Ryan had a dream about being back at his camp. He was eating berries and drinking whiskey. The sky was clear until it wasn't. Grey skies appeared out of thin air and rain began to fall.
Ryan ran for cover but became extremely slow. His legs were heavy like cement blocks. And soon enough, a rain drop landed right on his forehead.
Ryan woke up with a gasp and his entire nervous system shook. His eyes darted around to see the sky had become blurry. All within the second, liquid rushed down his nose and throat.
Ryan threw his hands in panic and his head lifted over the water. His body flipped upright but he submerged deep into water again. His footing was non-existent as miles of water drifted below him.
Ryan's head bobbed to the surface and he coughed water out with force immediately. He was panicking, his heart hurt and his eyes sunk into the back of his head. His brain spun, his eyes flung around the dark water, and he gasped for any air.
Something had knocked into his shoulder. Ryan turned his body with a flail of his arms. His hand knocked into the object, but his head dropped back under the water with before he could see what it was.
Ryan had pressure punching the back of his shoulders. A muffled roar came from above his ears.
Ryan flailed back up to the surface and gasped once again. He opened his eyes to be met with a blurred screen of ink. His back burned from the blunt force of the waving water. Ryan turned to see a flat plank of wood drift wildly along the water. Ryan flailed toward it and grabbed it.
Ryan immediately relaxed his tiresome arms. Relief was quickly replaced with confusion and fear.
"Everything was okay! Everything was fine! Why is this happening to me?"
Ryan was screaming, his voice being drowned out by the pitch-black waves.
His face and hair were stained black, ink dripping down his nose and chin. Ryan began sobbing and shaking. He clamped his knuckles into the wood plank until the tendons in his fingers tore.
The plank raised and fell with the waves. Ryan was mumbling nonsense under his tears. His breath was vaporizing as the temperature of the ink froze his body. His teeth chattered to the point of Ryan not knowing if it was ink or blood dripping from his lips.
Ryan frantically searched for anything in the waves. The rising and falling of waves began to turn his stomach. His head pounded and pressure blew up behind his eyes to the point of making his retinas bloodshot.
Ryan recalled the giant cliff that had blocked the ocean from his temporary home.
"Where did this all come from?"
He coughed as ink splashed onto his face.
"Fuck off!"
He would have looked like a mad man, screaming at the ink of all things. But him screaming was one of the sanest things Ryan had been through. Ryan gripped the wooden plank, digging his palms to the point of splinters entering his hand. He shivered as he braced against the large waves.
Overhead, the sky had turned grey like it was going to rain a great flood was about to fall on top of him. Ryan wasn't the religious type, and yet he prayed in his head for anyone, anything to save him.
He hadn't thought much about the events on the island. Ryan's lips trembled as he mumbled angry words.
"Am I being tested? Am I in a fucking- a – a – a fucking game? Is this hell? Am I in hell!?"
Ryan's legs were numb from the cold ink. His bald head was beating like an exposed heart. Everything that wasn't numb, hurt. Ryan's arms were tired from holding the only thing that kept him afloat. His eyes wouldn't close, and his cheeks were sticky from the pitch-black ink that was covering his face.
"What if I let go? I just- will- will fall to the ocean floor and I should die right? I should sink? But what if I can't die? I haven't -dra- dra- drank water in months."
Ryan's shivering got more and more intense. The plank shook with his weakening arms. Ryan trembled more desperate words from his now blue lips in the hope of saving.
"I'm, I'm so sorry brother. It's my fault. I cut the trees- I- I- I"
Ryan was mumbling nonsense. He felt his fingernails snap in half as they dug deep into his only saving grace.
Ryan couldn't tell if he was even floating anymore. The only indication he had not drowned was the rising and falling of waves turning his stomach like a laundry machine.
Ryan had spotted something among this blurred vision. Something black was filling the horizon. It wasn't a cloud, nor a huge wave. It was warped. The strange mass was enough to make Ryan break his depressing trance. He lifted his head to an arch and stared in utter confusion.
Ryan lifted his hand onto his forehead and squinted his eyes. It was no help when it came to focusing on the mass. His hand just continued to shake uncontrollably and smacked his head.
Ryan had a strange reaction and threw his head back after noticing something move on the plank. Ryan immediately moved his full attention to the piece of wood which was covered in blood and scratch marks.
Everything was still as if nothing had ever happened. Another thing moved in the corner of Ryan's eye. This time Ryan saw what it was. A strange drop had landed on the board. He brought his face close to it to investigate. The object was indeed a drop. And soon right next to that one, another fell. Ryan felt little drops fall onto his bald head quicker and quicker.
Ryan looked up to see the mass in the sky was now overhead. In awe, he widened his mouth. Horror had overcome his body. Drops had fallen all over him, staining where ever they landed a dark red. Some had fallen into his open mouth and stained the top of his mouth with the taste of copper.
"It's- it's raining blood."