Sixth Sense of a Sixth Officer

Chapter 2

Titanic's captain, Edward Smith, was awoken by frantic knocks on his cabin door. Bloody hell, it was nearly 5am! What kind of chaos and/or calamity could his officers have gotten into at such a time?! "Sir, we need your help!" Came the voice of Fifth Officer Lowe. "It's Mr. Murdoch, sir! There's something happening to him!" Chipped in the familiar voice of Sixth Officer Moody. Captain Smith sat up at those two sentences. "I'll be out in a moment!" Called the Captain. As fast as a man of 62 could, Captain Smith got out of bed and changed into his uniform. He was met by the fifth and sixth officers still standing outside his door when he opened it. And after, he followed as his two officers led him to the scene. Upon arrival, they saw Officer Murdoch getting pulled off of Officer Lightoller by Officer Wilde. "There's something not right with him, Captain!" Said the Chief Officer. "He was choking me just a minute ago!" Said Lightoller. "I'll kill ye'!" Said the uniformed Scotsman. "I'll kill all ye' if that's what it takes to bring him down, or at least enough that I can have full control!" Said the Scotsman. "Bloody bastard, let go of me!" He then added, pushing away from Wilde, who still held him captive. "Mr. Murdoch, what are you talking about? Who's "him"? What are you trying to take control of?" Asked Captain Smith. When the blood was asked about, it was commented that it belonged to Murdoch as well as what happened to the mirror, and noting the cuts on his hand. Officer Lightoller was now sitting in front of the insane Scotsman. "Will, what's gotten into you?" William didn't reply. There's a first time for everything, yes? A slap then rang out, as the second officer gave his superior a slap. "Mr. Lightoller!" Scolded Captain Smith. "That's not gonna help!" Lightoller shrugged. "Worth a try, I guess." He mumbled. "Not really..." mumbled Wilde, who looked at Murdoch cautiously, while Murdoch seemed to growl in anger. "Look at his eyes," Officer Lowe commented. If one were to look closely, they would find that Mr. Murdoch's eyes were not the usual color of blue, but instead, they were what could be called the color of blood red. "Tackle him down!" Commanded Captain Smith, just as Murdoch went to lunge forward at Lightoller once more, as both Lights and Wilde tackled him down by his arms, which were now pinned down to the bathroom floor. "Mr. Murdoch," the Captain began, wanting his questions to be answered. "Answer my questions." He said, now standing above the pinned officer. "Fine, ye' want answers? First, I'm not Will, or at least not the Will you know. Splattered on the right side of "Murdoch's" face was splatters of blood, as well as one on his white button up shirt and two on his tie. "I'm known as Murderous Murdoch. I'm William's dark persona, so to speak. I take occupancy in his mind, but every so often, like right now, and earlier, I want out. And I want control." Said William, or Murderous Murdoch, as he was called. "So that's Will's blood in the sink?" Said Moody, finally finding both the will and the words to speak. The blood in the sink was now just about dry. "In a logical sense, yes." Replied Murderous. "And the mirror?" Lowe commented as he tended to clean up the blood that was on the floor. "William's doing. He happened to see me in his own reflection, and smashed the mirror with his fist. It was an action that was both unexpected and rude, I will admit." Said Murderous. Scanning the cuts on Murdoch's fingers and knuckles. "Answer me this:" The Captain started. "Once you've gained control, what will you do?" "Whatever I please, really. But as 'Murderous' is a part of my name, I set out to kill." Said the dark persona. "And what happens to Mr. Murdoch?" Asked a curious-yet cautious-Officer Moody. With a shrug, yet also carrying a knowing smile, Murderous pointed to the side of his head. "Trapped in his own mind..." Officer Wilde mumbled. Murderous Murdoch's eyebrows raised, and he pointed at the Chief Officer with the same grin, telling Henry Wilde... that he was indeed correct. Captain Smith took it upon himself to speak up once more. Wilde and Lights had already long since released their hold, as Murderous just sat there on the floor. "In order to keep things civil, I'll just go out of my way to say that I respect your perspective, but, and with all do respect, Mr. Murdoch is his own separate being. He is an officer onboard this ship and he very well has important duties to carry out, and so if it's not too much trouble, I would appreciate it if I could have my first officer back." To Murderous, this felt like a threat, and it very well could be, but Captain Smith wasn't a threatening kind of person. "Technically, he is here, although not in mind, but he is in body!" Said Murderous. "While that may be true, I would more so appreciate it if he were here in mind and all." Replied the Captain. Murderous's eyes narrowed slightly. It didn't take much of an effort to get Murderous Murdoch on edge and perhaps possibly angry. He felt a growing urge to attack the old man, although he didn't have his usual choice weapon of a knife at the moment, he still knew that he could still bring harm, and even death, to the 62 year old. But before the crazed Scotsman could plan anything, something unexpected happened: a crack sounded out as Murderous Murdoch's head tilted suddenly to the side and his body slumped to the floor, seemingly unconscious, but a moment later, he began to stir again, only it wasn't Murderous, but it was the actual Murdoch. He sat up slowly, similar to a tired individual sitting up in bed. With a tired moan, he asked, "What happened?" "To sum it up, you were 'unconscious' as your 'dark persona' took over." Said Officer Lowe. Murdoch sighed, his hand rubbing his neck. "Yeah, sorry 'bout that. He can be a real bastard from time to time, especially when he desperately wants his own way, which in his world-and words-is becoming my new 'mind'." Said Murdoch. "Use me to kill..." he then added. "Will," Lightoller began. With tired eyes, the first officer looked at the second officer. "Murderous Murdoch told us about what happened with the mirror, and since we know that's your blood in the sink, can you tell us what you remember, if you remember anything at all?" Lightoller asked. Murdoch took a few moments to gather his thoughts. "I remember... my head was throbbing. This was after I was relieved from the bridge. As I stood in front of the sink, I remember just... coughing-almost vomiting-up a bunch of blood..." Murdoch paused. "When I looked up at the mirror, I saw Murderous, and in the next moment, I smashed my fist into the glass..." There was another few moments of silence as Murdoch looked at his hand that bared several cuts. "Is that all you remember?" Asked Wilde, finally breaking the silence. "The next thing I remembered was my vision going black and I remember the feeling of falling to the ground, and when I woke up again, I was in my quarters... in my bed... as if I had been there sleeping the entire time. Soon enough, I was fetched by Lightoller... and that's all I remember." Said Murdoch. He still looked at his injured hand. "Mr. Murdoch," The Captain asked. With tired eyes, Murdoch looked up at his superior. "How often does this kind of thing happen?" He asked. Murdoch took a moment to think. "Not that often, I guess... Things like this only happen when he wants control over what happens on the outside. I've learned to subdue him down over the years. A lot of times, it's just mental effects... but I've learned to deal with it for just about my whole life..." Said Murdoch. While there's the true aspect of William somewhat being used to Murderous's presence, and some of the stunts he pulled, that doesn't mean he's never not affected by it. Sometimes, there's times when he loses sleep, while there's other times he has moments when he feels like his head is spinning. "So..." Began Moody. "What else is there to be solved?" Asked Moody. That was a worthy and wondering question, wasn't it? Was there really anything else to solve? "Alright, I think we should just return to bed, and focus more on the aftermath in the morning." Said the Captain.