Isabelle Claiborne
The screaming starts.
Belle is surprised at how horrifying the screaming is. It wasn’t so bad back when the ship was still above water—the roar of the flooding helped dampen the shouts—but now… Now there is nothing but great, open ocean, and the water carries the sound straight to Belle’s ears. The screaming fills her. It pounds on her eardrums and beats on her eyes. Every scream, every cry for help or shout to God is an echo of her own pain. Of her own loss.
“I can’t,” growls the boatman. “I can’t go back. I won’t go back.”
“You have to go back!” the girl yells. Belle recognizes her from somewhere. Somewhere long ago and far away. A small, unfrozen, unafraid part of Belle’s brain recognizes her as Abby. “My friends are back there!”
“Sit down, woman,” someone pipes up. “Save your breath.”
Abby turns on them. Her eyes smolder. Yes, Isabelle thinks absentmindedly, this is so like Abby. Drama queen.
“Your friends are out there, too! Your husbands! Your children! How in hell can you just—not care! Think of someone but yourselves for once!”
“Drowning men are animals, ma’am!” the boatman cries. He keeps an iron grip on his oar. He stares down the other men at the paddles, daring any one of them to side with her. “They’ll swamp the boat and not care who’s on it and then we’ll all die!”
The wood beneath Isabelle croaks softly in the water, like the whisper of ghosts. She covers her ears to block out the screaming, but it’s not enough.
“It’s not true. It’s not! Don’t listen to a word he says, it’s not true!”
Jack is back there, Belle thinks. And Rose. But Belle realizes she doesn’t care anymore. That part of Belle is gone now. That Belle froze and died long before Titanic ever sank.
“He’s trying to scare you so you won’t want to go back! But don’t you see we need to go back? They need help!”
“You’re insane!”
“He can’t stop us if we all stand together! Stand up! Someone, please!”
Belle buries her head in her arms. She won’t stand. She can’t bear to think of going out there, to be surrounded by all that screaming, to be reminded a million times of her own pain. What if she saw Jack and Rose out there, in the water? Belle couldn’t take that.
No one stands up.
They stand this way for a long time, Belle doesn’t know how long. They stand there, Abby facing down the boatman like a knight facing down a dragon. The wind blows cold, and the sea spray hurts as it freezes to Belle’s cheeks. A minute passes. An hour. A year. The screaming begins to die down, and for that Belle is grateful. Maybe now she can get some rest.
Abby sits down and cries, softly.
YOU ARE READING
The Explorer's Apprentice
AdventureOn an expedition to the famous wreck of 'Titanic', 16-year-old Marley Faulkner discovers a mysterious journal, and feels as if she's finally found someone who understands her. Full of the tragic tales of a forgotten soul, the book's ending leaves Ma...
