The Fallen Prince That Never Was

by A. G. Higgins



  THE FALLEN PRINCE THAT NEVER WAS

  by

  A.G. Higgins

  Copyright 2012 A. G. Higgins. All rights reserved.

  Contents

  Title

  Copyright

  Atlantic Ocean

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Epilogue

  About the Author

  The Atlantic Ocean

  Captain J. R. Frances marched his way to Professor Clayton’s cabin. While eyeing his compass – it’s bearing lying confused in it’s oddly rotation – about him crew scurried passed to the furious sway of his ship. Reaching the cabin’s door, he pressed it in without care for warn, ‘we must turn back or we will sink for sure, Professor,’ he said, laying a pair of stern eyes upon his client, ‘the storm grows too great!’

  However, Professor Clayton seemed unmoved by his urgency. Sitting by his desk of study, he continued logging notes into a journal, ‘men have waited almost four–hundred years for this night,’ he said calmly, ‘our lifetime does not grant a second chance.’

  ‘Then with all due respect, Professor, I say it is to fault and abandon ship should we dare keep sail upon this course.’

  ‘And I would take chance upon a raft of wreckage till what’s done is done, should your fate be so slain?’

  ‘You’re a fool old man,’ said Captain Frances, ‘blinded by a madness given to you upon the ill voyage of this sea. How you hid your true course of intent? How you lead us so carelessly into waters beyond anyone’s knowledge but your own? I should never have lifted my sight from yours. And even now, in the mist of this storm, you care not for the life’s which you hold so coldly in your grasp?’ He moved closer with warm, ‘you may count this will of nature as a blessing, Professor, but if it were not for her I would have turned course and took my chances as best I could long before now!’

  ‘You, Captain, above all whom lust for sea, should know that Christopher Columbus set sail to the edge of the known earth to prove that the world was not flat, but round,’ he replied, ‘And I pray Captain, that like He, you will let this be your legacy to the pages of history that await.’

  ‘Aye Professor... but even he feared these seas too,’ said Captain Frances, ‘but you already knew, didn’t you?’

  ‘Steady your feeble mind Captain; think of what there is to be achieved here,’ tried Professor Clayton, ‘It’s out there, somewhere; I know it is!’

  ‘There’s fire in the sky? A storm which I have never witnessed in all my years at sea?’ replied Captain Frances wearily, ‘And I have had enough of this; I say we turn back. There is nothing more than a prison of watery graves than what you seek out here.’

  ‘You will not turn this ship around for you have received your wealth in kind!’ roared Professor Clayton, rising to his feet as though a terrible beast had taken his form, ‘besides, Captain, how will you find your path home? Have you looked at your compass of late?’ he gestured, ‘Here, among this hellish sea it is of little use to anyone. And this storm you so keenly tuck tail from does not favour a night’s voyage by star, now does it, Captain?’

  ‘You knew this all along, didn’t you? There was no turning back, was there?’

  ‘Make no mistake, Captain,’ warned Professor Clayton, ‘the only course to ever return... is forward.’

  The ship turned to its side heavily. Above, the sound of crashing mast and cry of sailors lost to the sea could be heard.

  ‘Cures you old man,’ spoke Captain Frances shamefully, ‘curse you and your wealth... ship or not, this voyage of fool’s errands ends now!’

  Crash?!

  Both the Professor and Captain J.R. Frances halted in their argument. It seemed that someone was hiding in the cabins wardrobe? A small eye peered through a slight gap in the door, hopping that their mislaid footing hadn’t given them away?

  The door flew open. There before the Captain’s feet a young boy named Zack lay shaken in his surprise.

  ‘And what of your stowaway, Professor?’ he yelled, keeping his sights fix firmly upon the boy, ‘would you really have that of innocents find death by the hand of your own recklessness?’ Professor Clayton remained silent, disregarding the Captain’s question. ‘Even the fate of a child you care not? For the first time I truly see the madness of your mind, Professor. But there may still be time to save the life’s upon which this ship ferries. We turn back, and should you stand in my way... I will see to it that you find a watery grave before all others!’

  Professor Clayton fell back in his chair to the leave of the Captain, his sight finding that of his young companion...

  ‘Why do the eyes of innocents no longer shine brightly, but instead, dull with that of a fate cast to uncertainty? Or is it I whom fail to see their true colour, glorious of blue?’ He continued warmly, ‘there was a time when we first met, a time when I saw within you the same longing for adventure as I when once so young. Do you member what it was that I had said to you, my boy?’

  ‘Yes, Sir...’

  ‘Well, won’t you indulge an old man one last time?’

  ‘“Though all the pieces of my dreams may lie not upon a sure path… I must believe,”’ he recalled as though he were about to part ways with an old friend.

  Professor Clayton smiled, perhaps for the first time of an age that he now seemed unable to recall, ‘and now, perhaps you have come to know the meaning of those words?’ he asked.

  ‘Yes, Sir,’ replied Zack, ‘we must choose our own path in life, dreams or fate, and believe in ourselves when all would have us doubt.’

  ‘Not bad for an uneducated stowaway. At least not all was in vain?’ he replied, deep in thought, ‘Now, be a good lad and grant me on last favour – go find your princess and see her safe as best one can.’

  ‘Why are you speaking like this?’ asked Zack worriedly, ‘What has happened to you?’

  But Professor Clayton seemed dreamy for a time before finally he did say, ‘you must understand, for the same principle of which you have just spoken, I cannot follow. Forgive me, my boy, and may God go with you.’ His eyes dimmed, as though gazing across a vast empty space.

  ‘Professor,’ tried Zack, ‘Professor… it doesn’t have to be this way, Professor?!’

  But Professor Clayton did not move. He did not reply.

  ‘What’s happened to you?’ tried Zack desperately, ‘It’s this place, it’s changed you hasn’t it? It’s changed everyone, I know it has? Captain Frances was right; we shouldn’t have come here. We should have tried to turn back!’

  ‘Turn back to what exactly?’ dare Professor Clayton suddenly, ‘Home? – You most of all should understand that there is no turning back...there is nothing back there for you!’ He rose with anger, pushing Zack across the floor of the room without care for hurt, ‘back there you’re only a fitly boy left to roam the streets and alleyways’ he said ‘You have no place there nor by my side. Be–gone from my sight, for I have no desire for the burdens of an orphaned child!’

  Again Professor Clayton did seat himself, lost in a dream as though nothing had happened?

  Zack’s eyes began to turn tearful. He knew that no matter what he could say or do, Professor Clayton was truly lost. He knew now that he was no longer a man of his own will. Somehow this dark place had twi
sted him? And though his heart was sad for such ways of parting, he would leave without comfort of friendship. For leave he must when such words of coldness are spoken...

  Captain Frances eagerly made his way topside. Once there, he began ordering his crew to make sail for a retreat. Any attempt to voyage further, he feared, would see him and his men right into the eye of the storm. But his heart told him that he may already have been too late. About the air a hellish fire rained down from above? The wind gave no rest, and the rains of heaven fell heavily through clouds of darkness roaming in their sickened sky of night. And from the depths of the ocean came monstrous waves, swallowing his ship with ease to a timely roar of thunder and crackling of light. And the horizon, lit of an eerie glow, grew in strength with every sail that he could not afford to lose?

  He should not have allowed his will of greed to thrust his mind into weakness. He should not have set sail to this wretched place so easily. He should have listened to his feelings of unrest. He should have known form the start that something was amiss with this voyage. But that would not change the here and now. Nothing would, no matter how great a price he would be willing to pay.

  A great wave rose before him. There was little that Captain Frances could do. His ship had met with its finial voyage.

  The ship swayed furiously, trashing Zack from side to side as he tried to make his way along the many narrow passageways before him. Capsizing to the will of the sea, the hull of the ship began now on a course of invert. And streams of rivers did flood from every door and passage, weeping throughout the seams of wall as they creaked heavily under the ill lure of its might. Zack pulled himself up from the water that now began to quickly surround his waist. About him the warmth glow of lantern quench one by one, a loom of darkness falling throughout the passageway as he struggled to stay afoot.

  ‘Suzie?!’ he cried out, looking back and forth, ‘Suzie, where are you?!’

  Ahead, deep within the shadows that rippled with glint of water, he did at last come to hear her voice.

  ‘Zack, what’s happening to the ship?’ she dared, ‘we’re sinking aren’t we? Oh I’m scared, Zack… truly I am!’

  ‘It’s okay, Suzie, everything will be fine; just try not to think about it.’

  ‘But we’re sinking Zack?!’ she cried coming now to his arms, ‘What should we do?’

  ‘We’ve got to get off this ship.’

  ‘But what about the Professor, we can’t just leave him?’

  ‘He’s not coming,’ replied Zack with sadness, ‘it’s just you and me now... just like it’s always been.’

  ‘What are you talking about?’ she asked, ‘What do you mean it’s just you and me?’

  ‘Look, there’s no time for that now,’ tried Zack, holding Suzan by her side, ‘listen to me; forget about the Professor. Forget about the Captain. Forget about everyone you hear me?! We need to get off this ship before it’s too late!’ Quickly he glanced about. It was getting dark, very dark. The water was filling quickly too, ‘soon we will hit the water outside...you hear me?!’ He shook her, trying to keep her mind off the dangers about them, ‘just allow yourself to go under. Wait for the calm, Suzie – don’t struggle – you wait for the calm that crosses the surface and you float up!’

  ‘I don’t like this, Zack...I’m scared!’

  ‘You float up kicking your legs as best you can no matter how scared you are!’ he yelled, holding her more firmly now, ‘Trust me, everything will be alright; I’ll reach out and take your hand!’

  ‘You promise?’

  ‘Look at me, Suzie,’ he said, her lonely sight filled with unknown finding his, ‘I promise, Suzie... I promise.’