“How?” Katie cried. She had tears filling her eyes. She knew she could survive this, but the others would surely die within minutes.
Katie closed her eyes, her tears still spilling down, though indiscernible from the rest of the water that was now above her head. Cyrus and Tyson took one last quick breath before the hull was completely filled with water.
Katie opened her eyes to a devastating scene. She saw Tyson and Cyrus staring at her, waiting, expecting. Katie moved her arms around but nothing happened. She saw the desperation and sadness filling Tyson’s eyes.
Almost as if time were frozen, Katie and Tyson stared at each other for what seemed to be forever, both suspended in the water.
Tyson opened his mouth. Katie screamed but only bubbles came out. There was another hit to the ship that ripped apart the hull. Katie raised her arms to shield herself. The force of the blast sent her flying through the water, almost as if in a riptide. Sand rose from the ocean floor, obscuring her vision.
When the sand cleared, she was opened to an entirely new world under the sea. A few lonely seaweeds were hanging about, and a small school of fish. It took her a few seconds before she realized that Tyson and Cyrus were not in sight.
11
A Memory Unforgotten
Katie swam around frantically, hoping to see Tyson or Cyrus. She wasn’t sure what to do if she did see them, other than try to save them, of course. The main thing Katie wanted to know was what had happened. Were they even alive? Or did they drown?
The ship they were in had been blasted apart and now was only chunks of wood and metal sinking to the ocean floor.
Katie finally surfaced. There was just plain, blue sea ahead of her. She turned around and saw a beach a little way away. Katie swam towards it as fast as she could.
When she reached the shore, she found Tyson lying on the sand, his eyes closed.
“No,” she whispered to herself. Tears welled up in her eyes. “No, no.” She put her head to his chest to listen for a heartbeat. It was faint and growing slower with each one. He wasn’t breathing. Without thinking about what she was doing, Katie scooped the air over Tyson’s mouth; water rose out of it in large drops. Tyson coughed. He rolled over and spluttered water onto the sand.
“Tyson,” she cried in a whisper and hugged him. Katie held him for a few seconds before she felt herself being roughly pulled away from him.
“Stop! Get off!” she yelled as she attempted to fight, but her captor had her locked in his grip. Up ahead she saw two men holding Tyson up. He was putting up a good fight considering he had just about drowned.
“Leave him!” she shouted. She watched helplessly as a man drew a whip from his belt and hit Tyson in the back. He let out a cry of pain. “Stop!” she shouted again, but then felt something soft and lint-like stuffed into her mouth. All she could do was make muffled sounds of whimpering.
They hit Tyson again, but he still attempted to fight back, trying to break free. The other man let out his frustration with Tyson by screaming and hitting Tyson in the head with a stick. Tyson dropped to the floor, unconscious.
Katie then saw Cyrus. He was standing, being held by one guard. He wasn’t fighting back. He wasn’t even resisting. Before she could let out cries of frustration, she felt something smack against the back of her head hard and she fell face-first into the sand.
Katie woke up. Her face was pressed against something cold, hard and damp - wood. It was quite an unpleasant feeling. There was a ragged blanket tossed over her. She looked around slowly, spit her hair out of her mouth and stood up.
Her head hurt a lot. The pain that she had avoided up until this point by her unconsciousness hit with such force that she collapsed and hit her face on the ground, which didn’t hurt at all compared to the pain that had already exploded in her head. She rubbed her head. There was a large bump on it.
Before she choked on tears, she forced herself to stand. The room was humid and smelled of rotten wood. There were wooden bars in front of her, and across the narrow hallway, there were more cells. There wasn’t much light.
Katie tried to break the wood that looked so brittle, but only added another bruise to her hand. She was alone in her cell. Katie looked down the hall, as far as she could. All she saw were the many more cells, all complete with rotting wood. She couldn’t see if anyone occupied those cells.
Her mind raced as thousands of possibilities of what happened to Tyson and Cyrus charged through her mind, each one more depressing than the last.
She let out a yell of frustration and slammed her fists on the wall but immediately regretted it as it just made her hurt more.
“Katie?” she heard Tyson’s voice. “Katie!”
“Tyson!” she called back. “Where are you?” But she knew the answer to that. He was in the prison cell next to hers, the one that she couldn’t see. Judging by the cells that she could see, there was too much room between each cell for her to reach out her hand and touch his.
“I’m here,” he said, in a quieter voice. “I’m here. I’m with Cyrus.” He sounded sad, sad like a young child who didn’t know what was going on.
Katie calmed down slightly. At least they were safe. Relatively. “How is he?” she asked about Cyrus.
“I’m fine,” Cyrus replied himself. “The yelling has busted my eardrums, but I’m otherwise fine.”
Katie didn’t smile. The current situation vastly outweighed Cyrus’s attempt at humor.
“What do we do from here?” Tyson asked.
“We should find out where we are,” Katie said. “Then maybe we can get out of here.”
“I think I know where we are,” Cyrus said. “We’re on a ship. I’m just not sure who the ship belongs to.”
Katie considered this for a moment. “What’s your best guess?”
“Well, perhaps we are on a merchant ship and they will simply release us at their next stop.”
“I highly doubt these people are our friendly, neighborly merchants,” Katie replied. “We wouldn’t have been attacked if they were.”
“Maybe we were rescued,” Tyson said, though his tone showed he didn’t believe it.
“Either way, I’m sure we’ll find out soon.”
No sooner had Tyson said it, then they heard footsteps descending wooden, creaky stairs. They couldn’t make out the words until they approached closer.
“They’re right here,” one voice said. Katie peered through the wooden bars but couldn’t see anyone, though she did see two silhouettes. “We can use them both.”
“And where’s the girl?” another voice asked.
“She’s over here.” The two men walked in front of Katie’s cell and stared at her like she was an animal in the zoo.
“Too clean for my taste,” one of the men said. “Pretty, though.”
“Yes, but she is otherwise useless.”
“What do you want to do with her?”
The man chuckled darkly. He had dark hair, a rough beard, a few missing teeth, and a glint in his eye.
Katie hated the fact they were talking about her right in front of her. She stood but kept her distance.
The bearded man walked closer and reached into the cell. Katie had an idea. She walked closer and let him grab her. Her face was right against the bars. She could smell the rancid, rum-soaked breath of the man.
She then slapped him across the face. The man grabbed her hand, licked it from her arm to the tips of her fingers, and smiled. Katie kept a straight face.
“Oh, you’re going to be the most fun I’ve had in a while, young lady.”
Then, still holding her by her wrist, he leaned in as close as he could and said, “I’ll be the last man you ever see if you’re don’t behave.” He threatened, and the two men walked away laughing to themselves.
“Are you alright?” Tyson asked Katie.
In a small voice, Katie answered, “Yes.”
Katie said nothing else. For the next several minutes, Katie could still smell the man with every bre
ath she took. A single tear ran down her cheek. Katie closed her eyes and took deep breaths until she could no longer smell the stench from the man. She soon realized that the cells almost smelled worse.
Katie was drifting off into sleep, though she was still aware of her surroundings. She could hear Tyson and Cyrus talking quietly between themselves. They called out her name, but she pretended not to hear.
A warm, distant-feeling draft wafted above. She opened her eyes slowly but quickly fell into a deep sleep.
Katie was just outside the elevator of her apartment. She was waving back at her parents. She was talking to her mother for the last time, though she didn’t know it.
But then it hit her. If she left, then shortly afterward, her mother would die. “Mom!” she called out, but a force pulled her into the elevator. “Mom! Don’t let me leave you! Mom!”
Natasha smiled and waved to her daughter. “It’ll be okay.”
“MOM!” Katie screamed as loud as she could, her voice cracking.
The elevator doors closed in front of her, and then all she saw was whiteness.
“Katie,” she woke up with a scream and looked around. She couldn’t see anyone. “Katie,” she heard the voice again. It belonged to a woman.
Katie looked around her cell once more, still lying on the damp floor. She saw a familiar figure materialize. It was her mother.
“Mom?” she said.
Natasha Dimes smiled sadly and nodded. She reached down and touched Katie’s face with the back of her hand. Katie put her hand over her mother’s, and though she could feel her mother’s hand on her face, she couldn’t touch her hand with her own. Katie understood. Natasha wasn’t alive. She was merely a spirit.
“Mom,” she sobbed. Sadness drowned her body.
“Katie,” Natasha said, “I miss you so much. There hasn’t been a day where I wish I could be with you on your journey.”
“I miss you too,” Katie got out before she started sobbing again.
“Look at me, Katie,” said Natasha. “There is so much to explain, but it will be faster if I show you. Take my hand,” she said and held it out for Katie.
“I—I can’t feel it,” Katie said.
Natasha smiled. “Yes, you can. Trust me.”
Katie closed her eyes and took her mother’s hand. Instantly, Katie felt booted from where she was like she had just transported to another universe.
She was in her grand apartment again, but this time she was in her parent’s bathroom. She was staring at herself in the mirror, only she wasn’t herself, she was her mother.
What’s happening? Katie thought to herself.
A voice answered from within her head. You are seeing things from my point of view.
Why?
You need to know what happened that night.
Katie turned on the faucet and washed her face gently with soap. She rinsed her face and wiped it dry with a towel. Katie couldn’t control her movements. It was like she was watching a movie, or playing a video game, and rather than be a spectator, she took the role of the main character.
Natasha walked out of the bathroom and through her bedroom. The lights were off in the hallways and staircase. She walked into the black-tiled kitchen and saw John Dimes sitting at the table, eating a piece of apple pie and reading a newspaper.
“You’re going to get fat if you keep eating this stuff,” Katie felt herself say as her mother spoke. She went up to her father, rubbed him on the back and kissed him on the cheek.
Before Katie could think out her thought, Katie felt herself take Natasha’s footsteps, lean down in front of John Dimes and kiss him.
This is sick. Katie thought. Her mother ignored her.
Katie’s eyes were closed. She felt her eyes open and saw her father’s face up close, smiling at her and holding her face in his hands.
“I love you,” John whispered to Natasha and kissed her again.
Katie heard the elevator door open. She and John exchanged curious glances and turned their heads to face the hallway.
“That can’t be Katie, it’s too early,” Natasha told her husband.
John got up and walked towards the hall that led to the elevator. Without fear, he said, “It’s probably—”
“Me.”
Sabrina pushed passed John and walked into the kitchen. She was wearing a black jumpsuit. Her long dark hair was tied in a ponytail.
“What do you want?” John asked in a deep, threatening voice.”
“Oh, you know, just a couple of small things,” Sabrina said as she shrugged and slowly walked around the kitchen, examining various glasses and cookware. “But of course, you already know what I want.”
Natasha and John exchanged glances.
“But, before we begin, I should tell you that Katie’s graduation has taken an unscheduled break, and the school is in flames as we speak,” Sabrina informed them. “Don’t worry, though, we’re sure Katie will make it out alive. After all, she isn’t a threat to us.”
Sabrina opened a few cupboards and knocked things down from them, each shattering on the floor.
“It’s time,” Sabrina said. “John Dimes, you are now our prisoner.”
As if on cue, five guards walked in and stood in front of the doorway. They too were in black jumpsuits, all armed with long, silver firearms hanging on their backs.
“Unfortunately, we can’t kill you yet, Queen’s orders,” Sabrina said.
“I’m sure,” John growled.
“But Natasha,” Sabrina took a step towards her. Katie wanted to run but Natasha didn’t. “You can die.”
Sabrina dropped a wine glass and it shattered to the floor. She lashed out and jumped on Natasha. Natasha hit the floor hard and Katie felt a sharp, pounding pain in her head. Natasha quickly got back onto her feet, though she was winded. She saw John throw bolts of electricity at the five guards whom he took on by himself. The bolts flashed a bright yellow and turned blue when it hit one of the guards. The guard was thrown off his feet and fell on the kitchen tile in fits of violent seizures.
The other guards kept running towards John. One grabbed his gun and fired at John. Even with John’s reflexes and shield of white electricity, a bullet hit his right arm.
John yelled out as his arm swelled up and turned a nasty purple color. These weren’t any ordinary rifles, and neither was their ammunition; the bullets held parasites that crawled into your body, weakening it by feeding off of your blood.
John knew what he was shot with. He wasn’t too worried, as the parasites died within an hour and haven’t been known to kill, though their effects were quickly wearing on him.
Katie felt the urge to scream, but Natasha never did. She turned around and saw Sabrina waiting for her.
“Ready?” Sabrina said, cocking her head a bit with a small, devilish smile. Sabrina spread her fingers out and her nails grew over a foot long. Katie felt Natasha raise her hands in front of her for defense.
“Let’s go,” Sabrina said tauntingly. She shot three long nails at Natasha. Katie saw the nails fly towards her in slow motion and wanted to summon water from the faucet to protect her, but she couldn’t. In her head, Katie screamed, though what Natasha did instead was solidify the air in front of her. The nails shattered on contact, leaving the solid, impenetrable wall of air rippling as the shards fell to the floor.
Palatinii Cycle Page 15
