Prelude (Underworld Lucian Fanfiction)

22 - Chapter XXII: Hunger Without End

Just off the coast of Dover, England. 3:21 pm

She opened her eyes. Darkness. She was still in the box, but there were sounds around her, rocking beneath her. The movement of a ship. Someone was walking on wooden boards, circling the box, tapping what sounded like paper against a palm. She held her breath, listening, her first instinct regrettably that of fear. The last time she had woken in one of these boxes, the cover had been wrenched off, followed by Rena dragging her from its interior. She looked down, spying the empty bottle where it had rolled into the corner. The effects were not as strong as Bikavér, but she still had a faint headache. Her knees were getting sore. The walls of the box were too close. Suppressing the fear, she spoke out calmly...

"Is that you, Lyosha?"

Her prowler said nothing, but from the right, she heard a muffled laugh, the babble of water that was Sabine. She breathed, some of her fears melting away. The girl might be precocious, but the gift of the comb, however illicit, had more or less softened her heart towards her. From inside, she knocked against the side of the safe-box, the black cloth muffling the sound of the wood. "Sabine," she murmured cordially, using the familiar form of Russian address. "...if you please, I am trying to sleep. Ask Lyosha to stop being so loud." The girl must have been sitting on the same level, for she heard the laughter multiply, the sound of a seated girl rolling back as if the humour were too much for her. Through the wood, she heard Sabine stand, the rustle of cloth followed by the soft knock of two feet landing upon her box. Reinette looked up. The girl was standing directly above her, facing what certainly must be Lucian. Had he forgiven her yet for arguing with him in the tunnel?

"Lyosha," the girl declared boldly in Russian. "...you are too loud. Be quiet."

"You are too short. Grow a little." Hearing the rolling sarcasm of Lucian, she felt her lips stretch further by a very small margin. There he was. Sarcastic bastard. Until he answered, she had mildly considered that it might be Raze on the other side, in which case, she was antagonising a lycan over two times her size.

Sabine's voice piped up again. "Can she come out?"

"Not yet."

She could almost see the girl, like a silent predator, idling from one side of the box to the other, her feet barely making a sound despite the hollow space beneath her. "Can she come out now?" She was very precocious.

"I am still thinking on it," he said pointedly. As if he could think about thinking all night and if he wanted to, he'd leave her in that box for the entire period. The circling did not stop, but she heard the paper in his hand crumple, the pages falling onto the floor. Sabine stayed where she was.

"I will be quiet." The girl was bargaining.

He said nothing.

Leaning back, Reinette smiled, waiting for the inevitable, confident now that Sabine had spoken for her. It would not be long before the box opened. As much as it was possible, Sabine had him wrapped around her little finger. Or claw. The two feet leaped off the box and without so much as a nail coming loose, the cover came off. Trust Lucian to continue thinking on it after having taken out the nails already.

There...

...she was out.

Blinking from the sudden light, she shaded her eyes, feeling the brightness of a lamp upon her face. A lamp? There was no lamp. The light came from a miniature chandelier fashioned out of glass, the three candles at its centre seeming to grow out of a pool of lilies. An ornate ceiling covered in white panelling. She frowned at the ceiling. Where were they? After so many hours of sitting, it was a minute before she could get to her knees, slow at first and then stumbling as she saw the style of room they were situated in. Everything came shakily into focus. By no means could this ship compare to the one they had first embarked on.