The ship trembled again, stronger than before.
A low groan rolled through the metal beneath their feet, crawling up from somewhere deep below the surface.
The sound vibrated inside their bones, a slow, heavy thrum that did not feel like anything an ordinary wave could cause.
A few students near them grabbed the railing.
"Was that a wave?"
"No, the water is weird, look."
The academy ship's AI chimed in, its usual smooth voice echoing through the speakers.
"Attention, students. Minor vibration detected. Please remain calm while a structural check is performed."
Serene's eyes narrowed. "Minor?"
Iskael did not answer.
The shadow passed again. Closer this time.
He could make out more now. Jagged plates along a long back. A line of ridges. Faint, sickly lights running like veins along its spine.
It looked like something that had never once belonged to Earth's ocean.
The ship shook harder.
Drinks spilled. A few students fell to their knees. One girl's paper umbrella flipped out of her glass and skittered across the slanted table before dropping to the floor. Laughter turned into nervous noise.
The AI spoke again, but this time there was a flicker in its tone.
"Warning. External interference detected. Depth scanners… unresponsive. Stabilizers recalibrating. Please remai… remain… remain…"
Static cut through its words, tearing the AI's voice apart into broken noise. The last word repeated twice, glitched and stretched, before dissolving into a hiss.
For a second, the only sound that followed was the wind.
The constant low hum of the engines dipped for a heartbeat, like the machine itself had flinched, before surging back.
Then the ship itself groaned, a deep, heavy sound that felt like it came from somewhere beneath their feet.
Serene gripped the railing tighter. "Iska."
"I hear it," he replied, his eyes lowered to the water. There was a small crease between his brows that she had never seen before.
Around them, the teachers finally started moving with real urgency.
"Everyone, step away from the railings!" one shouted, his voice shaking even as he tried to sound strong.
"Gather near the middle of the deck. Do not push, and do not panic!"
"Move. Stay together!" another yelled, blowing a whistle that was almost completely drowned out by the rush of voices.
Calm did not survive longer than a breath.
The water around the ship began to change.
It started in scattered spots at first, faint white lines forming on the surface like tiny scratches, then those scratches spread in all directions at once.
Frost raced outward, connecting, thickening, crawling across the ocean so quickly that the waves did not even have time to fall.
They froze mid motion, turned into jagged shapes that locked the ship in place.
The ship sank a little as the ice gripped its hull and forced it to settle into a rough ring of solid sea.
Voices of students yelling out in panic.
"What is that…?" one said.
"This has to be some kind of training simulation, right? Right?" Another questioned in fear.
More and more students voicing their concerns called out.
"Someone tell me this is a joke, please!"
"Shut up, shut up, just shut up and move!"
The cold pressed in harder with every second. Each breath that came out left in the signature sign of cold air.
A pale fog.
The metal beneath their feet felt heavier and sharper, as if the cold had seeped into the bones of the ship.
Fingers turned numb where they touched the railing.
For a heartbeat, there was an almost eerie clarity. The screams dipped, the wind paused, and the world felt suspended in a thin, icy stillness.
Then the creature hit them.
A deafening impact slammed into the underside of the hull and the ice at the same time.
The entire ship jolted like a living thing in pain. The floor kicked upwards, then lurched to the side, sending a wave of bodies crashing in the same direction.
Students screamed as they were thrown off their feet.
A boy near the railing lost his balance completely. His body flew, shoulder first, into the metal bar before his momentum flipped him over.
There was a wet cracking sound when his head struck the ice below. Red spread across the white surface in a messy flower, and he did not move again.
Nearby, a girl slammed sideways into a support pillar.
Her neck bent in a way no neck should ever bend, and her body slid slowly down the post, eyes still open, mouth parted like she was about to say something she never got to speak.
Serene's world tilted without warning as the deck slanted under her. Her shoes lost their grip.
The wind and screams blurred together, and her stomach dropped as her body started to slide.
Her hand slipped from the railing.
Before she could fall far, something yanked her back.
Iskael's arm wrapped around her waist, dragging her away from the edge and into his chest.
One arm holding her waist, and another warmly resting, in a protective curl on her head.
When he pulled her in so tightly for a brief crazy moment all she could register was his warmth, and the solid weight of his body bracing against the railing for both of them, and his protective hand cuddled to her head.
Her heart hammered against his uniform. While her face slightly flushed from the shock and the closeness, though tears continued stinging her eyes as the cold wind lashed at them.
"Got you," he muttered under his breath.
She clutched at the front of his blazer with both hands, fingers trembling.
"I almost…"
"I know," he said quietly. His voice was not calm this time. It was low and strained, like he was forcing his breath to stay steady.
More screams erupted from the other side of the deck.
"Help me. Please, someone pull me up!"
"My leg, my leg, it hurts, it hurts, it hurts!"
"I do not want to die, I do not want to die, I do not want to die!"
"Mom… I want my mom…"
The ship continued to rise on one side, its nose lifting as if something huge was pushing from beneath.
Students slid downward in a living wave, crashing into each other, grabbing desperately at railings, chairs, anything that could hold even a little weight.
Some managed to catch hold. Others did not and rolled helplessly toward the lower edge, piling up against the barrier that was never meant to hold that many bodies at once.
Metal groaned. The railing bent.
"Everyone, hold on to something!" a teacher yelled again, voice hoarse. "Stay away from the edge, now!"
His words were swallowed by the chaos.
Somewhere below, the frozen sea cracked. Long lines split across its surface as the pressure built.
Shards of ice snapped upward in sharp, uneven pillars. One of those jagged spears shot up right at the hull, catching a teacher by surprise.
It burst through his stomach and out his back in a single violent motion, lifting him off his feet and pinning him against the broken outer wall.
He tried to inhale, chest shaking as he choked on blood.
His fingers clawed weakly at the ice impaling him like he could pull it out with his bare hands, then slowly fell limp.
Serene flinched so hard her nails dug into Iskael's sleeve through the fabric.
"What is happening…?" her voice cracked badly.
She sounded small, nothing like the class leader everyone respected. "Iska, what is happening to us?"
"I do not know," he answered honestly.
His silver eyes were wide in a way she had never seen, pupils shaking slightly as they reflected the broken mess of the deck.
There was no stability in them now. Only fear and confusion.
The ship tilted even more, the angle growing so sharp it might as well have been a steep cliff.
Above them, someone lost their grip on a railing and slid screaming past. Their hand shot out desperately, catching another girl's ankle.
She shrieked and tried to kick free, but his grip was too tight. Both of them crashed into a table that snapped under their weight.
The boy's head slammed against the edge with a dull thud, and blood immediately spread beneath his hair.
The girl kept screaming even as they continued to slide downwards, toward the twisted railings and the shattered ice.
"Let go of me. Please, let go!"
But no matter how loud she screamed he couldn't let go, because he had already died from the blunt force trauma, with his grip tightened on her ankle, dooming her to the same fate.
Pieces of the ship started tearing apart one after another.
A section of the upper structure cracked loose and came crashing down.
The sound was like the sky itself was ripping open. It slammed into a group of students who had been trying to climb toward the center of the deck.
Three of them disappeared under the heavy metal with a wet crunch, arms and legs jutting out at wrong angles from beneath the twisted wreck.
Their cries were cut short so quickly it did not even feel real.
Serene's breathing grew fast and uneven. hoping to find answers in the only person she could seek comfort from.
"Iska... are we..." she muttered extremely frightened and teary eyed.
"are we going to die??"
He opened his mouth, eyes still focused downward, and another impact shook the world.
But before he could offer a chance of comfort, the creature struck again.
This time the ice did not just crack, it exploded.
The frozen ocean shattered into chunks. Some pieces were no smaller than knives, others as large as cars.
The sea surged upward as it broke free, swallowing the debris, flinging ice into the air and against the side of the ship.
The shards did not just fall.
Small pieces scythed across the deck, cutting through students clinging to the railings. Bodies jerked and spun as red sprayed across the white ice.
One long shard drove itself into the cruise ship's midsection like a white blade. It punched in below the deck, and as it tore through the ship's center, it caught a running student mid-stride, shearing both his legs off at the knee.
For a heartbeat, his upper body kept moving as if it could continue living without the rest, then collapsed in a crumpled heap.
"AHHHHHHH!"
He screamed in a pitch so high it barely sounded human, hands clawing at what was no longer there as blood spread beneath him and poured down the slanted floor.
For an instant, Iskael could only watch as red streaked past them, as one student after another was skewered by the storm of flying shards that kept hammering into the deck.
And in that gruesome moment, in that very sight as he clutched Serene tighter, hiding it from her, hiding a sight he never wanted her to see, a single desperate thought flickered through his head.
'If something has to be taken, let it be me. Not her. Not Sere...'
The ship finally lost all balance.
All because of the mysterious creature ramming into the cruise, forcing the entire vessel up into the air.
The sky and ocean traded places in Serene's eyes as the ship lurched to impossible heights, gravity trying to rip her and Iskael apart. The deck that had been under their feet moments ago turned into a sheer wall, dropping away beneath them.
Gravity took everyone who was not tightly anchored and dragged them down mercilessly.
People fell.
They plunged past Serene and Iskael, arms flailing, hands grabbing at anything and finding nothing.
Faces twisted in terror, mouths open in silence for a heartbeat before the wind and their own screams caught up.
Some crashed into railings, their backs bending at awful angles. Some collided with each other mid-fall, bodies tangling as they spun together.
Others simply dropped straight down toward the water and the jagged ice below, like discarded dolls.
Iskael forced Serene closer, his arm tightening around her waist as he pressed his body between her and the deadly drop.
For a fleeting second, as her face was crushed against his chest and his scent filled her nose beneath the smell of cold metal and blood and the deep, pounding vibration in his ribs, she felt a strange warmth spreading through her panic.
It was terrifying, but comforting at the same time.
Her fingers fisted the back of his uniform as if clinging to that warmth alone could keep her alive.
"Just stay with me," he said, voice rough. Speaking felt suffocating with the freezing wind tearing at his face.
"Do not let go," he pleaded.
"I am trying," she whispered, though her words were swallowed by the wind as the world around them twisted.
The railing he had been braced against bent and finally snapped.
There was nothing left to hold on to.