Book Two: Hollow City (My Remake)

Chapter 2~Storm

Quote of the Chapter:
Hope is being able to keep your head up and heart strong.

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It seemed the island couldn't let us go. With every stroke away, the fog crept up faster, and before we knew it, the yellow rays of the sun became snuffed and white. With directions turned to a blur and no horizon to guide us, we were practically blind - turning in circles. I almost worried we had disappeared just as the island had, like we didn't exist either.

When Emma looked up for the sixth time after the sun went out, she threw her hat to the floor and huffed. "There's no point in rowing if we're just going to end up in circles anyway."

We all put our oars down and an eerie silence settled between us. "I don't like this," said Bronwyn. "If we wait too long it'll be night, and we'll have worse things to reckon with than bad weather."

Then, as if the weather had heard Bronwyn and decided to put us in our place, it turned really bad - worse than any storm on Cairnholm had conjured before. A strong wind blew up, and within minutes our world was transformed. The sea around us whipped into white-capped waves that slapped our hulls and broke into our boats, sloshing cold water at our feet and running a chill down my spine. As if cold feet weren't enough, next was rain, hard as bullets against our skin and pelting the boats to throw out something like a thousand drums. Soon, we were being tossed around like rubber ducks in a bathtub, but trust me, it was no fun.

"Turn into the waves!" shouted Bronwyn, slicing her oars into the water. "If they broadside us, we'll flip for sure!" But it had already been nearly five hours at sea, and most of us were spent. It was difficult enough rowing in calm water, but with the ocean boiling now, we didn't have it in us. And even then, we were too scared to figure out what to do with our bodies, so we clung to the gunwales or anyone already doing so, and held on for dear life.

When I was willing to peek open my eyes, a wave had towered over us, just about to topple over, and I sunk my nails deeper into Millard's blazer. As I could feel our boat turn nearly vertical while climbing the massive wave, Emma and Millard held onto their seats as Enoch and Jacob gripped the oar locks of the boat. Soon enough, we crested the top, teetering off the edge and I could feel my stomach drop looking over. And then we fell, two seconds of free falling down the long side, all while whatever wasn't nailed down - Emma's map and hat, Enoch's bag of clay, Jacob's red suitcase, and my poor school backpack stuffed with whatever I thought was useful - cascaded up and out the boat past our heads.

Flecks of water ran into my face as wind got in my eye. I was chilled to the bone, wet, scared, and caught up in a storm, racing down an enormous wave behind me. Everything was screaming; the people, the waves, the rain. It seemed almost like all those years stuck behind a perfect day was being paid for by throwing at us this. But then it suddenly stopped, and when I opened my eyes again, the maelstrom was behind us, a warm and familiar sun shining down.

But there was no time to cheer, because it was clear that the two other boats behind us hadn't made it out yet. Squinting into the mist, we screamed our friends' names, but, for a moment, the only response was a terrible silence. Then, trapped between the fog, we spotted one; Hugh's boat with all four of them standing and waving their arms at us.

"Are you all right?" Jacob shouted.

"Over there!" they called back. "Look over there!"

Then we saw that they weren't waving hello, but were actually directing our attention to something in the water some thirty yards away - the hull of an overturned boat - and with wide eyes, we realized it was Bronwyn and Olive's, but neither was around.