What Has Been Missing

Somewhere in-between a milky spiral , a dot in the expanse of the universe, and to be more specific, a pearly blue sphere, spattered in browns and greens a tragedy unfurled.

Somewhere on this planet called Earth, a man fell into the abyss of despair.

...Drowning, and frantically screaming for help.

"Keough Keough. Damn It. Help!"

"Did I fucking jinx it?"

Monstrous waves flapped over him like blankets that covered the entire sky, dimming any hope he had left amassed.

The anxious glean ignited in his anthracite eyes.

***

A couple minutes ago.

Frothing waves crashed onto a beige sandbank ruthlessly, just to draw their anger back in another attempt to drown their arid counterpart.

A couple meters next to this perpetual battle, a bulky man of imposing stature can be made out sitting in the sand, leisurely listening to the waves' attacks with a nonchalant expression painting the part of his face that was not hidden behind his lightly brown-tinted sunglasses.

The man was dressed in a white shirt, and elegant fabric trousers, while varnished leather shoes and a black blazer sat some meters next to him.

Suddenly, a phone rang.

•Brrr Brrr Brrr•

He looked at it with a bitter expression and sighed before picking up.

"Floga here."

"Mr. Floga, about our current project, we need more liquid assets, can you cover XX amount?"

Théo Floga's face went cold as his eyes stared into the blue vistas in front. Blotches of white spanned as far as the eye could capture, and a turquoise infinity flapped in frequent undulations.

"I've pumped 3 Million $ in this project, how is it possible that you still need money? How's our ROI?"

...

After talking for a while, Théo hung up the phone and continued to stare blankly, before a curse left his mouth.

"Damned leeches!"

"Don't think I don't know that you've been spending all the funds for company dinners! What a bust!"

"I'll have to visit them in the near future..."

Théo fell onto his back, and murmured quietly. The hauling wind hissed over his words.

"Or... Argh I don't care anymore."

His anthracite eyes turned vapid and empty.

"Always trading and playing merchant for others, when are my desires fulfilled? And... What are they? I've lost track..."

The bulky man thought back to the fervent days of passion, to all mistakes, to all correct calls, to the long and arduous journey in the world of finance after his parents passed awa, a very, very long time ago.

Back when the wolrd had mocked and insulted him, when a deep desire shook awake every crevice in his being, back when it became fun to struggle, back when the pain of losing slowly stopped reminding him of its existence.

When you reach a mountain peak, you glimpse the jagged heights of another, and make it your next goal.

But where he was right now, was a boundless mist, and a sky of clouds... There were no more peaks to climb.

"What a flimsy existence."

Floga raised his upper body, hirsute and powerful, and propped himself up, before staggering and touching his temples.

"Damned jetlag, I'll take a nap."

Black blazer, and dark shoes in hand, Théo entered a luxurious, and huge beach mansion, where he was met with Jeanne, the cook and Robert, the waiter.

"Have you prepared what I've asked you to?"

Robert twitched when he heard Floga.

"Sorry."

"Hm?"

The businessman arched his eyebrows, and stared at Jeanne, who brought a massive bowl of spicy pork Ramen. 5 Eggs and countless flaps of meat soaked the broth in hearty delight. The cook snorted:

"What do you hire me for, when you just order Instant Ramen all the time?"

"Jeanne, you miser... You don't get it, do you? It's not just Instant Ramen! It's Samyang!"

"Samyang, Banyang, it's all the same to me!"

"Jeanne..."

Jeanne turned around and shook his head angrily.

"Your nutritionist also nags me for the unbalanced diet you always request. He even scolded me for it! Can you believe it?"

Théo froze in place, as surprise washed over him.

"Wait- Since when do I have a nutritionist?"

"That... might be a problem."

Théo couldn't help but shrug his shoulders and sigh, before wolfing down the massive bowl in a matter of a few minutes.

Satisfied, he leaned back in the chair and exclaimed loudly, so that Jeanne could hear it in the kitchen.

"It was delicious, Jeanne!"

He thought to have heard him chuckle back. Facing Robert, Théo thought for a moment, and said:

"I'll go for a swim, tell Jeanne to prepare a nice cocktail."

Robert bowed politely, and agreed immediately.

Sauntering through the deserted palm beach bare-footed, Théo lost the shine on his face, and fell into reminiscence.

He had done so much.

He had tried everything remotely interesting.

Climbing, Cycling, Preserving the forests, Reading, Writing, Hockey, Soccer, Diving, The Triathlon, Fitness, Carving, Painting, Playing Games, Designing Things, Hunting, Fishing, Studying...

Having found extreme financial success, he used the leeway to find his purpose. But nothing was as exciting as the journey of his youth.

His desire ignited embers, and made him hot and stuffy, which would sadly, never be quenched, no matter what he did.

Floga hit his legs with careless force, then pinched the bridge of his nose to calm himself.

"Damn it... Should've searched for the meaning of life or something..."

"...Become a monk or something."

Suddenly, a wild idea popped into his head. Was it finally time? For the dreaded 'next step'.

"Should I... try raising kids next? ... Although I've never met 'her' again..."

Théo's grey eyes widened and wavered before finding serenity, and sharpness.

"Right! Nothing is perfect! I'll find a nice, and pleasant wife next. There's still much to do! There's still many things to discover..."

His phone rang once again with regular vibrations.

Théo looked at the number and lingered... before dropping the phone in the sand.

Sand entered the cracks and holes of the speakers, and the muffled ringtone resounded through the deserted beach, for no one to hear, and for no one to care.

Floga's voice echoed back, in a surprisingly joyeous tone.

"Won't let them kill my mood!"

Floga's feet dipped into the water, further and further until it reached his chest and his feet lifted from the sandy bottom.

Thinking of unromantic and vulgar methods as to where to soul-search for a nice and pleasant wife, Théo didn't realize how far out he had actually swum.

A misty outline of the coast was barely visible. Unrelenting ocean winds blew against his face and the tides pulled his body to directions, only they knew.

"Puhh, time to swim back," Théo sighed and began digging his hands into the water surface.

...

And that's where all trouble began.

A screaming, drowning man.

It was Théo from the very beginning.

On the way back to the safety of the shore, insidious cramps stabbed at his right leg and sent cold shivers down his spine.

A nervous shout forced itself from his lips:

"ARGH!"

"My leg is cramping up!" he realized in panic and immediately tried to shout back to the shore, "HELP! HELP ME!"

Waves clashed all around him and turned more unruly with each second.

There was no answer to his shouts. They were mercilessly swallowed up by the distance.

"Fuck, what's with this timing? God must have heard me cursing him one of these days," he thought out loud in a shiver, but just a moment later he had already found strange resolve, "But I haven't done the triathlon in vain! This little distance I can easily cover with three limbs, hell it wouldn't even be a problem to do it with two!"

As if calling for misfortune, his blasphemic remarks brought about another trial. His left leg also started convulsing in terrible spasms.

Incredulous of this ill-fated development, his face turned dark, as every wet hair zipped with electric impulses, trying their best to stand straight on end.

Goosebumps formed on every pore of his skin, and alarming, damp shivers ran up and down his back. He let out a soulless breath, "W-What ...?"

'This is going to be difficult...'

Not losing his hope just yet, Théo stubbornly dragged himself over the water surface with just two hands, trying his absolute best to ignore the persistently convulsing and immobilized pair of legs.

Massive waves steepled over his body, pulling on him like a natural manifestation of Cthulhu, every tentacle ripping a different body part into pieces.

Only once in his lifetime had Théo felt so powerless before, and it was right after the death of his parents.

Here he was again, feeling like a trifling mouse in midst of famished lions and tigers.

Something around him changed at some point. The dark colors of the ocean dropped even darker, almost turning jet-black, and all sensations were infinitely more pronounced than before.

Fierce water torrents grew wanton, throwing his already exhausted body around with unfeeling urgency.

The winds were the same, suddenly turning from the comfortable breeze they were before, into invisible whips, slashing on every exposed part of his body.

In this state, the distance he could cover was miniscule.

Aching arms, convulsing legs and a pained mind convoluted every thought and pushed him to the limit...

Struggling vulnerably, he was a lone, defenseless sheep to the brutal, wolfish ocean.

A deep exhaustion washed over Théo's body and made him let go, and so he sunk into the deepest parts of the ocean without any further resistance.

Gulped down in one big bite, the waters had no intention of spitting him out. It was as if he had never existed at all... The situation was helpless.

"Is this how I die?" was the question he wanted to pose, but could only think as his lungs were quickly filling up with water.

"So cruel," he bubbled out in deep resentment.

Even though the pain of drowning forced his mind into stalemate, a chuckle wanted to escape his lips as a strange and vulgar accusation came into mind.

"...Fucking nutritionist, has he seriously never heard about magnesium?"

At this exact moment, a terible underwater current pulled on Théo's body with the strength to eviscerate him into bloody shreds. His sight was long filled with bleak darkness with his fading consciousness not even registering the pain of his body being torn apart.

...

The undercurrents grew feisty and turbulent, until they reached a magnitude that couldn't be categorized under a simple kinetic action.

It could only be described as an inexplicable anomaly. A miraculous phenomenon.

Intangible energy turned deeply black, and was visible to the naked eye, before it formed into a revolving, resplendent sphere, somewhere deep down at the bottom of the ocean.

Meanwhile, harrowing winds turned into a hurricane-like state, perturbing the serene state of the palm beach above.

Down below, the mass of incomprehensible energy slowly started stabilizing and the eye of the sphere, altough blurry, showed an abundance of stars and planet clusters of different colors, patterns and sizes.

It was a wondrous combination of strings and forms for noone to see, as the spectators were limited to the gloomy bottom of the dark sea and its frightened, resident organisms.

When the rotund Space Door fully stabilized, the remnant parts of Théo's body slipped in, accompanied by gargantuan amounts of oceanic water, before they all vanished into nothingness.

Alongside the etheral Space Door.

...

Not long after, the weather outside returned to its former, sunny state.

It was just like nothing had ever happened.

Jeanne stood and stared at the relentless ocean, the Piña Colada slipping from his hand and falling to the ground as he ran into the ocean screaming a name...