The Painting

As I slowly opened my eyes, I could feel rough sand on my body. The smell of salt confused me for a bit. I remembered fractions of what happened, as if it were a dream. The waves pounded and pounded against the shore. I stood up and took a quick glance. Where was I? How did I get here? I tried connecting the pieces that I could vaguely remember. My clothes were all torn up, my right shoe was missing and for some reason I had no shirt. All I could see around me was water, sand and palm trees. I sat down to think and try to remember. Reconnecting my memories, the last thing I could recall was being on a cruise, I was headed to the Bahamas. Slowly scenes came back to my head, the sea had turned against us, as huge 30 feet waves struck our cruise. I began to scream hysterically as the memories slowly ran through my head, reliving the experience again. As the waves crashed the cruise, I heard a loud noise coming from the sea. As I peaked out the window I could not believe my eyes. Enormous 20 foot long tentacles began to wrap around the cruise. That’s the last I could remember, next thing I know I woke up in the middle of the beach.

“I’m not sure what monstrous thing is in the ocean, but I am not going back there, I need to get as far away as possible from the sea”, I said to myself, as I stood up and ran away from the water. I was so confused and delusional, I could not distinguish reality. The heat was exhausting. My throat was dry. I ventured into the island in search of water. The deeper I ventured in the jungle, the more paranoid I grew. I could hear noises in between the trees, and something move in between the bushes. I ran faster, but without any direction, I was just running in circles inside the jungle. Suddenly I stopped, I closed my eyes, took a deep breath, and listened. Far away I could hear the sound of water falling. I opened my eyes with joy, and wasted my last amount of energy running toward the water falls. As I got closer, more memories came back to haunt me. The memories of what had happened were so vivid, so real that I could not distinguish if I had dreamed it, or it had really happened. I stumbled upon some palm trees, as I saw the spring. I looked at my reflection in the water, my hair and beard had grown as if a month had past. I looked skinny and exhausted. Slowly I reached to touch my reflection, when I noticed something in the bottom. At the very bottom of the spring, I could see something shine. As I stepped into the water, my whole scenario shifted. Again I opened my eyes, and there I was. Laying in my bed. The sun was shining on my face. “Wait a second”, I said to myself. This is not my bed. I looked out the window and all I could see was water. I was back on the cruise!  I looked around the room, and a painting caught my attention, it looked very familiar, as if I lived it. There was silence for a moment, while I was staring at the painting, then suddenly the cruise began to shake, move side to side and as I saw outside the window, a huge wave struck the ship. It was all happening again.