4 – DON’T, PLEASE

I get down the trail. For what is life, but an adventure? Ah, or whatever. I heard there is a different word for something without a destination – I can't quite recall what. But my life is an adventure, I don't care for the word for it. I like this word.

My friends… cowards those lot. So scared. I understand the trial is a little steep. But not quite impossible. Adventurous and thrilling yet. I'll do this alone, I ain't afraid. To be alone.

But fear. Yes. I fear. But… what is the point of it? I don't fancy it. The heart racing, the blood pumping to each bit of me… I can go anywhere. Nothing could really stop me-

-I hear something from behind me and quickly turn. As I do that, I lose my grip and slip backwards. I miss one step, then another. I try to stomp my foot and stop myself – and that helps me twist my ankle and fall onto my hands instead. And I somehow stop due to this.

"Holy fuck," I say.

I was only halfway down there… but this was quite some height. I'm not sure if there are people down there. It doesn't seem likely anyways. Good in a way… but I can't be falling down there.

I slowly collect myself. My ankle aches a little, but I simply shake it off. It was too easy. I could do it.

Then I continue down again. Down the steep slope of the hill's side. To the beautiful beach. From up there the humans would seem like cockroaches. So tiny. What joy it is to just be that… and I can enjoy at this beautiful beach – which not many dared to come down to.

Once I get back to my friends with pictures, they'd be so jealous! I'd have seen it with my own two eyes, while they can't.

As I finally reach down, even with the beach being at quite a distance I stare ahead. The sea… so blue and majestic. Falling into it would mean never being found again. Becoming a rare piece in the ocean… meat to everything living under there. Mysterious beings.

I feel chills, and shake with it. It was quite hot yet, it always was hot out here – and hence my thin shirt upon me. I love wearing something puffier but… I'd sweat way worse than I already am.

I walk forward while feeling a little itch and pain in my leg I had twisted. It was worth it. It was… gonna be so much more worth it.

As the sea in my view widens, so do my eyes and smile – even with the rays of the sun hitting my eyes. In two hours the sun would set, and I had to see that. Oh, I was damn early huh? Maybe I should just search when the sun would set…

But as I search that up, I realise that there is no network here. Interesting… such a niche place. Anyways… it was peaceful… I could spend two hours surely. I have offline songs on my phone anyways. What a life!

As I try to find a nice spot to sit at, I see a weird rock at a distance… something soft surely. It looks like one of those pinkish rocks which are very soft. So I walk to it to go and do what any man would… touch it.

But as I move closer, I realise that it hand tentacles and was NOT a rock. It… was some kind of an octopus. The normal kind, but… something different about it. It looked smaller. And it was an land… so probably dead. How could I have reached here?

As I go closer I warily choose my steps. It was just an octopus… and possibly dead, why should I be afraid? Yet… knowing that… I wasn't dumb. If it had a sting or something… not like I know if octopuses can do that. I'm no expert.

I pick a tiny stick from the ground… there was nothing but this and the endless sand here. And I gently poke the top of this creature. It doesn't budge. I nudge again, this time a little deeper. Nothing.

It makes me a little sad but also I chuckle. How could it really have ended up here? It just… died a few metres from where the water is. Not like the waves threw it… oh, would that be possible? There really seems to be no other explanation. So we're the waves here, bad?

I remove my slippers and push it aside. The warm and wet sand… even with the minute sharpness below my feet: it was a heavenly experience. To feel something delightful below the feet… amazing.

I look towards the poor octopus-creature, feeling a weird urge. I pitied the poor thing. But… how'd it be to… I have to touch it… this was one way to feel it and not be scared. It was dead anyways. It'd be serving… a nice purpose of curiosity.

I lift my pant up, and arc my foot up… then place it down. Then the other foot, then down again. And I'm already near to the octopus. So I arc my foot again and gently move towards the head… it wouldn't hurt it – it was dead.

As I place my thumb toe to the head – I feel a gentle slippery, sling feeling. It must've not been long ago that it was thrown-and before I make sense of that, my foot gets wrapped with the octopus' tentacle. And it tries to pull me.

"What in the fuck?"

I try to take my foot away but the grab was quite strong. Yet I pull harder, with my one foot as an anchor, but rather than toss the creature – I fall on my ass. But then I quickly take away my other leg before it gets grabbed.

"You strong piece of-"

It was even the leg I had almost twisted… wow, that leg sure was going through a lot in one day. But what was the purpose of this? The octopus… it just… it wraps around my leg like some snake trying to choke its prey.

I see that few of its tentacles are gripping on the ground, while three something tentacles grab my foot as tight as they can – which was tighter than I could've guessed.

"What's wrong with you?" I ask it.

It starts squeezing onto my foot and it feels like… it is sucking my foot. Like… the sensation… that slippery… jelly… but yet the grasp being so tight-

"Let go!" I demand, trying to free myself – but somehow just failing to do so.

I fight and fight, but this stalemate continues. I get an urge to maybe just not fight back… but I feel that with its strength equalling mine… it could just drag me… but what would it… this little thing… what would it even… it doesn't make sense.

I try to reach for my slippers, but as I try to grab it – I get dragged just by an inch and just look at the creature with shock. It really could just… what in the world.

"What… don't just… what… no."

And I don't stop trying to pull away. Our stalemate continues in a rhythm which sits with us. We just go back and forth, on and on. I try to find something… but I only see the closest thing to be my slippers. But would that even be enough?

I unpocket my phone… no reception. God damn! I was stuck with this octopus which had equal strength as me.

My foot feels numb, I see it getting red at the tip of what I could see – but also white at the very edge. The grasp… it has been… thirty minutes.

"What… what do you even want? I'm too big for you!"

But its eyes… or whatever seems to be staring right into me… they pertain the same stance and expression. If it could even talk… I'm sure it wouldn't.

I only feel the numb-electric feeling – with a slimy effect to layer my leg. I… wasn't really hurt. Even the grabbing… it doesn't hurt. But it was… a total no-brainer. What was this? I couldn't just escape it. It was…

At the fifty minute mark I try to get up again, but being so exactly stretch out and far… I couldn't really get up. And what if it tries to grab my other foot too, if I have a close call? No… I picture it grabbing both my legs and dragging my face across the sand – to drown me to the bottom of the sea. And everything below would… feast upon me.

I keep an eye on my reception – while still fighting in my stalemate.

Even after one and a half hours… I don't get it. I don't understand the point of this. Why'd it… no… it was meaningless.

Should I cut my own leg? But what would I use? Even if I dismembered my mobile phone, my zipper… nothing would work. And that bluntness in them… it'd hurt so much.

"Why are you doing this?" I converse with it again.

My leg feels heavy and… so tired… so… close to… what if my leg rips apart? I'd surely prefer that over this. If I keep going…

Two hours… this is all I know. Left and right, back… no back, nor was there a forth… no, I couldn't allow my foot to go forth. It'd mean I have lost my strength.

I have.

But I shouldn't.

"Please…" I whisper, and feel goose-bumps down my spine. I was begging a tiny creature… from the unknown it wants to drag me into. "Don't… please."

Two hours and forty minutes… my leg is a part of the octopus. Not mine anymore. The octopus wants to be a part of me too. It… it speaks to me. It is telling me to stop struggling. It and I… could just… go swim the sea. It'll be so pleasant.

Three hours and four minutes… it'll bang my head into every rock here, and below the sea. It tells me how tiny fished would bite onto me and go inside of me – before I can fully drown. They'll eat my insides and I'll feel them. And yet the octopus will own my leg.

"No," I whine at my own thoughts. "D-don't… p-p-please. I beg you."

But it smiles with lips I had imagined it with. Lips which stay shut and smirk. Cause once they open… they would reveal mean teeth which can give me a quick death. It'll instead take time.

Four hours… my legs just seem like fishes which have fallen out of the water. Flap. Flap. Flap. Flap… just trying to find the sea. But here… The sea would be my end.

"I'm not ready... I promise… I'll just leave you alone. I'll go back. I… I will find my way away. I shouldn't have disturbed you. I can't just… can't you just… forgive me?"

The octopus looks at me… asking me to repeat myself.

"Please forgive me."

And it lifts one of its ground-gripping tentacles. I feel more energy in me and excitedly push myself a little away. I reach my slippers. But as I look towards it… the tentacle…

"Oh fuck you. Couldn't you have done it earlier?" I ask.

Some… thorn… some… sharp… end of the tentacle. It looks brown… no… it feels like it is maroon – the tint of a blood clot.

My hand holding my slippers just shudders. The octopus gives me my time… it waves its tentacles ever-so-slowly. The thorn… gets pushed at my thumb toe… to my nail… the gap in between my toe and my toenail… oh no.

"Don't… please… I beg you. Why? Don't. Please. Please. It… no…"

My foot was free… but I was too tired… I couldn't feel it anymore. The octopus was merely gripping on it.

Did I say that I don't feel my foot? But as the thorn pierced… I scream and hit myself with my own slipper – as if that'd stop my pain. And I feel the octopus laugh with joy. Not the joy of a psycho… no, with the joy of a child. A child who… was slowly inserting the knife…

"Why?" I ask.

The thorn comes out of the back of my foot… and it doesn't stop there… the tentacle goes inside… and I feel the jelly in between my… foot… inside my foot… even when I'm numb… if I weren't numb…

"Don't… I beg you… please… I… I can't…"

The octopus barely uses its strength to pull me… I drag my own self… it was gripping to my foot… from the inside, if I let it go… the foot would come apart… that…

I pass my own blood. My tears fall on it. But it wasn't much. In a minute or two I feel the sea touching my hands – whom I use to push-pull towards where the octopus was commandinf me towards.

I muffle my scream, while biting onto my own slipper. The sand wasn't pretty in my mouth. But…

"Just tell me why," I plead the octopus – saying it from my teeth.

"I don't fancy your Lowly Screams," the voice rips me from my insides. "I'm just having you have your worst fear."

"Why the fuck would I wish for that? I only… wanted to be with my friends."

I feel the irony in my own words. I was the one who came out here. Leaving them up there, safe and… thinking I was a crazy and brave person.

"Don't panic…" I hear it try to… calm me? "Have patience…"

I take a deep breath after gasping for it with fear. We go into the ocean. No… I… I push my own self into here…

From here the octopus takes us deeper – as I struggle with my whole body than my foot… my foot had already given up.

I hold and bang my chest. I try to squeeze my neck to just create holes for air to get breathed into me…

The sea… sure is deep… it feels like I've been drowning and struggling with my whole body… for… ho…