Salt and Tar

On my temples I felt the hands touch my skin, and ran their fingers through my hair. The vast loneliness filled with ocean water, but their presence brought in sunlight. There was still salt on my wounds and it stung, but the warm caress was there. I was damaged and broken, but had someone to fall back on. They were the anchor and I was the lost boat, drifting. Timeless as everything felt, I described things by days. And so day by day, some days longer, I saw them.

Longer, some days they stayed longer. I could still see them outside of this Beach, but the feeling was not the same. I could not feel their skin the same way with my metallic frame. When I gently ran my hands on the sides of their neck and their chest, I could feel a pulse. A heart was beating soundly when I lay down next to them.

Whatever countless days it was, as I sat on the sandy grounds, the only thing enveloping me was the ocean water. There was nothing to worry about, I was sure. But the gut feeling, I still knew the 'time', it was always the same. They always responded to this feeling of pull I felt within myself. It was always when my soul started to long for them. But whatever countless hours passed on the Beach, there was no presence. The pulling sensation on my chest grew stronger, they would be here by now. Abandoned maybe, no they would never.

And so I went out there and looked for them. The chiral rain was pouring, across the grasslands of where I was were Beach Things groaning. They were all slowly floating towards something that I could not see and tell. I held my composure, and followed. Like all the dead people did, walking through their Beach, and into the ocean. Something felt off, and whatever I felt on this plane, I felt it on the Beach. The hairs on my skin rose, and hives started to riddle across my skin. When the BTs all stopped, and instead had formed a circle, I continued my steps. Walking through some of them, I could not see anything looking straight ahead.

Reaching the center of the 'circle' there were bones on the ground. Time seemed to have passed a lot since these bones where there, but there should have been a large crater here. No voidout? I ran my fingers along the bones, finally gripping the skull. I felt a presence, a familiar one. But it was hollow and cold, there was nothing there. With the empty husk of a skull, I clasped it with both hands. I looked around, the BTs stood there in a crowd, continued to stand in a circular formation. I sprung myself back, and my attention returned to the Beach, still holding the skull. The hives were intense along my arms and my shoulders, and it continued to rise along my neck and even the sides of my face.

The waves on this Beach suddenly grew still. Looking straight ahead, I saw them. But I felt the same hollow and cold presence, the same sensation I felt when I first touched the bones on the ground. I could not move, standing where I was, slowly coming to a realization. And yet I still held the skull between my hands dearly. While I looked ahead, and saw them reaching out to me. But it wasn't long till they slowly erupted into black tar. And the oceans turned into a thick substance, all black.