“Why, you kids don’t even know you’re born.” Steven spluttered, before erupting into a tangent of life experience and respect.

As he lectured, the clear sky became murky as if someone dimmed the lights. A heavy rolling fog descended like a curtain, encompassing them from all sides. The temperature dropped, and everyone felt the chill made more prominent by its moisture. Already it left, forming dew drops.

Stevens’ voice transforming from stern to startled became unnaturally echoed and distant. The haze was so dense it took an effort for them to breathe, like having a heavy box sat on their chest. Almost immediately, the old man cut himself off coughing.

“Steven!” Vicky fussed over him, only to have a choking session the moment she spoke.

“For fuck’s sake!” Miles grouched, only to join them in their spluttering. He sounded far away to Emily, despite only being a few feet away. He waved his hand in front of his face, only to see nothing.

“language!” Vicky started spluttering a new.

To Emily sound was an afterthought. Out at sea, deep into the murky abyss, so deep that realistically Emily shouldn’t be able to see anything at all, shadows formed like ink blots come to life. Her jaw dropped as she watched. Absorbed in the vision that depicting an island, tropical and full of palm trees. Miles, Isaac and Ryan harvesting coconuts on the shore.

The ferry beached and harbouring the rest of the passengers; herself included. When Emily spotted herself, her stomach twisted in painful knots. She tried to soothe herself by playing with her zipper, but her body refused to move. As if something was forcing her to watch the scene play out.

Emily saw herself, prone and in the recovery position, unconscious, watched over by Vicky as the kids hovered nearby skittishly, unwilling to move too far away. Stood at the rails was Steven, keeping watch of both groups pensively, his expression dark as he kept vigilant.

Before her mind could process the dream-like sequence, it changed and gone was any sense of peace. Replaced by the three men walking through the tropical forest. They came into contact with more shadow people. Small, childlike shadow people.

There seemed to be some sort of exchange between the two groups and for a moment, first contact seemed to go well, but as more small shadows appeared and vastly outnumbered the men, they ambushed. The depicted struggle was unclear, the silhouettes combining into one messy mass that made it feel like she was deciphering a Rorschach Test.

As it became more erratic and harder to focus on, her ears rang. A familiar smell of burnt toast, so potent it couldn’t be real, was all that filled her senses. Emily tried to lie on the ground before it was too late. Halfway there, she was already seizing. She hit the deck face first with a thud.

Alice’s scream pierced through the fog and grew more shrill as Emily thrashed. Her panic was contagious, as Liam soon joined her. Spotting the blood that leaked from where Emily landed face.

The parents called to their children, horrified by whatever unknown danger threatened them in the smokescreen. As soon as their names left their lips, the fog disappeared without a trace. As if it had never formed at all. The family’s reunited, the patents experiencing an odd mix of relief and dread as they checked over the children and found them unharmed.

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

“Ems!” Miles bolted for his seizing friend.

Almost moving her before aborting the action at the last second. He scanned his memories for the instructions she gave him. He’d never been around before, but Emily warned him she had epilepsy, and what to do should she have a seizure.

Move dangerous objects away. If it looked like she was going to swallow her tongue, don’t stop it with his fingers unless he wanted them bitten off. Don’t move her until it was over and time it. If it lasted longer than five minutes, call an ambulance.

Laughing nervously, he ran his hand through his hair, eyes shiny. He crouched over her, and though Emily advised him not to move her, propped her head up to ensure she could breathe. As she suffered and he couldn’t do anything more, Miles felt a sense of powerlessness that he had never experienced before. It was painful to watch, painful to imagine going through. He watched as her eyes rolled into the back of her head and she foamed at the mouth.

In the background, the children panicked, elevating his heart rate as he tried to ignore them. The parents tried to calm them in two different languages. Looking up briefly, Capitan Williams and Isaac came over to watch with similar powerless concern. The younger pacing around like a caged animal, but gave them their space. Their brief eye contact conveyed they didn’t know what to do either.

“She has epilepsy.” He swallowed, and it sunk in that he must be the most knowledgeable person on the subject present. Being responsible for his friend’s health was daunting.

The fathers escorted their children below deck to where they wouldn’t be a distraction, and Vicky joined their half circle, to Isaac’s visible relief. She too kneeled beside Emily, and watched her with a worried but calm eyes. Moving her hands over the younger woman, but not touching.

“What do we do, mum?”

“We wait.”

It was the longest three minutes of Miles’s life. In a snap, Emily went from thrashing to dead weight in his arms. As limp as a rag doll. As the expression came to mind, he felt cold, but her pulse and breathing were strong. Though she was well and truly unconscious, nothing could wake her.

“Anyone know the recovery position?” Miles prayed to whatever god that listened that someone did.

“Trying to remember. I was ten when learning this.” Vicky stared towards the distant left, stoking Emily’s head to comfort them both. “Ok, help me roll her.”

As a team, the two placed Emily on her right side. Her right leg extended out fully, the left one bent at the knee and towards her stomach, to prevent her rolling on her stomach. Her right arm was straight and propping up her left elbow as it curled under her head.

Silence descended on the gathering once satisfied with her position. Like a collective sigh, the tension bled out of all those present now that the worst was over. Miles started breathing heavily as the pent up fear he was attempting to suppress hit him all at once. Vicky’s attention moved to the young man as she noticed the beginnings of a panic attack.

“Watch her.” She looked at Miles, then turned to the captain. “Get some clean towels and hot water.” Before giving Miles her full focus.

Unaware of Captain Willians’ hesitation to leave them, however briefly, Vicky Took Miles him a short distance away with the limited space. They sat down opposite each other and she gave him space.

“Breathe in, hold seven.” She showed. “Breath out, hold seven.” She repeated.

Isaac watched his mother talk Miles down from his panic attack. One arm folded around his chest, the other pinched the bridge of his nose. Hot frustration and guilt at being useless as usual coursed through him, but now wasn’t the time to indulge in his emotions. Someone other than his mother needed to be level headed.

Sitting in the lotus position, his knee bounced as he kept watch over Emily, and paid attention to his mother’s lesson as she led by example, and hoped that he would never have need of it. As unlikely as that was seeming.