I'm not okay

My eyes burst open, the pressure pushing against my ribs feels like a bomb going off inside me and my chest burns, lungs crying for air. I look up, and a smooth stony surface is right in front of my eyes and I panic, the floor is not supposed to be on that side. I flail my arms and legs, numbness is setting in as air is running out, and soon I won’t be able to move them at all. Think, Whores, think!

I look down, seeing my body situated vertically against the distorted roof of a cave. No fucking way. I reach up, place my hands on the stone, and push, desperation is giving me strength as the world rotates around me. I’m moving at the speed of lightning, I’m moving at a snail’s pace, the surface is a world away, the surface is dead ahead. But I make it, shooting out of the water like a bolt lost off of a crossbow.

I pant, inhaling and exhaling wildly in short, fast-paced breaths. I look around, finding myself in a hot spring. I am swimming in a massive crater, at least twenty feet wide but barely six and some change deep. Without any effort, my toes reach the bottom. I feel my face heat at the thought of drowning in such a shallow body of water, if I had any breath to spare I would definitely be laughing at myself right now.