T

he scenic view of the ocean poured a heavy dose of the atmosphere; the gentle winds caressed the oceanic view making it even more majestic that mother Nature had painted with her surrealism. The chilly ocean breeze coats Barry’s skin as he stares at the oceans’ infinite color.

He closed his eyes as the breeze played with his hair, giving it the same buoyant wave as the sea.

A cool draught of air whips over the waves, bringing a taste of the ocean with it. Taking in a deep breath, Barry closes his eyes and lets the wind be his calm meditation. While Barry is encapsulated in a state of trance, a tingling sensation prevails on his shoulder. Ignoring it, he does not bother opening his eyes and ruining the moment, but as the sensation continues to grow, Barry snaps out of his. His gaze drops at his shoulder, and he comes to realize that a spider is crawling upon him. The calm atmosphere fills with a shrilling scream as Barry throws his hands around him, trying to get rid of the spider.

“Calm down, it’s fake, man!”

Barry turns around upon hearing the voice, coming face to face with Malcolm. Holding a beer in his hand, his childhood friend tries to stifle his laughs as Tim falls near Malcolm’s feet, laughing and holding his stomach.

“You think it’s funny?” Barry asks, trying to catch his breath as he looks dead in Tim’s eyes.

Tim controls himself and sits straight. “I mean, a grown man getting scared of a spider, and jumping like an idiot to get rid of it?” He twitches his nose. “Kinda.”

Before Barry could respond, he starts laughing again. Malcolm, who was stifling his laughs, couldn’t help but join.

Barry shakes his head and snatches the beer from Malcolm. It was not new for him—the pranks—his friends had pranked him before with a spider, specifically because of Barry’s arachnophobia.

If spiders were anywhere near him, it made him scream for his life. Once in grade sixth, Tim snuck a fake spider in Barry’s lunch box. When Barry opened his lunch box, a loud and deafening scream filled the corridor as he threw his lunch, which landed on the teacher’s lap. Needless to say, Barry was sent home.

“Come on, man. It was just a joke.” Malcolm said, slipping his hand around Barry’s shoulder.

Barry takes a sip of his drink and decides to stay quiet. He wasn’t the one who to get offended easily, but it was hard for him to stay sane with spiders. He was a little mad at Tim and Malcolm, too. His childhood friends were aware of how fast Barry loses it when it comes to spiders, but they thought it was funny to scare him and laugh at his reaction. But Barry knew Tim and his love for pranks. Tim might prank you all day, but he knew how to handle a good prank.

“At least it wasn’t one of the monsters you wanted to discover,” Malcolm adds. Barry’s gaze fell on the open book a few feet away from them. The title read, ‘Journey to The Mysterious Island.’

“Lord knows I’d rather come face to face with a werewolf than these frickin’ giant-legged, creepy monsters,” Barry says, kicking the lifeless spider near his feet.

He thought it was weird, his fear of spiders. In Barry’s mind, it did not sit well. He grew up reading about monsters with sixteen legs, fairies being bloodthirsty villains, werewolves, witches, and vampires. He was obsessed with the idea of Mysterious Islands, Bermuda Triangle, the deep-sea, and places that have yet to be discovered, but both Tim and Malcolm were least interested in Barry’s ideas.

The more he read about these mythical creatures, the more he wanted to find him. As a kid, he always planned to explore the forest behind his house, but his overprotective mother did not let him go near the forest, let alone inside it.

“And,” Barry adds, “I’ve told you all many times, anything but-”

“Spiders,” Tim and Malcolm say at once, earning another pair of rolling eyes from Barry, “We know,” Malcolm continues, “Spiders are off-limits. I say we should all go for a dive. The water’s calm, and I’m sure it is damn cold,”

Malcolm was right. The ocean did look calm, and the cold breeze was the cherry on top. Like every other summer, Barry, Tim, and Malcolm came to the ocean for a little swim; this year was no different.

“What do you say, Spidey-Boy? You ready for a dive?” Tim asks, winking at Barry,

“Make sure to stay away from me, or I’ll make sure this dive becomes your last.” Barry winks back, causing Tim’s smirk to turn into a frown.

“Attaboy! Let’s go!” Malcolm high-fives Barry, and all three of them run towards the deck. Taking off their shirts, within minutes, they jump into the water.

Diving into the blue molten-joy, amid the playful eddies of brine, the boys were happier than they could ever be. Swimming was the glory of their summer days, basking in the glory of the sun, breathing in the brine as they swam freely but making sure they stayed near the cruise.

“All good?”

Barry looks up at the cruise. Captain Josh stood at the edge with a bottle of cheap beer in his head as his head hung low, looking at all three of them,

“Why don’t you come down? Old Josh scared he’ll drown?” Tim, as usual, passes a teasing remark, causing Josh to laugh out loud.

Josh’s a friend of Tim’s father. Barry knew him since he was a kid. He was the one who brought all the kids for their swim every summer and looked after them. He was also the only one Barry’s mother trusted Barry with.

“Young boy, I know these waters more than you ever will. Now, don’t make me come down there and snatch your little life jacket,” Josh replied, making Barry and Malcolm roar out a laugh,

“Hey! I can swim, all right? I just don’t want to take the risk!” Tim defends himself,

“You sure you can swim?” Barry looks at Tim as he swims near him and tries to take off Tim’s life jacket. Tim starts screaming for his life, making Malcolm and Barry fall into fits of laughter.

“Oi, kids. Why don’t you come back in here? The weather’s taking a turn. Ya’ll don’t want to get stuck here because of a bad weather.” Josh says.

His voice did not sound concerned, but a situation like this had never come up before. Josh made sure the weather was clear every time they went for a swim.

Nevertheless, all three boys took fifteen minutes to come back on the cruise. Drying themselves off, they started joking about how Tim screamed for his life. Josh took care of the wheel as all of them sat on the deck, under the sky.

Barry laid flat on his back and closes his eyes. The first droplet of rain falls onto his face causing him to open his eyes. Sitting up straight, he looks at his friends on either side of him with their eyes closed as well. A few more droplets fall from the sky, and before he knows it, the downpour gets so heavy that to be caught unaware meant being drenched to the skin. Each drop was as large as a cartoon tear, and they fell like gravity had been turned up a notch.

All of them, now awake and sitting, they start looking around. Watching the waves form up and the calmness of the ocean long gone, they can’t help but feel a little scared.

“Josh? We good?” Barry looks back at the wheels where Josh looks clearly troubled,

“Hold onto something. It’s gonna get- “

Before Josh could finish his sentence, the cruise gets hit with a huge wave. The waves moved in every direction, causing the cruise to rock back and forth like a rocking chair. The sun was nowhere in sight, and massive dark clouds overshadowed the bright blue sky.

“Get a grip!” Barry screams at the top of his lungs and runs to hold onto something. He could barely open his eyes. With the huge raindrops hitting his face and waves rocking the cruise, it was hard to keep his balance.

As the waves rock the ship almost to the tipping point, Barry holds onto the cruise for his life. The wind is strong enough to pick up a man and fling him to the briny waves. Every sense is maxed out, every muscle already working beyond normal capacity, and still, there is no end in sight. Worryingly, he looked around to catch a glimpse of his friends.

“Tim?!” He screams at the top of his lungs.

He could just make out the figure of his friends trying to keep their balance. They then disappear as lightning strikes. The boat heaved and tossed in the rising swell, and Barry tightened his grip on the handrail with his naked fingers.

The rain whipped down like crystal nails, and streaky lightning emblazoned the sky. The boat bobbed like a cork upon the capacious sea, and for the first time ever, he cried loudly—loud enough for him to hear his own cries over the thunderstorm. The brine hissed, lashing his face. With the constant water making its way in his eyes, he felt a fever in his eyes.

Suddenly, everything around Barry turns white. Then a flash flickers, followed by a crashing boom. Barry screams as he feels a jolting, excruciating pain in his entire body. His fingers let go of the handrail as he realizes it is being struck by lightning. His body falls on the floor of the cruise. He tries to open his eyes with heavy breaths, but before he knows it, a huge wave takes in the entire cruise, leaving no trace of human life behind. Within a matter of seconds, the storm disappears, as does the cruise.