The Explorer's Apprentice

79:You Jump, I Jump...Remember?

I own no one but the bit of Rose that is Marley.

Marley Faulkner

People are everywhere, and they are all going in the exact opposite direction of Marley. Faces and places brush past her, but their images blur in the back of her mind. She oozes past them. She doesn’t feel them. It’s as if they don’t even exist.

Because no one else in the whole world matters to her more than one person.

Marley isn’t sure of where her rapid feet are taking her. They just move, never stopping, as if they know exactly where to go.

The grand stairwell.

“Rose!”

She runs to him then, because finally there is nothing there to hold her back. His arms are beautiful and wrap around her like a blanket—somewhere warm and hidden away from the rest of the world. Something within her is growing, a great need. She wants him. More than anything and more than ever. She can’t get close enough. Her fingers latch onto his back and her nails dig into his skin. The smell of him—the feel of him—the taste of him as he presses his mouth against her own, sweet and lovely and refreshing—the perfect melody.

“I couldn’t go!”

“You’re so stupid!” Jack holds her head in his hands and kisses her face. It’s as if he doesn’t know whether to kiss or scream at her. “You’re so stupid Rose, why did you do that?” The kisses are hard, urgent--fierce, like he needs her taste to breathe. “Why?”

She can hardly get out the words. He strokes her head, runs his hand through her long, damp curls. He kisses her tears. He is so magnificent. She feels so perfect in his arms. Their edges mold together like stanzas in a perfect poem. “You jump, I jump. Right?”

She touches his nose, his cheek, his mouth. She feels him smile. She runs her finger across the gentle groove of his dimples. His eyes glisten, and his voice is wistful. “Right.”

Marley is so thankful, so honored, so joyous that she could sing.  To be with him, to be alive in this moment, she could never have asked for a greater blessing.

Caledon Hockley’s gunshot roars throughout the room.

Jack grabs Marley’s hand and yanks her back before her mind can even process what's going on. Her brain is so foggy, so drenched with shock that for a moment it seems suspended in thought. “Go!”

Bam!

Marley looks up, her neck straining.  The bullet crashes straight into the wooden carving at the end of the staircase, and it explodes only inches away from her head. Cal stands on the top stare, looking down at them, the king of all evil. His hair is blown in all sorts of directions, and his black eyes rage with insanity.

Bam! She can hear the second bullet zoom right past her ear.

Cal races down the steps, tripping on a large fragment of the destroyed carving and falling flat on his back. By the time he straightens himself for a fourth shot, Jack and Marley are already at the door.

Bam!

Marley screams, and a terrible wave of helplessness seems to cover them both. Her heart throbs, her chest explodes, her hand squeezes Jack’s. Other alarmed faces zoom past her, but she and Jack don’t stop. Even when they reach the large dining hall, almost completely filled with sea—one that used to be filled with glitter and glam and elegant beauty—they don’t stop.

“Come on!” Jack calls. Marley looks back and watches Cal’s miserable hand quiver. Bam!

When the water hits her waste like a cold kiss, she doesn’t even notice. Chairs and tables bob about the flooded hall, prodding and poking at her legs. The air reeks of death and destruction.

Bam!

Bam!

They’re slower in the water, and Marley can see the little bullets splashing around them. Cal’s face is wild—his eyes are blazing. He’s not even human anymore. His mind is so far gone.

“This way, Rose!”

Bam!

Cal splashes into the water after them. Marley wonders how far he’ll go. To the ends of the earth, if God lets him.

She doesn’t look back, but she can hear Cal bellow—his angry, inhuman howls of defeat echoing about the damp walls.

 “I hope you enjoy your time together!” Cal’s voice is booms throughout the hall. The sound of his last few words are eaten away, dimmed to silence,  by the roar of ocean waves.

Marley and Jack keep running.