Sam paused to catch his breath. He had been trekking up the steep slope of the mountain for two hours. He took off his bag and sat down, leaning against a boulder. He took out his water bottle and took a long sip. The full moon felt like a giant spotlight shining down around him. He closed his eyes and caught his breath. He was two-thirds of the way along his trek towards his destination. He decided to get to the top of the boulder. After climbing with a lot of effort, he sat down cross-legged and looked down the way he came. The mountain trail lay below him, curving every which way along the terrain, finally merging with a suburban road at the bottom. The city in the distance was slowly starting to light up. The silvery glitter of the cross atop the cathedral at the center of the city captured his attention. The city was built around the cathedral, which was known far and wide. As he laid on his back and gazed at the stars, he felt at peace. A few minutes later, he noticed the horizon starting to lose its blackness and realized that he didn’t have long before sunrise. He quickly got down from the boulder and, picking up his bag, continued on the trail before him. As he walked along, he noticed that the trees around him were getting closer together. He took out his flashlight as the moonlight was getting blocked by the thick canopy above him. He scanned the bark of the trees on the right-hand side of the trail, and after about ten minutes, he stopped beside one of the trees. On its bark, a heart shape was carved out deep enough to be noticed despite the moss covering it. Sam took out his pocket knife, removed the moss from it, and carved just a bit deeper. The mountain trail led off to the left, towards the summit, but he got off the trail and continued his way behind the marked tree. He kept walking; the only sounds that he could hear were his breath and the crunching of leaves under his feet. He found peace in the rhythmic cycle of those sounds. After about an hour, he found his way blocked by a thick growth of ivy between two trees. He heard birds chirping on the other side. The sun must have risen by now. He took out the knife and started hacking at it. When he cut it enough for him to pass through, he stepped over to the other side and was in awe at the sight before him. Although he had been seeing it every year for ten years, each time he saw it, it felt like it was the first time that he had ever laid eyes upon it. An expansive field with long grass rolling in the wind welcomed him. The mountain mist was starting to clear up, revealing to his right a cliff that overlooked the other side of the mountain that he had climbed, a great plain that expanded out towards the ocean, where the sun was starting to peek out from the water, casting out yellow rays in the calm waves. He had always wished to live in that village on the shores of the ocean, but his job never allowed him. It was the place where he had first met Crystal. But he turned to his left, towards his destination. A small lake covered in morning mist laid still before him in the distance. A few deer and rabbits had come out of the woods to drink from its shores. Birds of all colours were flying about. As the mist began to fade, Sam could see the high, rocky cliffs surrounding the lake being reflected on the water. At the other end, a small waterfall fed the lake, falling from atop the cliff, whose top part was being illuminated by the morning sun. He had found this place when Crystal brought him here. He had not heard about this magical place in the city, but Crystal had said that her grandfather had discovered the location, and no one else knew of it except for her grandmother and herself. She had also said that she trusted Sam enough to let him in on the secret. It was the most serene location that he had ever visited in his entire life. He walked along the shore of the lake to the right-hand side of the circular cliff surrounding it, where there was a small cave entrance carved into the cliff. He had to step into the water to get through it. He ducked down as he entered and waited for his eyes to adjust to the dim light. The space inside was just large enough for him to stand straight, and he could touch the ceiling if he raised his hand. There was a small canoe bobbing on the water inside,filling up half the small space in there. It was attached by a rope to a small rock extrusion in the ground. It had been built by Crystal’s grandfather. He threw his bag inside the canoe and untied the rope from the rock. He took up the oars and, laying low, rowed out of the small entrance. He set his eyes on his destination, a small island situated near the cliffside of the lake, beside the waterfall. It had an oak tree in it. He and Crystal had frequented this magical place for years, and they would sit by the shade of the tree, leaning on each other, just staring out towards the horizon and the ocean till sunset. Sam smiled at the memories, and by the time he reached the island, the sun had risen over the outer cliff and was now illuminating the inner cliff and the lake with a heavenly glow. He jumped off the canoe and pulled it towards the shore, tying it securely to a rock. He took his bag and went to the oak tree. He sat down by the tree, unpacked his bag for his breakfast, and started eating, enjoying the sunrise and the gentle sunshine warming his face, taking in the reflection of the clouds in the sky on the still surface of the lake, and the animals grazing in the grass fields. “Sam?! I knew you’d come!” came a voice from behind him. Sam turned around and saw Crystal, the love of his life, standing beside the waterfall, smiling. His heart started racing, and he felt a knot in his stomach. He did not get over that reaction of his body, even though it had been fifteen years since their first date. Her face had a faint glow to it, making her look like an angel. He smiled and said, “What else would I be doing? This is the most cherished moment of my year. I’m not going to miss it.” Crystal came towards him and sat by his side. He offered a granola bar to her, but she refused it. She held his arms and placed her head on his right shoulder. He felt a warmth spreading from her touch, and it helped calm down his heart. “Have you been to Nana’s? How’s she doing?” Crystal asked. Sam smiled and replied, “Yeah, I’ve visited her last month. She is still lovely as ever. She said she missed you and your Pop.” “I miss her too. Her sweet smile had a way of brightening up my day,” she said, turning to look at him. “Did you miss me?” He looked into her glittering eyes. He gets lost in its depths whenever he looks into them. “I miss you every single moment of my life,” he said, tearing up. Her eyes welled up, and she hugged him tight. He hugged her back and kissed her on top of her head. They held it like that for a long while, and when he opened his eyes, she was not there anymore. He rubbed away the tears that had started streaming down his face and stood up, dusting himself. He walked over to a rose bush that they had planted years ago and plucked the best two roses from it. He walked over beside the waterfall, where there were two graves. The name on the headstone on one of them was Maximilian, and the other was Crystal. Sam placed roses on both of them and sat beside Crystal’s. He let out all of his welled-up emotions and started crying beside her grave. He felt in his heart that she was consoling him

George woke up to the violent rocking of the ship. He could hear the panicked screaming of his roommates as they hastily tried to get out of the sleeping chamber. The chamber door was closed shut, and everyone tried to turn the stiff wheel of the door as they were being tossed left and right. George tried to get to the door, but he had to hold on to the bedpost of his double-decked bed to not be thrown against the wall. The others finally succeeded in unlocking the door and frantically ran out into the corridors and towards the deck. George held on for dear life as every object in the room started sliding along the floor to the wall. After what felt like an eternity, George felt like he could stand upright, although unbalanced, and he quickly ran to the door of the now empty chamber, whose door had again been closed by the listing of the ship. He pulled at the handle of the metal door with all his might and got out into the corridor. His heartbeat started accelerating like a race car when he saw that there was no end in sight on either side. He also did not remember which side it was that he had to go to reach the deck. He prayed to God with all his heart and took off to the left, running as fast as he could. He ran past multiple living chambers with their doors ajar, each and every one of them empty. He closed his eyes to subdue his distress, but opened them again to the cold sensation of wetness he felt on his feet. He looked back to see water slowly starting to flow in the direction he was running and realised that the ship was starting to get flooded. But another realisation took over his mind, filling it with terror. The water flowing the way he was going could only mean one thing. He was going in the wrong direction. George cursed his wretched luck. Just then, he heard a high-pitched shriek originating from below. It made the metal walls around him rattle as if the bolts were going to come right off of them. He pushed his palms hard against his ears to shut out the awful sound. When the sound stopped, he lost no time in sprinting back the way that he had come, water splashing on each of his steps. He begged God that he had enough time to get out. The water had by now reached his ankles. George threw off his shoes and socks and ran with all his might. The corridor before him was filled with the flashing of red lights and the incessant sound of the warning siren from the speakers. After what felt like an eternity, he was confronted by a vertical flow of water. George let out a sigh of relief as he realised that he had reached the ladder that led to the top deck of the ship. He climbed up with great effort and got to the top. He wished he hadn't. The ocean was raging with all its might, rocking the ship back and forth like a swing. Lightning flashed everywhere, and the rumbling of the thunder was hurting his ears over the sound of the massive waves. It was as if the ship had been thrown into a giant shredder. He remembered his emergency drill. He ran to the part of the deck where the lifeboats were. To his utter shock, the only things that remained were the ropes that had once held the boats, which looked like they had been recently cut and were swaying in the wind. He searched the turbulent surface of the ocean for the boats. He wished that he had arrived earlier, as he did not want to die like this, stranded alone in a sinking ship. But a few moments later, he took back that wish. He spotted the yellow boats out in the distance, getting tossed about in the giant waves. He had to hold tight to the railing, not just because of the massive wind but also because of his utter horror as he watched his mates, his lifelong friends, being thrown about in the violent ocean. One by one, all of the boats except for one capsized, and the waves smashed them to pieces. He could only get a glimpse of the destruction for a moment as a giant wave closed in on the wreck, taking it all underwater. A sliver of hope rose in his heart as the last remaining boat stabilised in the mountain-like waves. But the horror of the next instant would never leave George’s eyes, if he was to even survive this hellish environment. A large black ring of massive proportions rose out of the water around the lifeboat. The water drained to the centre of the ring in a massive whirlpool, taking the lifeboat with it. George saw hundreds of massive tentacles rising out of the water around the ring in all directions. He stumbled back in utter shock. Here he was, face to face with the monster of his nightmares. Fesgedron. The legends were true. He had thought that it was only a myth, and had laughed at his grandfather when he warned him against the fury of this colossal creature, who loomed under the deep ocean and feasted on unlucky sailors during thunderstorms. George just stood there, unable to move a finger, watching the tentacles move towards his ship. They pierced the metallic hull and the wooden deck like a needle through melted butter. He was thrown off balance by the impact. The howling of the wind threatened to destroy his eardrums, but that act was done by another. A massive explosion rippled through the ship, originating from below the deck. Fesgedron split the ship in half, and George lost his grip from the railing. He slid towards the bow of the ship as he felt himself and the ship being lifted up in the air. His head filled with a high-pitched ring as the world around him turned completely dark. George suddenly sat up in his bed, breathing heavily, his heart beating like the patter of rain against the window of the sleeping chamber. He looked around and let out a deep sigh of relief, realising that it was all just a horrific nightmare. It felt so real. He got out of bed and checked the beds around him with the help of his phone's flashlight. Everything was normal, and all of his roommates were sleeping soundly. But something caught his attention. The door to the chamber was wide open, and a slow stream of water started flowing in, accompanied by shouts down the corridor

“Sleep is of such vital necessity that no matter what the evolutionary demands of an organism, even the unyielding need to swim from birth to death (as in some aquatic animals), mother nature had no choice, sleep with both sides of your brain, or sleep with one side and then switch (for some animals). Both are possible, but sleep you must. Sleep is non-negotiable.” Here I quoted the words of Sir Matthew Walker. Matthew Walker is a British author, scientist and professor of neuroscience and psychology at the University of California, Berkeley. As an academic, Walker has focused on the impact of sleep on human health. He has contributed to many scientific research studies. Why We Sleep (2017) is his first work of popular science. “Why we sleep”, the book is truly as James McConnachie from The Sunday times expressed “Compelling and utterly convincing… you’ll never think of your bedtime in the same way again” I’m not giving a review on the book, although the book and some other sources is the reason I’m writing this article. How often do we take a second to think about our sleep? How often do we sleep? We know we, as humans require eight full hours of sleep but are we really willing to give up eight hours of our day for a lifetime to sleep? Willing or not, sleep, like other life processes just like digestion or respiration, is vital. I’m not kidding, we really got to understand. sleep nourishes us, it strengthens us, it helps us forget, it helps us remember, it disposes our fatigue. We all know we shouldn’t ever skip breakfast because it’s the brain’s food, well sleep I’d say, is even more important. It’s the brain’s rest time, rehab, nourishment time as Shakespeare in Macbeth stated that sleep is “the chief nourisher in life’s feast.” One of the main things that has inspired me to write this article is that I’ve noticed my friends and classmates cutting sleep time for “something fun or cool or productive” But you have got to understand it’s not worth it!! Even if you’re staying up studying and not caring enough to sleep just 8 hours, thinking you have it all under control, you’re absolutely wrong. Not only that your performance is lowered, you’re also more prone to a variety of diseases including Alzheimer’s disease, ADHD, bipolar disease, depression, forgetfulness, even type 2 diabetes. These are all based on various studies conducted over the decades. sleep deprivation is not the cause but it’s a MAJOR contributing factor indeed. Not only does it affect our physical health, but also emotionally. Various experiments conducted have proved people to be extra emotional to stimulus when sleep deprived. You are not being productive by depriving yourself of sleep, if anything, you’re being just the opposite. It is quite interesting to know that our brains cannot get back the sleep once lost. We often feel like we can ‘sleep it off’ on the weekends, but even 2 full night of sleep which is generally the recovery sleep, is however not sufficient. We know that all the memories, temporary and permanent is sorted and assessed as we sleep. Experiments conducted in the past have shown that if you were to deprive an individual of sleep, make him learn some textbook facts and test him the following days, his efficiency would be less compared to the ones who enjoyed a full night’s sleep. This explains why sleep cannot be a ‘deal with it later’ matter. This also shows us how important it is to sleep especially, as students, to learn and remember and to enhance our memory capacity. I really hope we all just take time off of our lives and devote it to ourselves. Remember, Sleep is selfcare and any time we spend on ourselves is not wasted. I was surprised how little we discussed about the matter on hand and how we were unaware and how little we cared. I say, knowledge like this should be included in the syllabus and be taught at schools to an individual since a young age. I seriously recommend you all to read and understand more about this matter. The book why we sleep is something which I fell in love with and I recommend you all to read it. Trust me, you’ll fall in love with it too.

let’s make it precise,
mind if I steal a line?
“don’t you go too far,
The sea could drown
you to your death”
sometimes water,
sometimes blood,
better days are coming
but I wish I didn’t exist.
just to pass this phase,
or whatever is the case,
It comes in waves,
some with a better pace,
I’m not a fighter,
never was,
the sea could just
drown me,
and I’d never mind...