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darkness incessantly covers this starry, flaccid night. no lunar reflection to glisten the celestial sky. brightness singly emanating from the mother ship you are about to alight.

the hull tilts as you take your first step down a chase boat. your eyes adjust. pupils dilate unto its largest size. the mind hovers in fear as you gaze unto a horizon swept by an uncomfortable blackness.

after the last warm-blooded soul paces inside the craft, the lifeline to the mother vessel disengages. the smaller motor roars, moving away from the string of flourescent lights affixed from the larger boat.

several minutes past. your life raft now flashing its own solitary beam. the shoreline a few hundred meters distant faintly registers an image. the navigator directs the spotlight in search of terrestrial markers to indicate the site of interest. a few more minutes of trailblazing, then the motor chokes until it ceases to shudder. the crashing silence disturbed only by a gentle pounding the waves create. the calmness is cue for everyone to prepare.

there were five of you in this pack. the head hunter, giving her last words of advice. each one makes a final check on theirs and their buddies' equipment.

"clear? going down." the leader pronounces as she takes the first plunge.

you are next on the starboard to take the dive. the vest is half inflated, the other hand holding your mask and mouthpiece. the flashlight switch now pressed to emit its own glow. a tumble is forced and a back roll ensues. the gush of cold water permeates your suit. a momentary disorientation.

taking your head above sea level, you adjust to full bouyancy. the same darkness lingers. your lifeblood beneath this gloom is within arms reach. the waterproof torch now fully clasped by your fingers.

the water has never been so opaque as this as with your previous dives below a glistening sun. what lies beneath? a vision of nothingness. without the light, your field of view down to less than a meter from sight. you cannot even see the stroke of your fins, moreso what lies beyond your reach.

a headcount, then the signal to descend. as you deflate, the lead weights strapped on your waist takes it toll. slowly you sink, the black sea consuming the entire you. strings of light beams sway back and forth to illuminate the surrounding. now the moving images you see becomes a vision of awe.

the experience of threading into outerspace. a space walk. as you float in an almost state of zero gravity, only the sound of your constant breathing registers. interlaced beams of light pierces the dark void of the undersea. the other vision in your periphery, still enveloped in infinite nothingness. what you see ends only as far as where the narrow beam of light travels.

slowly, you climb down to 60 feet. the bottom now partially shown as a reflection of your light. an underwater forest teaming with different sets of occupants. you fixate on the mix of creatures in carapace: crabs, lobsters, shrimps. and the cuttlefish with how its skin color changes at a whim.

your team drifts further to a sandy bottom and huddle close to each others company. the leader, now signaling to turn off all held lights. then pitch black - a fearful instance played by the mind. but as instructed, you move your hands in front of you, and a luminous play of planktons greets your sight. the interest easily overshadows the previous moments phobia.

now the pack swims around the reef until compressed air drains in one of the tanks. your gauge also points near the red line. bottom time streches a half and quarter of an hour long. but with fear now conquered, you wished the experience was made longer.

as you take a five minute safety stop 15 feet below the surface, you tilt your eyes down the dark chasm past the paddling fins. but now you do not need to focus a beam of light to take away a previous fear. experience tells it, darkness is nothing more but an empty space.