EGO DEATH
Depth unknown
Milo burst through the glassy surface and into a world of golden light, his convulsing lungs sucking air in ragged gulps. He dug his fingers into the nearest muddy wall but was ripped away, a roaring current dragging his struggling body deeper into the cave. Gritty, sulfuric droplets burned in his eyes as the blinding cavern around him slowly came into focus. But he understood nothing of what he saw—the insanity had taken hold, no mere giddiness but an explosion of unquantifiable ecstasy and the joyful annihilation of his consciousness. The river and tunnel swirled in a kaleidoscope, the lenses of his eyes focusing, irises contracting, retinal cells capturing photons, optic nerve dancing with electrical impulse, brain awash with neurochemicals, but his cognitive ability to perceive had evaporated.
Vanishing into his own mind, Milo struggled to tread water against the current. His pulse pounded as he fought to maintain control, the golden light penetrating his mind like a thousand jagged needles. A smothering blackness erupted from within, paralyzing his limbs and tearing away all sensation. Unable to see Bridget or process the avalanche of psychedelia, Milo’s eyes rolled up into his head as his skin erupted in fiery pain. Throat closing, he could not even scream as he lost his final connection to thrashing arms and twitching legs, the fast-moving waters pulling him beneath the surface once more.
It was as though he’d pulled a giant red lever that caused the entire universe to wink out all at once, a Star Trek transporter beam pulling him apart cell by cell, every neuron in his brain firing independently of the whole, his mind’s eye obscured within a surging gray-matter electrical storm.
Convulsed in seizure, Milo rocketed over the crest of a massive subterranean waterfall and plummeted into the churning froth below.