Episode 1. The wave

“Jude! Jude! A big wave is coming!”

He didn’t hear the man. Couldn’t.

The net was heavy. Alive. The biggest catch of his life thrashed at his feet, silver scales flashing under the morning sun. Jude grinned, teeth bright against his salt-cracked lips. His chest swelled. This one would feed Ma and the twins for a week. Maybe they’d finally fix the roof.

He dug his heels into the rotting wood of the boat and pulled. Hard.

The rope burned his palms. The fish fought. The boat creaked.

He never saw the wall of water rising behind him.

The first sign was the shadow. A sudden cold that swallowed the sun. Jude frowned and glanced over his shoulder.

Too late.

The wave was a mountain. Black-green and silent, curling high above the little boat like God’s hand coming down to swat a fly.

His stomach dropped. “No—”

It struck.

The world became water and noise. The boat flipped. The net ripped from his hands. Sky and sea traded places, spinning, roaring. Jude slammed into the hull, ribs cracking. Saltwater forced its way down his throat. He kicked, clawed, reached for air that wasn’t there.

The wave dragged him under.

It tossed the boat like driftwood. Left, right, down. Wood splintered. Water poured through new gaps in the hull. Jude surfaced for half a breath before the next wave buried him again.

He held on. Fingernails splitting against the gunwale. Panic was a living thing in his chest, screaming louder than the storm.

Then the sky broke.

Lightning tore the clouds open. For one heartbeat, the whole sea was white. The bolt hit the water twenty yards out and the sea _screamed_. It rose and spun and tumbled like something had woken up angry.

Like Zeus had thrown a spear to kill Poseidon.

Jude’s head hit something hard. The world went black.

---

Time passed. Maybe minutes. Maybe hours.

The first thing he noticed was the quiet.

No wind. No waves. No gulls.

Jude’s eyes fluttered open. Salt crusted his lashes. His whole body hurt. Every breath was knives.

He lay on his back in three inches of seawater, inside what was left of his boat. The hull was cracked down the middle. Splinters floated around him. The mast was gone. The net was gone. The fish was gone.

He forced himself up, groaning. His head swam.

The sea was glass.

Flat. Still. Blue so deep it looked like the sky had sunk.

No land. Not in any direction. Just water touching sky in a perfect, endless circle.

Jude’s throat closed.

He scrambled to the biggest crack in the hull. Water bubbled up through it, steady and patient. He pressed both hands against the gap, trying to hold the sea back. It pushed through his fingers, warm as blood.

“Stop,” he begged. “Please, stop.”

It didn’t.

The boat sat lower in the water.

Jude stopped pushing. His arms dropped. His heart was a drum going slow.

_So this is it_, he thought. _This is the end._

He said it out loud too. The words were small. They disappeared into the quiet.

He whispered his ma’s name. Then the twins’.

No one answered.

Then he heard it.

Not a wave. Not wind.

A knock.

_Tok. Tok. Tok._

From underneath the boat.

Jude froze. The water in the hull went still.

The knock came again. Slow. Deliberate. Like a finger tapping wood.

_Tok. Tok. Tok._

And then a voice, muffled by water and wood, but clear enough to turn his bones to ice.

“Jude. Let us in

***Download NovelToon to enjoy a better reading experience!***