The Water's Grasp and the Whispered Life
Stand up, you bitch! Open your eyes already! If you saved me, you owe me everything—dying here? No way. Get up right now!
How am I supposed to do this? What am I supposed to do?
Should I just leave this woman behind and go?
Before my eyes, Elia twisted in agony, flailing like a fish out of water. She was fighting to hold her breath, but anyone could see she was at her absolute limit.
‘I almost died trying to save her too.’
Anyone who didn’t know how dangerous it is to pull a drowning person out of the water? That fool who ends up becoming a ghost herself.
Right now, I had to push forward alone. This kind of mess didn’t happen once—it happened again and again.
‘This woman just gave me oxygen.’
The woman who saved a complete stranger like me, who sacrificed her own life for mine.
The white hair of Elia, starting to sink, drifted listlessly in the murky water.
Guilt? What a joke.
I had to judge this coldly. It was sad, but the woman was already gone. Soon her breath would stop, or maybe she was already dead. If I wanted to save her, I had to close my eyes and push forward.
The feeling of giving her air in the filth clung to my ankle and wouldn’t let go.
Red ground her teeth.
“……”
I had already planned to blast her brains out with a pistol in the building corridor. If I abandoned her to die alone, I’d feel like shit even in hell.
‘I’m going to die anyway. I won’t abandon my conscience at the end, fuck.’
Red spun my body around. I grabbed Elia’s waist with all my strength as she sank into the water.
With one arm locked around her neck, I thrashed my remaining arm and both legs like a madman.
Carrying the weight of an adult woman, thrashing through the sludge—it was unimaginable pain.
The oxygen I’d taken from Elia was burning away at a terrifying speed.
My leg muscles felt like they were about to tear. The water pressure crushed my entire body.
‘Just a little longer, fuck… just a little longer…!’
Red had also reached her limit. My vision blackened, and the thread of consciousness was about to snap.
Splash!
Air appeared above my head. The exit.
“Puhahahat!”
Red screamed and frantically searched for air.
“Kuhk! Khlk! Hah… hah… hah!”
With tears, snot, and murky filth all mixed up, Red pulled Elia up to the surface with everything I had. Our soaked bodies collapsed onto the hard concrete floor.
“Hah… hah… kuhk… hah…”
Red lay flat on the ground, clutching her chest, gasping for breath.
Whether this hole led somewhere or if the spore storm reached here—no difference.
Right now, none of that mattered.
There was air. I was breathing. I was alive.
“Hah… hah… yeah. We actually survived. Fuck, we really survived.”
Red, panting, looked sideways with relief.
“……”
No answer.
Elia lay motionless.
‘Eh…?’
Red’s heart dropped to the bottom of her stomach.
Elia’s face was like a corpse. All color drained from her pale cheeks. Her lips were blue and lifeless.
No. It couldn’t be.
It had to be.
“Elia…?”
My fingertips reached her nose.
No breath.
“Hey. Hey, Elia! Stop messing around!”
Red squeezed Elia’s shoulder until it creaked.
“Stand up, you bitch! Open your eyes already! If you saved me, you owe me everything—dying here? No way. Get up right now!”
Red shook her body in frustration, but the limp Elia didn’t move a muscle.
Red, losing her mind, staggered and shouted.
“What do I do? What do I do?! Hey! Is anyone there?! Kuhk, please, anyone help me…!”
Shouting at the top of my lungs for help, my voice was already wrecked from swallowing filth.
‘Think. Red, think! What do you do when someone’s breath stops?!’
In Red’s head, survival knowledge from who-knew-where resurfaced.
Where the heart and chest were.
Press there.
Red hurriedly knelt beside Elia. Clasping both hands, she placed them over Elia’s chest center and applied pressure with her full weight.
“One… two… three! Please, please…!”
Thud, thud, thud!
It sounded like bones would crack, but Red didn’t care. She kept compressing without stopping, screaming.
“Breathe! Please breathe, you idiot girl…!”
Elia didn’t open her eyes. No sign of a heartbeat either.
Shit, dying like this? So pointlessly?
‘Had I been told to hit air into the mouth…!’
Artificial respiration.
A strange disgust rose at kissing my lips to someone who was already like a corpse.
‘…This foolish woman gave me air underwater.’
Yeah, whatever. I couldn’t not do it.
“Please… breathe, you idiot girl…!”
This was a matter of life and death.
Red grabbed Elia’s nose. Tilted her chin open, taking a deep breath to inhale.
“Khlk, khlk!”
Elia’s chest suddenly heaved violently. The stagnant filth surged up and out.
“Eh, eh…!”
Red jumped back in shock.
Elia’s body shook violently. A faint flush returned to her blue lips that had been pale as a corpse.
“Hah… hah… khlk…”
Her eyelids fluttered, slowly opening with a gentle blue gaze.
She looked at Red’s tear-soaked face with difficulty.
“Red…”
Her voice was rough and metallic, like sand in her throat—fragile, as if it might cut off at any moment.
“…Elia?”
“…Thank goodness you’re safe. You… you’re all right…?”
Red’s mouth fell open like someone hit on the head with a hammer.
Fuck. She was drowning moments ago, came back to life, and now she’s asking about someone else’s life?
Red rubbed her wet eyes with the sleeve, absurdly.
“Hah… you real helpless idiot…”
“……”
That question right now? Fuck. That’s exactly what I should be crying about to you.
◆◇◆
“Ah, we’re here.”
While telling Makahina old stories and walking, Sandrobel finally came into view.
“How was it? Did you like the old story?”
Makahina nodded vigorously.
“Yes! I was holding my breath the whole time! My heart was pounding from excitement!”
The boy clenched his fists and shouted with a flushed face.
Red, walking beside him, let out a snort of laughter.
“Even just excitement. Well, it means the story was fun for you too, so it’s not that bad. I could write it into a novel later~”
We immediately entered the interior of Sandrobel and headed toward the room where Makahina’s mother, Maya, lived.
As we opened the door and entered, Maya, who had been pacing anxiously inside, looked up with a start. Her eyes widened at the dirt-covered Makahina who had come in.
“……Makahina.”
Maya’s face went deathly pale for a moment, then flushed red with a mix of anger and relief.
“Where exactly did you go wandering so carelessly? With the outside teeming with spore liquid, you didn’t even know how precious your life is and ran around recklessly. Truly unforgivable.”
It was like scolding a criminal who had committed an extreme sin, suppressing all emotion.
Well, this time Makahina had definitely messed up.
Makahina, instead of shrinking, burst into tears and rushed into Maya’s arms. He hugged her tightly.
“Mom… huaaaaa…!”
“……”
It was an unexpected hug. Maya’s hands, which had been about to pull away, slowly came down and wrapped around Makahina’s back.
She had waited for us.
When the sobbing finally quieted, I opened my mouth toward Red.
“Red, I’ll ask you to take care of Makahina for a moment. There’s something I need to talk to Maya about alone.”
Makahina nodded obediently with a tear-streaked face. Red gave me a relaxed smile and waved.
“Sure. Got it. Little guy, let’s go outside and get some fresh air with Noona~?”
Maya shot me a glare.
“What do you have to talk about with me?”
“Just a light conversation. Can executives not even chat casually?”
Red took Makahina out with a wink, leaving only Maya and me in the room.
“What are you trying to say to me?”
Maya spoke in a cold voice.
“I commend you for bringing the child back. However, I have no time for trivial small talk with you.”
I leaned against the wall and faced Maya’s cold expression.
“I know you’re not yourself after losing your husband, but are you going to lose the child too?”
Instantly, Maya’s eyes narrowed dangerously. A ferocious killing intent filled the space as if it could pierce a heart.
“…How dare you stick your tongue out in front of me.”
She growled with suppressed rage.
“Don’t cross that line. Can you even weigh the weight of loss I carry?”
“That’s just your excuse.”
I continued calmly without wavering.
“Honestly, I’m not in a position to advise you… but you’re a mother.”
“……”
“It’s not the time to collapse under grief. If you keep being trapped in the past and lose your grip, Makahina will become an orphan with nowhere to rely on in this hellish world.”
“Orphan?”
“At least I know this emotion better than anyone else here.”
Maya’s eyes shook. Her lips soon pressed tightly shut, as if lying.
Maya’s gaze collapsed in vain.
Maya had noticed that I had used Elia’s deep memories.
The old Elia had been the daughter Anastasia treasured more than her own life.
Maya and Anastasia had been close friends. That was why Maya couldn’t object to me.