Chapter 1
She saw the boat from a distance, and a dark, disturbing feeling immediately consumed her. Her instincts sensed great danger lurking around that vessel, and she knew she should stay away from that area. But simultaneously, her heart felt something else, which was bizarre. She felt emotions she’d never felt before. It was an odd feeling of purpose and of being needed. But it wasn’t in her nature to be helpful, and she’d never felt she had a purpose here. Everything she’d ever desired was already hers. She’d always been a silent observer, letting nature take its course to handle things and leaving situations like this to their fate. It had never been her place to meddle in human affairs or judge good from evil. She’d learned long ago that what one might see as good, another may see as evil. She’d been a loner for so long and needed nothing more than what she already had. Her world was her own, and that’s the way it would always be for her. She’d been happy with how things were, even though she thought she would always be a loner. There was never a dull day in her life, and there were always new and exciting things to do. But what she liked most about her life was learning new things. She’d learned to speak seven languages, well, eight, counting her native tongue. She loved music and science, especially medical science, and she was fascinated with astronomy. She loved studying the stars at night and could identify every constellation in the heavens. To her, life was perfect, so why should she put herself in danger?
The longer she observed the vessel, the stronger her emotions became. Sure, she was well aware that she had a keen sense of detecting danger, but her other emotions were something new to her. She tried her hardest to fight those new emotions, telling herself she wanted nothing to do with other people’s problems. She even turned the other way and tried to leave her feelings about the matter where she’d found them. But the more she tried to outrun them, the stronger they became.
Finally, she abandoned her better sense of reason, turned around, and quickly caught up with the boat. At first, she stayed a safe distance from it so as not to cause suspicion. But something beckoned her to keep moving closer.
She was so close to the vessel now that she could see the two people on board and hear them conversing. From their conversation, she deduced that they were Father and Son. Her strong intuition told her that whatever tragedy would soon happen, the father would not survive it. Perhaps the boat had a problem and would sink, or pirates would attack. She didn’t know what would happen but sensed the shadows of death lurking around the older man.
The young man seemed very familiar to her, as though she’d seen him before in her past, maybe not his face, but his aura, spirit, or ambiance. She realized that he was the source of the strange emotions troubling her, and it didn’t make sense because he was not one of her own. But something about him brought back long-forgotten memories and feelings. It was as if she’d lived through this same scene many years ago. Her instincts kept warning her to turn away and flee. But her other emotions overcame her instincts, so she stayed.
The group of seagulls circling the boat started mewing madly, then suddenly flew away, and only then did she remember the disturbing nightmares in her past. Instinctively, she turned to flee, but she knew it was probably already too late. Seconds later, she felt the massive force of the explosion that sent her plummeting deep into the waters, and she thought she would never awaken from this nightmare.
