That day, the sea was quiet and peaceful. The farther from shore they swam, the less of the voices they heard and the more they heard the perpetual rolling of the waves. Kithara watched Jake curiously as they swam almost side by side, but not quite. He would go underwater for much, much longer at a time than she could. The first time he did it, she thought that he wasn't ever going to come back up. She was both amazed and a little pissed off. Growing up she was always the kid who could hold her breath the longest.
Growing up. She hadn't even finished doing that. Something everyone was supposed to get the chance at.
~~~~~Kithara~~~~~
The red and blue lights blind Kithara as they flash over and over. She feels her arms being forced behind her back and cold steel slapped against her wrists as she tries to wiggle out of the grasp of the man who she cannot see.
"Makuakāne!" She screams. "I didn't do it I promise!"
As she's dragged back towards the blaring police car, she finally sees her father. "I know you didn't, I know." His deep voice breaks as he stands there, unmoving.
"Tell them I didn't," Kithara sobs. "Please, Dad."
"I'm so sorry." He reaches for her hand, but she's shoved into the backseat too fast. "Ikaika, my daughter." And to the police officers, with a sterner tone, "Do not hurt her!"
A tear falls down the weather-beaten man's face as the car pulls away. Then another, and another, until he can no longer see through the tears.
~~~~~~~~~~
Kithara looked ahead of her, surprised to see that in her daze she'd fallen behind. Way behind. She pushed forward, doing her best to catch up to Aurora and Jake. She was unable to until they slowed down at a wide rock formation that she could tell would disappear when the tide came in. Kithara was thankfully for the stop, as she was exhausted. She could tell from the body language of the other two that they were as well, but she was sure neither would ever admit it.
"Just letting you catch up," Aurora said curtly, one arm resting on the rocks with her hand resting in her hair. Her fingers were almost completely covered by black, but as Kithara's eyes travelled down Aurora's arm, it began to look like a layer of seaweed. She did not like it, but could see that the colours fit her well, and not only because of the name.
"And taking a break to make sure you don't get tired," Jake added.
"Mmm." Kithara bobbed up and down with the waves, holding onto the rocks as they were. "Well, thanks."
Aurora nodded and pushed herself up to sit on top. "You can get a better view from up here."
Jake and Kithara copied her in sync, but Jake didn't sit down afterwards. Instead, he walked to the end of the rocks and looked out at the ship, holding his hand at his brows to shade his eyes from the sunlight. His clothes stuck to his skin like glue, and Kithara felt embarrassed to notice the muscles in his back through the fabric. She didn't know how old Jake was, but he was definitely too old for her. And he was a criminal.
"Have we thought about how we're getting up there?" Jake finally turned around to ask.
"Parkour?" Aurora shrugged, the smallest hint of a smile playing at her lips.
"Was that... was that a joke?" A grin spread across Jake's face.
"Of course not." Aurora stuck her chin in the air. "You don't know how to scale the side of a cargo ship?"
"Can't say I've ever done it."
"And here I thought you had some kind of life experience." Aurora got up to stand beside him. "I almost respected you." And then a pause. "That angle it's on will help."
A thought occurred to Kithara while the other two continued talking, and her stomach completely dropped. She started breathing heavily and gripped the rocks underneath of her with enough intensity that she thought maybe if she focused enough she could force little holes for her fingers in it. Instead, she felt a nail crack. She kept holding on.
"Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey," Jake bent down and carefully put a calloused hand on her shoulder. "Breathe."
Out of the corner of her eyes, she felt Aurora looking at her with annoyance.
"They're dead," Kithara finally gasped. "Aren't they?"
Jake let out a large breath. "Well—"
"Th-they're dead and they're in there. In the cells, in the ship, so many dead people." Kithara started hyperventilating.
Aurora threw her head back, rolling her eyes. "Get it to-geth-er." She groaned. "So fricking what they're dead. We're not."
Jake whipped his head around to glare at her. "Just because we're okay with it doesn't mean a child should be," he hissed in her direction, keeping a hand on Kithara.
"What makes them more deserving of death than any of you?" Kithara spat, immediately regretting it after the words left her mouth. She gasped inwardly and waited for Aurora's reaction.
Aurora sat down. "You're not wrong."
"I'm—"
"Well, you shouldn't be wrong. I have a feeling you don't think you're supposed to be here; neither do I. Sometimes the world finds a way to get rid of people it's tired of. And you're right, it doesn't mean we deserve it. Doesn't mean they did, but I don't have the time to feel some kinda way about that, alright?" She stands up again. "Or maybe they did deserve it, and that storm did the world a favour."
Kithara blinked quickly, taken aback by what almost seemed like Aurora opening up to her on something. For the first time, she wanted to understand what had made the girl who couldn't be more than five years older than her become so cold. Looking at her was like looking into the eyes of a World War iii veteran.
"I'm sorry." Kithara finally spoke again. She reached up to put a hand over Jake's, and he jumped up, pulling his hand away.
Playing the reaction off, he reached down to help her up. "Someone might be alive. We can't be the only lucky ones. Let's go."
Lucky?
Without anything more, the three dove into the water again.
Mirage sang quietly to herself, laying on one of the trunks with her legs hanging off the end so her bare feet were in the sand. She held her arms straight above her, only bending them at the wrists so her fingers were flat in her view, blocking bits of sunshine. She felt lucky, incredibly lucky to have found a way in with this awkward and twisted gang of randoms in her presence. She did not want to die and felt a level of trust towards her new peers that they wouldn't let it happen. Not because they particularly cared for her, no, it didn't matter how charismatic Mirage was, that didn't seem to matter to these people. Simply because they wouldn't let themselves die, and she was there with them.
It was strange to her that as a group they didn't seem to know who she was. It didn't offend her, but she was so unused to going without notice. Especially the last year, with her newest movie role, and then the last few months with her vandalization scandal. It was good though, she supposed, to just be another person with a story no one cared to hear any more than the next persons. Like a vacation, but completely the opposite all at once.
Looking to her left, she saw Audrey with her head deep in her trunk with Foster standing over her barking orders about something for his shelter. Audrey wined but continued looking, and Mirage scanned the other trunks to see a few others searching them as well. The one she was laying on was Kithara's, and she wasn't there to look, so Mirage didn't move until Foster spoke up with a plan.
"We're going to use some of the boats to create some small huts right at the beginning of the treeline. Just far enough in to be shaded completely by trees, but not so far that we can't see the shoreline in case any boats or planes pass by looking for us." Foster spoke with much more authority now that Aurora was gone.
Mirage thought that was funny, that a grown man was intimidated by a girl. She really didn't blame him though.
"What if we need the boats?" Oliver asked.
"That's why we sent people swimming instead of with boats." Paradox quickly took the question. "They're just going to look around and bring a few small things back and more lifeboats, so we have some for camp and to use."
"Alright." Oliver nodded. "Let's get to work then."
¯\_(ツ)_/¯ hey