My first thought as the sea closed over me was a strange one. I am free—! The larger part of me flailed in utter terror, fighting to reach the surface again as the air began to burn in my lungs, but I had been tossed and turned until I had no notion of which way might be up, and the heavy blackness of the stormy ocean crushed me from all sides. I am drowned, I thought. Then, a moment later, as the darkness around me passed into me as well, and life began to sputter out, I thought again, with sorrow but also relief, I am free.
