Chapter Thirteen
Time wasn’t a factor in my existence, at least not one I could keep track of. Even when I had a watch, which I didn’t at the moment, I had trouble being prudent. Fortunately, there wasn’t anywhere I had to be at any specific time.
Still though, it would have been nice to know how long I’d been submerged next to Aidyn. Up until the first time I’d fallen asleep since joining her, I watched my blood dance and curl around our bodies.
To my horror, Aidyn was completely unresponsive every time I tried interacting with her. I could poke her, shake her, and tug on her hair yet each action had no effect. Thus, when I woke up and found her thumbs keeping pressure on my wrists, I was shocked.
Discovering her alert enough to attempt stopping my bleeding encouraged me but I quickly slumped back to my former torpor when my efforts to rouse her continued to be in vain.
The second time I fell asleep, I woke up and Aidyn wasn’t holding my forearms anymore although I didn’t notice immediately because the bleeding had stopped. My wrists were far from healed but it appeared a transparent film had sealed the two slits. Shrugging aside the inexplicable saran wrap, I swam as far as my oxygen tube let me; Aidyn’s disappearance was far from desirable. After praying for her safety, I settled down waiting for the Catrions to inevitably retrieve me.
When they finally did come get me, I had been through six or seven cycles of sleep and wake. Unlike the other times the Catrions pulled me out of the tank, this time I didn’t struggle. Disheartened from Aidyn’s absence, delirious from my own blend of emotions, and dizzy from blood loss, I barely had the strength to move my head, much less fight the Catrions.
Heck, I couldn’t even bring myself to count the number of right and left turns back to the room; as such, the Catrions returned me there without consequence.
While mulling in my misery, a memory resurfaced; Victor would be coming to check on me. Since my every movement drained me, the pace at which I redressed wasn’t exactly hasty.
As expected, they were right where I’d left them, though not in the disarray I’d left them in. Instead of being bunched up and abandoned in the heat of the moment, my few clothes were neatly folded and had actually multiplied three times since I’d been gone. Sleeping atop the two short piles of clothes bound to the floor by a half-inch strip of elastic was a sheening metal bar that made my heart skip a beat.
There, in that bench, was a short katana engraved with five Japanese symbols; my father had told me years earlier what they meant, “Evil’s Killer.”
Confident I was dreaming, I stared at the much-needed gift from Victor. Tentatively, my tail inched towards my father’s weapon; I couldn’t believe my eyes until the cool steel sent goosebumps up my spine.
Feeling liberated, I no longer felt obligated to sit tight in my makeshift cell. Though I was tired, my possession of a sword gave me an excuse to ignore my fatigue in exchange for sweet independence. Hence, I climbed into the ventilation duct Victor had come through, hoping to find him somewhere nearby.
Without hesitation, I shimmied into the hole, wiggling off to the left; to the right was an intersection with paths diverging in several different directions and angles while to the left was a downward sloping tunnel continuing for several hundred feet. Opting for simplicity, I went left.
I expected the ventilation duct to be cramped yet I was pleasantly surprised. The shaft was far from roomy, but it was wide enough to fit comfortably. I certainly couldn’t turn around in the tunnel, but I wasn’t feeling claustrophobic or anything like that.
Scrawled on the wall with what appeared to be a permanent marker was my name and arrow pointing in the direction I’d just came. Encouraged, I continued forward, hoping for Victor to be around the next bend.
Unfortunately, I didn’t find Victor after that turn yet I found evidence he’d been there. Written in his messy handwriting was another directional message. This one seemed to be a crudely-drawn map, using the wall it was written on as a reference point. With many two-inch long fingers on the bottom of the line representing “this wall,” there were several different names on a slight angle. Most of the names were unfamiliar to me, although in the closest finger to the side I’d entered from, I recognized the names of Aidyn, Nellya, and Alaric. Sadly, I didn’t see Leroy’s name anywhere on the simple map.
Thinking Victor might be with friends and concluding that even if he wasn’t, I wanted to speak to our friends, I went looking for what I assumed was the first room in the corridor ahead of me. Not surprisingly, I found the room with relative ease.
The first open air vent I discovered since leaving my own room contained one of the three specified people. Deep down, as I approached, I hoped to see Nellya and more than that, Aidyn. Sadly, only Alaric was there to greet me and it wasn’t exactly a warm welcome.
“Well look who it is,” he jeered. “It’s certainly a different look than the last time I saw you!”
Not sure on his exact meaning, I ignored the comment.
“Where is everybody?” I asked, realizing just how much of a challenge forgetting what a stark-naked Alaric looked like was.
“How should I know?” Alaric retorted and folded his arms over his chest, sitting in shorts at the intersection of two walls. “You’re the only one I’ve seen lately, and for once, it wasn’t entirely unbearable.”
Disgusted, I fought off an inexplicable urge to bash Alaric’s face in with the hilt of my sword. “Do yourself a favor and shut your mouth before you lose your teeth.”
Remembering how aroused Alaric had been in the tank almost made me follow through with my empty threat, regardless of whether or not Alaric shut up.
“Where’s Victor?”
Alaric shrugged. “He doesn’t come by here much anymore.” Trying to straighten his uncombed hair, Alaric pushed his bangs out of his eyes. “For all I know, he’s playing solitaire in some obscure corner of this ship.”
I grimaced. “No idea when he’ll be back?”
He shook his head so I pulled myself back into the air vent to return to my room in the off chance Victor showed up there.
“Hey,” Alaric;s tone changed from the biting cynicism he’d had moments earlier. “We’ve got an hour left until the deadline is up.”
I stopped and looked back; he tapped a digital watch on his arm and smiled a genuine display of his humanity. This was the part of Alaric that I didn’t mind so much, however rare it surfaced. It was the part of him that behaved more like a human being than a snot-faced roach. For this tiny fraction of his personality, I found within me the strength to forgive his sick innuendoes, snide remarks, and obnoxious mannerisms.
Leaving Alaric, I resumed my exploration of the ductwork, contemplating what Alaric had just shared. The possibility of an entire week having past escaped my understanding; according to my internal time clock, only an evening had passed at most. My guess was so far from the truth I kind of wanted to believe Alaric was lying or didn’t know what he was talking about. But he’d had a watch and had spoken with sincerity, so I couldn’t very easily dismiss his words.
True, I’d never had any grasp of time since the Catrions had captured us, but I liked to think my internal clock was more accurate than that. Even if my mental clock wasn’t however, my body had another way to keep time, one that should have been reliable. If memory served correctly, I should have started my period at the beginning of the past week, assuming of course we’d only been held by the Catrions for about seven days.
Because I hadn’t yet started my period, I saw only two explanations for what was happening. The simpler of the two was that Alaric had to be lying; the other option was that the Catrions had done something that stopped my cycle.
I didn’t like to think about it.
Nearly back to my cell, I didn’t bother looking ahead of me while crawling; it strained my neck too much. Besides, it wasn’t like I had any intersections to worry about—getting through the air duct was pretty straightforward. A few feet from the entrance to my room however, I regretted my lack of focus.
“Thunk.”
“Ow!”
“What the-?!”
Victor and I both cried out in startled agony as our heads bonked together.
Once we’d managed to recover from our wounded noggins, both of us were thrilled to see each other. Victor could barely contain his excitement as he helped me slide through the airvent into my room. I felt as if we had just reunited at some obscure social gathering and were carrying on about each other’s families, jobs, and lives in general despite not having been in contact for months.
I didn’t find a place to get comfortable when I was back in my cell because I craved attention and companionship from Victor. Opting to pluck Victor from the hole in the wall rather than wait for him to get out on his own, I tugged on his wrists. His knobbly shoulders almost snagged the sides of the tight opening, but I braced my feet against the wall and pulled harder. Poor Victor yelped in response to my lack of patience.
“Hey!” He cried in panic, his eyes darting to the narrowing gap on either side of him. “What’re you doin’?!”
Fortunately for Victor’s sake, I had completely extracted him without incident before he even completed his question.
“It’s so good to see you!”
And then it dawned on him just how overdue this meeting was; he might also have been expressing relief over the unlikelihood of his skin raking across the rough edges of the hole for the air vent.
“Préyhen! You’re back!” He enthused, “I haven’t seen you in weeks!”
Our hug came so suddenly, it was like Victor and I were made of ferrous metals.
“Weeks?” I wondered, hoping it wasn’t another example of my menstrual cycle being out of whack. Surely Victor’s use of the word was just a hyperbolized mark of affection or something. “It hasn’t been that long, has it?”
“I’m afraid it has,” Victor’s hands slid off my upper back and stopped on my hips; I leaned back to stare him in the eye as he started speaking again.
“I found a watch the day you were taken again, and it’s been almost a month since I’ve seen you.” A tear formed in his left eye and his voice became croaky; both details he tried to hide.
“I thought something had happened.”
Feeling sorely missed, I leaned on his chest and realized my tail was stroking his back. “I’m still here,” I whispered, almost afraid he’d heard me.
“It’s been three months since we were captured.”
I gasped. “Victor, I’m sorry—this is all my fault. We wouldn’t be here if it weren;t for me and my own stupidity.”
He kissed my forehead. Those moist lips alone made me want to open the flood gates and release a surge of wet cold tears.
“It’s not all your fault,” He objected; he wasn’t making me feel any less responsible. “We’re all to blame, really.”
His ‘really’ sounded more doubtful than it did reassuring.
“Besides, it doesn’t matter much anyways,” Victor lifted my chin so he could see my face.
Not wanting to destroy Victor’s spirit I feigned a smile. He saw right through it and cocked his head to the side, frowning. The real sign of our friendship however came when he stuck his tongue out and crossed his eyes; he knew I couldn’t resist laughing at that.
After wiping a tear from my eye, I appreciated more at that moment than any other how strong our bond was. Oblivious to the snake constricting either of our movements, I marveled at how intoxicating Victor’s eyes were. It was as if I were watching the fondest of our childhood memories play back in those glassy orbs. The allure of those happier days drew me in; I needed a closer inspection to be sure the nostalgia I saw was real.
As I leaned in, a quiet sense of absolute contentedness exploded in my chest. My chest was hollow, I knew, because my heart had abandoned my rib cage and was pounding away at my eardrums. The discovery that the joy framed by Victor’s eyelids was in fact real came after a few anxious moments.
Enlightened, I closed my eyes and inhaled the delicate smell of enrapturement; it smelled like the sound of trickling water.
“Attention unidentified vessel, this is Captain Jamieson of the E.S. Pheonix Ash in regards to the transmission sent exactly one Earth week ago,” The intercom boomed Victor and I flew apart just before tasting each other’s lips.
“From this point henceforth, due to your noncompliance with the previous demands, your vessel is liable to be boarded at any time and is subject to immediate search and seizure upon arrival at the nearest checkpoint. Other consequent charges that may be brought against your vessel and crew, including but not limited to the taking of hostages, will result in further penalties.”
The intercom snapped off.
Victor was overjoyed, ecstatic, and bubbly.
“Did you hear that?! ‘The taking of hostages will result in further penalties!’ They know!”
I shook my head, unable to share in Victor’s enthusiasm. “I don’t think the Catrions care about further penalties.”
“Oh,” I’d killed his excitement instantly. “I guess you’re right.”
The intercom cut on again, only this time, it didn’t echo through the whole ship; it sounded as if it were in this one room alone.
“Préyhen Valerie Griffin, this is your uncle,” Though the volume of the person speaking was significantly less than it had been seconds earlier, the voice remained the same. “I’m coming for you.”
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