Water Nymph

I'm a Pisces, a water sign... At least that is what astrology tells me. Water has always been a part of my life as I was growing up in the Caribbean, swimming every day at the beach until my skin was dark and roasted from the sun. This was until I was nine and we moved to Miami. I didn't like the water there, it was heavy and oily (that's how my nine-year-old self would describe it). I turned to books and my always wild imagination; I continued to paint, and when we moved once again back to Colombia, this time to Medellín in the mainland, I missed the ocean the most. As I grew older, I started to develop a slight fear of water... It had maybe always been there I guess, especially a fear of dark water; it made me feel like something would get me.

They say our dreams tell us a lot about ourselves and our subconscious. I dream big, bold and sometimes scary. Water is one of the elements that keeps following a recurring storyline in my dreams. Always oceans or rivers, either murky or crystal clear, but always infested with sharks and crocodiles that seem to know the minute I touch the water and it turns into a game of Pac Man to not get caught and reach my destination. Other creatures also inhabit the waters of my dreams: colorfully striped fish, krakens, giant serpents, eels, jellyfish and blowfish surround me with curiosity and never stop staring as I glide through the water back and forth between abandoned and semi-flooded buildings. Sometimes I swim really fast over murky waters with anxiety pouring over me, and relief sinks in once I reach a clearer stretch of the river.

My wildest dream was in the middle of the Arctic ocean; waves were high and angry. The sky responded with sharp thunder, and lightning cleared the sky to reveal me a group of people holding tight on an inflatable emergency vessel. We were waiting, my skin was ice and my eyes turned blue... I made a deep call and jumped into the water. Everyone in the vessel waited, holding their breath, and with a gasp, watched as I resurfaced on the back of a humpback whale and tied a cord to take them with us. Whales were swimming all around us as we moved fas,t approaching large sharp rocks in the distance. As we got closer, the rocks grew taller, and right before my eyes a city built in the rocks with a giant castle at its very center appeared. We watched in awe as lightning flashed and whales jumped out of the water, the waves splashing against the city. The whales took us inside through a series of Venetian-looking channels and left us at its buzzing center, where people were happily chatting away next to a riverbank. We sat on the grass, but the dark brown river water was making me uneasy. Out of nowhere, the water started to bubble, and something started emerging from the surface. I could hear people screaming and running in all directions; tentacles were pushing out of the water, a dark blob with yellow eyes creeping fast with the help of its tentacles. I ran, but the blob was fast, and it was growing every minute. I reached the castle and ran to the top tower. I watched as the blob slowly engulfed the city and slowly made its way up the castle walls. My final thought was pitch darkness, as the tentacles covered me and I was swallowed into nothing.