Tides--- Chapter 2, White Walls, and 3, Memories

Chapter 2 – White Walls

The living space that Daniel and the girl inhabited would be deemed genius by all men on Earth. If it was a bit more visible. Imagine a campfire, that wobbly haze distorting the space around the smoke. Or the heat waves rising off of the pavement on a hot summer's day. Those are the type of abnormalities that thickly cloaked the place Daniel called home. If one were to look, if there were a soul aside from the two of them to look, they would see a a boy of decent height carrying something. A girl, maybe? And then one would watch as the two melted into thin air. Simply disappearing, leaving ripples in their wake. Ripples. In the air. How ridiculous. Yet they were there. Impossible, but most certainly real.

***

Daniel laid her down gently, quietly watching her sink down into the fluff of the mattress. Her eyes were closed, but he knew she wasn't asleep. He crossed the room, walking through the pure, white wall without so much as a backwards glance. In watching this one would notice a second abnormality in this strange place. Where were the doors? The boy walked through a wall. Leaving the same small, distorting ripples for only seconds after the exit was made. Odd and most certainly impossible. Nevertheless, it occurred.

***

Daniel often pondered the thought of painting this place. It was just so white. White tile floors, white textured ceilings, and then the white walls. White walls everywhere. And no doors. It had taken him a good while to figure out the wall plan. The places where the reality of the wall wasn't quite thick enough, and allowed him to pass through. Those were the doors of this house.

Daniel pulled a chair up to the kitchen table and sat, realizing how stupid the idea was. Where around here was he supposed to get paint? He chuckled. Where did these thoughts come from? How could he want to paint something with no memory of touching a brush? He pushed the thoughts away. He stood, deciding that the he owed the ocean an individual visit. Maybe the tides would tell him something today.

His mind carried him along a different path from that which he was physically traveling. He found his mind wandering until the waves lapped at his feet. It was odd. He had noticed that his two focus points were the tides and the girl. They occupied his thoughts when he was away from them, and filled his senses when they were near. He could hear the waves even when he was miles away. Daniel stepped into the shallows, thanking whatever supreme being there was for the calm waters today. Further and further he waded in, loving the temperature difference between his upper and lower body and the sand beneath his feet. With the sea around mid-torso, he dove.

Water rushed around him, pushing bubbles back to the surface, before fully submerging Daniel. He sank down to the sand, the water helping him gently to the ocean floor. Daniel held no breath. Nor did he have any distinguishing characteristics of any marine species. Not even a memory of obtaining such a skill. Regardless, Daniel put his odd talent to good use.

The currents were being friendly today, leaving the water practically clear, although it made no difference to Daniel. He could see either way, as though his sight line repelled the murk. He began to swim, quickly passing the continental shelf and entering the reef. The colors of the coral jumped out at him while he "fishwatched", his own personal term. Bird watching, Fish watching, where is the difference? There was no one to tell Daniel otherwise. He headed on, looking for just the right shade of that coral. She always loved the coral, but scolded him for taking it. It was living, she would say, and then, "What did it ever do to you?" But the sparkle in her eyes told him she thought it was beautiful.

Pleasant thought, but that wasn't why Daniel was searching. He rose higher, scanning. In a reef so massive, the spot was easy to miss. And...there. A flash of silver. He twisted, building momentum and shooting through the sea towards his target. Weaving through the sharp edges of rock and reef was one skill Daniel had developed himself. His first visit had resulted in multiple scratches, and a gash just under the base of his left ear that gave him a noticeable scar. Now, it was effortless. He analyzed the turns seconds before they came and adjusted accordingly.

In no time at all he was there, tugging aside a dazzlingly electric blue piece of coral. A familiar black hole opened up in the rock before him, inviting him into its depths. Then the flash, as the last of the Silverfish vanished into the darkness. He followed the pull of the tides, and disappeared after them.

Chapter 3 -- Memories

The girl opened her eyes slowly and absorbed her surroundings as reassurance to her location. It often took a minute after waking up for the memories she had gained to resurface.

This was the one and only reason she disliked sleep. It temporarily turned her into what some would describe as a blank slate. Those memories were elusive sometimes. They loved the release they were given when she drifted out of consciousness, and resisted being drawn back into the organized confines of her head.

The girl shuffled sleepily over to the small white desk in the corner of the room, and opened the second to last drawer. She pulled a sheet of copy paper from the middle of a stack, seeing as the top sheet had a bent corner. Daniel always teased her at the expense of those perfectionist problems. She picked up a ballpoint pen that had probably never been touched, and thought about what she would write. He was probably lounging in the basement. She hated it down there, and had resolved never to descend those stairs again after her first visit. It stank, of some smell she couldn't quite identify but that Daniel seemed completely immune to.

Danny,

I'm taking a walk down to the beach. I'll be back before noon. Just need some time to think. See you soon.

-Alaina

She smiled as she printed out her name. Daniel had chosen it, and she had chosen his. Neither of them could remember anything concrete, any specific history. So he had chosen Alaina. He said he liked the way the vowels interacted, and the solidness and consistency of the "a". She had a vague memory of a book with the name Daniel associated with it and had selected the name for the strength she felt that it contained. She could say it naturally, with the feeling that he belonged here, with her.

Alaina dropped the pen with a clatter. She sank to the white carpeted floor, her heartbeat accelerating along with her pulse. She curled up, knees to chest, as she fought. Against what, she didn't know. It was almost as if something was tugging at her essence, sucking her through the fabric of reality forcefully. She could hardly take it, this feeling of losing control. Her thoughts wandered in directions she had no say in, and it was all she could do not to vomit.

This must have been the tenth time, but she still had not told Daniel. She felt awful, but it would worry him. And she was always fine afterwards. The worst part though, what bothered her most, was the spontaneity. No warning, no previous feeling of sickness, nothing. But they never happened when Daniel was near. Simply another sick, twisted reason she desired his presence. She still needed her alone time though.

Thankfully, the attack had passed. She pulled herself up and gripped the edge of the desk with shaking hands. After picking up the note, she made her way carefully to the wall. She brushed the surface with her hand tentatively before she vanished into thin air.