Siren's Call.

ADAM DAVIS.

Steady, so was everything within the boat. He had secured the sail's line and the course was set. Nowhere. How could the sun shine so warmly, so sweetly. The sun was in it's death but still it burned him. Being in this very boat, this very sea, it was drowning him. He threw off his linen shirt and basked in the agonising bliss. Maybe the haze was where to be.

Sailing had never been this God damn meta. Heck! All it used to be was a simple activity. He remembered the day his father took them to the dock, now the memory tasted bittersweet. A younger Adam had never known such joy. Now he just needed to stay in Euphoria. Ever since that day, his father always took him sailing.

"Don't overcomplicate it boy, sailing is about freedom, not control." his father often said. Firm yet loving. A true soldier. This was sage advice that Adam never quite got.

The next day was Monday and he needed to snap out of his pathetic boat ride. He lifted the sisal sun hat from his face and beheld… clouds. A storm was coming. He must've really been out. He walked quickly to the helm and read the gauge. He was too far out. But how?

North? He wasn't heading North. Had the winds changed? No matter, he knew how to fool the wind. All he needed to do was reduce the surface area of the sails by changing the angle, then he'd turn on the engine. Adam untied the rope and adjusted the sails of his father's precious boat. He moved the sails to the right and tied them back up. They were essentially closed.

Just as he was making his way to the helm singing something Bob Marley, the boat jerked forwards. The sudden force threw him off balance. He slammed into the railing. Before he could properly right himself, the boat jerked again, even more wildly. This time, he fell off his feet and slid backwards.

"What the fuck?"

He looked up to the sky maybe to pray that the rain would come another day then he noticed something. A writing in the sky. Well, not really but weird all the same. The clouds were few and space but they all seemed to be going somewhere. Almost in a small spiral.

"Nah!" he thought.

He rose up quickly and raced for the wheel, it was strange. The boat struggled to turn yet there was no wind. He doubled down, turning the wheel like his life…

He turned the wheel because his life depended on it. As the aptly named 'Storm Rider' turned, the waters reached like arms around it. The sweeping of the waves yawed the boat almost completely.

"Mom is going to kill me!" Adam said to nothing as the wheel reached its limit. That, he had never seen.

The crash of the waves reached high enough to slap his face.

"This is the Bell Valley coastline, not Deadliest Catch!" he reasoned.

A huge thud resounded as something smashed the bottom of the boat. His heart sank and he realised as all people often do.

"I'm not ready to die!"

The unseen force hit the boat's belly once more and he was thrown. Storm Rider leaned wildly forward. His athlete's lungs practically convulsed as he was thrown back. His inconsequential frame was flung into the air. Everything beneath him moved in slow motion as he imagined his tombstone.

He reached forward and grabbed the railing at the end of the boat. The sudden stop brought his side crashing into the body of the boat. The pain was agonising. It bit his ribs with wide merciless jaws. He let out a cry too loud to hear and the throbbing began, that was a good sign. He was still alive, for now.

His hands were slipping from the awkwardly large metal railing and the sprays didn't help either. Suddenly, the taste of the sea became the taste of death. It fused with the blood from his bleeding mouth and that basically sealed the deal. He spied the grave that awaited him beneath and hoped his death would not burden his mother any more than she already was.

Then he saw it. A Leviathan lurking underneath. A whale. As the horrid dark figure scraped across his boat's belly, things became less topsy turvy and gravity, less brutal. He used all his reserves and pulled himself up, damn it! Who knew Coach Webber's damp pull ups would matter that much? He pulled up and barely managed to roll back into relative safety.

His legs were no longer legs so he just sat up. His lungs were also working overtime. As he looked ahead to the deceivingly tranquil sunset, all time froze. The true villain came to the surface. It's life-red bottom rose wickedly. It tilted backwards and he saw the propellers. It was a ship. A very big ship. It began to right itself but only half so. Like a dead thing rising again. Then the corpse cruised off into the sunset.

For a while he was frozen. He just sat there in the wetness. In the aftermath of something. The beginning of something.

"Do you read me?" a radio voice slapped him back. "Is anyone there?"

Adam slowly crawled to the controls. He picked it up.

"I read you." his voice was empty. His mind was nothing.

"This is the coastguard, your emergency went off. Are you okay?

" No."