Imagitivity: The day the darkness came

Families are fleeing their homes, children are separated from their parents and then there's me. I'm alone but no more or no less terrified of what's about to happen. I've seen it once before and to this day, I've feared it as if it may one day find me, which it had. The sudden darkness, the growling sounds and the fatal aftermath. The community is terrified, more than terrified if there is such a thing? I can feel death coming.

I rush out of hiding and I'm instantly shadowed by a large mass of grey Jack fish. Usually I would be scared of them but they barely notice me. I join their group, using them to protect myself. They erratically move over the coral, colliding with other fish all trying to escape. Suddenly the school divides and I'm left alone, open to the sea. Looking around desperately I can't help but absorb the devastation that is happening, and the darkness hasn't even begun. I notice the sun first, how despite what's happening it's shimmering and throwing beams out on to my multicoloured home. It's beautiful. I remember how it was even more beautiful years past.

A lone Clown fish breaks through a beam of light, thrashing and jerking, agony showing on every stripe. In fear I swim away and join another large group of fish. This time it's a real mix, some like me and some that would not normally interact but in panic we have all gathered for protection.

Looking down I can see eyes, hundreds of eyes watching us as they shelter in the shadows beneath. I want to stop and warn them, warn them that they're not safe. Even those who can disguise themselves aren't safe. The darkness sees us all.

I can't stop. Must keep moving.

Just as we begin to put some distance between us and the war behind, I'm thrown backwards through the water. Dazed, I half drift and half swim around. My vision takes time to come back to me. Through a haze of bubbles a blue starfish gently floats towards me, quietly drifting, missing it's legs. Behind the damaged starfish I can just make out what was once our large group but is now a mixture of parts and still dying fish. Another blast suddenly comes from behind but I can't move, paralyzed with fear and not knowing where to go. Where can I go? I decide to hover between two soft corals, each and every one of it's fingers pulsating with terror.

Then, I begin to see it, the slow movement of the darkness above. I'm not sure what it is but it's big and it overpowers the sun. The water is quivering around me and I hear the sounds of death from nearby. I take my chance and very slowly swim out of my hiding place. There are downward falling bubbles and streams of something thicker than water. Above that, the overwhelming darkness. The thick water makes my once clear and bright home darker and fish turn to shadows. I watch the thickness engulf them and then their shadows fall heavily to the ocean floor. Larger shadows that are probably sharks or rays ebb away to nothing, racing to the deeper waters. A path that I can't follow.

Without really thinking I race out from the edge of the reef. I swim with all my might dashing past the once peaceful community, manoeuvring through the dying kelp, avoiding the thick water and floating dead corals. I come to a large and very old sponge family and take cover beneath their long arms. There are other fish under here with me, the lucky ones. Looking out to the war zone I note the casualties who have perished so suddenly. They are everything that make our home magnificent. The seahorses, the octopus, crabs, jellyfish, urchins and the hundreds of fish of all colours. The darkness is destroying it all.

As i watch it all being broken apart I begin to hear it, the slow groan and that strange ripping sound. The last time I heard that noise a large wall dragged along the sea floor and swept up everything in it's path. I saw a dead dolphin tangled in it. That was the first time I'd ever seen one.

Looking to the other fish, we all decide to leave the old sponges safe embrace and make our way to deeper waters. We can't go too far for the currents are too strong, but maybe we can get far enough away and wait until the darkness has gone? I swim out first and the others follow. The water is hot and feels strange, like swimming through millions of hot bubbles. I'm too scared to swim amongst the corals below because of the dead or dying so I swim above them, speeding along with all my might. Some fish are faster and glide past me without any trouble. I can see the edge of the reef, I'm almost there. To my right I notice more downward bubbles. The current is already strong and I'm being pulled towards it. The larger fish can fight it's strength but I'm too small. I can't swim any harder and the bubbles are getting closer and closer. Then in a moment I'm falling. Spinning in searing agony as the thick water engulfs and penetrates my every nerve, I swirl and twirl my way downwards. I see my home outside of the thick waters hold. The reds and oranges of the corals and the comforting blues of the open sea. The sun isn't shining at all now and as I near the sandy floor and my end, my last thought is that the sun will never get to glow and shine upon my once radiant and dazzling home again. For, I fear it and I are lost to the destructive and merciless darkness.