Somewhere over the rainbow, way up high
There's a land that I've heard of once in a lullaby.
Somewhere over the rainbow, skies are blue
And the dreams that you dare to dream,
Really do come true.~ Judy Garland, The Wizard of Oz

~Ivan~

Before me, lay a vortex of red.

Not just any red, that horrifying hellish red that blinded your eyes when you looked at it.

My vision was filled with that red.

It was so very odd, one minute we were at the top of the atmosphere, sitting, watching, waiting… The next our stomachs were flipped upside-down and all we could see was bewildering, spine-chilling visions of colour.

Tripping and spinning landscapes of colour. First I saw the colour of white. A colour associated with angels, life and purity. I guess that wasn't true anymore …it was the colour which foresaw incoming fatal injury, or your ultimate demise. Second came the colour of red, the colour of hell, flames and the underworld. This one felt accurate for sure. It was a quick flash of what was to happen, or what should have happened. Visions of a new home, a new life after your death! Finally, appeared the shade of black. Black is a shade, not a colour, but it is surely grimmer than all the colours combined together. Black was the shade of the night; endings and scars. That's what I think now anyway…

After some time of piercing darkness, my mind came back around. How long had I laid unconscious? Was it an hour? Perhaps a day? Even a whole week? My eyes felt heavy and groggy. I smelt something, it was salty and sick. Something around me felt cold, freezing. It felt as if it was trying to consume me, to drag me under, but I must not let it win. Voided and Numb, I waited for my brain to reconnect. I wanted everything inside me to light up once again. To shine, to feel sweet life.

Ivan, please wake up!

Calling to myself, the world outside me awakened. I found myself gazing at a sky I had never seen before. The sky looked like a scattered artist's canvas, painted with a deep grey brush. The stars looked like empty spaces, yet to be painted. There was water below me, foreign waters perhaps man has yet to see, or feel. It laid deep green, as the colour of nausea. If no man had touched this water, how could it feel so polluted? My thoughts where scrambled. I laid there and looked around, perplexed. Where was this place? I saw nothing, nothing but water and wooden crates. I had no idea what the crates were carrying... What was in the hold of that plane? The plane had crashed and I had almost died.

That's all I knew.

I heard sudden whispers, had my sisters come? Are my sisters alive? My mind gained back some hope that it had lost…
"Ivan! Is that you there?!" it had to be Katyusha's voice, it had to be.
I saw her in the distance as a faint figure; she began to run towards me. Her footsteps splashed as the grim water scattered and fled. Her breathing was heavy like she had been searching for a long time. After some time of frantic sprinting in the horrifying waves, she was finally close enough to see in some clarity.

Her clothing was scattered, frayed. Her shirt was torn and nearly drenched to the core with unruly forest green water. Her light blue eyes darted continuously back and forth, startled. Her silvery grey hair reflected on the painted ashen skies of the late evening. I wanted to call out my name, I wanted to tell her I was here, but I was just too weak. I tried to open my mouth, to speak, not a sound came out. Just a cough a, bloody, ghoulish cough. A thick stream of grotesque jade liquid poured out from the depths of my throat. My throat, dry of the bilious salts which infected it. I spluttered unto the ground, leaving a nauseating puddle to combine with the equally nauseating water. I coughed a cough so loud that the forbidding water below me rippled in distress.

"Ivan!" Her expression was bright and jovial. Perhaps, there was hope for me after all. I could view her face close up now. Her eyes were fixed into her skull; her pupils were small and shocked. Her face was bright garnet and covered in sweat and confusion; she looked just as bewildered as I was.

She looked so extremely worried for me, she held out her small hand reaching for mine. My body shacking all over, I slowly and feebly reached out mine. Smiling delicately, with her grief hidden on the inside "Come on, Ivan we need to find Natalia and make this okay again". With that small amount of fragile hope on my back, Katyusha helped me up.

My fracturable skeleton was now being carried by my sister. We trudged slowly through the dense yet shallow waters that seemed to get angrier with every movement. I attempt to rest, but I just couldn't stop thinking about it. The air, the fall, who was still left? These thoughts were mangling and distressing me, I shut my eyes and tried to get them out of my head; I tried to sleep.

After perhaps an hour of painful wandering, we finally came across a body. The body of my sister, Natalia. Katyusha completely stopped; she just stood there in distressed shock. I opened my sleepy eyes so I could get the full view of her frozen, still body. Her dress was horribly ripped apart; her once beautiful light blonde hair had been split and mangled. Her ice blue eyes were shut tight. The blue in her clothing was dyed and depressingly lost. Her body, her corpse was lying in a thick pool of crimson blood. Her blood which was still draining carefully into the untrusting ocean underneath, we were almost thrown back in sadness, disgust. Katyusha's shaking was becoming uncontrollable, I could sense the thin tears which were starting to stream down her face. That hope that I had gathered moments ago had been horrifyingly shattered like glass. I slowly dragged my eyelids upwards, away from all the terror. My discombobulated eyes rested on the sight on a golden shore and an emerald forest.