Brenden woke up coughing water as the sunlight hit his eyes. He groaned as he tried to readjust his eyesight to the harsh light. His hands flew to the ground, expecting to feel the comfort of a bed, and felt grains of sands on his fingers.
His eyes shot open.
"Where… Where am I?"
"We're on an island, brother."
Brenden looked around to see Aaron, his older brother. Brenden tried to hug Aaron buy is immediately pushed away to the sand.
"Don't try and hug me, Brenden." Aaron growled.
"How could you say that, brother?" Brenden said, surprised.
"Thanks to you and your little cruise ship win, Damon is now gone and our parents are knocked out." Aaron snapped. "Look! Our mom and dad are out cold!"
Brenden turns to see that his mother and father are both lying on the sand next to the two brothers, completely unconscious.
"No way… They couldn't be…"
Brendan raised his hand and pressed two fingers on the pulse of his mom and dad.
He could sense a pulse.
"They're still alive." Brenden sighed in relief.
"Good. Tell that to the many people that aren't." Aaron spat.
"What's your problem? I didn't do anything! It was that storm that rocked that ship!"
"Technically, it was a cruise that you won. So you're complicit in our current situation."
"That doesn't even make any sense!" Brenden snapped back. "Why are you guilt tripping me like that, man?" Brenden whimpered. "Why?"
Aaron paused for a moment. He needed to take a few seconds to think about what he was doing. Is blaming his little brother going to bring Damon back? The guy just woke up, after all, Aaron should cut Brenden some slack.
After a minute, Aaron sighed. "I'm sorry, Brenden. I just… I just can't get that image of Damon being thrown off the ship out of my head. That look on Damon's face as he was falling overboard… " Aaron sniffed. "That scarred me, man. No one should ever experience that."
Aaron sniffled as he embraced Brenden.
"I understand, Aaron." He said, patting his older brother on the back. "I miss Damon, too, but we shouldn't fight over him. We have to work together to find our way back home, maybe even finding Damon again."
Aaron wiped his eyes, grief still in his eyes. "How can we ever find Damon, Brendan? He's in the sea. What could we ever do? Find a mermaid or something?"
"That's a good question." Brenden answered. "Whatever the way to finding Damon, we should start by trying to pay attention to current island location. Maybe there's something around the island that's interesting."
"Oh yeah." Aaron replied. "I never thought of that. I was just so… emotional after what happened last night that I never thought this island might have some history. Good thinking, little brother."
Brenden smiled. "I've learned my ways of thinking from you."