1 Prologue

I wonder if my life was always meant to end like this? One moment I'm relaxing on the water and the next I'm caught in the middle of a hurricane. When I was younger I sailed the world with my mother. So maybe it was my love for the sea that did me in?

My mother had home-schooled me as best she could. Teaching me all she knew on a variety of topics. From my 10th birthday through to my 16th I hardly touched dry land longer than a few weeks to a month at a time. Those were the best years of my life. Sailing the world with her, learning from her, it was the best childhood I could have asked for. She died that final year while we were on the coast of Australia.

I never knew my father. It's not that he left us or died, he just doesn't know I exist. My mother had a one night stand nearly twenty years ago that left her with me, so it's not like I can blame him. I could have looked for him if I wanted too. My mom asked me enough times. I'm not sure why I never took up the offer. I guess I was always just content to let it be. Even after she passed away I didn't feel the need to look for him.

My mother had known that she was dying for a long time, maybe that's why she wanted me to get in touch with my father. She had been sick for so long I hardly remember a time when she was healthy. That was one of the reasons she took me with her to travelled the world. It was on her bucket list. I never noticed at first since she was always hiding it from me, but my mother was in constant pain.

It's been 5 years since she left this world. I tried to live my life as best I could in her absence, but in then end it hardly mattered. Death comes for us all eventually, regardless of our own thoughts on the matter. Turns out your life really does flash through your mind before you die.

I could see myself in perfect clarity like looking in through a window. I went to college about a year after my moms funeral. I had taken mechanical engineering at the time. Technology had always fascinated me. I also took a minor in evolutionary biology. All in all It was a great period in my life.

Heck at one point I almost got married. I was happy for a long time. I got to live my life as my mom always hoped I would. The fact I've been in a wheel chair since I was 12 hasn't kept me from spreading my wings. As she would always say, 'I just have to take things one move at a time'.

What I would give to play a game of chess with her again, or to watch a movie and hear her laugh or yell at me one more time. But we can't turn back the clock. All we can do is look to the future. Though I can't even do that right now.

What I can tell you with absolute certainty is that dying at 25 really sucks. My thoughts continued to spiral as the world around me faded. A bolt of blurry lightning pierced the sky. Muffled thunder roared overhead. The silent waves pitched and roiled.

The capsized remains of a small boat could be seen floating among the debris as my body sank further into the abyss. Looking up at it all from below like this, the world has its own sense of surreal beauty. Water has long since filled my lungs and all sense of panic left me. Even the pain has faded. All that's left is the calm before the end.

I am left wondering though, where did that storm come from? One moment it was sunny and clear, the perfect sailing weather, then suddenly all hell broke loose. The sun vanished behind clouds so grey they looked like ash. Rain and winds tore at the sides of my ship, battering against it and peeling the paint from the hull. Before I knew what was happening the entire boat had flipped clean over, sending me hurtling from my wheelchair and crashing into the cold waters below.

Normally that would have been fine, I'm a great swimmer and I had a lifejacket on, but with the large waves coming one after the other it was impossible to keep my bearings. To make matters worse a bolt of lighting struck my ship sending a large chunk of it crashing down on top of me. Pinning me beneath it as I was forced further and further into the oceans depths.

A serene bliss washed over my conscience as I faded into the murky waters. In my last moment, as all thought escaped me, I could have sworn I saw someone staring down at me. Piercing green eyes filled with sorrow and pity.

Then everything I knew turned to darkness.