Secrets of the Sea

Chapter 5

The room I woke up in was plain. I could make out candles with my fuzzy vision. I blinked. They gave the room a yellowish glow. When the flame flickered so did the shadows on the walls. A straw mattress separated me from the wooden shelf that was sticking out of the wall. A worn out blanket wrapped around me, and everything smelled…salty.

            It wasn’t unusual. I did live by the sea, by the way. But what was unusual was that the whole room seemed to be moving, swaying back and forth. I sat up and a whirl of thoughts swirled through my head. Was I dead? Is this the afterlife? Was I on my way to the Dark Realms? But the trip to the Realms wouldn’t have been in my own room, it would have been in a dark rowboat in a black river with other dead souls around me.

            I remembered the pirates, and the fire, and…nothing.

            So where was I?

            I got up on unsteady feet and slowly walked to the door. The handle was brass and was cold to touch. It didn’t open at my timid turn. Frowning, I turned harder and harder, but the door wouldn’t budge.

            I must be a prisoner, I thought. Guests wouldn’t be locked in a room.

            I turned around, facing the room. It looked so simple and plain. And the swaying was driving me crazy.

            Nauseous, I slid down the wall and put my head in my hands. I stayed like that for the next couple-what? minutes? Hours? … Days? It was just me, the floor, and the horrid swaying room, which had started to spin. My stomach lurched and I hugged myself tighter. I knew that if I had had anything in it, there wouldn’t have been anything in there anymore.

            After what seemed like a life-time I registered a click and the door opening on another level in my brain. But I felt too sick to care.

            A soft laugh reached my ears and I cracked my eyes open. A blurry figure crouched down in front of me. I felt a temporary sense of relief when he slid a cool hand over my forehead.

            Where am I? I wanted to ask. Who are you?

            Instead, I decided to go with the question I felt was most important in that moment.

            “Am I dying?” Ick. My voice came out raspy and dry.

            He laughed again. “Silly girl,” he said as he picked me up. I moaned and curled closer into his chest.

            “You’re just sea-sick.”

            What?

            I must have fallen asleep again, because the next thing I knew was waking up again in the same room. Only, this time, the stranger from earlier was sitting next to me in a chair. And, this time, I saw that the stranger wasn’t a stranger at all. It was Char.

            I scrambled to me feet and backed up, precariously balancing on the straw mattress. My head spun and I felt as though I was floating, but the dizziness disappeared after a moment. Char stood too and watched me. Waiting for a reaction. But I didn’t have one.

            How was one to react in this situation?

            Neither of us said anything. The only sound in the room was my breath coming out hard and fast. Fear curled around my heart like a snake; coiling and squeezing, suffocating its prey.