The Boat, continued

As we were speaking, suddenly a huge wave smashed into the side of the boat, it jolted us to one side and we were all thrown several feet across the room. Suddenly we heard a scream and some commotion outside. A man had fallen overboard and you could hear him screaming for help. We rushed outside to see if there was anything we could do to help, and, spotting a life preserver ring, we threw it into the water and he began swimming towards it, struggling to not be swept away further from the boat than he already was. 

When the water touched him, oddly, it seemed to begin to clot and thicken into a dark, thick, tar-like film and it started to collect in his hair, and over his eyes and ears. It obstructed his vision and muffled his hearing, and yet, between the sounds of the waves and the winds you could hear some subtle whispers which he began to respond to and which he strangely seemed to hear and understand very clearly, on the other hand, we couldn't make out what was being said. We could hear him continue to converse with them, and then slowly he stopped heading in the direction of the life preserver. He then shouted to us, "Nevermind! I'm realizing now that I actually don’t mind whatever this stuff is that's on me, or being down here. Even though this stuff is covering me, what's amazing is that I can actually see and hear more clearly now, better than ever! I don't even feel like fighting the waves anymore, the voices said I can just sink and I will be taken to somewhere where I can always feel like this."

Meanwhile, the waters became more rough and the wind speeds began picking up dramatically. Rain began pouring down with such intensity and speed that it got to a point where we could barely see where we were going and the violent swaying of the boat further threw us off balance. We were now in grave danger of being thrown overboard ourselves.