CHAPTER 1
The family received a message in the mail a week ago that said their beloved uncle and brother, Avery, had passed away and that his funeral will be on the 23rd of April. They were all mourning their loss up to the 23rd and on that day at precisely 8:00 am, they started to head out to The Wall. They all walked in a comfortable silence, their obsidian colored canoe raised above their heads. For James, being the youngest and therefore the shortest out of the four men, this was only his second time being able to partake in carrying the craft. They were lined up in order of tallest to shortest. The order was Miles in front, then Derek, Jonah, and finally, James taking up the end. James had tried to go in the front his first time carrying the canoe but it kept falling too far forward and nothing good came of that. Their father, Derek, started to abuse the boys since the loss of his husband. It was one of the only releases he had for his pent-up anger, other than drinking, of course. Later that day, the young boy received a few bruises and a scar on his left shoulder as a reminder to stay in the back of the line until was tall enough (and/or strong enough) to support the front.
As they approached the gate they could see the hundreds of other Rowers, the community whose lifestyle revolves around an ancient invention they called The Wall. Their community lived on a space of land that was essentially an island but it was below the water. The Wall was a large mass of salt water that differed in depth throughout, it would almost be a normal ocean other than the fact that most of the time the water as almost as black as the family's canoe and the water stopped abruptly in a circular formation around their island. The sunken island was about the size and shape of Maui, Hawaii. The Wall surrounded the edges of the land mass, towering around 28 feet above the land. The Rowers several generations before the Amerson family had built staircases up to the edge of The Wall that allow the Rowers to enter and exit their island freely without having to swim through the water. The only downside to this was that they had to climb the 56 stairs with a canoe above their heads to get to the top.
When the family got to the top of the stairs they set down their canoe to rest for a few minutes. James looked up once again to the ominously darkening sky. It was almost as if the sky was dimming with his mood. His emotional state had been very dark as of late because of the death of his uncle and father. The sky did not look to be getting brighter anytime soon, there was no way they could safely continue their journey, storms mean death if you're beyond The Wall. With the mystery of The Wall’s murky depths and a storm brewing, there is no way they would come back home if they got out too far and couldn’t flip their canoe. He decided to warn the men standing in front of him, “Father, the sky is too dark, a storm is coming. I don’t think we’ll be able to get to the funeral safely if a storm rolls in.” He said this apprehensively as the men started to see the first of the funeral goers riding their own canoes of many colors through the muddy, black water.
“No way we aren’t going Are you insane, boy? Avery was my brother, I’m not missing his funeral if it’s the last thing I do! If you wanna be a baby and stay home, go ahead. Your brothers and I are going to his funeral!” The enraged, drunken father exclaimed. James knew there was no changing the man’s mind.
His brothers turned back and gave him a sympathetic look before pivoting back around to put their supply of food and clothes or their journey into the lower compartment of the large, four-person traveling canoe.They always brought provisions in the canoe just in case something bad would happen... James knew that he would be disowned if he did not go to his funeral, he had no choice. At least if I go I might be able to get them to safety when we-NO if we capsize. He thought. “No, no, I’m going. I just said that the sky is dark, you know? I was just pointing out that it might not be the safest option.” James said. He was trying to reconcile with his father but the older man did not respond.
Shortly after that interaction, the men carefully lowered their dark watercraft into the darker water of the giant ocean that made up The Wall. They were one of the last families to have their canoe in the water. When James realized that he prepared himself for an immediate physical and/or verbal beating but all he got from his father was, “All aboard kids, it's time to head out!”. That was almost worse than an immediate reprimand, something bad would come later.
The boys knew better than to disobey their father when he was drunk so they all dutifully climbed onto their seats and grabbed two oars to help row. By this time the sky was almost as dark as their canoe, the youngest son knew something bad was happening but as far as he knew, he had no power to stop it. They set out on their journey, slowly rowing their way through the water alongside hundreds of other people in canoes and kayaks of varying colors. Their uncle was a very popular, well-liked man in that community so it was no surprise to them that there were so many other people in the water with them.
The storm hit not five minutes after they set out. The boys had been rowing the whole time, their wasted father sleeping in the back of the long canoe. None of them other than James was ready for the sudden attack of pounding rain and golf ball sized hail from the sky. He knew what was coming, he could feel it in his bones; just like he had felt the sudden mist last summer on the day his father died. Adrian and Derek had been married for 30 years with three children when Adrian died. The boys all mourned the loss of their father for a long time but it was obvious that James took it the hardest. James had sunk into a deep state of depression after his father and best friend died. His other father, Derek was not as close with him as Adrian had been and could not fill the hole in his heart.
The boy had always felt a strong connection with the weather, even before he started to realize that it had a tendency to follow his mood. The day of the funeral was the turning point in this realization, he was screaming and crying at the casket of his father. His brothers held him back while his father sat in the corner, drinking. Derek puzzledly stared at the torrential downpour of rain and sleet that was crashing down on the otherwise quiet fall afternoon. He had never seen that kind of storm, especially in the fall, in all of his 49 years of living. The man swung his head to look back at his son who had finally stopped his outburst and was quietly sleeping in his eldest brother’s arms.
At that moment, Derek knew that his son had inherited something from Adrian. He had been told about this power from his husband 10 years before the man’s death and worried that one of the boys would inherit it. Adrian possessed the power to control water-related weather such as rain and hail with his emotions/mood and had to learn over a period of several years how to keep his emotions at bay. It was a hard struggle for him but he accomplished it, he knew his son could do the same if he was persistent. At this time he did not think that telling the young boy would be healthy for him as his loss was still so fresh. So much had happened from the time of the funeral to the death of Derek’s uncle that he had not had time to sit him down and let him know the power that he possessed. James was going in blind and he had such a large range of emotions there was no telling what he would bring next. Derek was thinking of all of this as they were traveling. His sons rowing their canoe to the East, toward the location of the funeral of his favorite brother. He looked up to the sky and for the first time really saw how dark it was. This can’t be natural, it must be James’s doing. He thought. He did not know what to do other than to let it be. It is against the law to speak of the Gift in front of anyone who doesn’t have it so he would have to just wait it out and see what happens. He decided to tell him after the funeral just as a massive sheet of rain started to fall from the sky. The rain was not good, especially once past The Wall. The storm was too big, too powerful to be just one person, there had to be more with the gift out on the water that day. Derek knew he had to protect his sons. He tried to get the attention of his eldest son but the rain was making too much noise for him to hear his father's yelling. The older man eventually resolved to smack the back of his sons head to get his attention, the boy dropped his oars and spun around, obviously enraged at his father. Derek leaned over to his son and the boy did also, he realized that his father wanted to speak with him.
“You need to get your brothers to put their Breathers on!” Derek yelled.
“What?”
“Your Breather! Put it on!” Derek yelled this as he put on his breathing mask on to demonstrate. Once Jonah finally got the idea he turned back around to face his brother Miles and smack his head like his father had done to him. Miles had a much calmer personality so he just turned around and mouthed, “What?” He might have actually been yelling but with the thunder paired with the rain violently hitting the water nothing spoken could be heard. Miles eventually got the idea and put on his mask after Jonah pointed to his own Breather multiple times. Miles turned around to get James’s attention to relay the same message but realized that his brother already has his mask on. He thought nothing of it, when it came extreme weather, James was almost always prepared for the worst before anyone else had time to process that any kind of storm was coming.
Derek had sobered up a bit by that time so he picked up the two abandoned oars that were lying on the deck of the canoe for him and started rowing. He was trying to speed up the process of getting to the site of the funeral even though he knew his efforts were in vain. He knew they weren’t going to make it to the funeral, everyone was too upset to let that happen. Derek looked around and saw a few others with their masks on. They were easy to spot, even in the pounding rain. A Breather mask wrapped around the entire front of the face and secured with two straps wrapping around the back of the head. The masks had lights on the top, near the temple area that allowed the wearer to see under and above water better. They were designed for breathing underwater and contained technology that filtered the air from the water so the wearer could breathe through the netting covering the mouth and nose. It looked like a black full face mask but worked like a fish’s gills. The mask also covered the eyes of the wearer with blue tinted bulletproof plastic that made it easier to see underwater. Derek and his sons did not have the most advanced versions of the masks because of their lack of money but theirs worked in about the same way. Their masks still had the gill tech covering the mouth and nose of the wearer. However, instead of one big piece, theirs were two pieces, dividing the eye coverings and mouth/nose breathing device. Also, their masks eye pieces were just plastic like in normal swimming goggles instead of the normal blue screens. They weren’t the best but they worked where it counted.
Derek adjusted the straps on the back of his mask and prepared for the worst. Typically, people with the Gift could predict/control the weather so he assumed the ones with the masks had the Gift. That was too many people to make a safe trip. With over 40 Gifted traveling to a funeral of all things, nothing good could possibly happen. Just as he was thinking of this he saw a massive bolt of lightning hit the water, a wave sprung from the impact site and crashed down on at least five canoes holding around three to four people each. None of those people were wearing masks. Everyone stopped rowing and waited for them to come up. Everyone except one canoe holding a young person around the age of James. They cried out a heart-wrenching scream that could be heard over the pouring rain before diving into the dark water to try and save the people who fell in. The kid had a Breather on so no one went in after them, they would be fine. Everyone in the funeral procession waited another five minutes. Only the kid with the Breather came up from the water.
They all decided to get moving once the kid got into their canoe once and again, picked up their black oars, and started rowing toward the funeral with their head handing. Their shoulders shook as if they were crying. Looks like we’ll be going to another funeral soon. Derek worriedly thought.
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