They were used to getting slammed into brick walls, used to feeling the air get sucked out of their lungs, the way their head would throb with ringing pain as the brick's edges dug into their skull, but at least they could always get back up. Stand up, steady themselves and get ready for whatever came next, that's how it always was for them with brick walls. Sure, it hurt like absolute hell, and it took everything in them to get up, but at least they could.

It's like hitting a brick wall, they had told themselves, as the clouds above sped away towards the heavens, the side of the ship slipping past them in a brown blur, the roaring sounds of the water beneath rushing up to meet them. It's like hitting a brick wall, the dark waves around them opening up to swallow them whole.

They tried to grab something, anything, but they couldn't even brace themselves. The water slammed into their backs like solid ice, the breath they had been so desperately hanging onto escaping them with a gasp, and with that, their head reeling from the lack of air, eyes burning with salt, the black ocean pulled them further and further from the world above.