The Child That Never Was (NaNoWriMo 2014)

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Fifteen

We were back on the ship, and the water was still rushing with the smell of decaying bodies permanently bruising the air with their stench.  I looked around for Bethany and saw her standing above Kairi’s body, trying to make sure that she’s actually dead.  I waited for her to look at me, and when she did, she only nodded.  “Dead?” I asked.

“From the looks of it,” she yelled back.

“Then, how-?”  I cringed at the thought that we had just mingled with a dead soul in the other life.  Or, at least, I had.  How was that even possible?  I walked over to Bethany, needing some sort of answers, even though I doubted that Bethany would have the ones that I was seeking.

“Bethany, I can’t do this anymore,” I sighed.

“Neither can I, kid,” she mused.  “But let’s stand amidst all these corpses.  It’s giving me the heebie-jeebies!”  I laughed at her choice of wording, but my glee had ended the second it began.  I felt no sense of belief in what was happening.

“Let’s go to the captain’s room, and talk there,” she smiled, patting my shoulder.

I nodded and followed her up onto the balcony, and through the door.  I began to wonder who was even sailing this ship, if anyone, and how they felt when they heard the sword fight.  If they had even heard anything.  Perhaps they were just accustomed to violence breaking out onto ships, and just ignored it whenever it began to happen. 

I walked into the captain’s cabin and sat down in a red, plush chair, kicking my feet up onto the matching foot stool.  How hard I was trying to relax, but none of my methods seemed to be working.  All I need was answers, and then, I could rest.  “So after Kairi died, we were set off into another realm?”  I looked at Bethany for confirmation.

“Before we did so, Kairi fell to the ground, and then her mouth slightly opened.  Some sort of orb was released from her lips, and it turned into a portal.  I’m not sure if you saw it because you fell down as soon as the orb began coming out of her mouth.  Then, I fell down, and everything went black,” Bethany nodded.

“So was that a memory of her?” I asked, but Bethany only shrugged her shoulders.  Of course, she wouldn’t know, but I needed to think out loud at this moment.  So much had happened that made no sense at all, and I needed to verbalize it, trying to make sense of it.  I mean, there was so much that I hadn’t known; like the orb releasing from Kairi’s lips.  Maybe there were things that I knew and thought Bethany knew, but she actually had no idea of, and vice versa.  Perhaps we could put two and two together to come up with our own answers.

“Okay, so let’s try this.  You fell to the ground and was transported to the other realm, but we weren’t together during the first part of the journey.  What happened before we met up?” I asked, triggering her to start telling me what I didn’t know.  Perhaps there were clues from all of these realms that we have been pouring over, but still overlooked.  Maybe they were even so obvious that we’ll feel stupid as we realize how we overlooked them.  Then again, I’d still rather feel stupid than having to keep searching for clues and answers.  Anything would be better than this, in full honesty.

“I opened my eyes and was on a bus.  There was the driver, and I tried to talk to him.  However, his replies were blunt and rude, so I gave up trying to talk to him.  Besides from us, I was the only passenger.  So, I just rode the bus, on and on, until you came on the next morning,” Bethany informed me.

I nodded.  “Long time to be riding a bus.”

“I thought during the whole thing.  At first, I couldn’t remember any of our journey, either.  I couldn’t even remember you, Kaylie!  I was thinking about things, my life, and then, I realized that my memory was missing something huge.  I thought hard… and I remembered,” she shrugged.