BBW: Anomaly Points Book 1

8. Christmas Dinner.

If I let it overwhelm me, am I going to pass out like I did last time? I have to assume I will, meaning I will miss Carla's arrival. I have already risked that, and it is best she stays away anyway. I can message her that her plans have been cancelled, and she will just have to deal with that. Her family are not my problem.

I could swim out to the rocks and let it overwhelm me while on the rocks, and then if I pass out straight away, I won’t drown. If it is like last time, I will have plenty of time to return to shore.

On the other hand, if I just go in and out a few times and get stronger, I can let it overwhelm me tomorrow, and Carla can watch my back. Make sure the evil gulls don’t pluck my eyes out, things like that. Carla might pluck my eyes out herself when she finds out about this. I will undoubtedly get a kick in the nuts. She has done it before.

It is best she stays away. Or is it? If this is happening worldwide and nowhere will be safe, then she is going to have to mutate some time. Or die. Then again, she is a big girl. Well, a thirty-year-old woman, anyway. She will make her own decisions about these things. My decision will come down to when I will tell her, not if.

I guess if I am awake and/or alive tomorrow, I will go pick her up and have a conversation. If I am not, we won't.

I guess I am doing this. I will definitely wear my mask so my eyes don’t get picked out by the gulls. Shit, the things I am thinking about these days. The world has changed. My world has changed. The world is changing.

I suit up. I wear the mask, but I have not bothered with the snorkel so far. I still don’t. There is less swimming and more wading in low tide. I prefer swimming. The water is choppier. I start sensing the essence. Let’s call it Blue Essence for now, based on the colour. I do what I did before in trying to control and absorb it.

Am I swimming easier? Faster? I am not sure. I stop, Take a deep breath and dive underwater. I start counting in my head. I surface with a gasp. That is about my normal maximum, but counting is unreliable. I made a mental note to go to a dive shop tomorrow and get a diver’s watch. One that has satellite navigation so I can record if I think the Essence Sphere is getting bigger. I am pretty sure it is, but at what rate is the question?

I speed up. It is going to get harder to control the wild/blue essence the closer I get, and I need to at least be up on the rock before I am overwhelmed so I don’t drown if I pass out. Last time, I kept going for a couple of hours or more before passing out, but you never know.

Control absorb. Control absorb. Control Absorb. This started taking all my spare concentration, although I did have a fleeting thought that this was a strange sort of Christmas dinner to be having.

Control absorb. Control absorb. Almost there. Was the anomaly brighter? No, the tide was out. It was just closer to the surface.

Fuck I am not going to make it. I kick hard with my flippers and grab the rock. I start to lose control and haul myself up onto the rock. Shit, it is hard and sharp even through the wetsuit.

Shiiiiiiiiit…

I feel I am awash in blue essence. It is rolling over me like continual waves. I feel like I am drowning. Shit, shit, shit. Each wave of blue is buffering me, crashing against me. Fuuuuck. This was a bad idea…

I didn’t think it moved in waves, but fucking heeeeeeell…

…

…

I came to in the dark. Nope, my eyes were closed. Nope still dark. Then I realised I was underwater. Fuck I am drowning, and I panicked. My leg was caught in a rock, and I tore my wet suit. It is probably not the only tear. Then I realised I was underwater, but I wasn’t drowning. I was finding it difficult to breathe, like I was short of breath, but I wasn’t drowning.

What the fuck? I got my leg free and floated to see which way was up, and the surface was not far away. As I went for the surface, I became aware of other things. Blue waves were still crashing through me. Shit, shit, shit. I tried to get control. Shit can I even find my own essence? Has it been washed away? I need to get away from this anomaly. Shit, shit, shit. I am glad to be alive, but I don’t want to do that again.

I look around to orientate myself. The shore is all dark on the cloudy night. Then I spot a white strip that must be the sandy bit. I strike out for the shore with strong power strokes and the blue waves lesson. I realise I have lost a flipper.

As I was swimming, I realised I could still breathe with my mouth and lungs. I wasn’t doing that when I woke. Shit, what have I done.

Glad I can still breathe. Glad I am alive. I speed up. The tide is in. More swimming, less wading. Good. I swim good. Well. Whatever. I go faster.

Once I feel the sand, I get to my feet, stagger ashore, and lie on the sand. I take a breath. That is strange. After that swim, I should be out of breath. I am not. I am nervous but also a little excited.

I get up and strip off the wetsuit. As I am doing that, I am looking for my essence. It is there. It is bigger. It is also blue. I don’t think it was before. Or maybe I just couldn’t sense it. No, it definitely wasn’t.

I strip fully naked and examine my body. No extra limbs. No extra penis. I feel my neck and chest carefully. I am looking for gills. That is the most obvious reason for not drowning. As far as I can see, I don’t have gills. I go and get my phone. It is 5 am on Boxing Day morning. I have only lost fifteen hours or so. A bit less than one and a half tides. It wasn’t entirely out when I went and is not fully in now.

I use the phone to take photos of my back. A bloody selfie stick would be useful. I look carefully at the photos, zooming in on parts. There were no gills that I could see. I also did not have a sense of an extra ability like I did with my poison. I am sure I would. If I had gills, I would need to activate them, wouldn’t I? Or would they work automatically like lungs? I don't have any fish friends I can ask. Where is Nemo when you need him? No, I am not going to go and find him.

Childish humour aside, maybe I need to get into the water to activate them. I go and have a look at my wetsuit with the torch on my phone. There are a lot of rips. Fuck. I usually only wear my wetsuit when I swim in winter. I guess I can get another at the dive shop. Carla will also need one if she decides to risk it. I bet they are more expensive here due to the limited supply in the height of summer.

Well, I am not going to swim far. Just far enough to get my head under and keep it there. I decide to go in buck naked as that is how I am. I wade in waist-deep and dived under, moving just enough to keep me under. Was I less buoyant than normal?

I held my breath, letting it slip out in small bubbles. I stopped releasing it slowly to see what would happen. Nothing happened. I didn’t feel the pressure build up in my lungs. I didn’t feel the need to breathe.

I felt around my body. Head, neck, chest, groin, bum, legs. No gills that I can feel. No need to breathe either. What the fuck?

Am I a zombie or undead or something? Vampires don’t breathe, do they? I check my teeth. Normal and blunt.

I was breathing before when I was on the land, but I was not out of breath.

I looked up, and the sky was lighting with dawn. It has probably been over ten minutes or more. I need that watch. It is certainly way beyond what I could have done previously, and I was not under any stress.

I touched my skin again. Did it feel different? Time to get out and check. I stayed underwater as I crawled along the bottom toward the shore. When it was too shallow, I stood up, and the water was about knee-deep. I didn’t take a breath as I waded ashore. It was hard not to breathe. Breathing was normal.

I did start to feel a bit short of breath on land, but it was nothing like it should have been. I should have been gasping for breath by now. I should have passed out, and my lungs started again by reflex.

I took a breath, and all feelings of being short of breath went away.

What the fuck? I mean, it is pretty amazing, but what the fuck?

I go to the tent and fish out a couple of energy bars and a water bottle. I refill the bottle with the tap and scoff the bars and drink. I missed my Christmas dinner at the brewery. I am definitely going to hit up one of the cafes for brunch later this morning. I touched my chin. I had better shave.

I grabbed my phone again. No messages. I brought up a web browser and typed in, “How do jellyfish breathe?” Well, that is as good an explanation as anything else. Actually, it is a better explanation than zombies and vampires.

I look closely at my skin. I couldn’t see anything, and the texture was still the same. It wasn’t slimy like a jellyfish. I poured some water into the cup of my hand and looked closely. I couldn’t see anything. I doubted I would be able to see oxygen absorbed through the skin.

There have to be some serious changes to my skin and my circulatory system. Carla might know more. She must have done some basic human physiological studies for her Sports and Fitness Diploma. Could I still be classed as human now?

Fuck. I am turning into a jellyfish.

Hi Carla, how was your shitty Christmas? Me? For Christmas dinner, I pigged out so hard on blue essence that I no longer needed to breathe.

Yeah, right.