CH: 1

Looking around, the body of water stretched endlessly along the horizon, in all directions.

The gently blowing wind, the serene blue-colored water, the almost cloudless sky along with the hypnotizing sound of waves… all of that formed a calming sea-song that drew away all the worldly worries.

All of these elements combined, induced tranquility in the soul along with a warm sense of comfort that has a certain irresistible, breath taking magic to it.

In this endlessly stretching sea, a fishing boat floated still on the body of water.

At the rear side of the boats' body, a youth was sitting relaxed on a chair. He was wearing a t-shirt and short pants that extended a bit below his knees. Attached to the chairs' arm set he was sitting on, was a semi-translucent umbrella that shielded him from most of the yellow sun's rays.

He was leisurely reading a book while allowing the gentle, fresh breeze to blow against the exposed skin of his arms, legs and face. Some wind would occasionally slip inside his wide t shirt carrying away the sweat vapor and inducing a comforting, cooling sensation.

Flapping the book pages, he reached out to a small table beside him, grabbing a small bottle of juice to take sip. However, upon lifting up the bottle, a sigh escaped his lips.

Its light weight seemed to remind him that less than ten minutes ago, he had already drunk its entire content.

With another sigh, he put the book aside and got up to bring another bottle.

The moment he stood up, a sudden gust of cool breeze blew over, collided against his body, and permeating through his thin fiber, fluttering clothes and taking along all the remaining traces of worldly concerns, and bringing about a magical sensation, that one would wish for it to last forever.

He immediately shut his eyes closed and spread his arms, welcoming the billow of cool wind, wanting to perceive it with all of his body.

After few magical moments, the sudden wind went away, bringing an end to the serene moment.

He opened his eyes, casting his sight over to the sea, allowing the breath taking scenery to settle in his memory. He briefly closed his eyes again and took a very deep breath, wanting to enhance the marvelous scene with smell and to capture the magic of this moment so that he would never forget it.

To him, this was the first time he had seen the sea in his 22 years of life. In a few days, he would enter the jungle of life to struggle for survival. So, this was probably the last chance to relax and boast up his spirit.

Although the impression this trip had left in him would definitely bring him back here again… but, he had no idea when he would get the chance to do so, or even if ever.

So, he wanted to imprint this wonderful painting in his memories, to recall it whenever life goes hard on him, to remind himself; that good things also exists in this life, that he shouldn't allow the current of life to overwhelm him, and drain away his youthful spirit.

Opening his eyes, he moved to the cabin. Another youth of similar age to him was laying sleep on the captains' chair. Seeing this youth, he smiled, as a feeling of gratitude surged in his heart. This whole trip was thanks to this sleeping youth, both in idea and execution.

They had graduated from college less than a week ago. And in no time, they would part ways, each following his own path.

To Ramie, after over a decade of painstaking efforts, struggle, stress, and endless nights of studies… this was the one time chance to catch a breath.

Although his all out hellish efforts throughout his school life had eventually fallen short of his ambitions and dreams, he had done all that he could, but this was life… one simply can't get all what he wants... or deserves.

And now, in a few days, he's going to enter the struggle of life, to continue the fight.

So this trip was something he direly needed but didn't know he did, not until the sleeping youth had forced him to come along. For that, he was deeply grateful.

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He took out a bottle of juice from an ice box and walked back to his chair.

Mid way however, he paused in his track…

An abrupt a sense of chilling coldness spread through his body. His hair stood to end, his skin goose bumped all over his body, sending signals crazily to his mind, as though a ghost had just passed through him…

'What is this feeling…?'

All of sudden, frightening sense of foreboding erupted in his heart, throwing his thoughts in disarray, and sending him in a state of bewilderment.

'This…?'

Perplexed, he started looking around in confusion, looking for any sign of trouble that might have caused him such a feeling… yet there was nothing out of usual.

The sea was calm, the wind moderate and the boat was fine… everything was… Yet his heart did not calm down in the least, but instead, Palpating even harder.

It was a sort of inexplicable feeling that has no basis for it. This was the first time this kind of feeling accrues to him, which made him feel great discomfort and frustration.

The way he saw it, everything happens for a reason… so, why did he had such bizarre premonition.

Before he could think any further… suddenly, his body shook violently as though he had been struck heavily from all directions at once. His vision blurred and an abrupt feeling of sharp pain drilled its way through to the core of his brain, making him feel as though thin needles were being stabbed into his head.

"Urgh…!"

Thud!

A sound rang, but he was in no condition to care for it, he wanted to breathe the pain away. It had caught him unprepared. Even though it wasn't the worst pain he had ever felt, but it was simply too sudden, catching him completely off guard.

As he tried to regulate his breath, the pain started fading away, quickly… before finally disappearing, just as inexplicably as it had arrived.

Opening his eyes, he found himself lying on the floor. Apparently, this sudden occurrence had caused him to lose his balance, falling to the floor.

However, at this moment, he started feeling coldness in specific spot at the back of his left hand, like a continuous surge of pulsating numbing sensation that was moving under his skin, like countless cold ants.

He checked his hand by moving his fingers, making a fist and opening and closing it. yet, aside from this cold weird sensation there was nothing wrong with its functionality. He rubbed it with his right arm, but couldn't feel the coldness with his right arm at all.

'What the heck just happened?'

'Is this a heart attack…? Not possible, I don't have any heart problems!'

'Besides, this feeling is only limited to the back of my hand, not spreading to my whole arm.'

'But, if this isn't heart attack, what else could it be…?'

'And what was that feeling of coldness? And the head pain…?'

He rose up to his feet, using his hand to propel himself off the side rail. The entire thing left him in a state of confusion. He turned to walk to the cabin to ask his friend if this feeling was some sort of sea sickness or some other rare sea phenomenon, even though that he himself did not believe such a thing. But he needed to talk to someone right now.

At this point, he really wanted to just go back to the mainland to go to hospital and have himself checked; this was serious and he was deeply creeped out by it. More ever, he had no idea what just happened to him? There were still traces of lingering fear in his heart.

However, the moment his sight fell on the cabin, he saw the pale face of his friend looking back at him, devoid of any color; beads of sweat were all over his forehead, making his face shine with sunlight, his lips were trembling and a vivid trace of fear was obvious on his face.

"Ramie… did you heard it too…?" the now awakened youth in the cabin asked.

Hearing that, Ramie felt a sense of dread stirs up in his heart. He was already in fear due to the earlier experience. And now, his friend seemed to have also been through something weird himself.

'Wait, hear it!? Heard what?'

He was taken first, but then, he stared at the youth, wanting to capture every minute change in his expression, looking for any trace that indicates a prank or trick of some sort that his friend was playing on him. But there was none of such, his friend was genuinely scared. The feeling of fear started escalating in his heart, something was off! Something was definitely off!

More ever, they were three days away from the mainland. Right now, they were alone in the sea; this made him feel unease.

"Eric did you put something in the juice?"

Although, he asked such question – he already knew the answer for it; his friend was not the kind of person who jokes in such extreme ways. His friend most likely didn't do it. But he still asked, hoping that this would be the case, so he'd at least get a clue of what was happening.

Eric however shook his head, denying. Then, he noticed Ramie's expression, before saying: "you… what happened?"

"I just felt coldness in my body and sharp pain in my head, then, I felled down on the floor… Wait… what happened to you?"

Eric replied, still in fright: "I don't exactly know. I had the worst, most realistic dream in my life… am not sure it's even dream or reality… I heard this voice, talking about weird stuff! Damn, they were merely words… but they made me scared like a frightened child."

As Eric said so, Ramie could see that he was not lying, or playing tricks. It was obvious from his tone that he was genuinely terrified.

Ramie felt chills in his spine… what were the odds of both him and Eric going through something strange at the same time?

"Eric! You spent few weeks in a fishing boat with your uncle. So, Could this be some sort of rare sea phenomenon or something?" Ramie asked expectantly, even though he didn't believe it to be the case.

"I don't think so… I never heard of such a thing."

Ramie fell in deep though, pondering, 'could it be food poisoning? But we ate nothing but canned food and dried food so far, could it be…'

"Eric! When you bought the food, have you checked the expiration date?"

"Of course! There is no problem in that regard. I stored it well, and it could even last us a month: "Eric answered as a matter of fact, obviously certain on the matter.

"Is it possible that the food was spoiled in the company before it was canned, or poorly stored from the shop you bought it from or something…?"

"I don't know, it's a possibility…" Eric answered in hesitation, because if this was not the case, then, what was it….

Ramie gulped down, feeling worry in his heart. They were three days away from the land. In truth, although this was not the first time he suffers food poisoning, he had never heard of a case of food poisoning causing this kind of symptoms. Besides, shouldn't food poisoning cases cause problems in the digestive system as well...?

They had to wait three days before going to the hospital, due to the slow boat they had rented. So, ramie couldn't help thinking that if this was the initial symptoms of the poisoning, assuming this was a food poisoning at all, then, for how far would their condition escalates in three days from now.

He looked at Eric to make the obvious suggestion, but looking at him, it seemed that he had already reached a similar conclusion.

Without a hesitation, Eric turned around and started the engine, wishing that he could order the sea to carry them back to the land this very moment.

As the engine roared, the fishing boat started cutting its way through the water, at a rapid pace. At the moment, all traces of relaxation vanished away, and the vacation atmosphere vanished into smoke.

At this time, none of them tried to initiate a conversation or small talk, each of them starting to recall and reprocess the earlier strange experience they had went through.

'I hope this is nothing…' Ramie thought to himself, hoping.

…