At this moment a million thoughts were going through Karza’s head at once.
He wanted to forget he was in danger. He wanted to find out where Lily and Anita were. He wanted to swim towards Andrea. He wanted a solution to this. He wanted to protect everyone. He wanted to stop being afraid.
Confused as he was, a clear thought came into his mind.
He dived back down and started kicking all he could to where he believed was the shore. He knew it made him a coward not to try rescuing his friends. But he simply couldn’t. He was too traumatized by his own fear. And his rational self also reminded him of what he learnt in his first-aid course, the rescuer’s own safety was always the first checkbox to be ticked before anything else.
The night seemed to have lasted long but he couldn’t remember.
The next thing he saw when he opened his eyes was him back on the shore, lying on the exact same rock that he was sitting on before the dive that might or might not have killed his entire group.
He sat up and began gazing at the now calming sea. It was beautiful and soothing. If anyone had stared at it enough, they too would’ve forgotten its sharp claws and teeth when it swallowed their friends whole. The sea was so cruel, yet so motherlike.
Karza simply couldn’t comprehend his feelings, so he gave up and started looking around. He turned around and behind him, it was Andrea and the stranger white male. They were taking off their wetsuits that were still dripping with water. It was always difficult to pull the wetsuit off the skin when wet. The wetsuit moved reluctantly and began squeaking.
Karza felt the heat in his blood.
He wanted to hug her but he was too tired, so he simply kept sitting and trying to hold back his tears.
“But I couldn’t find Lily and Anita.”
It was the faceless voice speaking. It had to be him rescuing all of them.
His eardrums continued vibrating but he didn’t know if it was the voice that kept on speaking or his own thoughts articulating. Being someone who was overprotective his whole life, Karza had long been accustomed to the voices in his head whenever he failed to protect someone.
Suddenly the voice was replaced by voices, and the serious tone became lighthearted chitchats.
Karza turned around and was surprised by what he saw. He hadn’t a clue since when the shore was filled up by his secondary schoolmates from other classes. He could barely recognize some of the faces; for those he recognised despite not seeing them for years, they looked exactly the same as during their teenage years. They were chitchatting and laughing in groups of five or so. Some of them ran past him and jumped into the water.
He was watching the schoolmates playing in the water. And he saw them swimming towards a medium-sized yacht that appeared out of nowhere. He didn’t question the sudden appearance of the yacht as he was too distracted by the good time his schoolmates were having.
Maybe I should also take a quick swim?
He then leaped smoothly into the sea like a dolphin without splashing too much.
Being surrounded by warm sea water without a wetsuit felt refreshing. The supposedly frightening water cleared his mind. He felt like he had almost forgotten about the crazy night. In fact, he could now barely remember the disappearance, or potentially death, of his two friends.
He swam back to the surface and combed his hair back with his fingers. He noticed his schoolmates were already getting on the yacht. He dived back down headfirst using the butterfly stroke, and continued thrusting his way to the yacht using butterfly kicks.
There was a gate right in front of the staircase that would lead to the main deck. It was probably designed this way to prevent people from boarding from the front. Karza saw the staircase extending to about a metre below the sea level. He could’ve easily swum around the yacht and board like any sane person would do. However, he had his eyes locked on the small opening in the middle of the gate which was slightly big enough to let one person through. This could be a shortcut relative to taking a detour around the yacht, but wouldn’t it be unnecessarily dangerous? Yet, he gave it no thought and sped towards the opening.
He easily got his head through the gate. Then his shoulders.
Suddenly, the opening seemed to have narrowed. His felt his waist being held tight by the edges of the opening. It was as if he had been preyed on by a crocodile. The crocodile held the wildebeest’s hind leg and waited calmly until it drowned. No matter how hard Karza was trying to push his way through, it was no use. The opening would not even bulge the slightest.
Karza was running out of oxygen. He panicked. He needed air. His vision narrowed. His arm weakened. His kicks slowed down. He was desperate.
Just as he was about to pass out, the opening let go of him. He quickly swam to the staircase and resurfaced.
He was gasping for air.
Having waited until the heart stopped beating crazily, he calmed his mind and followed the stairs.
The staircase ended at the back of the passenger deck. He saw a few of his schoolmates, whom he didn’t actually recognise, having fun at the front of the deck. He quietly walked towards them. Having walked past a dozen rows of seats, he mindlessly turned his head in an attempt to glance at the passengers.
He gasped.
He gasped harder than when he nearly drowned.