WINGS • a short story bundle

Drowning in notes of water

"Keep playing!" The captain screams at us "You have to keep playing to calm down those unfortunate souls".

But what about us?

The innocent notes of Artemis echo through the open restaurant on the deck. I don't want this, I dont want to keep playing, I want to get off this cruise so I don't fucking drown while playing my piano.

Sera her voice is weak, scared, but still beautiful, beautiful like the waves in the ocean during the night. The same waves that now take the cruise down.

The screams make me want to cry even harder, I can't read the sheets in front of me anymore, I have to play by memory. Everything is blurry, my eyes hurt, my hands are shaking.

You have to keep playing.

Sera looks at me, tears streaming down her face. She's still singing. I'm still playing, fast, beautiful as always. Ella is still making the harmony with the beautiful strings of her violin. I don't understand how we manage to keep playing, keep calming the panicking people down, while we're here, scared.

Almost everyone is in the lifeboats, they are safe. Safe from this drowning cruise. Why does this captain want us to keep playing. It is his job to keep everyone safe, even in a storm, not let three teenagers behind so they can make music. But that is exactly what he is doing. He is leaving us behind.

Almost the whole cruise is now under water, it's a matter of time before we will go down to. I don't understand that no one is coming back for us, no one is speaking up for us. Everyone is gone.

The captain looks at us "Thank you" He says, and then walks away. He's leaving us behind.

My feet are under water now, the water is slowly, but too fast, rising and rising and rising and rising...

Sera her mic cuts out, my piano crashes, you only hear the sad notes of the violin playing. Ella doesn't stop, she looks at us with tears streaming down her face, mixing with the water.

One last breath.

— We drowned before we could finish the song, so now we're stuck between life and death, playing the song over and over again, but stopping ten seconds away from the end. Someone has to finish it, someone has to save us. Someone has to play the last b- minor so we can go to the other side. But no one will ever save us, the tears we once cried will continue to stream down our faces. Those tears will continue to mix with the dark blue ocean water around us. No one will ever save us because we're deep in the ocean, no one comes here, and no one will ever look this far for the last three remaining passengers on the cruise that had to be the most fun time of our life.

That cruise ended in tragedy. It ended in playing the same song over and over again for eternity.