Retrograde

Chapter 10 • Ricordanza

• Chapter Ten •
Ricordanza

Ricordanza /ri·cor·dàn·za/
sostantivo femminile (feminine noun)
Il ricordo o la rievocazione del passato (the memory or re-enactment of the past)

Dizzy. 

If Cael had not realized that his eyes were open, he might not have been able to tell the difference between the darkness of closed eyes and the impenetrable darkness of his surroundings. He didn't know where he was or where he was going, all that he knew was that he was swaying. He laid on something hard that shifted whenever he would move. And there was this...sloshing sound. Water.

Cael was careful when he sat up. His hands on the hard surface he laid on told him he was on a boat. When he felt around for oars, he discovered that there were none.

"Where the fuck am I?" Cael asked, beginning to grow distressed with a frustrated sigh. But just then, he felt a quick jolt of the boat. "Oh, shit..." Cael whispered, his arms spreading out as if they would steady him. It had come from the bottom of the boat, making the boat sway back and forth precariously before settling back down. A bit of water splashed on his pants. 

The silence became deafening.

The waiting for something else to happen was suspenseful.

And still, he could not have prepared himself for what the hugging darkness had in store for him.

There was another jolt, and this time, it caused the boat to flip right over. Cael's thoughts before hitting the water was about drowning. It was one thing for him to drown while the sun glinted over the waves, but it was another thing for him to drown in complete darkness and in a place where he was not even sure that other people existed.

Cael? Dominick!? Get him out now!

Wait, wait!

He heard voices in his head, but there was no one else but him. Amazingly, he didn't drown. Cael struggled to keep his head above water, but what felt like hands wrapped around his ankles, making him sink faster than he could swim up. 

But fully submerged, Cael began to see. Fully submerged, Cael found that the water was like one-way glass, and on that  side? He could see the sun shining at its best. He could see several capsized boats, including his own. There were trees lining the river. Cael looked to see what was dragging him down further, his feet struggling. And he wasn't sure what to be scared of more: the fact that he was running out of air or the fact that the one that was dragging him down was him. A younger Cael. A Dominick. Dominick seemed to want to say something.

Breathe in, Cael heard in his head. Breathe in, now.

He was afraid to do it, to let the water in. But who could he trust if not himself?

So, with reluctance, Cael looked up at the sun and imagined himself soaring towards it. And then he breathed in deeply.

He fell. The water seemed bottomless until he found himself dropping on to a brown marble floor, body soaking wet. Cael coughed up water and groaned, turning on his side to let the water fall from his mouth. Looking around, he saw that he was in a lobby that was so vaguely familiar. Every now and then, his vision would become blurry, like a camera constantly trying to refocus. People moved around, dressed down in suits, and they seemed unbothered by the wet man that was laying in the middle of the lobby floor. A man, busy on his phone, walked through Cael's body.