The Explorer's Apprentice

67:The Silver Key

I only own Marley's memories.:)

Marley Faulkner

She can’t stop running, and she knocks those around her, dressed in puffy life vests and long coats, about like toys. She doesn’t care if they think her rude or brash. In fact maybe that’s a good thing if it gets them moving out of her way more quickly.

She glides across the dining hall, the sounds of cheerful chatter and upbeat music ringing in her ears like annoying little bees. More than half of you of you are going to die. Dead. Gone. Forever. And you people dawdle around laughing and playing music?

Marley feels as if she’s the only dolphin in a sea full of goldfish.

She zooms towards the elevator, arriving straight in the middle of an intense conversation between an agitated elevator monitor and a very persistent old woman.

“I’m sorry, Miss,” the man informs the woman, “but for the last time, the lifts are closed!”

“But I only want to go back for my hat, I—“

Marley grips the collar of the man with immense strength she never knew she had. She shoves him towards the back of the elevator harshly, her voice sounding like a thousand angry tigers. “I’m through with being polite, goddammit!”

For a moment, all the elevator monitor can do is gape at her with the eyes of stricken prey.

“Now take me down!”

She watches a shiver ripple throughout the man’s large body as he hastily obeys.

Marley leans back against the elevator wall, her thoughts raging through her head like a wild fire. Take the elevator to the very bottom, and go to the left. Down the crewmen’s passage, then go right, then left again at the stairs. She repeats the directions in her head like a chant, willing herself to hold onto them tightly. Take the elevator to the very bottom, and go to the left. Down the crewmen’s passage, then go right, then left again at the stairs. It’s as if the elevator cannot go down fast enough. Take the elevator to the very bottom, and go to the left…left and then…or was it right? Marley brings her hands to her curls in panic. She can feel her very skin tingle with fear. Remember! She commands. You must remember! Right and then…down and then…oh God….

As the elevator makes its final descent, raging, angry water begins to fill its interior like a curse.

The roaring sound of sea hitting land material makes Marley let out a little scream. Water begins to fiercely surround her feet like blood to a dying body. Half the floor beneath her is flooded—eaten away by ocean.

“I’m going back up!” Shouts the elevator monitor, frantically reaching towards the elevator crank. “I’m going back up!”

“No!”Marley grabs his arm and jerks him back. “No!” With her bare hands she pries open the brass elevator doors, letting them pierce into her cold fingers. Giving up is not even an option for Marley. 

The monitor sticks his head out of the elevator as Marley begins to dash out. “Miss! Miss come back!”

Marley doesn’t even hear him. The cold that hits her then really is like a thousand knives being thrust into her legs. The tremble that racks her body is so great that it rattles her very soul. She can practically feel her lips turn blue, and within seconds, her feet go numb.

“I’m going back up!” The elevator doors start to close as the machine rises, spewing out sea like a waterfall. “I’m going back up!”