Chapter 3 Taken

Jim hit the water with a hard splash in only his robe and deck boots which quickly filled with water as he scratched back toward the surface for a breath. He was conscious of the thick sack of his robe tangling clumsily all around him and knew he had to be calm to right himself out of it, or he would continue to plunge deeper into the turbulent waters. Ignoring the disorienting tumble, he paused to quickly push his toe against his opposite heel dropping a boot off while pulling his arms out of the sleeves of the swollen robe. After getting the second boot off, he felt like he must be moving towards the surface. Paddling his way upwards, struggling to hold on to the handset of the radio... to make it back onboard and put out a call. He waited to feel air on his face.
He imagined he could see the surface and was about to take a breath when a blinding light came from under the boat and immobilized him firmly. He was suddenly aware that his body was unresponsive and that his limbs were frozen and held strongly by a unknowable force. As the last of his air gave out and his chest began to lurch uncontrollably, a presence appeared and seemed to inject him with calm and he was shocked when he took a very easy unforced inhalation of water, and then was suddenly flying through the water with increasing speed. The seawater filled his lungs and moved through him as he lost consciousness.

Clutching the rail of the tattered boat, Diamond and her mother frantically stared at the place in the sea where Jim had been, they both had seen what had happened but neither had any idea where to put it, it would not fit. Diamond replayed the scene in her mind, they’d watched him be taken by something unexplainable, deep into the sea.
“Mom, what was that? It just....it just took him...”
“Diamond, I said go help your brother, get him buckled while I look for your Dad, give me his jacket.”
Diamond handed her mother her fathers life-jacket and went below to help her brother who was now on his jackets second buckle, unaware of what had happened on deck. She was stunned replaying the sight of that light coming for him in her mind, but helping her brother brought a new focus and she was able to momentarily forget the hair standing up on her whole body.
“Where’s Daddy?” Gold asked her weakly.
“I don’t know, I’m sorry, Gold....he fell in the water and we can’t see where he went”
“It’s o.k,” Gold said, “he’s a good swimmer.”
She didn’t explain anything and just agreed,
“Yes, he is,” then added, “and so are you.”
Lee peered down the hatch and looked at the two kids. She felt like she was being torn in half, yet there in front of her were two reasons to hold it together. She could not slip towards the despair that was like tar in her gut, reaching into every muscle, vein, and bone. Two reasons.
She tried to imagine what to do next, when a soft ripping sound began, and then became a loud crack as the boat shuddered and split open beneath her. It was as though someone was peeling apart two halves of an orange the way it suddenly opened up, bow to stern, neatly split clean all the way through the keel.
That’s strange, Lee thought as she fell through the empty space towards the kids, so neat.
Diamond was just finishing the last clasp on Golds jacket when she heard the crack. She looked up to see the inside of the bow split open and a dark wall of water pause for a nanosecond, then rush in.
Reaching mid fall Lee got a hold of one of the straps of Gold’s jacket. The boat exploded all around them into fragments. They were thrown by the rush of water towards the stern which was splitting apart ahead of them, and then out into the sea. Clutching Gold by the Jacket, Lee held on to her son and prayed that they all made it to the surface as she tumbled with the wreckage and debris around her. She had no idea which way was up. Lee was totally disoriented as she felt the spin of the accelerating gyre tug on them. Clawing one-handed and kicking, she made it to the surface and thrust Gold above her watching for him to take a breath. He gasped with a panicked look on his small moon face and grabbed for his mom.
Diamond surfaced next to them without a sound and scanned her mom and brother. She was calm and beyond shock now. She was not terrified for some reason, not resigned either. She was ready. The whirlpool spun them round, it was hard to stay on the surface.
A strange tingling suddenly erupted all over her body as tho the water was being electrified. She saw lights in the water again, some blinked and then they all flickered out. For a moment everything went dark around them and they bumped and spiraled through the water, floating in their jackets amidst the debris. Diamond barely had time to wonder what had happened. The strange tingling continued.
Beneath them, a glow began to illuminate everything around them. Diamond could now see her brothers little face again looking alert and terrified. She locked eyes with him and watched as his face grew brighter in the reflected glow. Another bright orb arrived rapidly heading towards them up from the depths directly beneath them. The light was blinding and looked identical to the one that took her father. With quick and disturbing “ploomp” sounds, her mother and brother were pulled underwater. The water was charged with an intense electricity and she heard crackling on the surface. The bright orb descended quickly beneath her again and everything went dark.
She was alone.
Hardly breathing, she waited, darkness coming in slow motion all around her. She could hear the clatter of wood and debris in the water, but could now see nothing. Even the sky seemed black. She spun around in the gyre floating in her life jacket and shivering. There was no thought in her head. Thoughts left her when she followed her brothers startled gaze underneath the water and lost it in a blinding second to the chaotic depths.
Diamond felt instinctively around her for something to grab onto, there were boat pieces all around her but they seemed to be quickly vanishing. They were being drawn towards the center and sucked under by the current. She fought its inescapable gravity as it pulled her towards the center. She wondered if it would pull her under or if her life jacket would keep her on the surface against its force. She felt helpless to fight it as her adrenaline pumped muscles began to twitch and cramp. She waited for the lights that had come for the rest of her family to return for her, spinning as the gyre battled the floatation of her lifejacket and pulled at her, but she never saw them. She caught one last glimpse of the star filled sky as she reached the center of the whirlpool and was pulled under. The blackness of the sea surrounded her as her own light began to flicker and blink out.