...

Shellcreature hears the sea heave and wheeze on the other side of the cliff. She imagines watching its surface as it breaks its own ribs to pull in air. Vast masses of fluid smash against each other under the skin. Listening, she is reduced only to now. She waits for the next crash and swill and gurgle and it feels like something she herself is surviving, such that any thought of 'after' is useless in the all-consuming task of endurance. But she is only listening, she tells herself. She is within the cliff, in which is embedded the shell, in which is embedded Shellcreature, and she is listening.

You're in the land, she tells herself. You're not in the sea. The sea is only outside. It is alright. And yet she is on the very border of this safe solidness that is the land.

"Blueurgshhhhh", says the sea.

"Leave me alone", says Shellcreature.