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Today, we are featuring Inklings Book Contest 2024 finalist Lilly Ivancevic! Lilly wrote a suspenseful action story titled “Rough Waters.” Judges praised her “Evocative story telling,” and “wonderful descriptions of setting and scene.” Continue below to enjoy her work in digital book or plain text form.

Pounding bounced in my chest and quickly spread to my fingertips. I watched the fear in everyone’s eyes rise and spread like wildfire. My chest felt like it was going to explode. My hands tightened until they hurt. Rain battered against any strength I had; thunder bounced around in the sky and boomed as if it were yelling at something. Lightning danced across the sky and laughed at the thunder in amusement. The rocking of the big cruise ship made me sick. I don’t normally feel seasick, but this was different. The little slither of light left in the night was fading behind the rolling waves. The light of the full moon bounded off the water and disappeared into thousands of sparkles. 

The loud bellowing of the ship’s horns mixed into two. Five signals for two ships. My brain went blank. Nothing but fear clouded my brain. Everything in my body said, Run, Flee, Do Something, but I just stood there frozen. Something spiraled in my head. At first, it was quiet, but as soon as the horns signaled, it became larger and more relative. Back when I was getting my boater’s license, my instructor was telling me about horn signals. I remember his navy suit and special badges on his coat that just meant he was a part of the boaters’ safety organization, and his old wrinkles along with his scraggly gray hair. I remember his deep voice saying, “ If you hear five horns in a row, it means danger and to warn the other boats of any danger in the area. But if you do, most likely the person you’re trying to warn will just be angry. The closest response I ever got was with a big barge. I sounded my horn to warn him I was going to go around him in a tight space. He answered me on the radio and talked me through it.” I remember his slight chuckle at the end of his story, saying “I’m required to teach it to you, but I don’t recommend using it.”         

The cold wind snapped me out of my thoughts and made me snap back into reality. The reality was there was another ship heading straight towards us at full speed,  we were going to collide with another large ship, and we were going to die if we didn’t do something. 

The chill of the breeze cooled down my fear like an ice cube. I could hear my heartbeat slowing down. I listened past the noise and fear. I listened to the waves hitting the ship, the salty seagulls squawking, the wind hitting the ship and spinning off. Think. What would get us safer? Think. What would stop the ship? Think. Think. 

 My legs started carrying me farther into the chaos, into the noise, into the danger. I dragged Tess, Valentina, and Sawyer with me.

 “What are we doing? You guys!” Ava nervously followed like a duckling after its mother. 

I sucked in a breath and started sprinting toward the stern. Tears streamed down my face as we raced through the rain. Thunder flashed, and huge buckets of water pounded down into the night. Adrenaline rushed through my body, swirling and rising through my veins. “Get back here!!!” Ava fearfully called. She watched in horror as we ran as if we had a death wish. Again, just as the duckling follows its mother, Ava jolted forward, almost as if she were flying across the deck. 

My hair whipped behind me as I got closer and closer to the edge. The metal railing stood in front of me like a blockade. I have to jump! I have to jump! I have to jump! Suddenly the blockade was right there in front of me. As if I were flying, I did it; I jumped!                                 

 

~

Earlier that day 

 “Hurry up, Lilly! I’m hungry,” Tess complained. She was wearing a baby blue skirt and a fitted white top. She jumped up and down excitedly as I made my way towards her. Her brown curly hair bobbed up and down as she jumped. 

 “I’m coming, I’m coming,” I said as my hair flowed behind me.  I wore a pink skirt and a cream top. I slipped my sandals on as I ran toward her. 

“Where’s the dinner restaurant where we’re meeting Sawyer, Valentina, and Ava?”

“Let me check. It should be in the ship’s guidebook.” I pulled the map out of my rattan crossbody bag. 

“Lilly, you have to find a better speed, because slow isn’t working.”

 “Do you feel that, or is it just me?” 

 “Feel what, Lilly? I feel nothing,” Tess impatiently responded.

 “There it is again.” I immediately grabbed the safety handrail on the side of the ship’s hallway. Tess copied my action and looked at me with a concerned expression. I could feel the tension as we both realized the ship was rocking back and forth. We quickly ran through the heavy steel doors onto the deck of the ship. The cool breeze whipped the back of my neck and made me shiver to my core. The waves crashed into the hull and shot upwards into the sky just high enough to spray us. 

 “We have to get to the front deck,” Tess announced. The waves knocked us around, slamming us into walls and railings as we ran.

 “Well, at least we found the restaurant,” Tess sarcastically added. Ava, Sawyer, and Valentina huddled together just outside The Offshore Grill.

 

~

Present time 

The cold smack of the water rushed around me swirling, pushing, pulling me down deeper. The waves attacked, slamming me to the ocean floor. It felt like metal bars pushing me into the ground, and there was nothing I could do to stop it. Salt filled my eyes and burned me from the inside out, while the rest of my body felt numb. It almost felt peaceful at the bottom, but the sudden surge of water rolled me forward and pushed me further into the abyss. It felt impossible to hold on. I don’t even know what I was fighting for anymore. It felt like the world wanted me gone. Maybe if I just ended the suffering, let everything drift away, close my eyes, and float into the empty void. Before I drifted away, I opened my eyes just to say one last goodbye. 

A girl floated with me. Her hair swirled around behind her. She had a beautiful long flowing white dress that hovered around her, twirling and twisting through the water. She had a sort of wispy appearance. The girl didn’t look bothered by the murky unforgiving water. She reached out her hand as a kind of peace offering. I felt drawn to this angle like a figure floating with me. It took all the strength I had left to slowly make my way over to the girl. It felt as if she moved farther and farther away, as I got closer. 

Just as I extended my arm, I felt the familiar ocean breeze. I burst out of the water as if I were jumping. Air filled my lungs almost instantly, the same air that I had always taken for granted. It took a moment for oxygen to get to my brain and to realize the situation I was in. The rain battered against the back of my head. Thunder boomed and echoed all around me. Lightning scattered across the sky. There were too many things to process, too many things that I didn’t want to think about. Behind the roar of the thunder and the crashing of the waves, I could hear water hitting something, pushing against it. Lightning flashed, illuminating the area around me for only a second before disappearing into the darkness. Another bolt flashed allowing me to catch a glimpse of someone or a group of people huddling together in the night. 

“Hello, is anyone there?” I shouted to make sure I wasn’t hallucinating. Millions of possibilities spiraled in my head.

“Yes! Hello! Help! We’re here!” Voices cried for help in the dark stormy night. I immediately recognized their voices.

“Ava! Sawyer! Valentina! Tess!” I yelled. Finding the strength, I swam over in the direction of the voices. 

“Lilly, over here!” they cried

When I finally reached the girls, I embraced them in a group hug. There was a mix of laughter and tears as we reunited. 

After a while, we huddled together, treading water in silence. The only sound we could hear was the chattering of our teeth. We watched as the moon moved across the sky and slowly started to get to the edge of the horizon. By now, the rain had lightened to a drizzle. The waves had calmed to smooth bumps. The water rolled in a gentle rhythm. A shadow moved across the water, bobbing on the surface of the waves, blocking some of the moon’s sparkle. 

“Do y’all see that?” I pointed at the dark shadow drifting toward us.

“What is that?” asked Valentina.

“Maybe it’s a boat,” Sawyer added.

“It looks a little small to be a boat,” Tess said.

“Ava, where are you going?” I asked.

“If there’s a chance that it’s a boat, I’m taking it before it drifts too far,” Ava said bluntly.

Valentina called to Ava, “Wait for me!”

Sawyer, Tess, and I all looked at each other and laughed. “We’re coming, too,” I shouted.

As we swam toward the shadow, we realized that it was a runaway lifeboat from our sunken cruise ship. Ava climbed aboard and helped the rest of us crawl onto the mini-ship. 

By now the sun started to rise and projected colorful pinks and oranges across the sky. The cool breeze sent shivers down my spine. The warm glowing sun began to thaw my numb skin. Sparkles shimmered on the surface of the water. Drifting out to sea wasn’t so bad when you had a beautiful ocean view and a glimmering sunset.

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