Ships in the Sea and Sky
Time for Part Two!
“What’s that?” Jake shouted. I crossed the boat to see what he was pointing at. There was something under the water. A soft glow was visible. Small and concentrated like a flashlight.
“Uh, fish maybe?” I said.
“Glowing fish?” dad rolled his eyes.
“Yeah,” I said. “It’s called bioluminescence.” Dad stared at me the way he often did when he wasn’t sure if I was having him on. “Seriously, Google it when we get back.”
“First hums, now glowing fish,” dad said.
“It’s moving,” Jake said. The humming grew louder. I could feel it rumbling through my body. Smaller items on the boat were shaking. “It’s moving real fast.” I looked over the side of the boat to see Jake was right. The light was moving, it was racing back and forth under the boat and getting bigger with each lap.
“It’s coming up,” I realised. “Shit, we need to move now!”
“What!” Jake yelled just as something small and unbelievably bright burst out of the water and shoot into the sky.
“What the bloody hell!” dad shouted over the noise.
“Like a shooting star,” Jake said. “But backwards.”
“Is that thing making the noise?” dad said.
“I don’t think so,” I shouted, clamping my hands over my ears as the hum got even louder. Chairs and bait boxes were rattling across the deck. I held onto the side of the boat to keep my footing.
“Look at the sea!” I shouted. You could see it shaking as the vibration increased, droplets bouncing out of the waves.
“What’s going on?” dad yelled. “We need to get out of here!” Jake nodded and bumbled over to the narrow steps that would get him into wheelhouse. As he opened the door, the boat suddenly tipped. Dad grabbed me as I lost my footing and slid onto my backside to slide down the deck. Jake fell backwards down the stairs.
“Jake” I called. He looked up at me, battered but not injured. Dad’s grip on me tightened, and I turned to look at him. I followed his gaze and saw the biggest wave I had ever seen in my life.
“Holy shit!” Jake yelled as the swell of the wave lifted the boat. We shouted as the boat tipped. I closed my eyes and waited for the sea to swallow us.
Somehow, the little boat rode the wave.
It rocked to a terrifying degree, but someone was watching over us that night and we didn’t tip. The wave lifted and threw us; we lost the bait boxes and the chairs. I slipped away from dad when the boat lifted with the wave and hung suspended in the air for a moment before dropping like a stone, with an almighty splash.
I struck the deck and my head hit the gunwale. The world spun sickeningly.
“Mike!” I heard dad yell over the continuous hum. “Mike!”
“I’m here,” I said, blinking to clear the spots from my vision. I rubbed my head. I’d have a lump for sure. “You guys ok.?” Dad and Jack nodded as they pulled themselves to their feet.
“You’re bleeding,” Jack said to me. I opened my mouth to answer, but froze when the entire ocean lit up. The light was blinding, brighter than any stadium flood light. I shielded my eyes.
“Holy shit, here it comes,” I heard dad yell. “Hold on!” we all held onto the boat as the blinding light broke the surface, knocking the boat for six again. I cracked my eye open to realize it was huge, and too bright to see the true shape. It flashed brighter several times in quick succession, changing colour on each flash. Blue, white, red, and green before settling on purple. It hovered in place for a moment before lancing into the sky after its smaller predecessor.
The humming stopped, the silence oppressive. The boat settled. In the distance, I saw one of the bait boxes bob to the surface.
“What the fuck was that?” Jake all but screamed in the oppressive silence that was left.
“Something that we are never telling your mother about,” Dad said, looking at me.
Letters from a Horror Writer 