The Explorer's Apprentice

72:Marley Takes a Swing

I do not own Jack or Rose.(:

Marley Faulkner

Jack screams.

The sound of Marley’s ax hitting metal bangs through her eardrums like a siren.  A thousand terrified thoughts buzz through her head at that moment—a thousand gruesome images flash through her mind. Fear zooms through her body like lightning. She doesn’t even want to look at him at first. She can’t do it.

But then he screams again. And again.

And the sound is light like the shouts people give off when riding a roller-coaster. Marley holds her breath and looks over at Jack—at his hands.

The water around her isn’t red and the metallic scent of life blood doesn’t envelope her nostrils. Jack stares down at his free hands as if they’re miracles. And in a way, they really are. His face is upturned in the most beautiful of smiles, and his eyes are wide with excitement.

Marley has set him free.

She shouts, a sound of pure joy and gladness nearly identical to his own. I’ve done it…oh God, thank you, I’ve done it. He rushes to embrace her, leans over, cups her shivering face in his gentle hands and kisses her harshly—wonderfully. Her chest ticks and she sweats. It feels like fear but it isn’t. She’s never felt safer.  It’s like he’s starving for her, and the more they kiss, the hungrier he gets. Marley loves it—the dip of his smooth chin atop her own, his nose digging into her skin like a little daisy.

Upon his embrace, she feels her body begin to still. She feels warm. She feels giddy. Elated laughter erupts from her like an insane volcano.

“You did it!” She loves how he pauses to kiss her, making her feel like the most outstanding thing in the world. His mouth is beautiful. “I knew you could do it!”

This moment, to Marley, is like magic.

But the water is rising. They have to keep moving.

And when they does pull apart, he does so reluctantly, as if he they could spend all eternity kissing each other in the cold if they could. Jack says,“We’ve gotta go," and Marley nods.

He takes her hands and leaps into the water beside her. She’s already used to it, or as used to it as a person can possibly get anyway, but she watches his face drain of all color upon contact with the rampant sea.

“Oh, shit!” He hisses, and she can feel his hand tremble in her own as they move past a large floating desk chair. “Oh shit, shit this is cold! Shit!”

Marley nods, her teeth chattering, but she hardly even notices. She stopped noticing a while ago. “I know,” she informs him, keeping her legs moving. They reach the door and she looks out. The water is now up to the bottom of her neck and the top of his chest. 

Her eyes stroll down the corridor and she remembers the little hill in the middle of the hall. About ten feet away, the sea reaches all the way up to the ceiling. “This is the way out!”

“Then we have to find another way. Come on!” Jack leads her down the opposite, unfamiliar corridor with the sea—what used to be one of Marley’s greatest confidents—raging after them like they’ve done something wrong.