"Diego! What are you doing?!" Alejandro's roar startled the young man awake. Diego glanced around him with surprise. He was not in bed.
Waves crashed over the deck of the ship, and streaks of lightning flashed across the night sky. Thunder boomed overhead and sailors raced to control loose ropes torn loose by the raging winds shrieking around them. The ship rocked and rolled, tossed by the massive swell of the ocean. Shouted commands by the captain and first mate were drowned out by the howls of the tempest.
Diego removed his hands from the railing of the ship and stepped down carefully. The deck was incredibly slippery under the storm conditions. What was he doing? He took a shaky breath and felt Alejandro pull him away from danger, almost by the scruff of the neck.
His father was yelling something he couldn't hear. No, perhaps it was because he didn't want to hear. Diego tasted salt on his lips from the sea spray. Water dripped from his hair into his eyes, stinging them as wakefulness slowly returned completely. He stared down at the dark swirling mass of water. He would have simply climbed over the railing, deep in his nightmare, and dropped silently to his death. As part of a dream. No pain, no fear, just death.
Now he shuddered with fear. Uncertainty made him swallow nervously. What was happening to him? Why were these sleepwalking episodes getting more and more intense?
He was cold, freezing cold. His thin cotton work pants were drenched, and clinging uncomfortably to his body. His bare chest dripped streams of water. His hands were blue with cold.
And still his father yelled about something. Diego focussed on Felipe; he wasn't screaming at him. Felipe had always been there for him, and he was just there. No yelling, not much judging... The teenager's eyes were wide with terror and he was shaking. Diego laid an apologetic arm around his son as they walked slowly, carefully, back to the cabin.
zzz
Once back in their cabin, Alejandro almost shoved Diego into the chair. He grabbed a blanket from the end of Diego's bed and wrapped it firmly around his shivering son. He wasn't yelling above the wind now, and he seemed a lot calmer. Diego glanced up at him with silent thanks and drew the blanket around him, tightly. The scratchiness of the woollen material prickled him but he didn't mind. He was so very cold, he thought he would never warm up.
The three men were silent, and the only sounds were the creaking of the wooden boat, and the monstrous shriek of the gales outside. A never ending swoosh of water told them that the deck was awash with the waves.
Diego sighed and ran his hands through saturated hair. Alejandro handed him a glass of brandy. Diego held it with both hands. He lost himself in the darkness of the alcohol, and made the liquid swirl in the glass thoughtfully. He gulped down half the drink at once. It took his breath away as it seared its way down his body. He shuddered with the sudden heat.
"It needs to stop," Alejandro said firmly, but quietly. He knelt in front of his son, as if begging him. "You need to stop this. It's getting dangerous, Diego. Not just for you - for me, for Felipe. We would both die for you."
"It's not necessary," Diego said, finishing the brandy in another gulp.
"I would die with you, Diego, if necessary. But not like this..."
Diego responded by throwing the glass hard against the fireplace. Ashes of a long dead fire caught the broken shards and slivers of glass.
"Leave me alone."