The Summer Siren

Astrid

I watch Ace eat the chips outside of the corner of my eye while I steer my ship. I don't know where I'm going but I'm hoping that he's paying attention to tell me where I need to go if it changes. It continues like this for a couple of miles before he suddenly stands up and jerks the wheel from my hands. "I'll take over now," he says, putting the chips down.

I didn't say anything, and I just sat down next to him. I grabbed the Cheetos and stuck my hand in the bag to eat some, but he had already eaten all of them. I looked inside the bag and then up at him in awe. I don't know how he managed to eat an entire party size bag of Cheetos, but he did, in about 30 minutes. I know the top of his mouth is hurting. It's that or chewed up soggy Cheetos are stuck to the top of his mouth. I crumble up the bag and throw it in the trash can that I keep under my steering wheel.

"Where are we going?" I ask, after a couple minutes of silence.

He looks over his shoulder with an annoyed look, "It doesn't matter where we're going. But we're almost there and I know it's dangerous, but I need you to turn the lights off."

I look around at my ship and the only lights that are on are the lights in the control room and the headlights of the boat. I may have a light or two downstairs, but they wouldn't be seen by anyone off the boat. "Like the overhead lights?" I point to the lights right above our head.

"This one, the ones in front of the boat and the ones below deck as well. I don't want to take any chances on someone who doesn't need to find us, finding us."

I nod my head, understanding why we need to turn them off. I turn off the light in the control room first because it's right there and then I make my way downstairs to turn off the lights below deck. I grab some flashlights while I'm down there. I know I should've turned the headlights off first, but it makes me a little anxious thinking about my boat in the dark on unknown waters. I know that Ace knows the waters better than I do, but surely that doesn't mean he travels in the dark. I continue to think about it on my way back up to the control room to turn off the headlights and I realize that he might not have lights on his pirate ship.

Walking back into the control room I over Ace to turn the headlights off. My arm grazes on his upper body when I pull it back and I can barely feel the hard muscle that's under the baggy shirt he's wearing. Sitting back down in the chair, I look out the windows in front of me and it's pitch black. It doesn't help when I look back behind us either and see pitch black. It's surrounding us and there's no telling what's using the darkness to hide. Something or someone waiting to capture us or sink my ship. I don't know where I'm at or what kind of creatures live in this world. I turn back to Ace, "What now?"

It takes him a second to answer, meanwhile my eyes can adjust to the darkness but only slightly. "Now, you go down below deck and don't make a sound. I don't want you trying to look out the windows, or using the bathroom or kitchen, and no chips. You can't eat any chips. Also turn the clothes washer machine off. If they hear us coming, they will attack, and I'll be arrested which will leave you stranded in a world where you don't know left from right."

I stare at him in shock for what feels like eternity before he pushes me out of my chair and out the door, "Go! We will be at our destination shortly but first we must get past this obstacle."

That's enough to get me moving and I all but run downstairs in the dark, locking myself in my bedroom. I make sure to grab the key off the hook outside of the room, so I don't get locked in. This is a remodeled ship, and I want to think that it didn't have any bedrooms at first and so when they remodeled it to turn it into a livable ship, they turned the brig into the bedroom but never replaced the locks. I think about what's going on and I want to look out the windows, but I remember what Ace said about getting arrested, so I force myself to lay on the bed and look at the ceiling. I couldn't help but feel like I forgot something, and I laid there wondering what it was.