Death by the sea

CW: violence/murder

I took my jackets off that night, jumped into bed and my eyes drifted off into the dark of the night.

Soon I was standing a little away from the seashore. The night sky had a dreadful shade of black with a tinge of blood-red in it. The silver claw of the crescent moon was sharply defined. 

My hair fluttered in the wind as I watched the waves beat endlessly against the rocks.

I saw two figures moving near the shore, so, I started approaching them. Little did I know that it was the worst decision I ever made.

The closer I was to the sea, the clearer my sight got. There were two men arguing with each other. They were screaming at each other. 

They were family. One was the son and the other was the father. 

They saw me.

The father looked at me. He looked straight into my eyes. A shiver went down my spine. But I did go to them. 

Oh! I shouldn’t have.

I was looking at his son. He was looking at me. I could see the tears forming in his bright green eyes almost as if he were a little boy whose ball went merrily bouncing into the water and the only way to get it back was to swim. But how could he swim when he was afraid of the water? How could he swim when he knew that if he stepped into the water, he would drown?

 His father’s lips took a crooked shape, something almost like a devilish smirk and he said, “Time to take your medicine, boy.”

I was still looking at his son - how his fists were clenched, how his fingernails dug into his skin, how tears were running down his hot, flushed cheeks while he was gasping for air.

He shrieked. His father pulled him back firmly by grabbing the scruff of his collar at the back of his neck and dragged him into the salty waters of the sea.

My heartbeat was getting faster as each second passed. I could rip my heart out at this point, honestly.

"You are nothing but an absolute embarrassment in the shape of a human to me, the same way your mother was.", he said through his teeth as he grasped his son's throat on the seabed and drowned his face into the water.

I could hear the muffled cries. I could see the hands moving uselessly in the air above the water trying to remove his father's hands from his throat.

He pulled him back. 

"Father, please. I promise I will be good. I will do whatever you ask of me. I-I Please don't do this to me.", he screamed.

"You are a coward. The only thing you are good at is to be a disappointment.", his father replied as he drowned his son's head again into the water.

"Father, p-please. I c-cant. I can't breathe."

He drowned his head again but this time he didn't pull his son's head back up. I could still see his hands grasping his son's throat. He was choking him.

Oh my god! He is choking him. He is going to kill his own son. I panicked and ran towards him.

When I reached his side, I could no longer hear those cries. I could no longer see those arms which tried to pry his father's hands away. I could no longer hear the small, ragged gasps escaping his throat. 

Neither of us spoke but I don't think I had ever heard silence quite this loud. I felt like my chest just exploded and my heart just burst out of my ribcage. My legs were shaking. My limbs went numb. 

I fell to the ground. Tears blurred my sight. They fell drop by drop on the body that lay before me.

He was dead. He was choked to death. He died. I lost my brother. 

I touched his neck. It was cold but my palm felt like it was on fire. 

"He's dead.", I mumbled to my uncle who stood to my left.

I looked up at him only to find him completely unbothered about what he did. It seemed as if he didn't care. Why would I even be surprised? He hated his son.

I, somehow, brought myself to stand up. "HE IS DEAD. YOU CHOKED HIM TO DEATH.", I screamed at my uncle and thrashed my hands against his broad shoulders with tears running down my cheeks. My eyes were burning because of the tears. 

"Well, he at least got his medicine.", my uncle said and walked away.

I pressed my lips. "He's dead.", I cried. I looked at my brother's corpse. "I'm so sorry. I hope you rest in peace.", I whispered into his ears, kissed his forehead and bid him goodbye.

The waves came and went. They took his body into the waters. I stood in the exact same position as before until I could no longer see his body.

I scoffed. I looked up at the sky. The crescent moon no longer bore its silvery claw. I searched for the stars in the sky. I searched for them as if there already weren't enough dying stars in my sky. 

There was an ache in my heart. My throat felt as if it was burning. I couldn't breathe. It is the way you feel when you are strapped with a jacket that is connected to a bomb, the button for the bomb is handed over to you and you know the exact time when it is going to explode. I was gasping for air. My body jerked. Someone was shaking me. 

My eyes opened. 

"Oh my God! Are you okay?", my mom asked me.

I just stared at her for a minute while she ran her hands through my hair. "I don't think I am. I had a bad dream.", I replied.

"Oh, sweetie! Did you have a nightmare? Do you wanna talk about it?"

I shook my head. "This is my worst nightmare."