Drowning
-
Ethan Liong

It was drowning.

In its name, the voices sang. In its name, screens burned and whispered as it liked,
and in its name, everything that ever shone gold was ending.

It was drowning.

In a school, in a quiet place, there was a boy, trapped where nobody would ever
hear him. He screamed in the quiet, in the empty halls after they had emptied the
day before. He cried, in the dark, cramped locker. Only silence remained. Hours
after his last tears had dried, after the rusted lock had snapped and the door had
swung open, he could have left. But he was drowning, too. Nobody even noticed he
was there. Drowning, he walked away. Nobody would ever see him again.
 

It was drowning.
 

There was a man who sat alone in his dirty apartment. The only sound that ever
came out of that tiny, voluntary prison was the sound of his television, tuned into
the only news station that he trusted. The one that spat lies twenty-four hours a
day, every day. And the sound drowned him. At its words, he raged. At its silence,
he mourned. And with each breath, he lost air. He was drowning. Nobody would
ever open his door.
 

It was drowning.
 

They were a group of people. Kids, always claiming and clamoring about how
mature they all really were. They were loud, a rambunctious crowd, but always
together. And so, together they drowned. In a small town, where nothing ever
changed, change came nevertheless. Until what was old burned away, and became
something new. And by a river, they screamed and raged and cried together. And
they lied to each other. And they drowned without ever entering that river.
Nobody heard them again.
 

It was drowning.
 

There was a girl who knew that it was a lie. That everything she had ever been
taught or told was not true, because it was all meaningless. She saw it. The dust
that would emerge after everything was said and done. Dust to dust. Ash to ash.
And, her only conclusion was that everything was drowning. There was nothing
else. Nobody else. It didn't matter. It was simply a fact, that everything would

drown, and everything was nothing at all. The one universal truth. When the
world went silent, everyone would be drowning. She never spoke again.
 

It was drowning.
 

It was a proof on a board. An equation, simple logic. Inescapable, ironclad truth,
that crushed those dreams that humanity clung to with everything they had. It
was a simple fact that everything would one day come to an end. That in the end,
the universe would be silent. But it was not drowning. Until they saw it. Until they
took it to be true in their hearts and let it destroy any and all meaning that they
held dear. Then, they were drowning. Nobody talked to them again.
 

It was drowning.
 

It was nothing without them, without the voices that spoke prayers in its name. It
did not need to tarnish the gold, to turn purity into putrid rot. It only needed to
make them see the shine, and do it themselves.
 

It was drowning.
 

It was not a thing of reason. Not a thing of calculating logic or inescapable truth. It
was only what was seen of it, the poison spreading from mouth to mouth, the
original lie.
 

It was drowning.
 

And, when they saw each other, when they saw the world around them, and saw
nothing but poison?

 

Then, they were drowning too.