The Sea of Nothing

An Exploration of Boredom

There is only a little longer left of this, time always says.

      Or maybe it is just that waiting has become tiring, boring, so very, very boring. Waiting for Something to happen, swimming through the Sea of Nothing to get to it, your body tired and your mind angry.

      There are, of course, monsters in the Sea. Hunger rears its long, scaly neck up from the water and opens its mouth, releasing a breath that goes through your nose and claws at your stomach from the inside, as if a creature has been born there and is trying to get out.

      Thirst follows everywhere, trying desperately to turn you into a pathetic, dry husk that even a light breeze is a threat to. It takes the form of a little imp, its face pudgy with its skin horridly smooth. Its eyes, somehow, burn.

      Boredom comes next with a blunt wooden club, beating and bashing, trying to hit you in the head and let you drown in the waves of Nothing, thrash about and become helpless. It has eyes weighed down by large, majestic ships, its mouth hanging open to reveal emptiness.

      Then, if you look a little closer into the distance, you will see Attention being beaten by Slowness, Boredom’s brother. Slowness takes his smooth hammer and clubs Attention over the head, parts of flesh and scalp joining his blood in the water. You can either save Attention, take a weapon and temporarily knock Slowness into the Sea, or you can leave Attention to be tortured in that rather barbaric way.

      Soon follows Lady Grim sitting at her chair, which is at the table that floats just above the surface of the water. She has a nice china teacup, one hand wrapped around the handle, the other’s palm pressed up against the bottom of the nice cup. Lady Grim invites you over, offering you the seat across from her. She promises that a conversation with her will give you Something. Although this is true, the talks you will have will be depressing, will make you question certain aspects of life so thoroughly that you may be driven completely insane. You can either accept her invitation, drinking from a teacup of grim thoughts, or you can swim past her, listening to the Lady cry out and wail, begging for company.

      And then, far below you, is Hopelessness, the essence of Giving Up. Nobody has ever seen its true face due to the creature being so large. Speculation has given it a hideous head with large teeth, its sockets home to an emptiness that burrows into its skull like a long, powerful drill. They say that its mouth is home not only to sharp teeth, but to a venomous tongue that whips out and skewers.

      What you can see of Hopelessness is a large, scaly back resting at the bottom of the Sea, brooding, waiting to poke its head out behind you and dive its tongue into the back of your head. However, the terrible thing is that Hopelessness’s face is completely different. If you were to gaze upon it, do you know what you would see?

      No?

      You would see yourself.

      There is only a little longer left of this, all of the clocks, timers and watches in the world seem to say. Just a few more eternities of swimming in this godawful Sea of Nothingness to find Something, which, in the end, may not even be there at all. Sitting in a nice couch with the BUY 1 GET 1 FREE sticker still pasted onto it, standing in a crowded bus, looking out a car window one minute into a seven-hour car trip, the Sea of Nothing is always there, inside of you, separating you from Something.

      Perhaps Something will reach you, or you will reach it, but there is one depressing fact that I�"helped by the Lady Grim in my own mind�"shall give you to consider, to turn over in your head and examine.

      What do you do after you find your Something?     

      Something will turn into Nothing, and it will stay this way until you find another Something to swim for. The cycle repeats, over and over, the Sea of Nothing always dwelling, waiting to reach out to you and draw you into its murky waters, where you can reunite with its depressing inhabitants.

      You now meet another two-pronged fork in the road. You can go crazy, denying this knowledge and trying desperately to prove it wrong, wasting your life; or, the second option, you can accept the Sea of Nothing, swim its path, embrace the boredom and live like this until there is death.

      However, whatever option you choose, I have one final question for you.

      What Something are you waiting for?

Author's Note

I wrote this when I was bored and later entered it into a Queensland-wide short story competition. It didn't win anything, but I don't hate it as much as some of my other stories. Feel free to point out any faults you find here.