The Kiss

She was gazing into his endless blue eyes, lost in their depth and unable to think straight. His face had never been so close to hers before, but she wished it would be closer still. She did not need to see both of his eyes clearly, though she appreciated the view.
He smiled and – as if he had read her thoughts – he leant in closer. Butterflies were causing hurricanes in her stomach as she closed her eyes, her lips trembling slightly.
Then he kissed her...

It was the most curious sensation. She felt like she was diving through the oceans and every sea and river and creek at once. She experienced so many things at the same time that her mind had to split them up to cope with them. There were the heartbeats of millions of animals and the awareness of creatures so small they were invisible to the human eye. There was illness and the black plague causing devastation. She was a dolphin jumping happily in and out of the water. She was a baby orca staying close to its mother's back. She was a shark charging after a human trespassing on its district. It was confusing and wonderful at the same time.
Then she heard his voice, though she could still clearly feel his lips on hers, not moving.
All this you can be if you will follow me.

Suddenly there was water in her nose and the kiss had gotten a lot wetter, too. After a moment's confusion she realised that he was not kissing her any more. She opened her eyes to the blue of his, only that it was water this time, pressing in on her from everywhere. She could not breathe. Panicking, she started thrashing around, trying to find her way up without knowing where that would be. It was only by coincidence that she chose the right direction and a moment later her head broke through the surface of the sea, leaving her coughing and spluttering.
After a few breaths of air she swam, shaking, towards a build-up of stones before her, which were much closer than the beach behind her. Her feet still did not touch the ground, so she clung to the nearest stone, trying to calm down. She did not know how she had ended up here, or where the boy had gone – for he had clearly vanished from view, leaving her to fight for her life on her own. That surely was not the behaviour of the gentleman she had taken him to be.

It was a short while before she realised that people were watching her. A lifeguard was coming in her direction and people on the stony wall were offering their hands to get her out of the water. They all wore alarmed and concerned looks on their faces.
'It's like they think I did that on purpose,' she thought. But why?
And then, slowly, the memories came back to her. Recollections of a pain so strong it was unbearable. The ocean whispering to her of a final solution, seducing her to swim much farther out than she normally would have done. And the boy? Was he nothing more than a hallucination her lonely soul and abandoned heart had come up with?
She did not know, but she was sure that she did not want to follow him for all he could have to offer, if that meant she had to endure drowning first.