Chapter Twelve
The sky looked dark underneath the stormy clouds with no sign of a sun nor moon. Expecting there to be loud crashes of thunder and shots of lightning, I cowered frantically behind Bethany, who gave me a look that plainly said “really”. I just shrugged my shoulders out of fear. There was nothing really left for me to do but accept whatever fate was throwing itself out to me. I looked around and found myself standing on some ship’s deck with the crew all running about frantically.
I grabbed one of their arms. “What’s going on?”
He shook his head. “She’s a pretty nasty storm overhead.” I breathed in deeply not liking that answer. He seemed to feel that tension resting within me, so he let out a small laugh.
“We’ve dealt with these before. We’ll be fine,” he smiled.
At that moment, a wooden door shot open from the deck above and out walked a female with a captain’s hat covering her face. She readjusted her hat and allowed a smile to spread over her face. She looked down upon the lower deck and that’s when I realized it was Kairi standing up there. “Oh, the captain!” someone on the lower deck cried out. Bethany quickly joined my side with her eyes in wonder, probably curious as to why there was some female as the captain.
“That’s Kairi,” I whispered to her. She burrowed her eyebrows together, realizing that this was probably not a good thing. If only we knew whether or not we could trust this Kairi girl. I mean, yeah she took care of us during our time of need in that hospital room, but what if that was just a set up so that we could gain her trust? Then now that she has it, she can tear us to pieces, if she wanted to. A new thought crossed my head.
“What if she didn’t cure us?”
Bethany gave me a stammered look, wondering what in the world was currently on my mind. “Kay, care to explain that theory?”
“What if she was like injecting poison into our bodies or something? Maybe we woke up at the wrong time, you know?”
“You think so?” Bethany cocked her head to the side.
I shrugged my shoulders, not knowing what I thought anymore. “I just think that we shouldn’t be so quick to trust people, you know? I mean, Bethany, look at where trusting people has gotten us! We trusted that voice and almost died. I mean, what if Kairi is the voice, Beth!”
What happened next was completely unexpected. Bethany stared straight at me, and said calmly, “Kaylie, I think that you need to calm down. You’ve become far too paranoid, and we can’t have that anymore, now can we? I want you to just cool it.” I opened my mouth, wanting to retaliate and say something back in my defense, but I couldn’t find the words to explain just how I was feeling. Bethany sighed and turned her gaze back to Kairi, trying to shut me, which only caused my insides to break and sweat with worry. A new thought swept over me: what if Bethany was actually the voice? Maybe she was acting like she was innocent as to not throw me off, when in reality, she is the one who has been tormenting both herself and me. The only question is: why would Bethany go through such trouble just to hurt me, when we had never met before? Or… had we?
Fear rushed through me as I took a few steps away from her. Maybe I was just being a worry wart and too paranoid, but who wouldn’t be, keeping in mind everything that I have experienced over these past few days? I looked back up at Kairi, as I heard her speaking. Her long blonde hair blew in the wind, along with the fringe of her outfit. I bit my lip, worrying over what she might say, and who I was to trust. What if they were tag-teaming and actually working together against me?
“Well, everyone, as you know, I am your fearless captain, and I’ve never seen a storm quite like this one. I mean, would you take a look at it, and how treacherous it looks out there? Why, I certainly wouldn’t advise being out on a ship during this storm! However, since we are already here, not knowing that such a storm was to encounter us on our voyage, there is nothing we can do but prepare for the worse!” Kairi smiled down to everyone.
“Do you mean death?” one man called out.
Kairi let out a girlish laugh of a 21st century teenager, not some “fearless captain”, as she says. “No, not death. We will not encounter death, unless you take it among yourselves, the actions that will lead to your death! Remember, one foot out of line is one foot off the deck. No more, no less.” The crewmen looked around at each other out of fear.
“She’s bluffing!” said a man. I looked over and noticed that he was the one I had spoken with earlier.
Kairi found interest in this answer as her face illuminated with humor, and a smirk of dismay crossed her face. “Bluffing, am I?” She laughed. “Do you really believe that I out of anyone would be bluffing?” She snorted and waved her hand down onto the deck. “Well, why don’t you ask Bethany and Kaylie just how much I bluff?”
I felt my face redden, uncertain of what that meant. Was that her just admitting to us that she was indeed the mysterious voice that has been taunting us? Or has she been working some different angle that I’m not yet aware of? Bethany rushed over to my side, her face stained with tears, but I couldn’t tell if they were from our fight or from what Kairi had just said. In all fairness, I felt like crying alongside her. She wrapped her arms around me and apologized, even though I didn’t want an apology out of her. If anything, I should be the one apologizing to her for thinking that she was mental enough to torment both herself and me, but I did not tell her this.
“What does she mean?” the men looked at us, wondering whether to fear us or her.
I shrugged my shoulders and looked at Bethany who looked far more timid than I even felt. I would be the one doing all of the talking. I sighed and looked back up at Kairi, trying to study her expression. Her smirk looked as though she were punishing me, challenging me, seeking revenge, and out of pure amusement. I bit down my tongue so happy that I amused her through my time of desperate anguish. It was then that I got the gut feeling that Kairi was definitely someone who I couldn’t trust. I grabbed Bethany close to me, needing some sort of feeling of friendship to hold onto. Something that wasn’t about to just slip away, as our lives might.
“Tell them.” She ordered looking down at us with an eyebrow raised.
I looked around at all the men, all who looked so terrified of what might happen to them. “Look, nothing really happened that would be considered bluffing, if you know what I mean. She hasn’t ever really bluffed before. I mean, she’s definitely stayed true to her word at all times, even at the times where you wished that she would just slip up for once, but she doesn’t. No, she never really does. She even went as far as to burn Bethany and me on a stake, claiming that we were witches. She hadn’t bluffed a single second during that ludicrous scene.
Bethany gave me a scared look, fearing what would happen if we didn’t tell them. Neither of us really wanted to find out, either, so I stepped forward, not ready to talk about what was happening, but I knew that I had to. Fear consumed me, my hands began shaking, but I drew in a deep breath. “No, she hasn’t bluffed yet. Trust me, we know that she stays true to her word. Even a bit too true, at times,” I said quickly, wanting it to be over. What if that was the wrong thing to say, or she was just challenging me to speak when she wanted me to be silent?
The crowd let out a frightened laughter. “What does that mean?”
“It means that if you ask any more questions, you’ll be pushed off the boat,” Kairi shot down at them with a meaningful glare. Note to self: never cross paths with her. If avoidable.
Bethany looked at me and whispered, “What does she want from us?” I only shrugged in response, not having the slightest clue what the connection was. The clues just don’t lay out, and make no sense whatsoever. Was it possible that she just liked finding random people and torturing them? Or did she really have an incentive for torturing Bethany and I?
“Alright, now, clean the deck,” Kairi ordered, walking back into her cabin. Everyone about us let out a resilient cheer, trying to make it sound as though they believed her, but by the looks on their faces, I could tell that they were questioning her. And who wouldn’t? She was beautiful, enticing, and smart, making her super conceptive.
The men grabbed their equipment and handed Bethany and I mops. “Tell us later.”
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Author's Note
Hey, how are you all? I've been sick, but I've been relaxing on my break. (: I hope that everyone enjoyed/are enjoying their holidays!
Lol, so funny.... I printed out this novel in like "book format" and it printed just so wrong.... Thanks a lot, printer. You had one job, okay. One job.
That's all I have left to say.
One job.
- Ali