deluge

hydrophobia.

Kai has always been afraid of the ocean, of drowning in its infinite depths never to be found again and drift, forever by the ebbing and flowing tides. It allures him, in a twisted sense, by its magnificence, its roaring and shushing sound lapping at his bare ankles, terrifying yet soothing all at once.

He hates it with an overwhelming passion. He loves it the way it calms his turbulent thoughts. He's afraid, so, so, terrified the way it calls him with its siren song and the way it would claim him, forever.

He's afraid because he's died before at the choking hands of the sea, a fate his mother couldn't escape, nor his father, a naval officer at sea who is said to have perished in the event of a tsunami, the aftermath of an earthquake that struck Japan, leaving devastating destruction in his wake.

He's died yet he's still alive and he's not sure why.

Too many bad memories are left behind, phantoms, ghosts lingering upon his home country and he's sent overseas to his Aunt Mai in America for a new beginning.

A curse has been plaguing his family for generations, and it's all linked to the ocean and his latent power of manipulation of water, and the gods of the sea.

He has to control his greatest fear... before it kills him first.