FLOOD

A Greater Power

Maybe I could stop it, if I knew how.

Now the second speed boat was close enough that I could make out the three figures inside, even though  the storm had picked up so much that I had to squint through a sheet of spray. When I glanced back, I saw Eli clinging to the wheel, no longer really attempting to steer. His face was sheet white, and he was gripping the wheel so hard his entire body was stiff.

Anger made me sit up straight. His own grandfather was responsible for this. Not for the storm, of course. But for making us come out here in the middle of the ocean like this. For putting his grandsons in the position of having to make terrible choices between family and mortality. For turning Cain into a monster.

I needed to do something. I couldn’t just sit here, clinging to the railing, hoping the storm wouldn’t dump us out of the boat before they caught up with us.

I should have been more cautious about it, I was too angry. I reached out the way I had for people, feeling for the water inside them. But this time it was different. The water wasn’t contained, it was vast and wild and….it was too much for me.

When I felt it I reeled in shock, the sheer expanse, the depth of it. It made my head spin, made me slump against the railing. For a second or two I could feel the ocean. I could feel how far down it went. I could feel the tides flow east and south. I could feel the storm stirring the surface, terribly strong, but still barely noticeable to the ancient depths. I could feel the creatures that moved through it, cutting through the body of the water, riding the currents and resting in the dimness at the bottom. There were millions of tiny life forces below the surface, and more than a few large ones, a few creatures that were hundreds of feet long.

Desperately I pulled my senses back, containing myself to several feet around the boat, shoulders slumping in relief. I needed time to recover from that, from that feeling of immense power, but I didn’t have time. The roar of the engine from behind us was impossibly loud now, they were almost on top of us. Gritting my teeth, I reached out my hands, grasping at the air, trying to figure out how to do what I wanted to do. It had been easy when I’d felt the water inside people, I had just reached in and somehow pulled. But I didn’t want to do that now. What I wanted was more subtle than that. It would take more talent, and it wasn’t like I’d been trained to do this.

There was no time for self doubt though. Taking a deep breath in through my nose I shut my eyes and concentrated on calm. Pressing my palms down towards the water seemed to help me focus the need in my mind. I needed the water to settle under my influence, I needed it to be calm and still in the circle around the boat.

            Directly ahead of me, Eli gave a shuddering gasp of surprise. My eyes flew open.

            The sea around us, within a five foot radius around the boat in all directions, was calm as glass. The waves were still crashing all around us, but when they reached the circle of calm around our boat they seemed to fade away into nothing.

            The boat behind us was still struggling through the waves, being buffeted on all sides. We would lose them now, I knew. There was no way they could go faster than us now, even if their engine was more powerful. The smile spreading across my face was a little bit wicked. What they must be thinking right now. It was hard to see Cain’s face, but I knew it was him at the wheel, and I could see the figure behind him, his grandfather, waving his arms around. I could even hear faint cries across the wind and the crashing waves. Safe to say that Cain’s grandfather was very angry.

            I turned back to Eli, about to say something smug, about to gloat, when Eli threw up his hands and shouted, “Vee, get down!”