The chandelier had three candles. One was for the youth, the eternally young and the daughter, the little being that presented itself in all of them. The second was for the present adult, the wife or and woman, the active explorer and synthesator. The third was for mother. The bestest of them all. The eternal lover.

She belonged to the second candle. She had never been a mother. In 3583 years, she hadn't been faithful enough.

To their eternal Goddess. Divine Being. Maybe that was why misfortune always fell by her side. She never prayed good enough.

But deep down, as she looked at the chandelier that was ever present, she felt like she had never belonged to her refined kind. As if she was torn.

But at the same time, wrecking the unfortunate submarine couldn't have been any easier.

***

The scientists and the four scientist-divers were wholly huddled near the Mischievous Soul airlock. It was time to go. The duration or length of the first "ocean-walk", this hardcore scuba dive, was finally settled.

"30 minutes for the first water excursion, starting in an hour."

One and a half.

He felt like he had seen too much. The strange eerie visions kept returning, even when he was awake, and more frequently. He felt a supernatural urge to panic and get away. But he wouldn't leave. The madman, aka him, wouldn't let his bouts of paranoia stop him from helping the team. 

With a theory that wasn't truly helpful.

45 seconds to go.

He fidgeted in his diving costume, fighting the desire to get rid of it, the sheer buffness of it making it feel too tight on his body, too tight on his lungs. But, he promptly realized that his mind had projected this fear onto itself, because of sheer stress. A lot of stress.

20 seconds left.

The insane asylum-sent Led O'Donnell going to save the world.

15.

A fitting mad job for a mad person.

"10. 9. 8,..."

The clock started counting down, along with visually depicting time. Arlene, who was on the far left, grabbed his hand. The clock continued ticking, until there was nothing left to tick for.

The team plunged into the void.

***

At first it was dark. He couldn't see anything. He panicked; he wouldn't survive for 30 minutes floating in black nothingness.

Then he opened his eyes.

Apart from the light in his helmet and the submarine, nothing else illuminated the dark void all around the scientists. Also, the pressure felt humongous on his limbs. As if the scuba gear didn't help at all.

"Try to move around," Arlene said through the built-in speaker. "We've got this half-hour period to adapt to the changes, then it's showtime."

"The coordinates of the local abnormality are XX"YY'ZZ'," Smith said in a couple hours, after they had rested. "The sub has parked a few hundred meters away, to ensure the safety of the crew."

"How much would it take to get there?" Mills asked. They were in the meeting compartment, the exact same one they had been in at the start of their journey.

"30 to forty minutes, with your pace," Meddles said seriously, adjusting his spectacles while poring over some new article found in Mischievous Soul. "I asked Dianne to give us on more to finish our proof, but it's only three days so-"

"What do you mean?" Led asked.

"Three days till the world end, of course. Or are you suggesting any other-" Meddles stopped. The team looked at him. Arlene gasped. The guilt in Meddles' eyes was unmistakeable.

"Excuse me, but what the hell have you just said?" Smith said first. "It's 18 days, not 3. Don't say such things or else-"

"It's real, Will. It's real."

"How do you even know?"

The physicist didn't say anything.

"The secret's out, Mr Meddles. Don't hesitate," Arlene said gravely.

By all means, the physicist showed he wanted to do just that, but it seemed he was brutally cornered.

"The Golden Union. Miss Chaisson told me." He confessed. There was a pained expression on his face.

Everyone was shocked. But their gazes weren't only directed at him.

He turned around.

It was her in the doorstep.

"I'm sorry-"

Miss Chaisson left.

He felt so, so guilty.