The book

Part two

The waves tipped the ship to the side slightly and I had to grab the side to help steady myself, I shielded my face from the rain with my arm. "She's here!" called a voice and there was cheering from all around me. I slipped and fell to the floor and a hand reached out to help me up. I took it and the hand pulled me to my feet. "Welcome Raven Carol, to the ship of the lost."
"Raven?" I asked.
"Well, this is the ship of the lost, I'm afraid your name got lost with you, only it was lost to somewhere different." I wasn't entirely sure what was meant by it, but then again, now that I thought about it, I couldn't remember my name, I knew my last name was carol but that was it. She the girl who had helped me up and told me about my name had ginger hair, pale blue eyes and freckles, she had a nose piecing and a miniature green glass bottle hanging from her left ear on an earring. She had a tattoo of a lily under her other ear and a tattoo of a bat on her neck. She laughed at my confused expression. "Don't worry, its quite normal round here. I'm Victoria by the way. Victoria Smith. Come down to the lower deck, its pouring up here. I'll explain everything once we're there. She took my hand and led me down the stairs.
Victoria opened one of the doors in the lower deck that led to a room with a large wooden table occupying the centre, stacked high with papers and candles and maps. "So, I'm sure you will have questions, I am here to answer them." Said Victoria as she sat down at one of the chairs and gestured for me to sit opposite her, I obliged and pulled my long dark hair out of my face. "Yeah, how am I here?"
"You read the book. Only the lost can see the book and have the will to read it."
"But Mr-"
"Is a librarian. Librarians see all and know all."
"and when you say 'lost' you mean-"
"People that have given up, people that want to die or leave or go somewhere better than they already are."
"And now that I'm on this ship..."
"You can go back you know; you have the perfect opportunity. The island we're trying to find has a portal back to your world, and we've found it. We should be there by tomorrow, if you want to go back you can." She said it so seriously, like she thought I might actually be considering going back.
"Why, do some of the crew ever want to?"
"Tons, sometimes they only have to realise that they were never lost in the first place and only came here in a single moment of doubt, sometimes it takes people to be wrenched from their homes for them to realise they were at home from the beginning."
"Do you ever want to leave?" Victoria looked down at her boots.
"I've seen and done awful things in this world, but no matter what happens to me here will never be as bad as the life I had back in the other world."
There was a pause for a moment, I didn't know what to say.
"And when we reach the island..." I asked finally, "What happens after that?"
"Well we sail calmer seas and have a laugh, then we go on another amazing life-threatening quest. Its just how life works, one danger to another. We see tons of pretty cool places. The true goal of the ship of the lost is to go everywhere, and to find yourself." I smiled as another person walked through the door. "Raven!" said the person. "We've been waiting for you for such a long time!" I turned around to see a boy with blond hair and green eyes, wearing a long top and very short shorts. He had a rainbow wristband on and was holding a stack of books. "Quick thing you need to know, pretty much everyone on this boat is queer. Its always the queer ones that end up feeling lost. I am very queer; I am the queer god!" he shouted.
"Give her a few seconds Hawthorne." Said Victoria. "You don't need to already fill her brain with an onslaught of queerness, although to be fair he is right, and you should've found out sooner or later." I looked down at my own rainbow wristband, the only item of jewellery I ever could afford. I had brought it for reasons other than its price though. I suppose I had been lost enough already; I wasn't worried to express the little of me that was left. "Might as well introduce you to the rest of the crew." Victoria said rising from her seat and directing me to the door.
Up on deck it had stopped raining and the island was visible in the distance. I could finally see the rest of the crew. There were five more people asides me Victoria and Hawthorne. That made eight of us on board in total. Although from reading the book I knew there were more in the lower decks. "This is Tye, this is Owl, that is Lawrence, over there is Celine, Mila is the one in the corner." She gestured to each of the people in turn. I already knew Tye and Owl, the non-binary twins. I had already known Victoria and Hawthorne but I had not known their names. I had never been introduced to Mila, Celine and Lawrence as I wasn't that far in the book, and I knew that the more people down below were the lost that had been found and who just wanted to go home. It was strange that I had never read about them like that, but I knew that that was who they were.
I smiled at all of them. They all seemed so much like me. I spent the day helping out on board and steering the ship towards the island. Night came all to soon as I was still filled with energy. The others went down to their cabins, and I stayed out with Victoria, as she was steering the ship during the night. "You alright?" she said to me as I sat down next to her.
"Yeah, you?"
"Yeah."
We stayed in silence for a second, her standing at the hull of the ship steering, me sitting by her feet, looking out at the moonlit water. The ship sent gentle ripples through the calm flat sea.