A DEEP OCEAN OF SECRETS
Chapter Twenty-One
As Rose and Jack stood at the
bottom of the Grand Staircase, wrapped in each other’s arms, Cal watched them
from the top of the stairs. His face was set with jealousy, and he couldn’t
believe what had just happened. Lovejoy stood behind him and started to pull
him away, mumbling words that Cal couldn’t understand. Suddenly, his jealousy
turned to fury. Cal grabbed Lovejoy’s pistol from his coat pocket and turned
around, cocking the gun.
Jack looked up just in time to
see Cal aim the gun, and he yelled, "Run, Rose!" The cherub at the
bottom railing of the Grand Staircase shattered as the bullet meant for Jack
collided with it. He grabbed Rose and they ran down to the next deck, Rose’s
dress flying as she ran. Cal ran down the stairs and slipped on the pieces of
the cherub, not looking where he was running. He went sprawling, gun flying
across the marble floor. But as soon as he fell, he got back up and picked up
his gun. He aimed for Jack and missed his chest by an inch.
Cal ran down the stairs to the
B-Deck foyer just as Rose and Jack headed down the stairs for the C-Deck foyer.
Cal spun around and shot again, hitting the wood paneling behind Rose and
splintering it into a thousand pieces. "Go, Rose! Go!" Jack cried,
trying to cover her as much as possible and run without being shot.
Jack and Rose ran down the steps
to the D-Deck foyer and splashed into water that was waist high. They tried to
run as fast as they could through the freezing water, heading for the dining
saloon. Cal came running down the stairs, his feet sloshing in the water, and
fired twice. Both shots missed, going into the water behind the young couple,
making small splashes. As they trudged through, the water level slowly started
to go down, until they were running on dry carpet. They didn’t stop, thinking
Cal was still chasing them.
But he wasn’t. He still stood at
the bottom of the stairs, water swirling up to his ankles. "I hope you
enjoy your time together!" he cried sarcastically. The ship began to groan
around him, and suddenly remembering something, he started to laugh. An evil
laugh, full of pure hatred. Lovejoy slowly walked down the stairs and stopped a
few feet behind him.
"What could possibly be
funny?" Lovejoy asked. Cal turned around to him, still laughing.
"I put the diamond in the
coat," he said. Lovejoy just looked at him. "And I put the coat on
her!" Cal pointed with his gun in the direction Rose and Jack had run in.
*****
Meanwhile, Jack and Rose had run
past the smoking room and down through the galley. They stopped in a stairwell
leading downward. They pressed themselves against the white wall and listened.
The only sound they heard was their own heavy breathing and the lapping of the
icy water. Jack wrapped Rose in his arms, and they listened. Nothing. They
looked up at one another for a moment. Then, suddenly, they heard crying. It
was coming from a corridor near to where they were standing. Curious, Jack
grabbed her hand and pulled her into the hall, which was slowly filling up with
water. Farther down the corridor was a boy, looking to be about five. He was
crying as water swirled around his ankles. Farther down the hall were a set of
double doors about to burst with the amount of water they were holding back.
Jack glanced at Rose, hair in his
face. "We can’t leave him," she said. Jack nodded, and he scooped up
the child. They ran back to the stairwell, but water was pouring down the
stairs like rapids. The current was too powerful for them to try to go through.
"We have to find another
way!" Jack said, holding the crying child. As they turned to find another
way, a man came running up to them, yelling in Russian. He pried the boy from
Jack’s hands, thinking he was doing more than helping his child, and pushed
Jack back. Rose grabbed his hand nervously.
The man headed in the direction
of the double doors about to burst. "Wait! Come back!" she cried. The
man didn’t listen. As she was about to scream again, the doors burst open with
the pressure of the water. It flooded the corridor.
"Run!" Jack screamed,
and he and Rose turned into a different corridor and ran as fast as they could
down it. Water was catching up to them like a locomotive. Death in watery form.
As quick as it came, it slammed them into the swirl of the Atlantic. It pushed
them hard down the corridor, and in a flash, they were slammed against another
locked gate. Water rushed around them. "This way!" Jack tried to
shout, and he grabbed Rose. Gripping the wooden paneling, they pulled themselves
into a nearby stairwell and charged up the steps to another locked gate. They
screamed as water started to swirl around the bottom steps. They cried out for
anybody, anybody at all…
Suddenly, a steward ran by and
started up the steps. "Help! Please!" Rose and Jack screamed in
unison. "Help us, please!" The steward turned, looked at them, and
saw the water swirling at their feet.
"Bloody hell!" he
cried, and ran down with his keys. He tried to fit one in the lock, but it
wouldn’t go in. He tried another one, but that one didn’t work. The water was
rising fast, and Rose and Jack were frantic.
"Hurry!" they both
cried. Nervously, the steward dropped the keys on his side of the gate, into
the cold water. Rose gasped and Jack’s jaw dropped.
"I’m sorry! I’ve dropped the
keys!" the steward said. "I dropped the keys!" With Jack and
Rose calling after him, he charged up the steps to safety, away from the water.
Jack looked down at the water and ducked underneath. Rose was floating near the
ceiling.
Underwater, he used his hand,
pushing it through the gate, trying to feel the metal. Rose was panicking, and
was nearly swallowed up by water. Finally, Jack grabbed the keys and pulled
them up to the surface. "Hurry, Jack! Try the short one!" Jack jammed
the key into the lock, and a second later, it turned. Jack tried to push the
gate open past the force of the water, but only got it open a crack.
"Go, Rose!" he
screamed, and she scrambled through, holding the pipes. She swam up to the
steps and turned around. She was completely soaked and shivering
uncontrollably. A second later, Jack emerged from under the water, grabbing the
pipes. Rose grabbed his arm and dragged him up the steps. They climbed the
stairwell in each other’s arms, the water slowly following them.
*****
Elisabeth and William ran along
the deck, hearing about the collapsible farther down. William was in front,
pulling Elisabeth along. The strength was completely gone out of her and she
couldn’t stop shivering. All she could think about was Rose, hoping that she made
it all right. She was her sister! Her sister that she loved and cared about so
much! They reached the lifeboat, Collapsible A. Murdoch was controlling the
boat, along with Officer Moody. Elisabeth backed into William’s arms, but he
pushed her forward softly. All the while she was staring at the boat with a
scared expression. All the light had dimmed from her eyes, and her skin was
ghostly pale.
"Anymore women or
children?" Moody cried. He spotted a woman. "Right! Come this way to
the boat!" He pulled her in. Elisabeth stared beyond the boat at the water
that was rising up the deck.
Elisabeth looked at William.
"I’m scared!" she admitted. William wrapped his arms around her and
looked into her eyes.
"Get into that boat!"
William demanded.
"What about you?"
Elisabeth pleaded, tears running down her face.
William looked into her green
eyes. "I’ll find something," he said truthfully. "But hurry.
It’s almost full!" William pulled Elisabeth tighter to him and kissed her
right on the lips. They lingered there for a moment. Then Elisabeth pulled
away. William gave her a push towards the boat. A rough hand, which belonged to
Moody, grabbed her by the arm and pulled her into the collapsible. The whole
time, Elisabeth was staring at William. Water was rushing up the deck and was
already at the boat. Elisabeth reached out her hand to William, he reached
back, and they touched hands through the air. Suddenly, William was pushed
around and thrown to the back of the crowd.
"William!" Elisabeth
screamed. "William!" But she could no longer see him, and he could no
longer see her. Knowing that the woman he loved was safely on a boat, he turned
around and hustled down the decks, the image of the beautiful Elisabeth DeWitt
Bukater in his mind, praying that she would live through this hellish
nightmare.
Elisabeth stared at the place
where William was and a tear rolled down her cheek. She had actually come to
love the man that she had met only a couple of days ago, and now the Titanic
had to sink right out from under them. By now, the water was already trying to
float the collapsible away, but it was still attached to the davit’s ropes,
allowing it to go nowhere. Water rocked the boat every way and was nearly
sinking it. Everybody was in a panic. Elisabeth turned, and the first thing she
saw was Caledon Hockley, her sister’s ex-fiancé. He saw her and glared at her.
The child he had brought on the boat was now in a woman’s lap and he was
already standing up.
"Well, look. If it isn’t the
whore’s sister," he sneered. Elisabeth became furious at the insult,
raised her hand, and slapped Cal straight in the face as hard as he could. His
head snapped back, and when he looked at her, there was a red handprint on his
left cheek where she had struck him.
"I believe you’re
mistaken," she growled. "I’m Rose’s sister." Cal shot a
look of hatred at her, and suddenly, without warning, charged at her. He
grabbed her by the neck and she screamed. He tried to choke her, but she
grabbed his hands and dug her nails into his hands as hard as she could.
"Get off of me!" she screamed. Cal’s hands flew off her neck, and he
looked at them. The nail marks were so deep that his hands had begun to bleed.
He stared at her, and turned around as the water moved the collapsible every
which way in the Atlantic water creeping onto the deck.