Waves of Ruin

Chapter 24

It's dark and cold. My body shivers with an intensity I have never known before. Fingers and toes completely numb. I try to move, but weight on top of me keeps me down, trapped. A sensation of needles goes trough my body, in the places that are not completely immobilized. I can't remember what happened or how I got here.

I am able to pry my eyelids open, eyes fuzzy and unable to focus on anything in front of me. I can't make out a single object, not even a shadow of something. I listen to see if maybe I will be able to hear something, however even my ears fall short of that task. I feel sleep pulling me back to it's invisible presence. I try and fight it, but it's no use, when sleep calls, you can't help but answer.

I fall in and out of consensus, unaware of the time that passes. I am awake enough to see what looks to be a person hovering over me, watching me, helping me to eat and drink, but that is all until I pass out again. My body starts to get feeling back, I am able to move my toes and fingers. The compression of what I now realize are blankets keep me warm.

I wake up and this time, my eyes seem to make out my surroundings. It's small, walls of brick line there way around me leading up to a thick metal roof. I turn my head to see the floor covered in fur, every inch lined with white, black, brown, even yellow fluff. This must be to keep all of the cold out.

I have no idea what happened or what got me here, but I need answers. I start to get up, blankets falling to the floor. A rush of friged air hits me and I immediately regret giving up the warm they gave. I stand all the way up and bend over to snatch them up, but I notice too late that my body is not ready to do such actions yet.

My body collapses on the ground, head hitting the edge of my cot. The pain hits me, but then something else comes to mind, like a flash of lightning. The last month, taking a reckless job, picking up a strange man, the letter, everything that happened... and the attack. My crew.

I get up fast and have to catch myself, my arm braced on the wall. Keeping the blankets around me I rummage through the room, hoping to find something that can help me understand what in the hells has happened. Sadly, it looks like this box doesn't have much inside it. My cot makes up most of the furniture in here, granted the room is smaller than the cabin on my ship. Then it was.

My bed is parallel with the wall, directly across from the door. There is a stool against one of the other walls, assumably for whoever has been taking care of me. Then there is a table, to hold a tray of food, maybe medicine? The door is closed but I haven't tried it, for all I know it could be locked. I guess the only thing left is to try it.

I walk to the door, body still protesting with my every move. My hand reaches out to grab ahold of the door handle. And to my surprise it twists open. Creaking it reveals a bigger room containing a roaring fire and a couch that looks upon it. The stove and table that currently holds a pot filled with something smelling magnificent.

I drag my body out of the room, making sure to keep to the wall close. I can't believe how my body is failing me right now. I instinctively wander to the fire, needing it's blanket of warmth to melt the guilt and cold in my body. I collapse on the floor, tears streaming down my face. Letting out everything that has been trapped in body since the accident. I need to let it out, but I also need to see my crew, need to tell them everything. My guilt is going to consume me if I don't do something about it, that I know for certain.

How could I have let this happened? What kind of Captain am I that I couldn't protect my crew, my family? I should have trusted them with this secret, at least some of them. This mistake will stay with me until I take my last breath, but I need to try and make it up. That starts with finding out what happened after we fell into the water.