BENEATH THE TITANIC
Chapter One
The stern of the Titanic rose
high into the night sky, blotting out the stars. The monolithic propellers
dripped into the ocean, where, looking like tiny ants, passengers floundered in
the water, screaming and splashing.
"Do you trust me?" Jack
asked Rose. Rose grabbed his hand.
"I trust you."
With that pledge of faith, they
leapt off the railing of the Titanic and plummeted through the air. Wind rushed
past their faces, and the churning, icy black water rose to meet them. Closer
and closer.
With an almighty splash and the
force of being struck by a freight train, Jack and Rose hit the water. They
were immediately sucked under, and they could feel the ocean try to claim them,
dragging them down into the unknown depths. Both kicked with all their might,
their hands intertwined, as they fought the fury of the ocean.
Rose couldn’t breathe. Her lungs
were screaming and her limbs felt like they were on fire. She longed for air.
The blackness was overwhelming. She saw stars in front of her eyes. But what
was that? It was a flash of emerald green, startlingly bright against the black
water. And very real. Another flash accompanied it, this time bright orange.
Jack also stopped fighting for the surface to watch the scaly flashes of color.
They forgot the screaming of their lungs and the fire in their muscles as they
floated, entranced and utterly bewitched.
Vibrant fins of every color
swished around them. A soft melody filled the water and seemed to flood their
senses. The bright fins were attached to the strangest, most ethereal beings
Jack had ever seen. They had the torsos of women and men, with the bottom fin
of a fish. Merfolk.
He had never dreamt in his life
something like that could exist. They were the most beautiful thing he had ever
seen, apart from his love for Rose. Their hair was colored as diversely as the
coral reefs, and their skin was as pale and translucent as the membranes of a
jellyfish. They seemed to glow and pulse with their own inner light.
The merfolk gently wrapped their
arms around Rose and Jack and began to pull them gently along, deeper and
deeper into the ocean. Rose could no longer feel her body and knew she should
have been unconscious, but somehow she could still see the merfolk, and Jack,
who hadn’t let go of their hand. Then she knew she was dead. Jack spoke to her
under the water while being pulled by merfolk.
"Rose. Rose, I’m so sorry.
I’m so sorry. I failed." If they hadn’t been underwater, his eyes would
have filled with tears. "We’re dead, Rose. Don’t you see? We’re dead, and
this is the afterlife. They’re taking us to wherever we go when we die."
"Then I’m sure we’ll be
together, wherever it is. Don’t worry, Jack. This is better than living only to
die slowly in the freezing water up above. It’s all right." She squeezed
his hand and felt pressure in return.
"Are the humans sad? Are
they ungrateful?" A deep voice resonated out of the dark water and seemed
to echo like the sonar call of a dolphin or whale. All the merfolk fled,
leaving Jack and Rose all alone, floating in the black nothingness.