The Dead Rise out of the Sea
1/1
The high pitched scream of my little brother tore me from my dreams. His wailing drove me to leap from my bed and run out of my room and down the hall to Nate’s bedroom.
He was up in his bed, back pressed into the headboard. I sat down beside him and pulled him into my lap, my arms instinctively wrapped around his small shaking frame. His whimpering calmed as I rubbed soothing circles on his back.
He didn’t fall back asleep; he continued to sit in my lap staring out his window, watching the storm claim the ocean. The storm had appeared out of nowhere, battering the ocean with its wind, wind mixed with the rain started its assault on the powerlines causing half the town to lose electricity.
It wasn’t the storm that had scared Nate, it was his reoccurring nightmares he’d had since our parents passed away. The nightmares had never been the same until we moved here, since our first night in this town Nate had dreamed about the dead rising out of the sea.
The storm calmed during the early hours, as the sun started to rise turning the once dark sky orange and red I couldn’t help but whisper ‘Red sky in the morning’ to myself. Nate had long since fallen asleep, quiet snores escaping through his nose.
I couldn’t help but smile at the little guy in my arms; his mouth was open, drool had already started to run down his cheek. Using one of the tissues I kept on his night stand I gently wiped away the spit trying my hardest not to wake the sleeping bundle.
I must have drifted at one point as Nate was now standing next to me shaking my shoulder all the while saying my name over and over. I chuckled as I pulled him back into my arms; tears had long since formed in his bright eyes. The tears fell at the point, he sobbed into my shoulder. I patted his back and tried my best to calm him down, from shushing him to reassuring him I’d always be here for him and that I wasn’t going to leave him ever my heart dropped at my own words, our parents had told him the exact same thing before they were killed.
To lighten the mood I suggested we go down to the beach, something that he’d always wanted to do but never had the chance. He seemed ecstatic at the idea of building sandcastles and collecting sea shells. He jumped on his bed telling me he wanted to build a big castle with a mote and draw bridge; that he was going to put sharks in the mote and decorate the castle with sea shells and use a starfish as a flag.
I asked him to go look out his bucket and spade he still had from the old house when he had a sand pit. Whilst he got to work rummaging through his toy closet I pulled out some clothes from his dresser. I laid his clothes out on his bed and called him over to get changed. He had found his bucket but still had to locate the spade, I took a step inside his cupboard and tried to think which box I’d packed the spade in when we were moving.
In the time it took for Nate to change I managed to find his spade buried underneath a few of his boxes filled with various toys. Something I should have gone through whilst packing rather than packing everything we own.
I put the spade with his bucket on his bed, leaving him to change himself I headed back into my room fully intending on making my bed and changing myself. Setting for my usual black jeans and a vest I picked up my hoodie from my bed post before heading back into Nate’s room. He was pressed up again the window staring at the ocean, I smiled thankful he had changed whilst I was doing the same.
I asked him to collect his bucket and spade and head downstairs as I switched the lights off and headed down the stairs after him. He’d placed his bucket on the sofa beside him as he pulled his shoes on a smile plastered to his face.
I then asked him if he wanted me to make him breakfast or if he wanted to go to the dinner for pancakes. I knew it was a stupid question after I asked him; of course he’d jump up and down shouting pancakes his smile never faltering.
After double checking we had everything I quickly locked the front door and took Nate’s hand. Together we walked down the street, the ocean never leaving our view as we neared the sea front where all the cafes were. Nate picked the café he wanted to go to, he even picked the table closest to the windows overlooking the beach. I left him at the table with his bucket and spade occupying the seat beside him as I made my way over to the counter already knowing what he wanted.
Within five minutes we were both tucking into our pancakes with glasses of orange juice flooding the table with condensation. Nate was happily munching on his blueberry pancakes whilst I had plain pancakes smothered with syrup. It didn’t take us long to finish our breakfast and wash it down with the orange juice, Nate was starting to get more excited about finally going down to the beach than he was before.
The walk from the café down to the beach was short, the moment we exited the café and crossed the road we were practically there. I left Nate’s hand go once we were clear of the road allowing him to run wild on the sand. I couldn’t help but smile, this was the happiest I’d seen him since before our parents. He was running around in circles, arms outstretched like he was pretending to be a bird, he was still holding his bucket and spade as he spiralled out of control. He tripped over his feet and fell into the sand, still giggling as he landed on his back.
I lost track of time watching him run around and build sand castles, he was having so much fun I didn’t want to spoil it by heading back home. The weather was nice considering the storm we’d watched rage across the ocean through the night.
The brightness of the sunlight seemed to lessen, looking up I noticed black clouds stretching out across the pale blue sky. Tiny forks of lightening travelled across the black cloud dying out when it hit the still pale blue sky. The waves became more frequent, growing ever so slightly in height as they approached the sandy beach.
I leapt to my feet to pull Nate away from the waves fear taking over. We both stared at the ocean watching figures rise out of the depths; each figure looked different. They were human at one point but now they actually reminded me of Davy Jones crew from the Pirate of the Caribbean series having merged with all kinds of sea life.
They steadily approached the beach, coming closer to Nate and myself. I wrapped my arms around him tightly terrified that they might take him from me. There were only ten figures, mostly all men, all except one. The woman approached us, a gentle smile gracing her thin deformed lips. The woman held out her hand to Nate, in the palm of her hand was an old antique spyglass that looked as if it had been submerged in the ocean for years. It was small for a spyglass, only having five sections, one of which was the eye piece, the forth and largest section held the prism and the fifth was the lens. The two sections between the eye piece and the prism just extended the spyglass, allowing a longer focal range.
The whole spyglass looked to be made of brass with leather bound on the sections containing the prism and lens; the leather had been stitched together along one side, the leather had frayed from years of it being in the ocean, limpets had even stuck themselves to the leather, limpets that had long since died leaving hollow shells that had started to crack and break away. Their skeletons remained encrusted in the white dust that made up their once perfect shells. The spyglass was only small, small enough that it would fit in an adults palm but big enough to use. Nate took the spyglass from the woman; he smiled back to her, saying thank you as he held it up to his eyes amazement taking over his innocent features.
The woman moved on passed us, heading for the town with the others. They weren’t interested in the towns folk as they disappeared from sight it was even more obvious they were heading further in land for something else or someone.
The black clouds stretching across the sky followed them on their journey, the blue skies returned to us as the sea settled leaving Nate and myself wondering if it even happened. The spyglass was beautiful, something that I knew Nate would treasure for the rest of his life. The spyglass proved to be special, when Nate looked through it he’d claimed to have seen our parents, whether this was because he believed or something to give him hope I’ll never know. I just know he’s been happier since that day; the nightmares no longer terrorized him at night.
There had been storied of the dead later returning to the ocean with the addition of another person. It was later confirmed that the man the dead had dragged back to the ocean had been responsible for their deaths. The man had refused to repair the boat and sent them back out to sea, he was never prosecuted on land as there was no one who could bear witness to this and all the evidence had been destroyed. This was only confirmed after the wreck had been examined. It made sense that the dead would return for him.
He was up in his bed, back pressed into the headboard. I sat down beside him and pulled him into my lap, my arms instinctively wrapped around his small shaking frame. His whimpering calmed as I rubbed soothing circles on his back.
He didn’t fall back asleep; he continued to sit in my lap staring out his window, watching the storm claim the ocean. The storm had appeared out of nowhere, battering the ocean with its wind, wind mixed with the rain started its assault on the powerlines causing half the town to lose electricity.
It wasn’t the storm that had scared Nate, it was his reoccurring nightmares he’d had since our parents passed away. The nightmares had never been the same until we moved here, since our first night in this town Nate had dreamed about the dead rising out of the sea.
The storm calmed during the early hours, as the sun started to rise turning the once dark sky orange and red I couldn’t help but whisper ‘Red sky in the morning’ to myself. Nate had long since fallen asleep, quiet snores escaping through his nose.
I couldn’t help but smile at the little guy in my arms; his mouth was open, drool had already started to run down his cheek. Using one of the tissues I kept on his night stand I gently wiped away the spit trying my hardest not to wake the sleeping bundle.
I must have drifted at one point as Nate was now standing next to me shaking my shoulder all the while saying my name over and over. I chuckled as I pulled him back into my arms; tears had long since formed in his bright eyes. The tears fell at the point, he sobbed into my shoulder. I patted his back and tried my best to calm him down, from shushing him to reassuring him I’d always be here for him and that I wasn’t going to leave him ever my heart dropped at my own words, our parents had told him the exact same thing before they were killed.
To lighten the mood I suggested we go down to the beach, something that he’d always wanted to do but never had the chance. He seemed ecstatic at the idea of building sandcastles and collecting sea shells. He jumped on his bed telling me he wanted to build a big castle with a mote and draw bridge; that he was going to put sharks in the mote and decorate the castle with sea shells and use a starfish as a flag.
I asked him to go look out his bucket and spade he still had from the old house when he had a sand pit. Whilst he got to work rummaging through his toy closet I pulled out some clothes from his dresser. I laid his clothes out on his bed and called him over to get changed. He had found his bucket but still had to locate the spade, I took a step inside his cupboard and tried to think which box I’d packed the spade in when we were moving.
In the time it took for Nate to change I managed to find his spade buried underneath a few of his boxes filled with various toys. Something I should have gone through whilst packing rather than packing everything we own.
I put the spade with his bucket on his bed, leaving him to change himself I headed back into my room fully intending on making my bed and changing myself. Setting for my usual black jeans and a vest I picked up my hoodie from my bed post before heading back into Nate’s room. He was pressed up again the window staring at the ocean, I smiled thankful he had changed whilst I was doing the same.
I asked him to collect his bucket and spade and head downstairs as I switched the lights off and headed down the stairs after him. He’d placed his bucket on the sofa beside him as he pulled his shoes on a smile plastered to his face.
I then asked him if he wanted me to make him breakfast or if he wanted to go to the dinner for pancakes. I knew it was a stupid question after I asked him; of course he’d jump up and down shouting pancakes his smile never faltering.
After double checking we had everything I quickly locked the front door and took Nate’s hand. Together we walked down the street, the ocean never leaving our view as we neared the sea front where all the cafes were. Nate picked the café he wanted to go to, he even picked the table closest to the windows overlooking the beach. I left him at the table with his bucket and spade occupying the seat beside him as I made my way over to the counter already knowing what he wanted.
Within five minutes we were both tucking into our pancakes with glasses of orange juice flooding the table with condensation. Nate was happily munching on his blueberry pancakes whilst I had plain pancakes smothered with syrup. It didn’t take us long to finish our breakfast and wash it down with the orange juice, Nate was starting to get more excited about finally going down to the beach than he was before.
The walk from the café down to the beach was short, the moment we exited the café and crossed the road we were practically there. I left Nate’s hand go once we were clear of the road allowing him to run wild on the sand. I couldn’t help but smile, this was the happiest I’d seen him since before our parents. He was running around in circles, arms outstretched like he was pretending to be a bird, he was still holding his bucket and spade as he spiralled out of control. He tripped over his feet and fell into the sand, still giggling as he landed on his back.
I lost track of time watching him run around and build sand castles, he was having so much fun I didn’t want to spoil it by heading back home. The weather was nice considering the storm we’d watched rage across the ocean through the night.
The brightness of the sunlight seemed to lessen, looking up I noticed black clouds stretching out across the pale blue sky. Tiny forks of lightening travelled across the black cloud dying out when it hit the still pale blue sky. The waves became more frequent, growing ever so slightly in height as they approached the sandy beach.
I leapt to my feet to pull Nate away from the waves fear taking over. We both stared at the ocean watching figures rise out of the depths; each figure looked different. They were human at one point but now they actually reminded me of Davy Jones crew from the Pirate of the Caribbean series having merged with all kinds of sea life.
They steadily approached the beach, coming closer to Nate and myself. I wrapped my arms around him tightly terrified that they might take him from me. There were only ten figures, mostly all men, all except one. The woman approached us, a gentle smile gracing her thin deformed lips. The woman held out her hand to Nate, in the palm of her hand was an old antique spyglass that looked as if it had been submerged in the ocean for years. It was small for a spyglass, only having five sections, one of which was the eye piece, the forth and largest section held the prism and the fifth was the lens. The two sections between the eye piece and the prism just extended the spyglass, allowing a longer focal range.
The whole spyglass looked to be made of brass with leather bound on the sections containing the prism and lens; the leather had been stitched together along one side, the leather had frayed from years of it being in the ocean, limpets had even stuck themselves to the leather, limpets that had long since died leaving hollow shells that had started to crack and break away. Their skeletons remained encrusted in the white dust that made up their once perfect shells. The spyglass was only small, small enough that it would fit in an adults palm but big enough to use. Nate took the spyglass from the woman; he smiled back to her, saying thank you as he held it up to his eyes amazement taking over his innocent features.
The woman moved on passed us, heading for the town with the others. They weren’t interested in the towns folk as they disappeared from sight it was even more obvious they were heading further in land for something else or someone.
The black clouds stretching across the sky followed them on their journey, the blue skies returned to us as the sea settled leaving Nate and myself wondering if it even happened. The spyglass was beautiful, something that I knew Nate would treasure for the rest of his life. The spyglass proved to be special, when Nate looked through it he’d claimed to have seen our parents, whether this was because he believed or something to give him hope I’ll never know. I just know he’s been happier since that day; the nightmares no longer terrorized him at night.
There had been storied of the dead later returning to the ocean with the addition of another person. It was later confirmed that the man the dead had dragged back to the ocean had been responsible for their deaths. The man had refused to repair the boat and sent them back out to sea, he was never prosecuted on land as there was no one who could bear witness to this and all the evidence had been destroyed. This was only confirmed after the wreck had been examined. It made sense that the dead would return for him.