Taken By Loss

• Emma Davy, Grade 7
• Short Story
• 2007

The crisp morning breeze whipping across my cold sodden cheeks as I strolled along the beach. The clouds slowly rolling over head as it began to spit down with rain. My already dampened hair became denser as the rain began to get heavier. Sometimes I ponder on why I ever come out here anymore. Barely anyone does. I guess when the great storm hit the bay several weeks ago, the beach lost it's busy, loquacious yet gorgeously sandy complexion, now left with a more deathly eerie experience.
The shade of my skin seemed duller than usual. The dim light reflecting of my once bronze toned skin reminding me of the summer sun but death reflects off both the water and my skin, darkness sinking through the once happy heart of the ocean. The death of those men affected not only the people living in this small beach side town but the way they lived.
Louis would be ashamed of how this place has ended up, and how his little sister lives her day to day life. The garrulous people, the late night party’s that seemed to go on for ever, silenced, like a wave of quietness had broken over the beaches of the town. They’ve been replaced with early nights and people crying themselves to sleep. It seemed even the dogs knew their owners were not returning to them, as they were quiet and solemn.
The town that was once filled to the brim with bustling fisherman and their keen, confident sons heading out to the unknown.
But with those men gone it was as if a grieving charm had been cast over the bay, because that’s all anyone had been doing lately, crying and mourning.
Their bodies unfound, only the remains of their fishing boat. Some say the boat was faulty but that was usually just those that despised the idea of fishing, some said it was a conspiracy and some even say they were dragged to the murky depths of the ocean by the Kraken! The police say it’s disgraceful spreading rumours and what really happened was that their boat simply capsized in the storm and they drowned, pulled down to the depths of despair.
The Kraken lurking in the sombre abyss of the gloomy sea, it’s as if I can see him waiting, just waiting, for me to swim down into his waters.
My surmise of it all is that the Kraken took them from us as a punishment for retrieving too many fish from his ocean, I believe the kraken was being territorial but for that I will never swim in his waters. I will walk along his shores where he will not dare try to reach me but I will NEVER ever swim in his waters again. He may take my father, my brother and all those close to me but he will never take my life unless in exchange for another.