Page 143 of The Girl Out of Time
Chapter 37
Emmeline fought against the steep slope of the ship’s deck. She crawled, she jumped, she clung to everything she could: the storm rail, the nailed-down benches, the window frames. The lights had shifted to an eerie, duller red tone as if they were bathing the ship in its last sunset.
Somehow, amidst the crowd, she made it to the stairs going to the upper deck of the stern, and climbed them just as something whizzed above her head. One of the massive cranes, attached to the deck, swung wildly as it fought against the gravity, then detached and fell down the deck, sweeping people with it. Emmeline cried out and crouched on the staircase, closing her eyes and swallowing her whimpers, trying to shut out the terrified screams echoing around her.
Why didn’t she get on the lifeboat?
And then a voice came—far, at first, but drawing ever closer. Steady hands grabbed her shoulders. “Emmeline.”
She looked up through a curtain of tears.Theo. He’d found her again. She couldn’t say anything, just collapsed into his arms.
“Come on. We can’t stay here. We need to find shelter.”
She wasn’t alone. She stayed for him, so that he wouldn’t be alone, either. A memory from the summer that felt much longer than half a year ago flashed through her mind. She and Theo sitting on the back of the cart, side by side, their legs dangling off, like two children who’d snuck onto the ride.I’ll be your friend,she’d promised him.And unless you specifically want me to, I won’t leave you.
“I won’t leave you,” she said.
“I know. I won’t leave you either.” He dragged her away from the railing, and with all their force, they ran further up the deck until they reached a raised metallic platform, running intermittently across the deck. Theo pulled them behind and they sat down, leaning on it.
Emmeline had barely caught her breath when an awful noise pierced the air. She couldn’t tell what it was. It sounded a bit like that time when Tristan overturned the china cabinet, and all the plates spilled and shattered on the floor; but this was louder, deafening. It repeated again—two, three, four times—so loud not even the screams could overcome it.
And then the lights on the entire ship went out, and she was cast into pitch darkness.
***
Water pressed like a thousand icy blades against Emily’s skin, drawing her deep into the bowels of the ship. It had already been cold when she was merely wading through it; but this, the complete submersion, almostknocked the air out of her lungs, and she had to hold herself back to not instinctively take a breath. She and Will would need all the air they had left.
She held his hand as they went down and counted the seconds and decks. Boat Deck, A, B—down, a bit further still—she prepared herself and squeezed Will’s hand twice to give him the signal, then ran through her mantra.
Heartbeat, wait. Heartbeat, stop.
The water around her paused, and they were no longer being drawn downward. Will was only a dark outline next to her, his free hand pressed close to his body, holding his watch.
Surely, his time freeze worked, as well. But she wouldn’t know it before she stopped her own time freeze—and for that, she first had to get out of the shaft.Quickly.She might be frozen, but the air in her lungs wasn’t.
A weak light shone below her. She swam to it and found the open emergency door of the shaft, the one she’d noticed when they were making their escape topside. A few of the waterproof lights flickered in the flooded hallway. She’d gone from the gut-wrenching screaming on the surface to an eerie calm, with bits of dust and underwater dirt floating through the deep green. Emily pushed into the hallway and released the time freeze, whipping her head around to find Will. She saw no one at first, and she nearly screamed, a few bubbles escaping her—and then somebody tapped her on her shoulder.
Will.
No time to lose. She gestured him forward, and they swam toward the staircase leading down, propelling themselves off the railing. Emily was no longer sure if what she felt was excruciating cold or heat. Her senses had mingled the pain together, and the water was more like lava, dense and burning, as she fought against it.
On the deck below, she frantically glanced at cabin doors and off-shoot hallways. Which one was familiar? Which one was the portal in?
Somewhere deep beneath them—or above, or to the back, she couldn’t tell—the ship shook and vibrated, and a great explosion resonated through the water, lurching them forward.
TheTitanicwas breaking up.
Will looked at her, wide-eyed, bubbles escaping his lips.Shit. If they were breaking up, the bow would plunge downward, and they with it. She had no time left to find the portal.
Heartbeat, wait. Heartbeat, stop.The tremors subsided, and Emily swam forward, kicking, pushing, squeezing her muscles in the fight for every inch of progress made, every atom of oxygen she had left. She’d swam down one more hallway when, deep underneath her skin, she felt a tingle.
The portal was near.
She kicked at the water as she looked around. There, a shimmering, just around the corner! Something in the back of her mind told her the location was different. She was sure the portal she’d come through wasn’t at a corner, but if it was a portal, it would do. As long as they got out.
By the time she got back to Will and stopped the time freeze, a wooziness was starting to scramble her brain. Which direction was the portal, again? That one—she gestured to Will, and she tried to swim back toward it, but her arms and legs felt so heavy. Will grabbed her and pulled her with him as the lights dimmed. The water grew dark. The portal, right there, he’d feel it, too …
And then she knew nothing more.
