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Prompt 5 (Ice Bath): Rainfall is rare in Destiny City during Winter; there have been a few light showers between the occasional snow but it’s never been enough to be significant. In some places, it’s just enough for a thin layer of ice to cover the ground and make it a little slippery, but ultimately it’s not enough to worry about. In an inconspicuous place in town, you step into one of these icy puddles and the thin layer of ice shatters. The hole itself seems maybe three feet wide and if you’ve ever been in the area before you know it’s just a pothole a few inches deep at most. Except, when the ice shatters, you fall, plummeting into it as if it were a lake of icy water. It’s pitch black around you and only pale blue lights shimmer above you. The darkness is never ending and you can’t make out the details of anything except the shrinking hole above you. Maybe you remember how to swim and pull yourself out, maybe you black out and feel someone else pulling you out--either way, your frozen, soaking body is pulled from the puddle. The chill is immense, but if you look at the hole after being pulled out, all you can see is the ground below. There’s no sign that what you just experienced is real--except for the fact that you’re still soaking wet.
It was finally past the holidays. Finally time for things to start winding down from the absolute hectic month. Right at this moment of time, Matt was celebrating this fact with a jog around a few blocks. It was the shorter of the two routes he typically jogged down thanks to it still being winter and while the snow had been moved off the sidewalks for the most part, it was not particularly fun to move through in the areas it wasn't. Still the route was long enough for him to get his exercise in without having to power up to go for a run.
As he darted around one of the corners, he spotted a group of people ahead of him taking up the entire width of the side walk and it didn't look like they were paying any attention to their surroundings so it wasn't likely that they would be moving either. Matt wasn't bothered by this though and just glanced up and down the street to make sure no cars were coming and then smoothly moved from jogging on the side walk to the street. As he passed the large group however he spotted something that had until then been hidden from his view.
Typically there was a bit of a pothole on the street, something he had forgotten since he normally stayed on the side walk, but where it was normally was instead a large patch of ice. He couldn't swerve back onto the side walk as the group was still in the way and he couldn't move farther into the street as apparently there was someone riding their bicycle there, something else he hadn't been able to see thanks to the group. With a sign he started to slow down and prepared himself to start slipping a bit as he stepped down onto it.
Matt didn't expect the ice to be as thin as it was however, or maybe the salt that had been placed on the road to prevent this int he first place had finally started to do it's job, as his boot went right through the ice as soon as he set it down. And then kept going. A yelp escaped him as he went down not thanks to how slippery the ice was like he would have expected other wise but because there was no road to stop him from sinking.
Within seconds he was below the street, darkness surrounded him as the ice cold water stole his breath and sapped his strength quickly. His mind blanked and every thing he was taught about rescuing himself when falling through ice left his mind from the sheer shock of falling this deep into what should have been a pothole. He flailed his arms about in instinct to try and swim back up to where the only light could be seen but it wasn't going well until two things happened. One his brain finally kicked in and made him start to kick his legs and two, a hand plunged into the icy water to grab one of his flailing ones to pull him up.
More hands joined the first and it wasn't long before Matt found himself panting and shivering on the street as the group he had dodged earlier pulled him farther from the hole in the ice and checked him over. As they asked him if he was okay and if he needed an ambulance he glanced back to the pothole to see it looking like it was only a few inches deep once again.
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