Walk on Water or Drown

Prologue

All was dark. The only source of light coming from the fog light on the upper deck. The night was silent, save for the sound of the wind hitting the folded sails and the light tapping of the waves as they made contact with the side of the boat. The sea was calm, waves no larger than four or five inches. A thick blanket of fog surrounded the small vessel, rendering it invisible in the dark night.

On the upper deck, two adults, a male and a female, moved around. Taking bearings as best as they could and checking the bilges, they worked as a team to finish their deck duties before returning to the main salon for a well needed rest.. In the fo'c'sle, a small child no older than six slept soundly, lulled into a blissful sleep by the rhythmic rocking of the ship.

It was a routine trip, a family of three taking a small schooner out overnight, just to make sure the ship was in working order for their customers. All of which, as it turned out, worked just fine.

Sometimes, things didn't always go according to plan.

What the family of three hadn't planned on was there being an extremely low visibility that evening. They hadn't planned on forgetting to check the connection between the fog light and it's power source before retiring for the evening. They hadn't taken into account the fact that maybe they weren't alone on the water that night. They hadn't thought that their son would wander up on deck in the middle of the night looking for his parents, only to become confused as to why they weren't there.

They hadn't counted on the fog light shorting out because of the bad connection.

They hadn't planned for there to be a drunken man driving a speedboat at four in the morning.

They hadn't planned for it to hit the small schooner.

They hadn't planned for it to sink.

He hadn't planned to be the only one to live.

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As the two vessels collided, Louis was thrown from the deck and into the cold water of the Irish Sea. He hadn't been wearing his harness at the time, he had been too tired to remember to put it on.

His head went under first, followed by the rest of his body. In all of the confusion, he found himself unable to remember which way was up or down. He just kept kicking his legs and moving his arms, clawing his way towards what he thought was the surface. He could feel the water's dark tendrils reaching out, wrapping around his ankles and pulling him deeper and deeper. He fought against them, thrashing wildly in the ice cold sea, completely unaware of anything other than his need to reach the surface. To survive.

With a swift kick, the water released him and he was propelled towards the surface. He gasped for air, coughing up the water that had previously occupied his constrained lungs. Finding himself alone, Louis looked around frantically for his parents. The fog had cleared, the ship he had previously been standing on nowhere to be found. Using what little strength he had, the young boy swam towards where he had last seen the schooner, sifting through the wreckage in hopes of finding his parents.

"Mom?" He shouted, clinging helplessly to what had been the main mast as it floated in the open sea. "Dad?" Louis cried, catching sight of one of his father's sleep shirts drifting with the current.