The waves smack against the sides, causing the large cruise boat to sway back and forth aggressively. The cabin creaks and moans as thunder rumbles outside. I glance over at my brother Billy, absentmindedly observing his toy top spinning in front of his crouched figure. The rough movements cause the topper to roll repetitiously in the tiny room, the colors of the toy dancing in front of my eyes. Blue, green, red, blue, green, red.

The room is overloaded by the smell of vomit and sweat, and mother is huddled on the main bed, hurling up chunks of food from dinner.

As mother coughs up another piece of chicken, Billy stands and walks over to sit by her side. He starts to slap his hand against mother's back and the violent hacking in her throat increases. I walk over, slapping Billy's hand aside with my own.

"For goodness sake Bill. Do you want mother to get worse?" I scorn Billy, who seems to huddle back in shame.

I turn my focus on Mother and continue to soothe her coughing. As mother calms down, she rolls her head over to me and asks, "You do know that he is only trying to help?"

I sigh, "yeah I know."

I hear a scream coming from outside and I jump up in alarm. I hear the scream again and it seems to echo into the depths of my soul.

"That was definitely not good. I should go check to see who screamed." I announce.

"Cathlyn no!", I feel a hand grasp my arm, pulling me back. I turn to see Billy behind me, his eyes red and puffy as salty tears roll down his cheeks.

Mother pipes in, "It's too dangerous."

I kneel down and gently caress Billy's tear stained cheeks, "I promise. I'll be right back."

I get up and open the door, closing it behind me.

Little did I know, that was the last time I would see my mother or my brother ever again.

As I run down the hall, the boat tilts aggressively and my body is slammed against the wall, my head smashing into something sharp along with my knee hitting a blunt pole. Collapsing onto the floor I groan and clasp my hand to my eye, feeling a deep cut running down from my eyebrow to the side of my cheek, pieces of glass still stuck inside. I must have collided with one of the hallways lights. As I look at my hand, a red substance almost seems to glow against my olive skin.

Another scream echoes down the hall and rattles in my ears as I hear a woman shout, "HELP! Somebody please! I'm trapped up here!"

I could hear the despair in the woman's voice, how scared and alone she feels. Empathy hits me like a ton of bricks as I know I must help her, I needed to do the right thing this time. My legs throb in pain as I stand and hobble down the hall, being wary in case another harsh wave strikes. The sound of thunder rumbles down the hallway, meaning the exit out onto the top deck is close by.

I reach my hand out to grab onto the railing and pull myself around corner.

Two large hands grab onto my shoulders as a man's face hovers in front of mine.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING? Get inside! It's not safe," he shouts.

I recognize him to be the captain from a large white hat resting crookedly on his head.

Shaking my head, I shout back, "There's a girl trapped outside. I need to help her!"

The captain forcefully pushes me back, "She's a lost cause. Those waves out there will kill you!"

"I don't care! I'm not going to let any more people die!"

As the captain continues to push me down the hall, I swiftly kick him hard in the knee. The leg buckles, causing the captain to land hard onto the floor.

I keep heading towards the door, ignoring the shouts from the captain.

The door is ice cold as I press my hands against it, trying in vain to push it open. I yell out in anger as the door continues to stay shut. Panting in anguish, I let my body relax, understanding that brute force isn't going to penetrate this door. I quickly look around for a possible way to open it. My eyes stop on the colour red on the nearby wall. White words spell out, "In case of emergency: Break glass". I begin to punch the glass with my fist.

Again.

And again.

And again.

With one final thrust I feel the glass break apart, shards sinking into my skin. Moving my hand away, a switch is now visible. Giving no extra thought to what could happen, I flick it up. The lights go off around me as small red bulbs begin flashing along the ceiling and a siren rings in my ear. Running back to the door, I see it has unlocked itself and with one mighty kick it bursts open.

I step out of the door and feel the wind hit my face. The sky is covered over by blankets of thunderclouds, pelting down buckets of rain. The salty icy pellets cut into my skin, causing my hand and face to sting. My eyes squint as I look around the deck, the only source of light from the red emergency lights blaring on and off.

My eyes take in the surroundings, desperately trying to find the woman who had called out in such fear and pain. Halting in place, I spot a woman over by the safety railing standing perfectly still despite the boat being tossed around like a pancake.

My confusion is short lived when a large bolt of lightning strikes down onto the deck near me, making me desperately cover my eyes from the blinding light. I look back to find the woman has disappeared. Quickly dashing towards her previous location, I look down at the ocean.

My thoughts immediately turn to assuming that she must have fallen off the side.

As I look around the black abyss, I suddenly spot something in the distance. A ship. It looks very ancient, like it belonged in a museum and I swear I can see a flag with a white skull.

I am about to call out when the thunder seems to go silent and the rocking stops. Then I feel the boat tip once again and I turn to be met with a horrifying sight.

A large fifty-foot wave rises from the other side of the boat, the water dark and menacing.

There is nowhere to go as I find myself trapped between the freezing cold depths below and the monster wave. Time seems to go in slow motion as it collapses onto the deck and rushes towards me.

I close my eyes as I brace for the impact, saying goodbye to my mum and Billy.

I feel light at first, my whole body no longer being tied down by gravity. Then I suddenly feel as if my whole body was being crushed. I can't breathe as I feel my body spin around in the freezing water, my head throbbing uncontrollably. I opened my eyes to only find darkness.

As I'm thrown around like a ragdoll, I think to myself, I don't want to die. Not like this.

The water seems to go still around me, and I no longer feel as if my body was being wrung out like wet laundry. I look around before spotting the woman, she smiles at me and touches my cheek, making me feel warm and safe. But as I look at the hand, I spot long claws. The woman's face turns dark as she opens her mouth, revealing large sharp teeth as she hisses. I try to scream but find myself short for breath, chocking from salty water.

The woman stops in alarm and backs away into the abyss, her eyes locked on mine.

I notice something rising from below me. A net.

I am trapped as it zooms upwards. It breaks through the water, into the open sky and I gulp in mouthfuls of air. I shiver from the chilling wind as I rock back and forth in the large, seaweed covered net. Unexpectedly the net drops from beneath me and I fall, landing onto a wooden surface, my head slamming down hard. I feel myself drop in and out of consciousness as I see a shadowy figure walk towards me.

A gruff voice chuckles as he says, "Well, what do we got here? Your certainly no siren."

I turn my head over and spot my boat, sinking into the dark abyss, before my eyes droop and darkness consumes me.

~Hope you all enjoyed this first short story. You may remember it from my daily writing and i wanted to see if it could be expanded and potentially become a novel. Until next time, Bye!~