It was raining again. As it had been for the last three nights, and now the entire area was on flood watch. The torrential rains beat down heavily, making large puddles and temporary lakes. The storm was getting worse and worse with each passing night, and scientist were baffled as to why the hurricane didn't move on in its course to a new location. It was like someone was holding it in place with a tack.
There was a knock on Kai's large, oaken door - Or more precisely a tap, considering how quiet it was – very quiet. Kai had to think for a moment to make sure that it wasn't actually his imagination and no one was there at all.
He had just moved out of his old college dorm, seeing that he had graduated from his university. Kai bought a nice house, for a very reasonable price by the way, on the cool coast up north where the weather was mild in the summer, with chilly, wet winters. Luckily for him, this type of beach home was in an area that was not very populated. Most people preferred to live in the south on those white, sun kissed beaches. Women in bikinis and people everywhere you turned. Not Kai though. Call him claustrophobic, but too many people in one place bothered him.
One might call his new home by the sea dreary, but Kai found it most… appealing in its own misunderstood way.
When Kai first saw the house, his first instinct was to paint on a canvas – the white house with blue shudders surrounded by dunes and a raging silver sea over a white sand beach.
He had tried to capture it – many times actually, but each time was another failure to add to an ever growing list. Kai could never capture the eerie beauty that seemed to hang over the place in a thick fog. Canvases littered the sitting room floor in large heaps, towers that were threatening to touch the ceiling soon. Paints had splattered onto the worn wooden floor after each attempt making a nice abstract work of sorts.
One canvas was painted like a for hire sign saying 'Inspiration Needed'.
Kai set down his coffee on the small table by the couch and checked his wristwatch; 2:13 am. Kai narrowed his eyes as he peered at the door - why would anyone want to speak with him at this hour? And the better question – who?
He groaned because he had to get up from his comfy couch position and cautiously made his way to the door, only opening it a crack, "Yes?"
"Please," A voice begged, "Help."
Kai, spurred on by the plea, opened the door fully, "Why? Is something wrong?" He had too do a double take when he saw the being before him.
He was pale – oh so pale. His lips seemed to even have a blue tinge to them, as if they where frozen. His long hair was disheveled, with fly aways in every which direction, bangs in his face. The tussled black hair startled him with the contrast it made as it passed in front of the eyes. A startling pale yellow.
Kai looked over the rest of his figure, taking note that it was a young man from the lean build and narrow hips. The boy wore old fashioned clothing; a cuffed white shirt with tears in it and linen pants with much wear on them. He was sopping wet and standing in a large puddle.
The boy shivered, but didn't meet Kai's gaze, "Please."
Kai took a step out onto the porch and motioned for the boy to come in, "Sure, come inside. Tell me what's wrong, you look terrible."
The boy shook his head, his eyes filled with tears as thick rolls of fog gathered about him. "Find me..."
"What?" Kai asked, not understanding what the poor boy meant. But before he got his answer, the fog closed in on them.
The boy vanished.
"Tala, I'm telling you, it was really weird." Kai sighed, leaning back in his stool at the granite kitchen counter, "One second he was there, looking terrible and pathetic, then he disappeared." Kai took a long sip from his coffee, wincing as he burned his tongue. The hot beverage was soothing in it's own way though.
"Are you sure that it wasn't just some punk playing a prank on you?" Tala asked in a bored tone, "You are still new in the area so I wouldn't be surprised by it. Remember how we used to egg that one guy's house after he moved in? And he called the police and stuff? Stuff like that still happens."
"Maybe, although I haven't seen any teens or kids that looked the type." Kai swung his legs a bit and sighed, "But that boy it seemed so…" He couldn't finish. There was no word for it. Damn.
"Don't think about it too much Kai, you're an artist not a rocket scientist." Tala yawned on the other end of the phone line, "It'll blow over." There was a short pause and a rustling noise, "I better go, I have a job interview in a few min and I need to get ready."
"Right." Kai nodded with his normal resolve, "Talk to you later then. Good luck."
It was another stormy night.
Kai sat on his couch looking out the large window to the coast. It was… mesmerizing. The waves where crashing into the sand sending white foam into the air and lightning streaked across the sky.
Sipping from his mug of black coffee, he wondered if it stormed like this every night. It was probably why the property of the house was so cheap for that matter.
Kai saw a strange orange light from the sea. There was a ship out there on the wine black sea. "Strange…" Kai murmured, he had seen a warning on the nightly news about not being on the sea. It was too dangerous. Squinting his eyes so he could get a better look at it, he was surprised to see that it was a large, seemingly wooden ship. It had many large torn white sails that where whipping around in the wind like dirty rags.
Kai walked over and pressed his face against the window pane, the ship was rocking from side to side dangerously. Waves were crashing across the deck… If anyone was on the ship before, after those waves there couldn't possibly be anyone left.
The unthinkable – the ship turned over. Totally upside down so the barnacle encrusted hull was showing like some rude insult.
On impulse, Kai bolted out his porch door and ran barefoot across the wet sand to edge of the water. He panicked, what the hell could he possibly do?!
The lantern that had first caught his attention was gone, and the only thing shedding light was the almost full moon.
"Hello?!" Kai shouted into the roaring wind, his dripping hair whipping around in a frenzy. "Hello?!"
He didn't expect a response, but was shocked none the least when no one answered him. The mind reacts strangely in horrid and fatal situations. This was both probably.
Kai stepped into the freezing water and waded until the waves crashed against his chest, he would later admit that this was not one of his brighter ideas, and narrowed his eyes to try and get a better visual on the capsized boat.
It was sinking steadily now, but what caught his attention most was a smaller craft that was teetering on the violent waves. A life boat!
"Oh thank god…" Kai whispered to himself, and he waded back onto the beach so he could run across the sand. There was a small peninsula that jutted out into the sea about a quarter mile ahead, and back when settlers were first colonizing the land, it had been an important docking point for ships.
It was still only a guess, but the lifeboat would probably go there.
Kai watched three men with oars row the tiny lifeboat across the dark sea and get close to the peninsula. Kai ran to the outermost edge, and stood there where they could see him, not sure what he could do.
"Tie us down!" One of the men threw a wet rope at Kai, who by reflex caught it. He stood there stunned for a moment – this was real. Suddenly, he noticed the fourth person on the life boat, the boy from last night.
"Stop stalling!" Another man shouted, he jumped out of the boat and started to pull it up onto the sand.
Kai snapped back to his senses and turned to face back towards land and away from the 'survivors'. Seeing a sizable boulder, he tied the life boat down. "Okay… Now wh-" Kai turned around.
The rope was limp, and floated aimlessly in the sea. There was no sign of a boat. The three men and the boy, along with the life boat, all vanished. Kai looked over across the sea and saw that the larger ship was gone as well, which was impossible. Ships of that size didn't sink that quickly.
Kai looked down at the rope in his hands and then up at the almost full moon, "What the hell are you doing?!" He didn't know who 'you' was, but he needed answers. "What is this?!"
There was a crack of thunder, and a quiet voice caught Kai's attention, "It was always my dream you know." It was that boy again! He was standing in the water, across from Kai and the waves lapped against his waist. He smiles a little, "To play here."
"What the…" Kai moved over to the boy and stretched out his hand, "Grab it, let me pull you out!"
The boy smiled and put his cold hand in Kai's just as a huge wave crashed down on them. It was a monster, thick and dark filled with salty, churning black water. The wave hit Kai like a brick wall and whipped him around under water as it overtook him. Kai held onto the hand though, never once letting go.
Gasping greedily for air, Kai's head broke the surface. The salt stung his eyes terribly and burned his throat. Knowing that if he stayed in the water he would die, Kai make a furious swim back to the flooding peninsula. The waves were overtaking it and would soon cover it totally leaving him stranded.
His lungs and legs screamed in protest, but Kai made it, he threw himself onto the sand and scrambled up onto his feet. It was then that he noticed that instead of a hand, he was holding an old silver flute instead of the boy's hand. Squeezing it furiously, Kai yelled at the sea, "Stop messing with me! I'm not your plaything!" He almost threw the flute back into the churning depths of the malicious sea, but a crash of lighting startled him and stopped his throw.
Teeth clattering, muscles twitching, Kai stood there out on the small spit of land, hair whipping around his face and sticking to his forehead in places. He was tense, rigid even, and stared intently out over the water with a firm looks on his face. The waves crashed about him in a frenzy, and the moon set a cool glow over the cold sand.
Vaguely, Kai hear his watch beep the time – 2 am.
"I still that it was someone playing a prank on you Kai." Tala said casually over the phone, knowing that Kai was riled up and the wrong word might set him off again.
"Tala!" Kai growled, "I was there in the water dammint! It was real I saw the ship, and the boy, and the waves - "
"Calm down!" Tala said slowly, "The only proof that you have is some rusty old flute right? Kai, you know that where you live used to be a port for colonists to come into, they settled there and started their new lives. The flute is probably some artifact that got cast into the sea."
"But Tala - "
"Look, I have to go now, my new boss needs me. We'll talk later ok?" Tala said quickly before hanging up.
Kai sighed and put the phone back into it's receiver. It's no wonder that Tala didn't believe him, he took a business major and didn't ever, not once, think about the 'what-ifs' of life. He was very logical, and nothing couldn't be explained. Nothing. And the simple explanation for Kai's rendezvous last night was that it was some kid playing a prank on him.
"A damn good one…" Kai muttered to himself as he padded out of the kitchen, wearing the fuzzy navy slippers that he bought last week. The flute was left on his coffee table, and still lay there in a small, salty puddle.
Kai picked it up gingerly, surprised at how cool the metal felt on his fingers. The instrument didn't seem to be missing any of its delicate keys, which was astounding in its own right. The occasional barnacle was on it, but it didn't detract from the old beauty that the silver woodwind possessed. Kai found himself thinking that it was maybe a mermaid flute. Mentally smacking himself, he returned to his observations. The words "Tabula Rasa" were carefully carved into the flute with elegant, but seemingly masculine script just beneath its mouth piece, or whatever it was called.
It would still play. Of that Kai was sure, but it didn't feel quite right to play it quite yet. Not yet.
Still holding the flute, Kai walked over to his computer and pulled up several WebPages on the area where he now lived. In particular, he looked at the posts of the colonists. There was a crude list of the ships that had one pulled into the old, now nonexistent port that once was located not more than a mile from his own house.
"The peninsula…" A light bulb went off in Kai's head, that was where the port was! Worn away by time and forgotten…
The Dickens Jolly-100 Boarded-78 landed
The Belonging Mary-120 Boarded-87 landed
The Youthful Dragon-98 Boarded-76 landed
The Prancing Lion-100 Boarded-None landed- wrecked off of port coast in storm
Kai pondered for a short moment, that was the last ship listed. It sank, and apparently in the same location where Kai had seen the capsized ship the night before. Turning in his swivel chair, Kai looked out of the large window out onto the calm, deceptive coast. It seemed nice enough now, but he had become wary of it's presence. Something wasn't right.
Thinking back to his lesions in school, Kai remembered that colonists came to have a new life, a new chance in a new world. The land was cheep, and one was free to start again. That explained the appeal, so it only made more sense that a young boy would be on a ship to the Americas. They were always fantasizing about tomorrow, what adventures it would bring.
Looking back to the flute in his hand, Kai found that he understood the meaning of why 'Tabula Rasa' had been carved into it. It was a new beginning for the boy. Well, that was if the flute even belonged to him.
Turning back to the computer and fueled on impulse, Kai searched 'colony flute songs', and after sifting through the bogus results, Kai found a simple site, listing only one colonial flute song. It was of English origin, and was titled 'Calm Wave'. Kai scoffed, it was such an ironic name.
The melody was simple, only consisting of a few notes to form a simple tune to occupy the players thoughts for a short while. Printing out the sheet music, which was only a page long, Kai then looked up the notes and their locations on the instrument.
Looking at his notes, Kai stood in position with the old instrument, while feeling very foolish, and moved his fingers to the melody. He never blew into the mouthpiece. No, it didn't seem right to do so quite yet.
After some practice, I was sure that he had the song down fairly well. Although it was a little hard knowing what the song would sound like without ever actually playing it. Even so, Kai felt like he accomplished something, even if it was pointless. The new information might put his straining mind at ease, and possibly even explain what the hell was going on.
Setting the flute back down on the coffee table, this time after cleaning up the salty puddle, Kai heard his stomach grumble, and decided that it was time to get a bite to eat.
"I want a roast beef sandwich." Kai said when he sat down at the café table. He pulled a couple dollars out from his pocket and tossed them to the waiter, a man of similar age named Bryan.
"What about a drink? Your usual?" Bryan wrote down Kai's order quickly, then hastily added a black coffee to it.
"Yeah, that sounds good." Kai nodded and leaned back in his seat, he had the feeling that a headache would set in soon if he didn't rest his mind. Flicking a packet of ketchup with his forefinger, Kai waited patiently for his order to arrive. Meanwhile, his stomach wasn't so patient and growled at him hungrily.
Bryan came back quickly, handed Kai his sandwich and sat down across from him, "What's on your mind, you look stressed."
"Hm?" Kai was already eating, and swallowed quickly so he could actually speak, "If I told you, you'd think I was crazy or something. I've been having a few rough nights."
"I can tell. You look like you haven't slept in a week." Bryan nodded, sipping from a soda can.
"Hey… Bryan your family has lived in this area for how long?" Kai asked, after a short pause.
"Pretty much since the great migration from England way back when. I think that my family came over on the Youthful Dragon," Bryan turned and checked a portrait on the wall, "back in the 1700s. We've been here ever since. I think that it was the last ship to dock here too."
"What about the one that sank?"
"Oh you know about that?" Bryan's eyebrows raised a little in surprise, "Someone has done their homework." He smirked, "Well yeah, there was a ship that went down. No survivors. But there where a few well known families on board the ship. I think it was called the Dancing Tiger - "
"It's the Prancing Lion." Kai corrected.
"Well if you know so much about it, why are you asking me?" Bryan glared a tad before noting the apologetic look on Kai's face, "Yeah whatever, but the McLaggins, VonHodlows, and the Kons were aboard. Everyone else was pretty much nobodies, indentured servants and such. But of those noble families, only the Kons had a kid. The others were just old bags."
"Was it a son?" Kai piped up, wincing as he burned his tongue on his coffee again. "Damn…"
Bryan nodded, chuckling a little when he saw Kai flinch from the heat, "His name was Rei. Legend says that he was a damn good musician too. He aspired to become famous in the states I think."
"We weren't states then smart one. Still colonies." Kai smirked, "Anyway, did he play the flute?"
"Erm," Bryan paused for a moment to think, "I guess. I'm not sure, although that sounds right."
"Listen Bry…" Kai paused, "I found this - "
"Bryan! We've got six more orders!" A shrill voice shouted from across the café, "This isn't your break you know!"
"All right all right I hear you!" Bryan called back over his shoulder, "What was that Kai?"
"I found this fl - "
"Bryan!" The shrill voice called again.
"Look I better go, tell me later okay?" Bryan walked off from the table, after giving a little wave to Kai.
"Yeah fine." Kai sighed, "Whatever." Finishing his sandwich, Kai left the café and headed home.
The large roast beef sandwich had done its job well, not only feeing the hungry artist but lulling him into a nice long nap on the couch while it was being digested. Food had a medicinal quality that Kai always liked, and certain foods went with each of his moods. The heartier, more comfort food styles saved for when he was frustrated, angry, or even upset. Usually, all of these emotions came out at the same time, so the deep fryer was put to good use.
A particular specialty of the artist being fried Oreos, although he would never tell anyone about his high calorie secret.
Waking up quickly, Kai looked at his wristwatch to see that it was 2 am. Groaning, Kai accepted the fact that his internal body clock was getting messed up by all these late night fright fests out in his backyard. He sat up and groped around for his slippers again shivering in the slight cold. Kai could hear that it was raining again, rather heavily and the wind howled as it flew by his house.
"I looks like I'm going to have another fun night." Kai murmured to himself, rubbing the sleep from his left eye and stretching his legs.
A large, creaky groan sounded, and Kai debated on whether if he should turn around and look out the window over the ocean. His curiously gnawing at him, Kai was greeted with the sight of the orange glow of a lantern on the black churning sea once again. Already, he could see the ship turning over, the mast breaking and the sails tearing under the force of the wind and sea.
This time, Kai grabbed the flute before dashing out of his house, his slippers flying off before he even reached the front door. The instrument felt oddly cool in his hands tonight, like it might have been kept in a freezer. Kai wasn't paying attention to that though, for he was already running full speed to the old port peninsula.
The men in the life boat where already rowing over, and tossed Kai the rope to tie off. Tying a know quickly, Kai anticipated their vanishing act, and turned to find the boy waist deep in the water before him.
"You're dead." Kai said loudly, wanting to be heard over the storm. "You're that Rei Kon boy that was on the Prancing Lion. You're dead."
The boy gave a small smile, "Yes. I am." A wave crashed on his back, sending droplets of water everywhere. "I drowned the night that our ship went down."
Kai remembered the flute in his hand, "This," He held it out, "This is yours isn't it?" He thrust it out towards Rei, "Well take it! I don't want it, it's been causing all of this!"
"No." Rei said softly, "You have." Another wave crashed on him.
"Whatever, we can't talk about this here!" Kai reached out his free hand to Rei, "Take it."
Rei eyed the hand warily and reached out, but stoped before grabbing Kai's hand, "It was always me dream to play here you know. Always." A pained look spread across his face, "And to be stopped so close to the shore… I can't leave the water. I have to get to land before I can pass on." A look of firm resolve went across his face, "I won't move on."
Kai glared, and waded into the water so he was standing right in front of Rei. "You're insane. But I'll do this quick so we can get the hell out of here." Kai whipped out the flute and held it in position, this time blowing to make a low musical note.
Rei's eyes widened, and the sea frothed with renewed vigor.
Kai messed up several times when he started to play, his fingers not going to the right positions on the instrument. But he was determined to appease Rei, the ghost, the spirit, the one that stayed behind the realize his dream. That way the boy could move on, this nightmare of a storm would end, and the Prancing Lion wouldn't have to sink again.
The waves crashed against Kai and Rei again and again as Kai reached the end of the song. The sea didn't want him to finish. No, it would keep its prisoner. The pretty little English boy named Rei. No, it wasn't ready to give him up yet.
Waves swept around them, and kai found himself on his tippy toes to keep his head above the water while still trying to play the damn instrument. This was not easy, and the sea found its way into Kai by ways of his throat and used its salt to burn him there.
Kai winced and coughed, but held out to play the last few notes. Thunder cracked and the sea frothed, the Prancing Lion sank under the furious depths. And then Kai finished. The last note played, and thunder cracked its last time.
Coughing and sputtering, Kai saw Rei treading water before him, this time a serene and happy smile. "Thank you." He whispered, swimming over to Kai and embracing him, just as the killer wave crashed on their heads, pulling them under.
The TV was turned on and blaring the weather report, with an enthusiastic reporter pointing out that the massive hurricane had dissipated into the winds and was no more. A warm, but not too hot, cup of coffee lay on the small table by the couch.
Kai woke up slowly, not sure where he was exactly. With amazement, he looked around the room. Surely the wave had killed him last night! There was no way he could have survived, he felt his lungs burn with the need for oxygen. He had died.
But sure enough, as Kai stood, he could tell he was alive. Mostly because his muscles hurt from swimming, his chest hurt form not breathing, and his throat was sore from the salt. Yes, he was alive.
Kai slowly picked up the coffee mug then turned around to face out the window to the sea, and that's when Kai saw his canvas.
The painting was everything he imagined but could never do. The house, the sand, the sky, and the ocean all looked perfect. Tabula Rasa was written on the door mat in front of the house. But what caught Kai's eye, was the small figure that was painted on the beach:
A boy, wearing linen clothing, waving with a smile as he held a flute in his hand.