The Secret Beneath The Waves

Chapter 7: "The Ghost in the Mirror

*Picture of Andrew at the top. I couldn't think of any other redhead to portray him.

Chapter Seven - The Ghost in the mirror

Nothing. That was all that Spencer felt as she sat shivering, on the rusting bench near the marketplace, drenched completely in the cold waters of the Atlantic ocean. Her hands shook. The phantom feeling of Maxence's hand locked in her's for a few brief seconds kept passing, and she jumped every time. I never even thought of getting to know him she thought bitterly. But then again, isn't that better for coping with the loss? She mentally kicked herself for even daring to think that. "Maxence is gone" she mumbled. "Maxence is gone" she laughed bitterly, trying to get coax a reaction out of her. She shouldn't have hesitated. She clenched her fists tightly, so hard pink crescent shaped lines appeared in her palms.

Certainly she should feel grief, sadness, helplessness possibly despair? Nothing. A mass of neutrality and emptiness filled her body, and she sat there, wrapping the blanket tighter around her body. She felt a person sit down next to her. Jane. "Here" she said quietly, pressing a pair of jeans, undergarments and cotton t-shirt into her trembling hands. Nodding her head as a sign of thanks, she continued staring at the water. The water that now held the body of Maxence Leonard Dubois. A man that had been alive just near an hour ago. Alive and happy. Though, his eyes had always held a mysterious sadness to them she realized. Smiling, but never truly happy.

She got up, clutching the clothes Jane had given her, and made her way over to a bathroom. Changing, she stared at herself in the mirror, splashing cold water over her face. Her eyes were red, no doubt from the salt, her face paler than normal. There were bags under her eyes, and her whole posture screamed tiredness and exhaustion. She looked like a ghost. It's probably nowhere near as bad as how Aidan's feeling though, she knew, walking out the door, and finding him sitting on the curb.

Silently she sat beside him and studied him. There were no bags under his eyes, as they looked silently down at his hands. After a while, she finally mustered up the courage to say something. "I did try to save him, I really did. I am sor-" Aidan cut her off by slamming his hands against the street. There was a loud boom that echoed a second later. "You" he turned to her, "are NOT sorry. He fixed his eyes on her. "You are not sorry now, and even if you were, you will definitely not be later."

He trudged away, kicking at the dirt as he went. "I will not be joining either group on the way back" he called, and Spencer didn't disagree. She just stared at the imprints of Aidan's hands on the street. Where the curb had sunk in, in the shape of two human hands. A scuffle of feet resulted in Jane sitting next to her, dressed in a plaid shirt and jeans, her hair pulled back in a single braid. "Aidan's leaving to see his family" she said. Spencer nodded, pointed her thumb at the retreating figure. "I'm catching a plane back to France in the morning" she said. There's a connecting flight that stops at New York, are you coming?" Spencer shook her head. "My boss will kill me when he sees the boat," she explained. "So we're buying a bigger one and playing it off as a trade." Jane grinned, "Okay" she said, her expressions suddenly turned somber "and just know that it's not your fault, the boat, Maxence, or any of this", raising her hand in a farewell as she climbed into a waiting minivan.

Trooping over to the rest of the group, she found Oliver aimlessly drawing in the dirt, Shawn and Adri silent beside him. Clapping her hands and attempting to smile, which ended in a grimace, she hoisted up the one backpack that had been salvaged, and walked along the dock, looking for a boat. "A boat?" Adri questioned. "We're going on a boat? After all this?" she looked at Spencer like she had grown a pair of arms. Just nodding, Spencer climbed into another yacht, that was credibly bigger than the previous one. Tossing a bag of money on the docks, she sat down at the driver's seat, waiting for them. Grudgingly, they all climbed aboard, and she started the engine, preparing for a straight journey back to headquarters, specifically, New York.

Planning all this, though, as an unknown somebody watched from a cracked window in Carlson's Boat Rental.

Climbing aboard the Atlanta, the ship that the Western side of the American wing of The Shoreline Research Group (yes, it was a mouthful), Spencer and the rest of the group were immediately bombarded with questions;

"What was it like when the bomb exploded?"

"Do you blame your group leader for the loss of life?"

"How do you feel, after failing to complete the mission?"

"Do you think Spencer should be fired?"

"What are your thoughts on your leader's failed attempt to rescue the member from the French group?"

Each question felt like an anvil being dropped on her shoulders, which literally sagged as she climbed up on top of the second top. Screaming into her hands, she sat cross legged, staring out into the ocean. "Hey" she was greeted by Tony as he sat down beside her, no cigarette. There was a moment pause before he turned around to face her, "are you" he paused, "are you good?" he asked. Spencer thought about it, but just decided to be honest. "Do you ever get that feeling" she said. Tony looked at her quizzically. "Your just walking someplace, and time just seems to... stop. You felt nothing before, and then... it hits you." she swallowed.

"The shocking, numbing reality, of something, some feeling that you had been trying to supress for the longest time. You somehow manage to keep walking, if not faster, to try and run away from it. But it's a feeling that envelopes you, just simple guilt. She shook her head."And everyone thinks your fine, because that's how it seems from the outside. But the most depressing thing is that it's not because of that, it's because you've had so much practice pretending." drawing her knees up to her chest, her next words were almost imperceptible. "I don't want to pretend anymore" she croaked out. Tony was silent for a long time, and she immediately felt like an idiot. "Well" he said after a few minutes. "You're going to be okay" he said. He didn't say it as a question, he said it as more of a statement, like he knew for a fact that it was true. And somehow, that was the most comforting thing in the world to her right now. He gave her a small smile "It's all good, I won't judge." He left a couple minutes later, but Spencer didn't notice until she heard Andrew's voice from behind her. "You broke my yacht, but I won't fire you because you got me a new one, though undoubtedly stolen." He harrumphed.

The statement was so ridiculous, after everything that happened, that she started laughing like a mad man. Andrew looked at her like she was insane, -and she was beginning to think she was- before climbing back down the ladder, though she thought she saw him smile before his head vanished.

Spencer stayed there until nightfall, when the search lights on either side of the boat came on, right in her face. Yelling, she scrambled down and started off at a brisk pace back to her bubble. Scanning her card and going in, she tossed her cardigan over the coat hooks, and went into the kitchen, making herself a bowl of cereal. It was evident she would not be sleeping for a while.

About halfway through her third bowl of Fruit Loops, the phone rang. Briefly looking at the caller ID before picking it up she responded "Hey Adri" she said stifling a yawn, a hint of weariness in her voice. "Adrianna is not here" came the voice of a man. Spencer immediately halted, all her attention on the mystery caller. "And if you wish for her to live, you will bring the serum to us within five days. Do it, or your friend will be harmed." The screen went blank, and the call ended. A notification popped up, bringing her to an image of a map, showing a place. Maine. 

***************************************************************************************

If you guys have any questions for me, please contact me via my website. It also includes some information about me, my book recommendations, quizzes created by yours truly and more. Please go check it out!

https://ananya-writes.webnode.com/contact/  

~Ananya Ramesh

***************************************************************************************