infinity || minsung

"miles away"

chapter six
minho

Seungmin and I stare up at the boat bobbing in the water. It has a small body but a tall mast, sail juddering in the wind. The sun is going down, the waves crashing onto the beach are angry and crested by white.

"Good sailing weather," I mutter.

"I'm gonna lose my shit if my phone gets wet." Seungmin takes it out of his back pocket. "Never mind, it's dead anyway."

"Is it just me or does the boat look kinda flimsy?"

"You might be right. Lucky Haseong and Chan gave us a crash course in pirate-ing, right?"

We look at each other.

"You've forgotten everything, haven't you?"

"Yeah."

I look over my shoulder. Felix and his 'source' are whispering back and forth on the far side of the beach. He told us she's a vampire shipwright, her name is Kim Chanmi — and nothing else. I guess she's another item on his list of redacted information.

Felix gives her a hardy handshake and walks toward us. "It's a go, let's get this fish in the water."

We file onto the dock, untie the boat and climb in. The wind pushes us out into the surging water.

"Felix, why'd you rent a boat for this?" I ask.

"Efficiency, Min. Hoofing our way up the Americas and swimming from Newfoundland to Ireland is the fool's route to Italy. This way we only have sixteen-hundred miles to cover, and we won't look like prunes once we make it to The Boot."

"And this thing" — Seungmin flicks his hands — "will get us across the Atlantic?"

"Swiftly, you pessimists. Ms. Kim's handiwork is of the highest caliber. This beaut won't be broken by a couple puny waves."

"But will it capsize?"

"All vessels capsize, Seungmin, it's a matter of onboard competence."

"You're paying for my phone when we go under."

With the night getting darker, the wind picking up, the boat is already rocking against the waves. I curl up on the floor, hugging my bag in my arms. It still smells like home — Kokoa tried to climb in before we'd left for Charlie's house.

Felix looks me up and down, swings off his backpack and unzips it. He pulls out a rolled-up sheet of paper and gives it to me.

"What's this?"

"It's a blueprint. Thought you might wanna look at it."

I tease off the hairband holding it together. It's drawn by hand, a distantly familiar vampire scent on the thick paper. It lays out a map of Volterra on one side with an enlarged diagram of the Volturi's palazzo on the other. The building facing the street, the entrance, is the same as its neighbours, but it leads deep into the city block, ends in a large, circular room captioned 'throne room.'

Seungmin takes the seat behind me, looking at it over my shoulder. "Where'd you get this? Nobody has these blueprints, they're banned."

Felix opens his mouth.

"Never mind, redacted, I get it."

"This is where we'll meet them, the... throne room." I bite my lip, trying to picture it. "Jisung and I practiced what to say... I dunno what else there is to plan for." The boat lurches into the air — I get spritzed with salty water. "I mean, other than a sixteen-hundred mile swim."