Unforgiving Sea COMPLETED

Chapter 11. Noah

A few days later, Noah awoke to an ear-splitting scream. His eyes snapped open. He ran out to where Kat was standing gripping the rail, face pale, knuckles white.
"What-" Kyle and Al came running out too.
"Kat? What happened?" Kat tried to step towards Noah, but stumbled. Noah caught her.
"There- there- it- a-" Kat started to wheeze.
"A what?" Kyle pressed on. He took a step towards her.
Kat opened her mouth to speak, but instead, her eyes rolled back into her head and her knees buckled. Kat collapsed into Noah's arms, who swore, loudly. Al gave Noah a look.
"Sorry," he whispered.
Noah picked Kat up and brought back to the room they were sleeping in. He lay Kat into her sleeping bag.
"Whatdowedowhatdowedowhatdowedo?" Kyle paced back and forth. It took Noah a second to make out what Kyle had said.
"Kyle! Stop pacing and stop panicking! We just make sure she's breathing fine and just go back to sleep. Simple." Al checked. "Yep. She's fine."
Noah sighed in relief. "Thank God."
Noah dragged his sleeping bag over beside Kat's. Kyle and Al got in theirs.

Noah awoke in the middle of the night to Kat snuggled comfortably with her back against his chest, his arm slung over her shoulder. He smiled. So she woke up. Noah laid his head down on his pillow and fell asleep.

Noah woke to Kat carefully trying to get out of his grip. He lifted his arm for her. She jumped.
"Oh. Noah, I'm sorry. Did I wake you up?"
"Yeah." Noah rubbed his eyes. "I think you underestimated how light of a sleeper I am." Noah closed his eyes. "What time is it, Kat?"
Kat looked at her watch. "Um- three am."
"Exactly." Noah rolled over onto his stomach. He rested his head on his pillow. Kat must've thought that he fell asleep, because she continued to move around and get up. "Still up." She stopped.
"Ok. What do you want me to do, Noah?"
"I want you to quit moving around. It's making a lot of noise.
Kat sighed. She laid back down and muttered a word that Noah refused to take seriously.

The next morning, Noah felt someone kick him. "Five more minutes..." he muttered.
"Noah!" It was Kyle.
"Yeah?" He didn't open his eyes, he just shifted and groaned. "My back hurts," he complained.
"Same here." Kat opened Noah's eye lid. He pulled away and looked at her. Her pale green eyes stared back.
"Listen, Noah. I have something for you." She smiled when Noah perked up. He sat up and shivered when the sleeping bag fell away, letting the cool sea breeze hit him.
"Ok. So what is this "something"?" Noah looked at Al who shrugged. Kyle did the same.
"Um. Well. I, uh, I brought hammocks." Noah, Kyle, and Al stared at her.
"And you didn't bother to tell us?" Al sighed and smacked his forehead.
"Erm- sorry. I kinda forgot. I was gonna tell you last night, but- you know." Kat shuddered. Noah wondered what happened last night. Kyle must've read his mind.
"So what happened last night?" Kat seemed to shrink away at the question.
"Um."
"Yeah, Kat. What was so freaky that you passed out?" Al's voiced had a mocking tone. He probably didn't mean it that way. Noah gave Kat a curious and apologetic look.
"I- well. Ok." Kat sighed. She sat down. So Noah, Al, and Kyle followed. "There was this-this thing." Al snorted. "I'm not finished! It was half human, half fish. It was at least 20 feet long. Or- tall. It's top half was human. It's bottom half was like a dolphin. It was grayish blue and it had thin patches of faded blue hair. It's eyes-" Kat shuddered. "It's eyes were glazed white. And it stopped swimming when it saw me. It looked toward me and I saw it's face. It was sunken in and it was so, so, so slim. It's chest was so sunken, you could see it's heart. Then, it reached toward me with it's hand. And it's nails- oh, God, it's nails." Kat leaned into Noah who put his arm around her. She gave him a weak and forced smile. "It's nails were- they- they were 5 feet long and pointy. It reached to me and tried to grab me, but I jumped out of the way. It ended up scratching my face pretty badly." Kat pointed to the left side of her face, where a big slash started at her chin and ran across to her hairline. Noah shuddered. He saw Al's eyes widen. Kyle stifled a whimper. Noah stared off into space and remembered the creature. He had a flashback of when he was 5. He was swimming in the Unforgiving Sea. His mom ran out screaming. His birth mom. His real  mom. She was a single mom. She got divorced after Noah was born. She had the curliest blonde hair. Her skinned was tan as can get. She had thin lips and a cleffed chin. Her nose was straight and long.  Noah asked why she was crying. Then, he saw why. This creature Kat had just described was hunched over Noah, hand out. His mother pushed him out of the way as the creature tried to grab him. It took his mom instead. The last words Noah heard from her where, "Noah! I love you! I lo-" then she was sucked under water. Noah cried for weeks straight after that. His mom was his favorite person ever. He was sent to an orphanage where his mom now adopted him.
Noah snapped back to reality. Al was waving a hand in front of his face. Kat was giving him a sad look. Noah realized he was swaying. He stopped himself. Kat brushed a tear off his cheek. Noah returned her sad look. She held out her arms and Noah gladly accepted. He sat there in Kat's arms, crying on her shoulder.
A few minutes later, Kat pulled away. "What is it, Noah?"
"I- I had a f-flashback. Of my m-mom." Kat knew he was adopted. She was too. So was Kyle and Al. Noah told her and by the time he was finished, Kat was swiping tears off her own cheeks. "Noah, I'm so sorry."
"It's- it's good." Noah swallowed.
"At least you have memories of your mom." Kat had a faraway look in her eye. "Mine gave me up when I was only a year old. I can only remember her face. I cling to that memory every day, you know. She looked exactly like me. She had my red hair. She had my green eyes." Kat looked back at Noah. "Let's focus on this mission, how bout that?" Noah nodded. They needed to focus on getting across the sea.
"Yeah. Yeah, let's."