Chapter Thirty
“You’ve got to stop it!” Niyol shrieked, panicking as he realised that the water level was quickly rising. His body squirmed and writhed like a snake and the more distressed he became, the more his eyes began to glow bright white.
“You’ve got to control yourself!” Aura warned him, but almost as soon as the words had left her mouth, an electric current jolted through my body like a wave of blazing fire, and everyone in the room cried out in agony.
“Stop it, Niyol!” I yelled, but he clearly wasn’t thinking straight, as several other lightning strikes left his body and smacked into ours, making me clench my teeth and judder in pain.
“You’re going to kill us!” Visola told him, trying desperately to untie her hands, still wrapped around the pole directly in front of us.
“Look at me, Niyol, look at me!” Aura’s voice was strong and commanding, but at the same time heartfelt and sincere. Niyol’s white eyes gazed into his sister’s as another tiny crackle of electricity emanated from his open arms. Gamba cried out in distress and I braced myself as best as I could against the strong burning sensation that smothered me from head to toe.
“Niyol, you’ve got to focus! Concentrate! We’re not going to die today, okay? We’re not! I’m not going to let that happen, Sefarina isn’t going to let that happen, and the Aquas aren’t going to let that happen! Now pull yourself together and stop electrocuting us!”
Niyol blinked rapidly, taking in the advice of his sister. His eyes went back to their normal light brown, and he widened them and began to scan the room, looking for an escape. I pressed against Shasa, indicating that she should do the same, so that we could stand to our feet. The water level was almost up to our necks, and I didn’t really want to go under before we had thought through an effective escape strategy. Within seconds me and Shasa had managed to manoeuvre upwards so that we were level with our brother, sister, Niyol and Aura. But Sefarina was almost completely submerged; only her pale face stuck out of the rising water. Because she was tied to a pipe that was on the ground, she was unable to stand to her feet like we could. She spluttered and screamed, trying not to panic. Just as the water enveloped her, she took a deep breath and then disappeared completely under the rising current.
“Sefarina!” Aura screeched in shock. “We’ve got to do something!!”
I looked back over to Niyol.
“Niyol!” I yelled, “Can you direct your lighting at us?”
Shasa gawped in confusion, and Niyol shook his head in confirmation, not taking his eyes from his submerged sister.
“Niyol, I want you to send a lightning bolt directly at the rope binding our arms, okay? Do it until it burns. Then we’ll be able to get free, and we can untie everyone else.”
Niyol was lost: tangled in his own muddied thoughts.
“You’ll die!” Visola told us, but I ignored her. The water was almost reaching our fingertips, and if Niyol didn’t electrocute our bonds right now, he would never be able to once they went underwater.
“NIYOL!” I shrieked at him, temporarily losing my cool, “Electrocute us, right now!”
Niyol’s gaze locked onto mine and he nodded again.
“You ready?” I asked Shasa, bracing myself for the worst. My legs began to quiver from the cold of the water, but also out of terror. I took a sharp intake of breath, but before I exhaled, felt the feeling of a thousand waves of fire hurtling from the palms of my hands to the tips of my toes. My head felt as if it might explode and I tried my hardest to stand upright and not plunge face first into the water. The excruciating pain continued as I tried my very best to wriggle my hands free. After a few seconds, the pain stopped and I collapsed, splashing into the cool salty sea. My face went under and I felt complete calm. I wanted to stay down there forever, but I quickly shot back up to the surface, realising that I was no longer bound to my sister.
“Shasa!” I called out; about to tell her to untie Sefarina, but before the words could even get past my lips, I turned to see that she was doing just that. Shasa had dived under and was furiously attempting to unfasten Sefarina from the pipe.
“Get us out outta here!” Visola ordered me. I rushed over to her and began to tear at the thick ropey knots that bound her wrists together, but they were now under the water and every time I thought I was making headway, I lost my grip. The slippery surface of the rough cable began to try my patience, but I continued to do my best as fast as I could, my heart thumping loudly at the side of my head.
I heard a loud gasp and looked over to see Sefarina emerge from the almost chest high water. Shasa followed quickly behind her, and they both darted over to untie Aura and Niyol.
Finally, after many attempts, Visola was free, and we both rushed over to our brother, to try to unpin him from the wall of the ship. As I was tugging at the rope that fixed his legs firmly to the steel, I noticed that my palms and wrists were badly burnt. I hadn’t felt any pain, but now that I had seen the massive wounds that the lightning, and presumably the fire that had been created by it, had left on my flesh, I instantly reeled back in shock. The stinging from the salt water into the open, raw flesh was torture, but I knew how to fix that. I quickly threw my hands into the freezing sea, which throbbed unbelievably, and then closed my eyes and focused. I brought the tiny water molecules surrounding my wounds into my own body, and then began to knead them together with my mind. My flesh started to fix itself, and I could direct every atom onto every shredded membrane, forcing my body to heal itself by rebuilding the destroyed tissue. In a matter of seconds, both of my wounds were completely healed, and the pain instantly dissipated.
“What are you doing you idiot?!?” Gamba berated me as he continued to hang on the wall like a mounted fish. I went back to my task, no longer struggling with the rope as my fingers could work correctly now that there were no injuries there to prevent them from doing so. I heard splashing behind me as bodies thrashed through the water and crashed down into it. The water was now at my chest, and I knew that meant my sisters would almost be completely immersed.
I untied Gamba’s legs, and they splashed down heavily into the water, along with the rest of his body, as Visola had clearly finished untying him at the exact same time. He disappeared from my view until he quickly popped his head out of the water and spat some of the liquid out of his mouth, in my direction. He squinted at me in fury, but I returned his rage with a curt smile.
“A thank you would be nice.”
He growled at me, and then pushed past me slowly, the water weighing him down, to make his way towards the centre of the room. I turned and followed him, and after a few strides in the freezing fluid, we were all huddled together in a circle. All of the girls were clearly on tip toes, their heads just floating above the water line. I looked upwards, realising that there wasn’t really any space between the top of my head and the ceiling. Pretty soon, we were all going to be underwater.
And that’s when I had an idea. It was pretty stupid, and wouldn’t even matter if we couldn’t escape from the ship, but I did it anyway. It only took a few seconds, but I dived under the water and made my way to Mr Price’s body. I rooted through his pockets, found what I was looking for and then returned to the shrinking surface.
“What were you doing?” Gamba questioned angrily.
Just as I was about to answer, Shasa cleared her throat loudly.
“I can get us out of here!” she declared, spitting water out of her mouth as I sucked some in accidentally.
“What are we going to do??” Sefarina sobbed, clutching onto her sister.
“I can navigate us out of here…!” Shasa’s head disappeared under the rising water level, and then quickly returned to the surface.
“I can blow the door open,” Visola told us, “And I’ll do something to help you three breathe…” She indicated to the Ventus Trio, who all looked absolutely petrified.
“We’ve just got to stay calm,” Shasa told us, “and most importantly, not
panic!”
Suddenly the lights began to flicker, and another explosion rocked the ship, sending the swirling water into my face as the vessel tipped to the side. I instantly found myself submerged in the darkness, and had no idea where I was in the room.
I tried to compose myself and feel through the water, but I began to panic. I hadn’t taken a deep breath before plunging under, and I was in desperate need of oxygen. I had to breathe. I scrabbled around in the deep dark blue, hoping that the water hadn’t entirely filled up the room, so that I could return to a pocket of air and inhale in deeply in order to prepare myself for the long swim.
My lungs began to burn as I swam through the room, bumping into pipes and posts, and smacking my head against the metal walls. Just as my head began to feel fuzzy, and my body was about to mechanically draw in a huge gulp of water, something strange happened. A huge bubble, just like an astronaut’s helmet, miraculously covered my head, coating my face in a ball of oxygen. I knew that Visola must have been responsible, and so I inhaled deeply, breathing in the much needed air that my lungs craved.
Once I felt calmer, and more able to escape the sinking ship, I began to listen to my instincts, and feel for the connections between myself and my siblings. I focused, looking through the dark water that surrounded me, hoping to see something, anything, that could lead me out of the sinking ship.
I felt something in my gut, telling me to turn around, and swim in that direction. I followed the command, and within a few seconds, bumped into another body. Peering through my air bubble helmet, I saw Sefarina, who also had a large bubble attached to her head. She raised her right arm, and indicated that I follow her, so I did. I realised pretty quickly that we were now swimming through an open doorway- the only exit out of the room. It had somehow fallen open, and I wondered if any of my companions had forced it open with their powers.
As I swam through the opening, into an even blacker darkness, I saw the door, ripped from its strong metal hinges, lying beneath me. It looked as though a huge force had smacked into it, and it seemed like it had also been partially melted. I smiled, realising that Gamba and Visola must have worked together to help us to escape.
As I continued down what I presumed was one of the long corridors of the container ship, Sefarina began to disappear from my view, even though she was only an arm’s length in front of me. The water began to grow even colder, and goose bumps rose on my arms and legs. I was wading through murky treacle, not knowing where on earth I was going.
I wasn’t like my sisters: I couldn’t ‘feel’ through the water as well as they could. I could only sense life in water, such a plant matter and…
I temporarily stopped still. I was beginning to panic again, and my breathing grew heavier and more frantic. I knew that I only had a certain amount of oxygen inside this helmet, and once I had used it up, I would be inhaling my discharged carbon dioxide. And that would be as bad as breathing in the ocean water.
My power, my main power, was all about life. I could nurture life by restoring it, and helping it to grow. All I had to do was to trust myself, and my instincts, and then I could easily lock onto the bodies surrounding me, and they would lead me out of this tomb. Although I wasn’t in the right frame of mind to just float here and wait for a ‘feeling’ to command me, I knew that if I focused on trying to find my sisters, then I could follow them through this maze, and would find my way out. They would definitely know how to escape.
I closed my eyes, taking in what could be my last breath of oxygen. The bubble would burst as soon as the air inside ran out: I had a gut feeling about this. Or perhaps it was Visola, who was somehow talking to me in quiet whispers, calming me down.
Keep moving.
I also felt Shasa’s voice, urging me to trust her and continue, and it also seemed as if Sefarina was here too: floating alongside me within my mind.
Keep going.
I tried to push away the negative thoughts and concentrate. A large lump formed in my throat, but I swallowed it down. I didn’t want to think about the fact that my sisters could get lost, and I would follow them to my doom. I had to trust them, and I had to trust my powers.
You’ve got to trust us.
With urgent courage, I began to swim faster, through the blackness, hoping that I didn’t hit into any walls or doors. I felt a psychic force guiding me through the tunnel, knowing that the rest of the Elementals were encouraging me. I dug down deeper into my soul and told the water surrounding me to assist me. Small vibrations began to quiver against my flesh, and I somehow knew that I should turn right, which I did.
I began to build up speed, and was now swimming like a dolphin: my joined legs kicking up and down rhythmically as I used my ‘senses’ to guide me through the endless dark. I felt something, like a kick in my gut. It didn’t hurt, but it was a crucial warning, and I knew that Visola was telling me that the bubble had outlived its usefulness. I took my final breath of oxygen, and then the helmet exploded, the cold water slapping against my cheeks and knocking into my face. I opened my eyes slowly, ignoring the sting of the salt water. I continued to flipper through the darkness, depending on both my siblings’ guidance and the vibrations that rippled against my body. I had never felt this sensation before, and I was proud that I had unlocked another power.
After turning left, as the tiny pulsations commanded me, ahead of me I saw a glow in the distance. Even though it was very small, it illuminated everything around it, creating an eerie radiance that drew me closer. As I got nearer to it, I could see the outline of a huge hole that had been blown into the side of the ship. It must have been two storeys in height, and its width was even longer. There were large sharp, serrated edges of twisted steel jutting into the mouth of the fissure, making it look like a creature roaring ferociously.
I shuddered at the thought of swimming into the open mouth of a monster, and continued to swim closer to it, noticing that there were several people waiting for me. I could only see their shadowy forms hovering in front of the breach, one of which seemed to be emitting the bright white light.
Just metres away from it, I realised that the light was from Niyol’s eyes. He had somehow managed to control his lightning so that he wasn’t electrocuting the water, but was creating a torch to light the way. I stared at him, thinking that he looked like one of the bioluminescent deep sea fish I had read so much about. And although it was amazing, I was slightly horrified. Another bubble appeared around his head, and the light dimmed slightly as he inhaled deeply. I quickly realised that the other people floating next to Niyol were Visola and Gamba, both of whom must have been waiting for me. I assumed that Sefarina, Aura and Shasa had escaped the boat, mainly because of the shadowy look of relief that flittered across my siblings’ faces.
Niyol turned, waving his arm to indicate that we leave, and as he did, we were plunged into almost darkness. I could still see the monstrous gaping hole right in front of us, lit up brightly as Niyol swam through it. Gamba followed him, and Visola took my hands in hers, and guided me forward. My lungs were beginning to ache now, but I knew that I could hold on until we reached the surface. I smiled to myself, happy that we weren’t going to die, at least not from this. We had found our way out. My siblings had saved me. We were going to be okay.
Just as Visola and I passed through the jagged mouth, a huge shockwave rocked the ocean, sending us both tumbling through the icy waters. I could feel the full force of the ship as it began to plummet down towards us as we span through the briny liquid. I clutched onto Visola with all my might. I was completely disorientated: I didn’t know where I was, or where I was going. I tried desperately to see through the murky darkness, but as my body toppled head over heels, I couldn’t lock my vision onto anything.
I suddenly felt Visola’s body smack into mine, and we both stopped dead still. I could feel that we were sinking down along with the boat, but I didn’t know why. It was dragging us deeper. I peered out into the ocean, and could see Niyol’s whit
e eyes above me, in the distance. He was probably swimming towards the surface, so I knew that we should follow him. I also made out Gamba’s large body, but he seemed to be diving towards us, in a valiant rescue attempt.
I decided to swim towards him as fast as I could, so I kicked my legs with all my might, trying to ignore the fact that my lungs were screaming in desperation. I tugged at Visola’s arm, but she didn’t move. She seemed stuck.
I turned, and in the faint light I saw another dark liquid flowing upwards, but it wasn’t water. It was blood.
I moved closer to my sister, and was almost sick when I realised what had happened. The reason why we had suddenly stopped moving from the huge force was because I had knocked against Visola, pushing her into one of the large shards of metal that enveloped our escape. She was now pinned against the shipping container, impaled through the chest by a huge lump of steel. Her eyes flickered hazily as the blood poured out of her body.
I wanted to scream.