“What's happening?”, someone asked,
frantically. “Where are we going so suddenly?”
“Everyone, please listen!”, Sister
pleaded with the restless crowd. “I know you're all anxious to
know what's going on, but please be patient.” The chatter died
down.
She took a deep breath: “Our friend
Pack, and his crew, have gone missing, and may be in great danger.
We all must band together to help search for them.”
“Are they lost?”
“That's a possibility”, she nodded,
“but the greater risk is that he may be seeking out the Black
Ship.”
There was an audible cry of shock from
the crowd. “Why would anyone do that?!” several people wondered
aloud, at the same time.
She sighed. “Because he lost someone
very special. All of you have people who are important to you, if
something happened to them I'm sure you'd do anything to get them
back. But it's too dangerous, particularly to go alone. That's why
we have to go.”
“Will we be okay?” asked a
frightened voice.
“We will be if we stick together”,
she tried to reassure them.
After the crowd had dispersed, she
wiped her brow with her paw. It was always difficult for her to
address a big crowd, and she felt less confident tonight than she was
letting on. She hoped that they hadn't seen through her, but she
feared they could probably tell.
“Sister?”, someone called to her.
It was Memory, one of her friends. “I'm scared”, she said,
clearly close to tears. “We've never done anything like this
before.”
“I know”, she said, hugging her.
“Be brave.” It was the best reassurance she could come up with.
Memory left after a little while, but
she didn't seem to be feeling much better. Sister's head drooped.
She wished she had something more to give them, but she was scared
too. She wasn't cut out for this, and neither were they.
Steeling herself, she walked to the
helm of the ship and took the wheel in her paws. She stared up at
the stars, but she didn't really understand how that was supposed to
help her find where Pack had gone. “Maybe I need to try to think
like him instead”, she thought. She tried to imagine what she
would do if it had been Corsair that had disappeared instead. “I'd
do anything to find him... I'd ask everyone, search everywhere...
maybe I'd even ask the strangers if they'd seen him.”
The last thought stuck with her.
“That's like what Michelle was trying to do,” she realized,
“never before had a stranger asked me to help them, but she must
have felt that was her only choice...”
She tapped the wheel restlessly with
her paws as she milled the events over in her head. “Oh!”, she
remembered, “when I told Pack about what happened, he immediately
thought I was talking about him. There must be some other connection
between Michelle and Pack that I didn't notice before!”
She left the wheel and retrieved her
notebook from her cabin, where she had written down the details of
what she had heard from Michelle. “I was in an accident, and I'm
sorry”, was the message she had been given. “They had a fight”,
she remembered. “Did Pack and Lapse have a fight too? Over what?”
Unfortunately, she could barely
remember anything about Lapse, so she had no idea what the fight
might have been about. She tried to imagine it being Corsair and
herself instead. They had always got along well together, maybe
except for the fact that Corsair hadn't seemed to like it when she
kissed him, but something silly like that would never come between
them. Not like it had for Michelle and Steven.
She froze and the notebook slipped out
of her paws. That WAS what their argument had been about, she just
hadn't realized it until now. Michelle had gotten so angry when she
saw Steven kiss someone else, and then after she left him she got
into that accident that separated them. And Steven had warned
Corsair that he would have to choose between them or something
terrible would happen. It was all falling into place...
Suddenly she felt a terrible pain in
her stomach. “It's all happening to us”, she choked out, weakly.
She hadn't mentioned it, but she had seen Corsair and Lay kissing on
the deck of his ship on the day that they left. She hadn't thought
much of it at the time, but now she couldn't think about much else.
Why hadn't he kissed her like that? Did Corsair like Lay better than
her? Had he chosen her instead? Would they be separated next?
“I have to get back!” She cried,
running up the stairs to the helm. There was a surprised yelp from
below deck as she brought the ship all the way around. “I just
hope I'm not too late!”
Unfortunately, the sun was already
peeking above the horizon. “Come on!”, she yelled at her ship,
but she knew she wasn't going to make it.
---
It was quiet. At first, Sister
wondered if she was still back on her ship, but grey walls greeted
her when she opened her eyes. She looked around apprehensively, and
found herself in a hallway, with windows at one end and lockers along
the wall behind her. She placed a hand on her chest and took a deep
breath.
Suddenly there were footsteps from the
other end of the hallway. “So, you haven't made up your mind yet?”
a woman asked, though Sister could not yet see who was speaking. A
pair of chatting women dressed in casual attire turned the corner,
walking towards her.
“It's a big decision”, said the
other one, who wore glasses and had short brown hair tied into a
ponytail.
“Oh please”, the first one said,
throwing her arms up above her head, “We all know what your choice
will be. Just get it over with.” She had longer, blonde hair, and
was taller than the other woman.
It didn't seem like they had noticed
her yet. For a moment, she considered making a run for it, but the
opportunity quickly faded as one of them looked towards her.
“Steeling yourself?” the taller
woman laughed. Sister quickly removed her hand from her chest and
tried to look relaxed. “I don't see why everyone is so worked up
about this! It's easy!”
“Well, what about you?” asked the
woman with the ponytail, as they walked right by her.
“Of course I've already got my date
lined up.” She brushed her hair out of her face. “I'm going
with Mark, I asked him yesterday.”
“Lucky you”, said the shorter
woman, “he's such a dreamboat.”
“It's all about being proactive. And
knowing how they think. You'd better hurry up, or all the good ones
will be taken.” They were most of the way down the hall now.
“I can still get away.” Sister
thought to herself. “They don't seem to need me.”
“Are you coming or what?” The
taller woman called back to her, startling her. Not knowing what
else to do, she dutifully fell in line behind them.
They walked into a large auditorium
that was bustling with people and activity. Sister carefully picked
her way through the crowd as she followed the others, trying not to
lose them. She could probably slip away in here, but they had seen
her now, and there was no telling what would happen if she just left.
It was best just to get it over with as quickly as possible. They
eventually came to a large table where there were already a dozen
people talking among themselves, but they sat down anyway and no one
seemed to notice.
“Making the girls ask the guys is
unnatural”, the girl with the ponytail protested.
“Just get out there”, the taller
woman almost pushed her right out of her chair. Reluctantly, she
slipped away and walked over to another area where a group of people
were gathered. She returned a moment later, looking forlorn.
“He's already agreed to go with
someone else.”
“Aww, now look, what did I tell you
about waiting so long?”
“I never would have thought Dave
would have-”
“Dave? Get serious, girl. I know he
wasn't who you wanted to ask.”
She raised her hand to her mouth. “You
don't mean...! No, I couldn't. There's no way. He'd never... I'm
sure he's already been asked.”
The taller girl put her feet up on the
other woman's chair, not letting her sit down. “I'm not hearing
any of it.”
“You're so mean”, the bespectacled
girl pouted as she headed off into the crowd again.
“What about you, chatty?” The
stranger turned to her. “You can talk, right?”
“Yes”, Sister said, staring down at
the table.
“Then you'd better get out there and
ask someone to go with you.”
“Ask who?”
“Isn't there anyone you care for?
Someone who's special to you?”
“Cors- ...Of course”, she
stammered, still not looking the stranger in the eyes.
“Then you'd better let him know how
you feel before someone else does and you lose your chance forever.”
She got up from the table, if for
nothing else than to get away from that conversation.
“Please, let there be someone I
recognize here”, Sister thought to herself as she wandered through
the crowd. Unfortunately, she didn't see anyone from her crew
among the throng on people. “Why are they never here when I need
them?” she muttered under her breath. Suddenly, someone bounded up
to her.
“Can you believe it?!” the
ponytailed girl beamed, “he turned down another girl because he was
waiting for me! I had no idea he even cared!” She hugged Sister
tightly. “Sometimes you just have to go for it!” She skipped
off, back towards the table where they had been seated.
“Just go for it, huh?” she thought
to herself. She spotted a tall man with short black hair, dark skin,
and a kind-looking face, who reminded her of Steven. “He'll do”.
She approached his table, with her
hands behind her back. “Excuse me, would you go with me?” she
asked, nervously. Everyone turned to look at her.
“Sure”, he said, giving her a quick
kiss on the cheek. She flushed completely red. “You're cute”,
he smiled widely, “I'm sure it'll be fun.”
His friends laughed, and Sister hurried
away.
“Albert?” the stranger asked
incredulously when she got back to the table. “I never would
pegged him for your type. Sure, he's very handsome, but... you'd
better hope they're not doing the most mismatched couple this year.”
“Hey, isn't that Mark over there?”
the ponytailed girl pointed, helpfully drawing the attention away
from her. “With Kimberly?”
“Hah!”, the stranger laughed. “Too
late, I got him first.”
“Oh, look at the time. Shouldn't we
be going?” The girl with the glasses looked down at her arm.
“Yeah, come on, we don't want to be
late.” They all stood up and walked out the door.
“I can't believe him!” The
stranger cried out, slamming her fist. Sister jumped in her seat.
“To be fair, no guy can say no to
Kimberly.”, the woman with the ponytail tried to calm her down, to
no avail. Sister pressed her hand up against the wall of the small
room she was in.
“He agreed to go with me first! He
should have kept his promise!” The stranger let out a string of
words that Sister had not heard before, but from how she said them
she judged they were all immensely unpleasant. However, she was more
concerned with the scenery passing by as she looked out the window.
Trees and buildings rushed by at a brisk pace as she watched.
“Why are you even going if you didn't
find someone else?” the other woman asked, exasperated.
“Because I can still make their lives
a living hell.” Sister scooted over towards the middle to look out
the window at the front of the room. To her horror, she found they
were indeed inside the same sort of vehicle that she had travelled in
with Michelle.
“Great, so it's last year all over
again. This is why it's better when the guys ask.”
“He'll be begging when I'm done with
him”, the stranger scowled.
“Please.” Sister whispered.
“Please, no.” It was mostly dark out, and the lights of various
other vehicles whizzed by off to the side.
“Okay, okay”, the girl with the
ponytail rubbed her forehead exasperatedly. “Just keep your eyes
on the road, all right? I've got a date with the man of my dreams
here.”
One of those particularly large
vehicles appeared in front of them.
“Yeah, yeah, we'll get there. God,
what an ass-” The vehicle's huge red lights shone ominously, as
though they were focused right on her, and coming closer.
“No!!” Sister cried out, “I
won't let it end like this!” Throwing all of her weight against
the wall beside her, it burst open and she tumbled out face first.
There was a scream from inside the vehicle and that same horrible
screeching sound as the hard pavement below rushed up to meet her.
---
“I wish I could have found out more”,
Corsair thought to himself as he climbed up the ladder to his ship.
“There has to be something that could help.”
As he reached the deck, he saw a
figure, hunched over and dripping wet, shivering from the cold. He
hurried over to investigate.
“Corsair”, she said, in a weak
voice, “thank goodness.”
“What happened to you?”, Corsair
wrapped his arms around her. She was still shaking.
“I thought I'd never see you again”,
she sobbed, burying her face in his chest.
“It's okay”, he said, squeezing
her, “what happened?”
“I saw you kiss Lay on the day I
left”, she blurted out.
“Oh, did you want one too? I'm
sorry, I didn't mean to leave you out.” He lifted her chin up to
face him.
“No, that's not-” she started, but
it was too late. When their lips parted, she stared dreamily at him
for a second, then resumed sobbing. “It's all wrong!” she cried.
“And it's all my fault!”
She fell to her knees and buried her
face in her paws as Corsair frantically tried to figure out what was
the matter.
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