text: Here I sat, in a little shell of a boat made out of rotten wood and rusty nails, below dark and grey skies. The endless ocean around me was completely still, undisturbed by neither wind nor even the littlest of waves. Whenever I gazed upon it, I wasn’t sure if I was looking at the water or the colourless skies; it reflected them so perfectly. When I put the boat’s paddles into the sea and tried to row in any direction, it did not move. Even rocking it to and fro did not even cause a ripple on the water’s surface. I spat on it only to watch my saliva fall into nothingness, as though there was an endless hole before me and yet, whenever I dipped my fingers into the water, it left them wet and frigid. My eyes scoured the horizon in the hopes of seeing land or another ship, though the horizon was nothing but motionless skies and water. I laid down, staring into the colourless and drab skies, looking for any change within them. There was no ray of sunshine, no clouds, nothing. Every time I moved a muscle, I felt the boat sway from one side to the other. At first, I was worried I would eventually cause it to tip over but the less I moved, the safer I was. So I lied there, completely still. There was no sound other than my heartbeat pounding in my head and no smell besides that of the rotten, mouldy wood of my little boat. The only thing I could do, for now, was to entertain myself with my thoughts and memories. Was it mere minutes? Hours? Days? Perhaps even weeks or months of me just lying there and staring at the sky, not daring to move a muscle? I had lost all semblance of time. The only thing telling me that I had been lying here for too long was the fact that my own thoughts drove me mad. Again and again, I revisited the same ideas, the same memories and began to hate them. Even the most amusing and joyous thoughts became tortuous whereas the most horrible ones lost their impact entirely. Eventually, I could no longer tell the difference between being awake and being asleep. I watched as walls of water were slowly building up around me in complete silence, as though they were being pulled towards the sky. The ocean reached up higher and higher until it blotted out everything else. It was as though I was gazing up at mountainous pillars of water. Was the very ocean folding itself around me? Was I dreaming or awake? Suddenly, something began to violently pull me and my boat downwards, further and further towards the very bottom of the ocean. Shortly after, I saw the tips of those liquid mountains crash against each other, after which they collapsed unto themselves and began to hurtle towards me in a gargantuan, unstoppable wave that could swallow entire continents. The water crashed into me, shattering my bones and tearing off my skin before forcing its way into my lungs. I instinctively gasped for air, only to find my mouth spewing out what felt like litres upon litres of cold water, more than what had just entered my body. Still, I kept fighting for air, only to suddenly find it filling my lungs. I jolted, my hands reached forwards and found themselves latching onto porcelain. Immediately, I pulled myself upward and found myself sitting in my bathtub inside my dimly lit bathroom. The bathtub was completely dry. I, however, was drenched in cold water.