Gills

Chapter 1

Chapter One

Just for starters, I'm not a normal human being. In fact, I don't think I'm a human at all- At least as of now. There was a brief period in my life where that was the case, but not anymore. It all happened four years ago, when I was only a shy twelve year old, completely unaware of the drastic changes that lie ahead...

{Flash Back}

I was sitting on the edge of the harbor, sipping a large cherry slush and people-watching, just admiring the cheerful atmosphere the day held. Water crashed against the steel wall I was perched on, sending a foamy white mist bursting upwards, drenching my feet. Damp swim trunks were the only thing stopping my thighs from getting seared by the metal that had been baking in the sun ever since this morning. Seagulls were just going crazy, scooping up all of the left over food that had been tainted with sand, inedible to humans. Shifting my gaze from the desperate birds, I scanned my eyes over the scalding white sand, oozing those hot waves of blurred vision. Spotting my family among the sea of sunscreen-slathered people, I gave them a slight wave but nobody noticed.

Cringing, I went back to my slushy. I could never survive amongst that many people! Made me sick in fact... You know that person who always goes, "Get away, I'm claustrophobic" ? Well, that's me. And being a twelve year old, the word "claustrophobic" was near the top of my vocabulary list.

Enjoying my time alone at the pier, I looked out to the never-ending sea and started to glance around for the ship wreck. Dad and I had visited it once back in late May, when the ocean was just starting to get warmer. It was pretty far out, and the gentle waves had a quiet, paranormal feel to them. The salt water was pitch dark, but the ship was big enough to be seen in plain sight. My dad even told me himself, there was no way in hell he was rowing out to the ship wreck again.

He had said: "Lucas, the feeling I got- we BOTH got was way to eerie. Plus it's a mystery... Nobody knows how or when the thing got there. Doesn't that scare you?"

...But it didn't, not one bit. If anything, I longed to go back. I wanted to peer over the edge of the boat into the darkness again, where I knew that a mystery lay just beneath me... Maybe there was a way I could visit again?

I sipped my slushy once more.

"I could take the boat out myself..." I thought, smirking a bit.

Yea yea, not a great idea, but I knew I could get away with it...

And that's what made the decision.

...The decision that I would think about every single day, for the rest of my entire life.

-------------------

Hey! Sorry there wasn't any dialogue in this short chapter, there will be much more in the next :)