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“Sir, I don’t understand…” another voice interrupted.
“This was to keep hersafe, notpunishher.”
“She stole your kindle – and I know it’s yours, because I gave you the darn thing for Christmas last year, sir.”
“Iloanedit to her, Jared.”
“But why? No electronics, remember?”
“Can you unlock the blasted doors or not?”
“Can you tell me why you broke your own rule for the sake of one mouthy woman?”
“Drop it, Sergeant Rice. Am I clear?”
A flashlight quickly shone around the room, settling on her, and a softly spoken curse was heard as the darkness enveloped her once again.
“Yes, captain.”
“We’ll talk later, Jared, but unlock the cell – and leave me the key.”
“But you said…”
“Jared…”
There was a heavy sigh in the inky blackness, just before she heard a clanking noise and the groan of the rusted door opening once more.
“Leave us.”
She heard a few footsteps enter the room and couldn’t help the fear that was threatening to choke her.
“Are we sinking? Is it finally time?” she croaked out painfully, holding back a raw sob that ached in her throat. She wasn’t sure she could cry anymore, and her paranoid phobia of drowning had been so vibrant, so brutally encompassing, she must have imagined a billion ways they would find her body on the ocean floor,floating in this jail cell.
“Is that why you’re here? I didn’t steal that and…”
“Calista, I know,” the captain said gently – and she felt a hand touch her back. “You’re safe. I promise you, and…”
She let out a shuddered whimper as that sob broke free, turning to any sort of comfort she could find… which happened to be the strange captain beside her at this moment.
“I’m so sorry. No one else knew you were scared of drowning but me and Marie – and when I found out that Jared took the key from you, leaving you here in the dark…”
His voice cut out as she buried her face against his shoulder, needing comfort while she pulled herself together. She cried painfully, feeling everything swamp her at once in an almost unbearable wave of emotions.
Bitterness for Jack’s death, possibly facing her own if something happened to the ship, feeling helpless and alone, combined with unbridled fear. Jack had once laughed that she wanted a beach house because of her crippling fear of drowning, but it was hard to explain the ‘why’ behind it.
She craved the peace that came from the lapping sounds of the waves hitting the beach, imagining a fairytale land of Atlantis below the inky depths where people could hide away from their troubles, and felt safe on the shore… but here - in the vast expanse of water around her?
Here, she felt trapped.
Solitary.
Alone.
Adrift… and floundering.
It was a scary feeling that the emotions Calista once thought she had under control only to have all that stability ripped from her again.
“No one is going to ever let you get harmed,” the captain said softly, rubbing her back as she buried her faceagainst his shoulder, letting out a shuddering sigh. “I promise, Calista.”
