adomania [ONE-SHOTS]

sunken

ORANGE BELT / 800 words: (Definitely not my best work, but I got my first COVID vaccine a few days ago and have been really sick ever since. I don't have time the next two days, so this has to work, yey. Good luck to all the other writers!)

It was a beautiful day at the beach, the sun was shining with no clouds in sight. Jenna was half asleep on her towel. She and her best friend had spent the past few days in her car, driving through the country with no destination in mind. They had decided that today would be the perfect day to sunbathe at the beach before they'd continue their road trip.

"Are you asleep?" Thomas asked her, sitting down next to her, thoroughly wet. He grinned at Jenna, but the girl only glared back.

"Aren't you going to join me in the water?"

"It's ice cold."

"You're a wimp," he laughed. "It's not that bad."

"Ugh," was all he got back. Jenna was nearly asleep again.

It was only minutes later when Jenna opened her eyes again. It was quiet. Too quiet. She sat up, quickly scanning her surroundings. Something felt off.

Thomas was on his phone; he hadn't noticed anything.

"The birds," Jenna whispered. Just minutes ago, she had heard seagulls and other birds at the otherwise empty beach.

Thomas looked up. "What?"

Jenna ignored him. She stared at the ocean in front of her. It took her several seconds to realise what was wrong. The water. It wasn't there. Not where it was supposed to be. It had been only a few meters away from her feet.

"Oh god," she breathed, threat filling every fibre of her body. She knew what was going on. She had grown up in this country; she had learned all about the signs.

Thomas was confused; he had seen the scared expression on his friend's face. And he knew that it took a lot to scare Jenna.

The girl jumped to her feet, grabbing his arm.

"Run!" She cried, dragging her friend with her, away from the beach. Thomas tripped after her.

"Jenna?"

"Hurry!"

"Jenna, what the fuck?" He sounded angry while he tried to slow down. Jenna didn't let him.

There was a strange noise behind them. A low rumbling, slowly but surely getting louder. "Run, Thomas! Tsunami!" Jenna's voice was thick with fear.

They stumbled over the beach, not anymore noticing the hot sand burning their naked feet. After an endless minute, the beach ended in a patch of grass, filled with palm trees that bent under a sudden and strong wind.

Jenna practically dragged Thomas with her; panic filled her.

"Run, Thomas!" Her voice cracked. The boy tried his best to keep up with her, even though his friend was a lot smaller than her.

The rumbling sound got louder, closer. It reminded Thomas of a fast approaching train.

The water hit them only seconds after they had left the palm trees behind them. Jenna's car was still far away, out of sight.

Thomas' hand slipped out of hers when the water threw her off her feet, hitting her with an immense force. She felt herself getting dragged down, before her body was slammed against something in the water. Maybe it was the ground, maybe a tree, maybe a house. She couldn't have guessed it.

Other objects hit her out of nowhere, from seemingly every direction. She was like a leaf in a storm, getting thrown around, with no control.

The only thing Jenna knew was that she was running out of air, but she didn't know where up or down was.

Where was Thomas? She needed to breath!

Her leg got stuck in something, and a burning pain filled her body as she was momentarily held back, standing still in the fast moving water. She opened her eyes as a reaction to the pain, the saltwater immediately burning. But it was nothing compared to the pain in her leg. She screamed silently underwater.

Then, once again, the enormous force of the water grabbed her, pulling her leg away from its captor.

She needed air more than ever.

Something hit her back, throwing her forward – and up! She was already on the verge of passing out when cold wind hit her face.

Jenna breathed in air and water. Waves crashed over her head, dragging her down only to re-emerge again seconds later. Jenna was usually a good swimmer, but she had no chance against nature's disaster.

Somewhere far away, she could hear someone cry out her name. Thomas!

The second wave of the Tsunami crashed over them. Its force was worse, much worse than the first one. Hadn't Jenna been fighting for her life (and therefore been terribly busy); she would have remembered that the second wave was always worse.

She was underwater again. Black dots danced behind her closed eyelids. She had forgotten about any pain until her head was thrown against a hard object. She was unconscious before she felt it or saw the blood in the water around her.