Drifter

There was a burning pain in my shoulders from being under the sun for too long. And I would so often wince when water touches the injured part. Yet I welcomed the torment for it was the only thing keeping me awake.

After drifting in the ocean for two whole days, exhaustion and hunger would eat you from the core. The infinite water in front of you would play with your sanity until you could no longer think clearly. You would feel survival is merely a far-fetched dream. And for once in my life, I had to admit defeat. The fuel-driven woman who sent men twice her age to their knees was now succumbing to the idea of her untimely demise.

For the first time in my life, there was a game that I didn’t need to win. And maybe, just maybe it was okay to give up.

“Lea,” whispered my fiancée, his voice cracked with each letter.

“Yes, Babe?” I asked squinting my eyes through the blinding light of the mighty sun. I had no idea what time it was, I didn’t even know if it was two days or two weeks. Our sense of time was muddled along with chance of survival.

“Don’t you dare let go of my hand, okay?” he warned though his voice was trembling, the conviction in his words sent a wake-up call to my system. “You got to promise, okay?” His hand tightened its grip on mine.

I felt my chest become heavy as tears involuntarily fell down the side of my eyes. “I’m sorry. It’s just—” I choked, my throat had never felt drier in my life, “everything is so painful. Everything hurts Troy. No one is coming for us…I want to sleep. I want all of it to be just a bad dream.”

A big splash came to my right, Troy pounded the water with his free hand, burning my back in the process. “No. Don’t talk nonsense. You are going places, Babe. You are not staying here. Someone is coming, you just have to stay awake. I know, I know you can make it. You will make it.”

I cried shaking my head, “But I’m tired. I couldn’t even feel my own legs and have you seen your face? You look like a damn raisin! We cannot survive another night in here!"

“Dammit, Lea. Listen to me when I say you are going home, you are.”

“But I’m scared…”

“Don’t be. I’m here. I’m always right here.” He smiled at me tracing the bridge of my nose with his thumb.”

“What if …”

“Sshh…once we get home, I will cook you your favorite dish. We will watch movies until dawn. We will do everything we haven’t done before, we will make the most of our time.”

I smiled, and the tension in my heart dissipated. Even with our situation, he was able to put me back into my senses.

The day dragged along with no rescuers in sight, the incident happened in the midst of nowhere. The explosion was too big, that I wasn’t sure if any crew of the ship survived. There wasn’t even a single soul wherever I look besides us. But what terrified me more was that anytime soon, a shark will find its way to us. I had no energy left to defend ourselves nor Troy who had been moaning with pain all day long.

I turned to my right, Troy was pointing somewhere in the sky. “What is it, Babe?”

“M-make a wish…there’s a shooting star,” he stuttered in cold.

I looked from where he was pointing but there was no shooting star instead it was a light that was getting nearer. The realization struck me in instant, I flailed my hands in the air. “Hey! Hey! In here! In here!” I shouted ignoring the pain in my throat.

Soon, hands were reaching for us as we were pulled to a small boat. Unfamiliar language filled my ears yet there was a fleeting feeling inside me. I could finally be asleep. I could finally claim victory.

When I cracked my eyes open, I was in a white room with beeping machines on my side. A nurse pointed lights at my eyes and asked me questions about my identity which I gladly answered.

“Where is my fiancée?” I asked the moment she was done questioning me.

There was a confused look in the nurse before she put up a hand, “Wait a moment, I will just check with the other nurse.”

An hour passed before the nurse came back with the doctor in her tow. “Where is my fiancée?” I asked once again.

“I’m afraid you came to the hospital alone. Nurse Sarah called the villagers who found you and they said you were with no one. You were rescued alone,” the doctor explained.

I anchored my elbow and pulled myself to sit, “No. no. no. That couldn’t be right, I was with him! He was holding my hand!” I raised my left hand, “I could even feel his hand right now. He held my hand for almost three days, always reprimanding me from letting it go.” I burst into tears shaking my head uncontrollably. “It can be real, he was with me the whole time.”

“I’m sorry,” the doctor said as a cold needle pressed into my arm and darkness embraced me.

“Lea, wake up Babe.”

I fluttered my eyes open to see Troy smiling at me. Tears immediately welled up my sight, “Where have you been? They said you were gone. That you weren’t there the whole time.”

Troy frowned at me, “I’m sorry. I had made my task, I pulled you to safety, from now on you go to do it alone. You got to be braver than ever.”

“What are you talking about? You were there the whole time! You were with me!”

Troy shook his head, “No. Not physically.“

Confusion etched in my brain as flashes of memories came back to me all at once. The empty hand tied with bodages and the conversations I had with myself.

I wailed crying as a part of myself get stripped away.

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