seemed unable to really FEEL the more important things. Comforting hugs were constricting, not compassionate. Being around people felt claustrophobic and sickening. I couldn't do it. Swimming with the sharks, I expected to feel fear at the very least. But I didn't. It was a wonderful experience, something I had never done before and I wasn't bored by it, but it almost felt like someone else was living the moment and I was just a passenger along for the ride. Probably like you experience things now through me.

Chronos could feel a part of him want to frown as the memory they were experiencing changed back to the sight of Ananke laying in a hospital bed. Like before they were watching her from the corner of a room, the 'nake of memory comatose and plugged in by wires and cords. A part of him was disturbed by it all the more when he realized that the sad tableau in front of him was the very real way his own physical form was entangled even now. His body was locked away, connected and embedded in the Heart of Time, only it wasn't a memory for him, it was an enduring reality. But before his dark thoughts could taint the memory around them, he was surprised to see Ananke's parents and a doctor enter the room. At first their whispering was indisctint, his attention pulled to a strange warping in the far corner of the room, and as the form of Thanatos solidified, so too did the words of the doctor and 'nake's family.