C.N. - chapter 81

I was surprised, but overjoyed, to be reunited with Theo. I mean, what were the chances that we ran in different directions on this monstrous submarine and still ended up in the same location? Either we were the luckiest people in the world or Mr. Dragon's submarine is so elaborately designed to always allow you to find the person you're looking for. If it was the second option, it would be fantastic because then Theo's grandfather should happen upon us any moment!
It turned out that the hatch leading to the main deck opened into yet another dim, deserted hallway. Dennis had been holding a pee for quite a while, so he went searching for the bathroom. As soon as his tiptoeing footsteps became swallowed up in the darkness, I heard the sniffling.
Then I heard a voice from behind one of the pressure-locked doors not far from where I stood.
'Theo? I that you?' I leaned against the door and whispered.
'Charlie?' That's definitely Theo's voice, 'Yeah, it's me.'
'We found each other!' I whispered excitedly.
There was a pause and some more sniffling. 'Looks like you found me.'
'I heard a sniffling. Are you having an allergic reaction?' I whispered intently, 'If you are, let's get you somewhere that's better ventilated.'
Another pause, followed by a muted chuckle, 'No...it's not that.'
'That's a relief.' I whispered.
There was some shuffling, and more quiet.
'You know, Theo,' I whispered, 'finding you just now made me think, and I've realized something. This may be the greatest lucky streak of my life, these past few days has been.'
'Hmm?' Theo sounded slightly incredulous, 'Why would you call this lucky?'
'From what I see, everything has worked out to our advantage so far. When Wolfgang kidnapped you so he could marry you, Heathcliff and I arrived just in time to crash your wedding-'
'Hey! That was not going to turn into a wedding, and it never would have either, regardless of whether you two showed up or not, so don't twist the facts!'
'Okay, got it,' I nodded, 'So it was lucky because Heathcliff and I came just in time to cause a major distraction so you could get away.'
There was silence. I think Theo was thinking, so I continued.
'And then, Mr. Dragon came along and interrupted Wolfgang's original plot, so you didn't have to marry him anyways.'
'For the last time I was NEVER going to marry him! Don't make me repeat it again!'
'Right, I'm sorry,' I continued, 'And when we all got caught by Mr. Dragon, he invited us over to his place for a sleepover! I don't think that's something terrorists normally do, so it's another addition to the streak. And then, at Mr. Dragon's place, you found Laura's diary, which caused an emotional confrontation between father and son, buying you just enough time for your backup to surround Mr. Dragon's place. And also, even though Wolfgang got shot, we got medical attention to him almost right away.' I was running out of fingers to count all the lucky things that happened, and still had a long way to go, 'When we got to your house, we found the secret passageway that revealed Mr. Dragon's location, and also where your grandfather was. We also flushed out Mr. Dragon's informant, who was your brother, unfortunately, but who's to say our luck won't continue and he'll rehabilitate? We then met Laura and her awesome ninja henchmen. Then Mr. Kent revealed himself to be another one of Mr. Dragon's informants! Now I'm sure there are no more informants in your family, because I can't possibly image an informant being any more sophisticated than Mr. Kent. And we got picked up by Mr. Dragon's submarine, just in time so we didn't freeze to death in the ocean. And we successfully treated your hypothermia. And we escaped from the brig on this sub. And it turned out your grandfather is on here with us all along and sabotaged the ship just in time so we could all get away from Mr. Dragon's henchmen. And now,' I paused to take a breath, 'Mr. Dragon's henchmen still haven't located any of us! Isn't that just miraculous? Things are working out in our favor the whole way through. It's always Mr. Dragon who got unlucky, all his plans were interrupted. We didn't even put that much effort into making plans, and we were rewarded instead. If anything, I have a feeling our luck will just continue.'
Theo paused for quite a while before she spoke, 'That's...an interesting way to see things, but don't you realize? I've had absolutely no control over anything that's happened to us over these last few days, I try but I just feel completely powerless! How am I supposed to know things will work out when these are things I have absolutely no control over!'
'But we can't control what happens to us,' I pointed out, 'only God can.'
Another long silence.
'I didn't know you're religious.' Theo said.
'I've been going to Sunday school since I was 3,' I said, 'they taught me some very good things, like how God takes care of me, and makes sure nothing ultimately bad ever happens to me, and how even if something bad happens, it will eventually work out in my favor, because God is always helping me out, even when I don't see it.'
'I don't know if I believe that.' Theo said.
'I do. It's just that we've been on a lucky streak for so long. There has to be a reason why we always have the upper-hand. Looks to me like God's cheering us on.'
I sat in the silence thinking about something to say next. I think Theo did the same.
'By the way, thank you.' I said.
'For what?' Theo asked.
'For being a strong, independent young woman.' I explained, 'My mum always said: Charles, if you meet a strong independent young woman, you gotta congratulate her, because it's people like that who are going to take charge of the world and make it better, without the influence of some man. Because men have been running this world for a long time and they're doing a mighty atrocious job of it. It's up to the strong, independent young women like you to change the world, and you can totally do it, because you believe in yourself. Also, my mum said it, so I lend you my full support, even though you might not need it, since I'm a boy.'
'What makes you think I'm a strong, independent young woman?'
'It's obvious, because you don't want to get married, that's the first sign of a strong, independent young woman in the making.'
I heard tiptoeing footsteps. A moment later, Dennis appeared from the darkness.
'You were gone a long time.' I whispered to him.
'It was a number 2.' Dennis shuddered, 'I think it was the bad turnips I ate yesterday. Why are you crouched beside that door?'
'It's incredible. I found Theo!'

T.N - Chapter 80

Oh man, I really have no good excuse as to why I haven't posted anything in a few months.
Hello, I'm back (for now at least), and I hope you enjoy this chapter!

As I sprinted through the dim glow of the red emergency lights, I listened for the sound of Heathcliff and Wolfgang's footsteps behind me. Hearing nothing but silence, I slowed down my pace. My legs wobbled, and I placed a palm on the steel wall, steadying myself.

My fingers pulsed where it pressed up against the wall, fluttering with exhaustion. I tried to suppress my ragged panting by taking deeper, slower breaths, but my lungs struggled for more air and I gave up on trying. I let my hand slide down, and my head dropped as I stared at my shoes.

"Every time you do something alone, you end up getting into trouble," echoed Wolfgang's voice in my head.

My breath hitched.

"Theo, you're being irrational."

My fists clenched.

"End up getting into trouble."

I looked up into the dimness and started running again.

"Being irrational."

Feet pounding, head whispering, I ran down the slowly winding corridor.

"Trouble."

I came across a ladder ingrained into the wall, leading up to a hatch labeled M.D 2. With shaking hands I grabbed each rung and hauled myself up.

"Irrational."

Turning the latch, I push the hatch up and lift myself through. The halls were silent with emptiness, and I silently ran down the hallway.

"Trouble, irrational."

Warmth, wet saltiness. Was I crying?

"Trouble, irrational, trouble, irrational."

I was crying.

"Trouble, irrational, trouble irrational trouble--"

My running turned to trudging steps as the red lights blurred into hazy dots and my steady breathing turned into quiet sobbing.

"--irrational trouble irrational trouble IRRATIONAL TROUBLE--"

I slipped into a utility closet and I cried.

I cried about everything. Over being kidnapped. Over Kyle strangling me. Over Wolfgang getting shot to save me. Over losing Grandfather and almost losing Kyle. Over losing Kent when he betrayed us, betrayed me. Over the thought of possibly losing everyone else. Dennis. Wolfgang. Heathcliff. Charlie. I cried over the sheer absurdity of everything and how helpless I was in the midst of it.

Wolfgang was right, I knew. From everything I could tell, anytime I acted on my own, I just put myself and often everyone else in danger. And despite knowing this, I put my own pride and ego first. I just wanted to protect everyone, but that became so twisted.

I remembered a scene from my childhood at that moment. There was Heathcliff and Wolfgang, and we were all at my house while our parents and grandparents had their talk. Wolfgang and I were 6 years old, while Heathcliff was 8. We were play acting as usual, going over the same scene for the hundredth time.

"I'm the prince!" shouted little Heathcliff, a big grin on his face, brandishing a toy sword. "And I'm going to save the princess!"

"And I'm the fierce dragon!" replied Wolfgang, roaring and growling with delight. "The princess is mine, and you'll never get to her in the tower!"

I was the princess of course. Every day we met, before we started playing, they placed a crown on my head and insisted that I wear this purple sparkly tutu. Every time I picked up the toy sword, they took it from my hands. Every time I put the dragon costume on, they told me to put a dress on instead.

"You have to be the princess," they insisted. "You have to be rescued." I hated it.

"I just didn't want to be the princess anymore," I muttered to myself.

"Theo?" whispered a voice quietly from outside the closet door. "Is that you?"

I froze up. I sniffled a couple of times, wiping my face with my sleeves. "Charlie?" I paused. "Yeah, it's me."

C.N. - chapter 79

When the lights went out, the henchmen on one side of us had rushed right past Dennis and I and collided with the henchmen blocking the other side of the walkway. The walkway was jammed with Mr. Dragon'd henchmen who were groping for Theo, Wolfgang and Heathcliff, who all seemed to have escaped. Dennis and I found ourselves standing just slightly removed from the jam-packed portion of the walkway. How we managed to end up there even though we didn't move an inch since being stopped by the henchmen, I think owed to the henchmen's poor spatial coordination.
Taking advantage of this, Dennis and I inched away in the opposite direction from the mass of henchmen all tangled together in the walkway. As we got further away, and our pitch black surroundings got surprisingly quiet save the churning of machinery, we began a whisper-discussion on the nature of the common henchmen that serve villains. Progress was exceedingly slow, because of the total darkness. Dennis and I resorted to holding each other's hand while tracing our other hands along the wall of the walkway, which had narrowed in this unknown part of the submarine, as we groped forward.
'You noticed,' whispered Dennis, 'back there at the ambush, how those henchmen forgot where we were the moment the lights got turned off? That oddly resembled what often happens in action movies, don't you think?'
'You're absolutely right,' I whispered back, 'do you think the behavior of henchmen in action movies is based on the actual behavior of henchmen in real life situations?'
'From what I've seen so far, the evidence does corroborate that theory.'
'Why do you think henchmen are generally so incompetent at their tasks, especially pertaining to the handling of hostages?' I asked.
'I suppose it's a matter of economy. You see, because villains are always trying to evade justice, and justice does whatever it can with all the intelligence at its disposal to attempt to apprehend the villains, I come to the assumption that villains have quite the limited selection of henchmen to choose from. The henchmen can't be exceedingly intelligent, because then they'll come to their senses and turn the villain over to justice. A henchman of average intellect might not betray the villain, but he will attempt to exploit the villain's weakness, say, by demanding unreasonable sums of payment. So, that leaves the least intelligent members of the henchmen profession to serve the villains, and you can't expect such unintelligent henchmen to be much good at anything.'
'No wonder the villain's plans are always foiled. Even the exceptionally intelligent villains only have the least intelligent henchmen at their disposal to do their bidding.'
'It's true, villains always lose because, well, in the end they have their own wits and that alone, while justice usually has an unlimited reserve of wits and intelligence. It's a fight of one against many.' Dennis sighed, 'That almost makes me feel sorry for villains.'
At that moment the emergency lights came on and the walkway was illuminated in deep crimson.
'Ah, we can see now,' Dennis exclaimed, 'sort of.'
The emergency lights were dim and spaced wide apart. Long stretches of the walkway were still in the dark and stretched on in both directions.'
'How big is this submarine? I feel like we've been walking for hours.' Dennis said, befuddled. I too was stupefied. The largest submarine ever built did not exceed a length of 200 meters. I felt the walkway had extended for half a kilometer already.
'It must be a typhoon-class submarine.' I speculated.
'More like hurricane-class.'
'Most submarines have two corridors running throughout the length of the ship, and three levels. I'd say we're on the bottom level, but I can't say where.'
'What's on the bottom level?'
'There's the engine, the fuel cells, it's where the torpedoes are stored, and a lot of piping.'
'I haven't seen any stairs to take us to the upper levels, have you?'
'I haven't.' I shrugged and looked around, hoping to find some indication of where we were. Behind us, the walkway curved away to the left, as did the walkway ahead of us. The curve was in fact quite obvious. Suddenly, I noticed that walkway floor has a slight incline in the direction we were facing. Wait a minute...
'We're in a spiral.' I whispered.
'What?'
'We've been going up the submarine all along! You see, this walkway is like a spiral staircase, look at how it always curves to the left, and there's even a gradual incline. If we follow this path we'll end up at the top level.'
'Why you're absolutely right! Quick, we have to hurry before these emergency lights shut off too!'
We began to run.
'Say Dennis,' I said, 'Where are we going anyway?'
'We...' he trailed off and we stopped running. We looked at each other.
'Good question.' Dennis said, and stroked his chin. 'We can try to find my sister, but she ran in the opposite direction. We can also try to find the control room, that should be at the top level, right?'
'Right, the top level is the officer's deck.'
'How come we haven't encountered any henchmen, do you wonder?'
'I guess like you said, the henchmen are dim-witted and naturally they never are where they should be.'
'Makes me feel sorry for the villain, almost.' Dennis said, and looked about, 'Oh look! That hatch in the ceiling, it has the letters M.D. on it, do you suppose we've happened upon the submarine's doctor's chamber?'
'I think the letters stand for Main Deck actually, that's the top level.'
We looked at each other and smiled, 'We found the main deck!'

T.N - Chapter 78

Oh my god, I am so sorry for the radio silence. I've been tied up with writing a one-act play over the summer, and I finally got the time to sit down and write tonight. Here's the long awaited Chapter 78!

There was a pause after everything went pitch black. Nobody moved an inch, and I could hear the breathing of everyone around me, especially the quiet metallic rasp the Dragon was emitting over the intercom. Meanwhile, my mind was spinning. How could Grandfather be on the submarine? He was supposed to be on the island, where the Dragon was holding him captive. Unless he fought his way out and then snuck onto the submarine, a very Grandfather like thing to do. I couldn’t help but smile a bit.

“What are you doing?” boomed the voice of the Dragon, his voice tinged with anger. “Get him!”

The silence was broken, and there was a collaborative scramble as the Dragon’s men tried figuring out which way was the right way to head. There was a lot of mumbling and jostling as they argued which was the most efficient way to get to the control room, but we stood there untouched. I sighed in relief, as it seemed like the Dragon and his men had forgotten about us. Just as that sigh escaped my lips, the Dragon’s voice clicked onto the intercom again.

“And if you’d forgotten about the hostages,” bellowed the Dragon, “you better get them, you incompetent idiots!” The intercom made a loud banging noise, as if the Dragon had slammed the receiver down, followed by radio silence.

“Shit,” whispered Dennis.

“Come on kids, let’s just get this over with,” said one of the men, somewhere in front of me. “Nobody wants an accidental stun to the heart now, would they?” There was the faint buzzing sound of what I could only assume was the stun gun warming up. The man took slow steps forward, the sound echoing slightly down the hallway.

“You might hit one of your own people though,” pointed out Charlie. The steps stopped.

“Well he’s not wrong,” chimed in another of the Dragon’s men, slightly to my left. “And I’d rather not get accidentally shot, knowing your aim,” he chuckled.

“Shut up Derek,” growled the first man. “This is really not the time to be making jabs about my marksmanship.”

“I swear to god, if you shoot and hit me instead,” said another man behind me, “I will kill you James.” He shifted uneasily, as if the very thought of being shot with one of the stun guns was already causing him discomfort.

“Jesus Christ, Eli, not you too,” groaned James. “If it really makes you feel better, then I won’t shoot, happy?” The buzzing sound stopped, and there was a murmur of relief among the Dragon’s men.

Wolfgang suddenly grabbed my left hand and bolted down the passageway. I let out a small yelp of surprise as I was dragged through and past several of the men standing there. I felt hands trying to grab at me, trying to slow me down while Wolfgang pushed on. Somebody grabbed onto the hem of my shirt behind me, and I quickly and blindly elbowed them.

Heathcliff yelped in pain right behind me. I realized that he must’ve been the one that grabbed my shirt. I muttered an apology, grabbed him, and pulled him along with us.

As soon as we were free of the Dragon’s men, we started sprinting down the hallway. “I hope you know where you’re going,” I said to Wolfgang, panting.

I couldn’t see his face, but I imagined he smiled. “Actually, I don’t. But that’s all part of the fun of chase scenes, isn’t it?”

We ran down the corridors, with Wolfgang holding tightly onto my left hand, and me dragging Heathcliff by his shirtsleeve. I’m not sure how Wolfgang navigated us in the dark, but we twisted through the labyrinth of metal walls, interchangeably turning right and left into different hallways. I could barely hear the pursuing footsteps through the pounding of my heart resounding in my ears.

“Dennis, Charlie, are you here?” I asked into the darkness, in between gasping breaths. There was no answer, and I swore, imagining them getting caught after we left. 

The lights started flickering back on, and Wolfgang pulled us into a niche in the wall. We tried staying as quiet as possible as our pursuers’ footsteps thudded closer, and then farther as they passed us. We sighed in relief.

I let go of both Heathcliff and Wolfgang. “I’m going to go find Grandfather, you guys go try to find Laura and the others!” I whispered. I turned to follow where the Dragon’s men had run off.

“You can’t go by yourself,” Heathcliff replied. “You’d be in grave danger! And I can never let my love run into the face of danger without my protection.”

“For once, I agree with him,” said Wolfgang. “Every time you do something alone, you end up getting into trouble. You’re sticking with us.” He reached out to grab my hand, but I recoiled.

“Let me go alone!” I hissed. “I’m not going to mess up this time.”

“Theo, you’re being irrational,” Wolfgang started, but I cut him off.

“I’m being rational here,” I said. “It would be the best to split up, because we need as many allies as possible here. You guys should go get Laura and her men because I’m sure they’re heavily guarded and unarmed, and you two together will have more success that way. I’m going to get Grandfather because I know him best, and I know exactly how he’ll play with the Dragon’s men. And in that way, I can help him more. That’s going to be the plan, and we’re going to stick with it.” I stared at the two of them, looking for signs of assent. When I found none, I turned and started running down the hallway.

“Theo!” called out Heathcliff and Wolfgang. I didn’t pay them any heed.

C.N. - chapter 77

Heathcliff scratched his head. Wolfgang had his arms crossed. Dennis stroked his chin. I looked down the walkway ahead of us, which was dim and silent. I spoke up first, to answer Theo's question.

'If we're on a plane, at an airport or in a high-rise building, then we could sneak around the place, eavesdrop on the bad guys, learn about their evil plan and then find a way to sabotage it, just like what John McClane did in the Die Hard movies, but I've never seen a movie where the good guy is trapped on a submarine and manages to sabotage the bad guys' plans, there's very limited room on a submarine for that kind of action, so I'm not sure whether copying the things John did in Die Hard will work in our situation.'

'Hey, wasn't there a sabotage subplot in The Hunt For Red October?' Dennis pointed out, 'The bad guy managed to avoid detection until the very end and nearly succeeded in killing Sean Connery and Alec Baldwin. And all that took place on a submarine.'

'That's true, but it was a minor subplot in the movie, it doesn't show how the bad guy actually did his stuff without being found out, and also, I think the bad guy was a member of the sub crew, so he had it easy.' I replied.

'And why exactly are you guys comparing our situation to movies?' Theo crossed her arms and asked.

'Otherwise we won't know what to do in situations like these, I mean, how many people in their lifetime will have the opportunity to be trapped with the majority of their family on a terrorist mastermind's submarine which is heading to said mastermind's lair in an undisclosed location, while the terrorist mastermind attempts to sort out his marital problems with his estranged wife on the same submarine?' Dennis said. 

'Hey! You don't know anything about my family, stop making light of the matter!' Wolfgang snapped.

'Sorry, but it's true,' Dennis shrugged, 'we don't know what to do.'

'Yeah, there aren't any movies out there that parallel our situation, I've gone through all the movies I ever watched in my life.' I said. We all sighed dejectedly.

'Do you have any bright ideas?' Wolfgang looked to Theo.

'You boys are hopeless. This is what I think we should do: first we find out where we are on this thing, then we find the control room, where hopefully I'll be able to figure out how to make the sub surface, I still know a thing or two about them, we send out a distress signal, alert Laura's backup to our location, and hope this all happens before Dragon realizes we've escaped.'

'What about the guards?' Dennis said.

'With a bit of help, I think I can take care of the guards.' Theo said confidently, 'I'm prepared to do what it takes.'

'Yes! We shall fight our way through this, like gallant knights on horseback!' Heathcliff declared.

'That's not quite-' Theo began.

'That's a great analogy,' Dennis cuts in, 'Say Theo, I never knew you know a thing or two about submarines. When did you learn such things?'

'If you had spent more time with grandfather, you'd have learned a few things too.' Theo replied, her brow raised.

'I did learn a few things from him, I learned to appreciate great cinema.' Dennis said.

'Are we going to get going with our plan any time soon?' Wolfgang asked, annoyed.

'Onward, knights!' Heathcliff declared, and ran full speed into the dimness ahead of us. Moments later, we heard several sharp metallic crashes.

'I'm okay!' Heathcliff's voice echoed back towards us.

We moved forward in single-file, Theo at the front, me at the back, in the near-darkness. Except for the persistent drumming of the engines, we heard surprisingly little. It was very slow going, since we were trying to make as little noise as we could. This really was a huge submarine, so far we've come across at least three passageways that branched off to either side. We kept to this one, because it seemed to travel the length of the submarine, hopefully. If I remembered correctly from the German submarine classic Das Boot, the control room should be in the middle of any submarine, along with all the other important rooms.
'Charlie,' Wolfgang in front of me said, 'I still can't figure out how the plot of Kingdom of Heaven relates to me, even though you gave me a pretty good summary. Were you suggesting I am like the character portrayed by Orlando Bloom?'
'Exactly,' I replied, 'in Kingdom of Heaven, Orlando's dad Liam Neeson finally visits him after so many years away in the Crusades he probably never even knew the old man in the first place. It's perfectly understandable that Orlando wouldn't accept his dad at first, but soon he realizes his dad came back for him to lead him to a great destiny, and that's exactly what happened. It's like you and your mum. You might not trust her at first, but I'm sure she came back to lead you to a great destiny too.'
'That's...' Wolfgang began.
'Wait,'  I whispered, 'The engines have stopped.'
'What?' Wolfgang asked.
'I don't hear the humming anymore, the engines must have stopped.'
'Are we at the Dragon's lair already?' Heathcliff remarked.
'Close enough.' A voice replied.
'Who said that?' Theo said, alert.
'This is your captain speaking. I must say, I really enjoyed that discussion about cinema, and you're correct Charlie, a submarine really isn't a place for good guys to go sneaking around listening to the villains' evil plans.' I now recognized that the voice belonged to Mr. Dragon. His voice was all around us, I couldn't tell where it came from. Wow, his submarine must have a really state-of-the-art intercom system.
All of a sudden, the lights came on. The path ahead of us and behind us were blocked by men in standard grey submarine uniforms, and they were pointing what appeared to be pistols right at us.
'You shouldn't fire a gun in a submarine, what if it punctures the hull or something important?' I said.
'You're a bright lad, Charlie, yes, those are not real firearms, they're wired stun guns. It's still extremely painful to be struck with one, but they're no threat to any part of my boat whatsoever.' Mr. Dragon's omnipresent voice explained.
'Good thinking,' I remarked.
'Precisely, I suppose you also want to know how I knew you got out of your cells?'
'How did you know?' Dennis asked.
'Did you really think I left only one underpaid guard to keep watch on all you hostages?'
'Cameras.' Wolfgang whispered.
'Yes my dear son, I saw everything.'
Heathcliff was furious, 'How dare you, voyeuristic dog, admit to having watched my darling Theo in...erm...a state of undress!'
'No, no, I did not see a thing during all that, I promise.' There was a chuckle, 'As you see, my men are all prepared to escort you hostages back to your cells, unless you prefer to resist and be struck by 1000-volt stun guns.'
The men closed in on us.
'Not so fast Clark, I think you've forgotten one thing.' Another voice appeared on the intercom.
'Who said that?' Mr. Dragon's voice and Theo's voice exclaimed in unison. The men in the passageway stopped in their advance.
'Clark, you better come see who is in your control room. Meanwhile, I don't suppose you'll mind me turning off the lights for a moment, do you?' The second voice replied.

'Grandfather,' Dennis' voice called out, with a hint of recognition, 'is that you-'
Then all the lights went off.

T.N - Chapter 76

This is a very long chapter tonight! Maybe because I haven't written for so long, or because I got a bit carried away...
Either way, I hope you enjoy!

I wasn’t quite sure when I woke up. Somewhere along the way, the whiteness turned to darkness, and then there were sensations. I felt warmth, warmth to the point of discomfort. The scratchiness of the blanket. I could feel the aching tingling sensation in my toes and fingers as they warmed up. And there was this heaviness on top of me. At first, I thought it was because my limbs were asleep, but then I realized that it was because there was somebody on top of me. No, scratch that, there were several people on top of me. They were laying stock still, the only movement coming from the breathing that tickled my neck. And I could feel someone’s lips right above my collarbone.

I didn’t really understand what happened. I slowly opened my lead eyelids to try to see. Someone must’ve taken off my glasses, or they fell off because I couldn’t see anything at all. I let my eyes close again.

“What happened?” I tried asking, but I guess it came out as murmuring because nobody answered.

“Can you understand me?” This time I could hear the slurred words, and how nonsensical it sounded.

I tried enunciating every syllable. “Can someone give me my glasses at least?” No answer again. One of the people shifted, and now there were two pair of lips on my neck. I breathed in as deeply as I could.

“Who is kissing my neck?” I asked, and although I could hear the slurring, it actually sounded like words.

There was a bustle of movement, and the heaviness I felt was immediately lifted (as well as the feeling of people kissing my neck). I opened my eyes again, and forced them to stay open.

A sudden affront of voices asked me questions. Through the snippets, I could hear Heathcliff’s loud, overly dramatic lamentations over how he would’ve suffered if I hadn’t woken up; Dennis was scolding me for how stupid I was not to say anything if I was feeling bad; Charlie was asking me how I felt, and whether I felt like I needed to sleep or if I felt cold. Something brushed against my face close to my eyes, and I flinched, closing my eyes. It settled on the bridge of my nose, and when I opened my eyes again, I could see clearly. I turned my head slightly, and saw Wolfgang sitting there, gazing at me intensely. Not sure whether I should match his gaze or not, I looked away.

I slowly started to sit up. “How did you guys get in here—“

There was a unified yelp, and all of the guys quickly turned away. All of them except for Charlie were blushing, but even Charlie looked embarrassed. The blanket slipped down, and I felt a sudden rush of cold air. I saw the pile of clothes in the corner, and it all clicked.

“Who the hell stripped me?” I screamed, and I pulled the blanket around myself to cover my now obvious nakedness.

Dennis shifted a bit on his feet, and then answered with a meek, “Me.”

I scowled at the guys. “You all have a lot of explaining to do,” I muttered darkly. I reached over to the pile of my clothes, and felt that everything was still damp. I looked over to the cellblock door, where the guard was facing away.

“If any of you turn around, I will kill you,” I said to the guys, and I started changing into my clothes. It was difficult, with the wet fabric sticking to my skin and refusing to budge to where it was supposed to go. I didn’t even bother putting on the suit.

My head was still feeling a little fuzzy, and my limbs felt a little disconnected, but there was a surge of adrenaline rushing through me. Maybe from the blank out, maybe from finding out what had happened when I was asleep. Or maybe from everything that happened with...with Kent.

After I was done, the guys were standing there, backs turned to me, fidgeting. I sighed. “I’m done,” I said, and they slowly turned back to face me. Dennis was refusing to make eye contact with me, and the others looked nervous as well.

I stared at all of them. “Now then, can I get an explanation here?”

All of the guys started babbling, something about a movie, ice fishing, hypothermia, guard...

The door of the room slammed open. We all jumped and faced the entrance of the cell, where the guard was entering, holding a flask. “See, she’s perfectly fine,” grumbled he said. “Didn’t need to make all that fuss.”

He wasn’t drunk, but he was obviously not in his peak condition. A little alcohol can go a long way if you’re tired, and that’s definitely what was happening here.

“Did you let them in here?” I asked him.

“Yeah, but only ‘cause they insisted,” he replied. He waved the flask. “This was just a little bonus.”

I looked over to the cell next to me, and gestured with a little nod. “I think you should probably put them back in there, or else it’ll look bad on you if the Dragon comes in and sees you’ve been allowing the prisoners to move freely.”

He blinked a bit, and then grimaced. “Didn’t think of that,” he muttered.  He clumsily put the key in the lock of my cell. “Better come with me now, you lot,” he said gesturing towards the guys.

As he was unlocking the door, I inched myself closer and closer, ever so slightly crouching. When the door swung open, I jumped forward and socked him right on the temple.

I wasn’t feeling a hundred percent, and I could feel the punch was weaker and more uncontrolled than usual. However, it seemed to do the trick: the guard was on the ground, looking dazed. For good measure, I knelt down and punched him again on the other temple. He was out for the count then.

“Someone grab my suit,” I said, extending my hand out behind me so that I could keep a close eye on the guard. There was no movement. “My suit!” I yelled, and the guys scrambled behind me. I felt the wet fabric in my hand, and I quickly knelt down. I grabbed the guard’s arms, and put them behind his back.

I started tying the suit around his wrists, when Heathcliff protested, “We can’t do this, I told him that we wouldn’t do anything after I gave him the brandy! It was on my code too!”

“You might’ve made that promise, Heathcliff,” I said, knotting the suit twice around the guard’s wrist, “but I didn’t. And I’m not a gentleman, so I’m exempt.”

“I didn’t mean to infer you were anything but a lady,” said Heathcliff, and I cut him off before he could say anymore.

“Did someone grab the keys?” I asked, and Charlie bent down. He unhooked something off of the guard’s belt.

“These ones?” he asked.

“Perfect. Dennis, Heathcliff, Wolfgang, help me drag this guy into the cell.” I grabbed the guard’s arms, and the others grabbed his feet and torso. Together, we lifted him into the cell. We stepped out, and Charlie locked the cell door.

The adrenaline that had been pulsing through me suddenly rushed out. I felt tired, and slightly cold from the damp clothing I was wearing.

“Well then,” I said, looking at all of them. “What next?”

Second Anniversary!

Wow, two years can go by quickly!
It only seems like a short while ago that G and I were walking home, talking about a novel idea containing an heiress and mistaken identity. And now here we are, with an awesome 2-act novel that's still going.
I'd like to thank all of you readers who visit this blog and take the time to go through this developing story. It means a lot to me.
Also, a huge thank you to G. Compatibility in writing is a rare thing indeed, and I'm so glad I found it in you. I'm looking forward to see how this (and future projects) unfold.

Thank you all so much!

-K