Doom stands on the balcony above the Odyssey Pool, looking over it.
[ Doom ] I awoke.
He shuffles.
[ Doom ] Water had already filled my lungs. By the time I had awoken, I was drowning; suffocating induced by the submersion. No-one knew I was inside.
[ Doom ] There was nothing I could do.
[ Doom ] At first, I panicked. I couldn’t breathe or move. The water had overcome me and was taking effect. I felt trapped, but only briefly.
[ Doom ] Because once I had become accustomed to being beneath the water, I felt something different.
[ Doom ] Peace.
Doom walks down the steps of the balcony and stands beside the Pool, placing a hand on the metal outer structure.
[ Doom ] I couldn’t do anything to change my circumstance. I knew that the greater being within me would soon take over and that I was unable to escape.
[ Doom ] But being there in that moment, surrounded by the very thing I knew would be my end, I had clarity. I began to feel comfortable. I began to feel as if I was at peace.
[ Doom ] If only briefly, I could see clearly.
He walks towards a computer and begins typing. The Shark Tank appears on the screen as a series of black and white photographs.
[ Doom ] We all have our own tanks.
Doom touches the screen.
[ Doom ] I understand you, Drexl. I do. I sympathise with your predicament. You’ve sat in the putrid waters of the red light district and felt them fill your lungs.
[ Doom ] It must’ve felt like you were drowning.
[ Doom ] After a while, you had to make a choice. You could try and fight back against the water filling your lungs and depriving you of oxygen, or you could accept your fate.
He laughs with a sinister undertone.
[ Doom ] When Tombstone destroyed your home and the floodgates opened, it would’ve felt like you were struck with clarity. It would’ve felt like you became one with the water. Everything would’ve been realized in your minds eye. You’d have known what you needed to be, or what you needed to do.
[ Doom ] And you became a Shark.
[ Doom ] The water changes you, doesn’t it?
[ Doom ] It makes you become what you’ve always needed to become.
[ Doom ] It changed me.
[ Doom ] The difference between us is a vital one, Drexl. I emerged from my tank. I spat the water from my lungs and I rose up. I took that clarity from drowning and used it.
[ Doom ] You’re still trapped beneath the surface.
[ Doom ] That makes you vulnerable. That makes you reliant on the tank in which you’ve become accustomed.
[ Doom ] And one might question, scientifically, what would happen if that tank broke and the water rushed out.
[ Doom ] Would the Shark then flap on the floor, dying?
[ Doom ] That would appear… true.
[ Doom ] As we will all come to learn next week. Until then, Shark – enjoy the water.