━━ There Will Be Time
❛ officer harold lowe
may be the first person
to ever tame the wild heart
that belongs to
miss katherine davenport. ❜
[ titanic ]
[ fifth officer harold lowe x oc...
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❛CHAPTER FOURTEEN, abyssopelagic ❜
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April 15, 1912
TIME SEEMED TO STAND still for those sitting in the boats. Katherine had no idea how long it had been since she was lowered away in the lifeboat, leaving behind the sinking ship and the hundreds still on board. Around her, several other boats floated in the sea, gathered together by Harold with the intention of forming what he called a flotilla.
"It will be easier for any passing steamer to see us if we're tied together than if the lot of us were floating freely," he had explained to any seamen in the nearby boats.
Harold and several other men were currently tying the boats together to prevent them from drifting apart. Katherine could hear his accented voice barking orders to those around him, as well as the shrill sound of his whistle every so often, but it all echoed emptily through her mind.
She was unable to look away from the sinking ship, which was now close to thirty degrees vertical out of the water. Low groans filled the night air as if Titanic itself was crying out in pain– begging for help. Tears had formed in her eyes, but her unblinking gaze held them back. The heart-wrenching sounds that filled the night would haunt her forever, she was certain of it. The cries of those still on board the liner pierced through her like a knife, and she wanted nothing more than to close her eyes and disappear from that awful place.
But she couldn't. She couldn't look away.
At some point, Amelia had wrapped her arm around her, pulling her into her side in an attempt to comfort her evidently distressed daughter. Although Harold was busy with the boats around him, he continued to shoot glances towards Katherine; he was worried for her, and he wished that he could pull her into his body and shield her from the horror that surrounded them.
Suddenly, Katherine was pulled from her thoughts as a series of deafening noises cut through the air around her– what sounded like four explosions. It was coming from the sinking ship, and she focused back in just in time to see the warm golden lights of the liner flicker off all at once. The sea was cast into complete darkness, and the only thing breaking the silence was the chorus of screams coming from somewhere in the night. It was joined soon after by a series of thunderous cracks and booms.
She was unable to see anything due to the lack of light, but the screams of those left on the ship were suddenly amplified, followed closely by a thunderous crash as if something massive had hit the water. Outlined against the cloudless night sky, she could just barely make out the stern of Titanic laying flat against the sea once more.
