Phoenix coughed suddenly, water coming from her lungs. "Oh, thank god," she heard her own voice say as someone turned her onto her side.
She coughed up more water, taking ragged breaths. "Phoenix. Phoenix, talk to me, please," the voice said again. This time Phoenix recognized it as, not her own, but her identical twin Jade's.
"I'm OK," Phoenix rasped, bracing her hands in the soft sand, her muscles feeling weak. "At least, I think so."
"God, you scared me half to death," Jade said, sitting back. "You weren't breathing, I couldn't feel your pulse..."
"Don't worry," Phoenix said, coughing a few more times. "You couldn't get rid of me even if you wanted to. Where's Mom and Dad?"
Jade's look faltered. "Um...a-after you hit your head, they told me to get you out. Our boat got torn up on a reef near here and...god, Phoenix there had to be at least twenty sharks going into a feeding frenzy back where the boat had sunk."
Phoenix suddenly felt very numb. "There're gone," she said quietly.
Jade looked down and nodded. "Dad's jacket washed up," she said, holding up the ripped leather. There was still blood where the rips were. Phoenix suddenly felt extremely sick. "Oh god..." She crawled a few feet away and threw up into the breaking waves.
Jade turned her head, trying to close her ears to the sounds. She knew that's how her sister would react because that's how she'd reacted; although their personalities were fairly different, their base instincts were as identical as their appearance. Jade touched her sister's arm, feeling her flinch. "I'm sorry, Phoenix. I-I should have gone back for them or...something."
"No, there was nothing you could have done," Phoenix croaked, spitting the taste of vomit from her mouth. "If you'd tried, all of us would have been dead."
"You would have tried," Jade said quietly. "You would have made sure no one died."
Even though Jade was five minutes older, Phoenix had always been the dominant one, the take-charge, athletic type. Jade was more of a quiet book-learner and often tutored Phoenix when she fell behind.
Both girls had dark auburn hair and bright green eyes. When they were born, their hair had been more of a flame-red but had turned darker as they got older. Now at nineteen, they looked like younger versions of their mother. The only physical difference between them was muscle; Phoenix was hard and lean from swimming, basketball and volleyball while Jade stayed slim from watching what she ate.
Phoenix looked at her sister. "It doesn't matter. Come on, let's find some civilization," she said, climbing to rubbery legs.
Jade slipped an arm around her sister to help her and they made their way up the beach.
A/N: So do you guys like this one? For those of you who've never read it, this is a different, better in my opinion, version as will the next chapter be. Let me know what you think.