A Series of Sadness

Part 3

I stared out of the balcony as Jeong-Ho slept. It was 1 am, but I couldn't sleep. I stared at the sea looking at the calm, no choppy, no stormy sea.

I continued looking until I realised the tide seemed to be coming further and further in. All hell broke loose. A wave of water engulfed the building, trapping us inside. We were on the top floor, so we only wet our feet, but we were still in danger, as the building collapsed. Jeong-Ho woke up screaming and flailing through the air. We hit the water with pain like I had never experienced before. Imagine slapping a stone wall. Now multiply that pain by one hundred and you are still not close. It burned, like someone had set fire to my skin, even though we were drenched in ice-cold water. It reminded me of diving in swimming, with one million times the pain. But that was before our parents... left us. Now we would be joining them. My lungs screamed for air as I sank, my sleepshirt inflating like a balloon as even the air on my skin was engulfed. I wanted to squeeze them away, but there were more important things at hand. First, I was drowning. Second, my brother was also drowning, and if I didn't help him, he'd have no chance. I took a huge gulp of sweet, sweet air and then submerged my head. I tried to find him, but the murky water was impossible to see through. Finally, a dark shape appeared, and I hugged him close. I could tell he was running out of breath and I kicked upwards with all my strength, trying to channel all my energy simultaneously into swimming towards the surface and grasping my flailing brother. At the same time, my eyes watered and I made a mental note to grab a pair of goggles before WILLINGLY JUMPING INTO A TSUNAMI. But it was not the time for that. I could make it. My best static apnea was five minutes. Obviously, considering how much I was exerting myself, it wouldn't be that long, but I could do this. I took a deep breath in, then remembered I was underwater. Dirty water swirled up my nose and I panicked. I lashed out, my legs flapping about like a dying pigeon. So this was how I would die. Underwater. Thrashing as the final wisps of oxygen escaped my lungs, watching as the same happened to my brother. His eyes would roll back in his head, his body limp. He would sink, and so would I. And when our corpses were finally found, nobody would care. We were just nameless orphans, after all. All we had ever had since the crash was each other. We would die together too. I suppose there were worse ways to end. Then darkness took over, and everything went black.