CONVICTED
Chapter Nine
It took me a moment to actually
experience the pain. I heard the sickening crack as my bone snapped in two. I
screamed really loudly, and Jack squeezed back in through the porthole.
"Oh, shit!" he cursed.
The ship shifted to the right
some more, and the counter was on top of my broken leg. I dug my nails into the
hard wood floor to keep from screaming some more. Jack stuck his hand under the
counter and pulled it up enough for me to slide my leg out.
He dropped the counter and it
slid down the room.
"Terrific timing for that
counter to fall," he muttered, stuck his hands under my arms, and pulled
me towards the porthole.
"Yeah, I know. Best timing
in the whole fucking world," I replied through gritted teeth.
"Okay, I’m gonna climb
through this porthole and then I’ll pull you through. Hold on here."
I hung onto a piece of molding by
the window and Jack started to squeeze through. Water suddenly splashed in
through the doorway and plummeted against my chest, causing me to almost let go
of the molding.
"Any time now, Jack." I
shivered from the cold water.
"I’m trying!" I heard
him call from the other side.
Water was up to my chest, and I
pulled myself up on my good leg. Jack was almost out now; his waist was the only
part keeping him inside. With my free hand, I pushed his butt to help him out.
The ship suddenly veered again
and it was completely on its side. Jack got through to the other side and stuck
his hands in.
"Grab my hands! The ship’s
already sinking!" he said, panic now rising in his voice.
I grabbed his hands and he
started to pull me through. My head made it through, but my chest was the next
challenge. Water was building up behind me and my legs were freezing.
"Hurry, Jack!" I
panicked.
The ocean was coming fast now,
and suddenly I was out. Well, almost. The back of my shirt was caught on
something inside.
"Jack!"
"Marie! Don’t let go of my
hands, understand?" he ordered.
I nodded, and suddenly the cold
Atlantic rushed up with us. My memory flashed back to that horrible night of
the sinking of the Titanic and how badly I needed to survive.
We were under the water now, and
my shirt wasn’t coming undone. The ship was going to drag me down with it! A
force from the ship and my shirt came loose, but with a price.
Jack was pulled under with it!
When he was pushing against the wooden frame, it snapped, and now his foot was
jammed into the ship!
I swam against the force and took
his arms. Pressing my good foot against the ship, I got him loose.
Now the challenge was getting to
the surface, which was pretty far away, against the ship’s suction. With my
broken leg, it was difficult, but somehow we made it together.
It was just like with the
Titanic, but a lot more people had gotten dragged down with the ship then. Now
I would have to say there were only about one hundred people in the freezing
water screaming for help.
"Come on. Th-there’s got to
be s-something to get on," Jack stammered, his teeth already chattering
from the cold.
He dragged me through the water,
trying desperately to get on something, but most of the stuff was already
occupied. We found a chair and both of us grabbed a leg and stayed close
together.
"D-don’t w-worry. I h-heard
th-them say there w-was a-another s-ship n-nearby." Jack shivered.
"J-Jack, w-we’re n-not
g-gonna m-make it th-this time," I replied, shaking.
"Wh-why?"
"B-because we a-already
ch-cheated death o-once."
"D-don’t g-give up. Wh-when
w-we g-get b-back home, I-I’m gonna s-sue th-this shipping line." He
smiled.
Suddenly, that smile turned into
a frown, and he was suddenly pulled under. I dove under and saw a desperate man
dragging Jack down. I kicked the man in the gut and pulled Jack back up.
"Ps-psycho," Jack
muttered, grabbing back onto the chair.
Things got quiet again, and I was
reminded of the watery graveyard for the fifteen hundred people on the Titanic.
Jack took my hands to spread
warmth, but all I could feel was icy cold.
"D-don’t e-ever l-let
go," he whispered.
"I w-won’t e-ever let
go," I promised.
My mind thought about the death
that was soon to come. But then I thought of what would happen if we lived.
Would Jack and I marry? I didn’t know, and I didn’t know if I ever would.
I heard the sound of a ship and
the water was churned up badly. My head dropped down and I got a mouthful of
water. I spit it out and pulled on Jack’s hands.
"Th-the s-ship is h-here,
J-Jack."
I heard an anchor drop and a boat
splash down. A man was checking the bodies when he came to us.
"We’ve got one live one
here!" he yelled.
One? I turned to Jack, whose eyes
were shut.
"Jack? Jack?" I shook
his hands, with no response.
The man tried to pry Jack’s
lifeless hands from mine.
"No…no!" I started out
quiet, then grew louder.
"Miss, please, come on. He’s
dead," the man said firmly, trying to shake me off.
"No…no, he’s not dead. He’s
not dead!" I said, kicking my leg.
"God, Miss, you’ve got a
broken leg! We need to get you help now! Let go!"
"No!" I repeated.
Suddenly, the cold overwhelmed me
and dots started to dance in front of my eyes. The man was screaming at me, but
I couldn’t understand him.
Then everything went dark.