The Water Village

You were frolicking with your brother and 2 other girls at the top floor of a building, designed in a way that 3 quarter of it was submerged into the water. Not only that the lower levels were surrounded by sea water, they contained the water as well. You wondered about your whereabouts. Situated in the middle of the Arctic Ocean, this is the Water Village.

That night, the sea rumbles as it tumbles, as if the Hindu Gods, deities and demons were back in action, churning the sea harder than before, trying their best to churn elixir out of it. The waves were so rough that it could split a cruise instantly into 2. 

Unaffected by the catastrophe outside, 4 of you lingered around for awhile after the gathering like always, until there was a sudden alarm that the building was about to collapse. The 4 of you dispersed. You and your brother stayed behind as the girls hurriedly escaped through the only portal that would be able to bring the 4 of you to the lower foyer for a safe exit.

You were grumbling about the foolish design of the building but it was useless. The building shook violently as the rough waves hit on the walls profusely. The structure looked as though it was indeed going to topple over in another minute. You started to panic and doubt about your own safety. Just as you wondered if you could escape this alive, there was a pat on your shoulder.

How hard you wished it was a pat to wake you up from a nightmare but it wasn’t. It was a pat followed by a tug and a smack on your cheek by your brother to remind you about the danger you were in. Swiftly, you and your brother swam to the exit as the both of you went deeper and deeper into the ocean. What kind of design was this, you wondered. People were supposed to get wet in Water Village because the entrances to all premises were constructed in a way that they were all under the ocean.

Finally, you and your sibling were out from that concrete. You were having short breaths then because your body needed to compensate for the oxygen debt it owed. Before you could rest any further, you were told to swim through the waves to the nearest dock in order to be rescued. It wasn’t actually a strenuous task to swim against the waves for the people of the Water Village. They were all trained since young to swim like dolphins and fish.

You see your brother way ahead of you. Not wasting anymore time, you put up a chase to catch up with him. Soon, you had forgotten about the 2 girls you were with as they were nowhere in sight. You focused so hard on saving yourself and catching up with your brother that you didn’t notice the premise you were previously in didn’t actually collapse as alerted. 

You were swimming as though you were competing for the gold medal in an Olympic freestyle swimming competition. You then slowed down as the sight of the fins of killer whales bothered you. Since young, you had phobia towards whales because they almost ate you up after mistaking you as a small fish. This time round wouldn’t be of any difference, you thought. You were right. In a blink of an eye, you were hit a few meters back by the fin of the whale. Struggling to regain your balance, you saw through another attempted attack by the whale and managed to escape.

Luck would not be on your side every time, you said to yourself. Quickly, you hid yourself under a concrete slab that was not easily reachable by the whale. But the whale didn’t give up. It waited patiently for you to fall, just as how would a Raptor await you below a tree as you hung unstably on a tiny tree branch that could not bear your weight. Clenching on to the slab, you closed your eyes once again and prayed for miracles to happen.

Your brother was already safe and sound in a cabin, holding a cup of hot tea in his hands, with a thick blanket shielding him from the cold and forgetting all about you, you thought. Fortunately, you thought wrong this time. Just as you were about to slip, he came right back for you in a rescue ship, throwing a float to you. The blaring engine of the ship somehow scared the whale away. As if he was once trained to be in a rescue team, he pulled you on board like a professional and escorted you towards the small cabin.

As you got yourself seated beside the furnace to warm yourself up, the rescue ship sailed away. The loud clanking noise from the control room above convinced the both of you that you were not alone. But the illusions stopped when you and your brother headed out of the cabin as the ship slowed down and came to a halt.

Weird, your brother thought. He remembered coming to your salvation with a crew. Now, the wheel was left turning on its own. Obviously, the crew abandoned the ship, but the reason remained uncertain. You picked up a torch, switched it on and shone it to your surroundings. What came into sight wasn’t clear blue sea water anymore, but a muddy water covered with dead fishes. Empty shelters were all over the place, as if something horrible had happened around here. Not a soul was found. The deafening silence and darkness sent a tingling cold down your spine.

It was during that moment that something from below gave the bottom of the ship a powerful blow, overturning the ship. You and your brother were thrown overboard. Fortunately enough, you hung on to a rope. Soon, you found yourself back on your feet, standing on a big flat piece of wood that kept you afloat. Unfortunately, your brother plunged into the water and was nowhere in sight. As you called out for him, all you could hear were none other than the echoes you made. You became agitated when you brother failed to show up.

In the water, your brother struggled to swim to the surface. To make matters worse, the water was too saturated that it acted like quick sand. The more he struggled, the deeper he sank. On the surface, you reached out into the water and hoped to get hold of your brother’s hand. After various attempts, the results were negative. You panicked more.

At the verge of giving up, you estimated the last possible spot your brother would have sunk and gave it a final shot. You felt something moving and you grabbed it. Thank God, it was your brother’s hand and not something otherworldly. As if with God’s strength, you pulled him up with full force. He was covered with thick mud and was almost out of breath. He was glad for that rescue of yours and was thankful that he’s still alive.

With the help of a torn branch, you skated off that creepy place. Soon, you came to a brightly-lit premise. Peeping through a crevice on the aluminium wall, you saw throngs of people seated before a leader who was sketching some kind of a master plan on a green board. Among those people, you recognized familiar faces from the Water Village and 2 of them were your best friend, the 2 girls who were with you and your brother back at the village.

Not long after you realized you were being betrayed, the guards who were guarding the entrance to the premise spotted your presence. With all your might, you paddled as fast as you could. While you escaped, your thoughts were disturbed by the betrayal act of your villagers. No matter how hard you think, you couldn’t find yourself the best reason for the perfidious act.

Was it something that you had done? Was it your behavior? Was it something you unintentionally expressed that you deserved this kind of treatment? From that moment, you never fail to look at yourself in the mirror everyday as you try to comprehend how others look at you. You try to better yourself as you mend your ways. You discard all your abominable and disrespectful behaviors that may have previously caused great discomfort to the people around you without your consciousness.

Because of that particular incident, you changed...