Lost Alone

Ziya

Half asleep, I coughed as I’d never coughed before. I ended up puking out some salty water which hurt like hell. When I was done, I was fully awake and feeling horrible.

Holy crap. My whole body felt sore.

I found myself laying on top of a hard and gritty surface. When my hand dug into wet scrunching grains, I knew it was sand I laid upon. What had happened to me? I tried to think of the last recollection I had and it all came back to me again.

The cruise ship.

Chaos. Panic. People who cried.

The cold seawater I found myself drowning in.

Oh, God. The ship sank.

My head throbbed, just like my heart did. After I finally succeeded in opening my eyes, I immediately regretted it. The blazing sun was too fucking bright. My mouth was dry and my throat was stinging.

“Ugh…” I muttered, trying to roll on my back. Where the fuck was I? A beach? Was I going to die? No wait, did I die already? Please, this couldn’t be heaven, could it be? If it was, then please, God, send me back.

Wait. Who was I?

Ziya, twenty-six years old, owner of my own little webshop, daughter, sister, friend. Yes, I still remembered. And I had spoiled myself with a vacation, which, apparently, ended in a disaster.

Oh, God. My parents? What would they say if they found out the ship had sunk? They must go crazy with worries. They must be so sad.

Suddenly the sun was gone. Maybe it was hell I’d ended up in?

“It’s alright, you’re safe.” A voice spoke. It was a low voice, a man’s voice.

I looked up which was a little easier without the sun and saw him kneeling before he hovered over me. It was him who brought the shade.

“W-where are w-we?” I asked with a raspy voice and coughed again.

“I don’t know, but I think it’s just you and me here,” he replied, touching my forehead for a brief moment. “Can you stand up?” he then asked.

“I don’t know. I... I can h-hardly speak,” I answered.

“Ok, then I’ll try to carry you because I think we need to get out of this bright sun or we’ll face even greater problems.”

~

I don’t know how long I was out of it again, but I woke up when the stranger poured some water into my mouth. I felt I was leaning against something hard, I think it was a tree trunk.

“Just a little bit... there you go,” he said, drizzling some more in my mouth. “Little by little, or you’ll start coughing again.”

I looked up at his face and was a little surprised by his extremely good looks for someone who just washed ashore. I’m sure that I looked like a fucking wreck. It was certainly how I felt.

“I’m Max,” he said.

“Z... Ziya.”

Max seemed younger than I was. He was athletically built, had light brown skin, and beautiful hazel-colored eyes. His black hair was shimmering with sweat. Just as his half-naked tattooed body was.

Just because I laid here half-dead didn’t mean I couldn’t still observe things. And I just observed that Max was pretty damn hot.

“Good that you still remember who you are,” he said. “Do you also remember what happened?”

“I do. The ship got into some accident and sank,” I answered. He nodded his head in acknowledgment. “Oh, God, all those people,” I whispered. “There probably are so many people that didn’t make it…”

I hadn’t even thought about that before, but the realization just hit me and I started to cry.