Deep Down

Aliza’s eyes were swallowed by darkness. Her skin’s memory registered the touch of but her brain refused. ‘It’s maybe another propaganda of that creature’. The water’s temperature was so cold; it didn’t feel like regular water. It felt like Aliza had been dropped in an ocean of liquid-nitrogen.

Her eyes snapped opened. The environment was nothing but a quiet, absolute black atmosphere. Her breaths were thick with the unpleasant smell of burnt metal. A white puppet rushed towards her along with a bottle. “Who are you?” Aliza’s voice caught, a choked whisper. The puppet jumped and spilled water all over Aliza’s body. The hot water made her feel relieved, as if someone feels bathing in a hot spring after a trip from Antarctica.

Her senses were dim, except for her nose. She sniffed, it was a familiar scent of her room. “AAA!” She sprang up from her bed. “Where is he? That creature? That snake!?” she crooked her head “Mom?”

Mom, “It-Is-NINE FORTY-FIVE! WHY ARE YOU STILL ON YOUR BED!?”

Aliza sighed, “Relax Mom.” And took quick, heavy breaths to stabilize her brain.

Mom, “What happened to you now? Is it a nightmare?”

Aliza nodded her head in acceptance. But just then, her shadow started stretching. Mom pushed back a few steps, her hearing filled with a sudden, low atmospheric pressure. "What happened now?" Aliza asked. Her extended shadow split in two without her knowing. The extra shadow reshaped itself into a terrifying, supernatural blend of human and ghost.

“Take my welcome.” The shadow stopped levitating. A demonic human spawned in. His closed eyes formed a crushing atmosphere which Aliza nor her mother could decipher. Aliza finally got the gist to look back. “Kaizen, my sole objective. Kaizen for my master.” The demonic creature mumbled, confusing Aliza.

Aliza, “What kind of senseless noise are you making?”

“I’m on my master’s order. Kaizen for my master, I’m.” he took a cinematic pause. “Kaizen.” His eyes opened. Red eyeballs and black eyebrows—his look terrorized everyone present in the room.

“Creation, Ghostly katana.” His hands trembled as an aura of unnatural current formed around him. A matte-purple katana spawned in his hands.

“Kaizen for him.” He pounced on Aliza but her mother took action quickly, grabbing the football and hurling it towards Kaizen.

Kaizen, “Argh! Dissolving Spell.” The katana burst into pieces and dissolved in the atmosphere as purple-colored powder. Aliza’s mom stared at the katana until her eyes gave up and she lost consciousness.

“Ha! Tiny mice. Gate to Deep Down.” He grabbed Aliza’s hand. A gate opened under Aliza’s feet and Kaizen helped to drag her down.

Timed seemed to freeze. Aliza roared for help. “Ak-aizen! So this dream was real!?”

Kaizen still went mumbling, “Kaizen for him.”

Aliza, “What do you want from me?”

Kaizen, “Ha.” He clapped his hands, levitating Aliza from the ground. “You’re mine.”

She breathed heavily, “What are you giving? A love proposal.”

Kaizen, “You.” He pressed his finger against Aliza’s forehead. “Have more than half of my power.” And tilted his head upwards, sharply turning his eyeballs down, towards Aliza. “And diluting you.” He took a short pause. Aliza felt a light current shock.

“Where did he go?” Kaizen was nowhere to be seen.

Kaizen, “LEADS ME TO THE FULL POWER.” He instantly reappeared before Aliza and brutally punched her on her spine. A torrent of blood squirted from her body which the demonic Kaizen absorbed. “Now I’m. Hihaha! HIHAHAHA! STRONG!” Aliza’s body dissolved in the air without any trace.

“Aliza! Aliza!” Aliza’s mom came rushing towards Kaizen. “Aliza my girl!” her dad too, summoned out of nowhere.

Kaizen, ‘What is this? Am I getting flashbacks? No it can’t be.’

He stared towards the people who came to give Aliza’s body a last sight.

Kaizen, ‘Kaizen! No Kaizen.’ Tears rolled down his eyes ‘I had been mutated by a ghost, an evil creature who only cared about my never-giving-up spirit. Now I understand- Now I understand, my blood has these words inscribed on them: Your Loved ones are the first people who never give up on you. The Morals of Love are written on my other body’s blood. It has been diluted to form me. But now.’