Enslaved By The Ocean (2 page)

We arrive at the small yacht on the wharf, and I smile. I haven’t been on any type of boat for such a long time. There’s a man waiting, a man I paid good money for, and he smiles when he notices us. As we get closer I see he’s an older gentleman, with greying hair and dark brown eyes. His skin is well worn from the sun, but he looks friendly. When we stop in front of him, he stretches his hand ou
t.
I take it. “Hello, and welcome to my yacht, The Dreamer. Thanks for considering me for your adventure. I’m John. If you’ll step on board, I will show you around.”
 

“Thanks, John.” I smile. “I’m Indigo, and this is my best friend, Eric.”
 

Eric reaches out and shakes John’s hand. “Nice to meet you, John.”
 

John
nods a
nd we head over to the yacht. I’m quite surprised. I got a small yacht, yet it’s actually quite massive on board. I’m fascinated to know what a large one looks like.
 

This yacht is long, sleek, white and extremely well looked after. We step onboard, and I peer around. The deck is rather large, and
fitted o
ut with sun lounges and a set of tables and chairs that are bolted to the deck. John walks us toward the cabin that goes below deck, and we follow him down when he opens the big, glass door.
 

It’s quite large inside. It has a basic living area, with a lounge and a small television. There is a
little k
itchen and a
basic
bathroom and toilet. At the end there are two rooms: one for me, and one for Eric. John sleeps on deck in his little navigation office. Each room has a double bed, and both look very
luxurious.
John has it set up for comfort, and I feel myself relaxing for the first time in months.
 

“This is basically it,” John explains. “There is loads of food in the fridge and cupboards. There are fresh towels and linens
in the
basket
in the left room
. Feel free to laze about on deck. I will be in my navigation office most of the time, so just let me know if you need anything. Otherwise, the space is all yours.”
 

“Thank you, John.” I beam.
 

He tips his hat. “We’ll be taking off now, I ask that you stay below deck until we do.”
 

“We will, thank you.” Eric nods.
 

“Oh, one last thing. In case of emergency, there is a lifeboat on the side of the yacht. It’s easy to get down, you just step in and pull the chain.
The boat contains life jackets which you can slip on and pull the little red leaver to inflate.
”
 

We both nod, and John smiles before disappearing up on deck. Eric turns to me, grinning and rubbing his hands together. “Where do we start?”
 

I
smile
, and turn, running off toward the biggest room. “I claim this!” I squeal.
 

“Oh!” Eric yells, chasing me. “No way!”
 

We both leap onto the large bed at the same time, laughing and rolling to our backs.
 

“You sure about this?” Eric suddenly says. “There’s no turning back now.”
 

I nod, rolling toward him. “I’m sure. I want this, Eric.”
 

“I know, but I’m your friend…I have to triple check.”
 

I smile at him, reaching out and curling my fingers through his. “I know you are, but this is the best thing for me right now.”
 

“And if he finds you over there?”
 

“Eric,” I warn. “Please don’t. I have to believe I can change my life and escape him.”
 

“Of course,” he says, shaking his head. “I’m sorry.”
 

“I am going to be fine
.
I’ve lived through so much…”
 

He squeezes my hand. “You have
. F
or a girl your age, you’re super tough.”
 

I laugh softly, but his statement isn’t so far from the truth. I have had a hard life. Once, a long time ago, I had a nice happy family. A mom, a dad, hell, even a dog. Then it all changed. My dad started going funny, and disappearing all the time. He and mom would fight so often I forgot what them talking sweetly sounded like, and then one night he just left and I never saw him again.
 

I know my daddy was a bad man. Even back then I knew, but I loved him. My mom got sick two years after he left, and she died. Eric was always my friend, and managed to keep in contact with me, even when I got shuffled through foster homes. Then I met Kane. He was my foster brother in my last home, he was older than me, but I fell for him
hard and fast. We moved away, and I thought things were good
-
until he started beating me.
 

Then that one night I snapped, and here I am…
 

“I just need this, you know?” I whisper, shifting closer to Eric.
 

“Yeah,” he says, nodding. “I know.”
 

And we leave it at that.
 

Because there really is nothing else to say.
 

We spend the rest of the day just chilling out. Eric falls asleep in the afternoon, so I head up onto the deck and over to John’s navigation office. I’m about to step in when I hear him on the radio.
 

“Are they still in these waters?”
 

The radio crackles, and a voice can be heard over it. “We haven’t seen them, or picked them up, but there was a sighting.”
 

“I’ll turn my radar on, just to make sure they come nowhere near my yacht. I have guests, and I don’t need pirates jumping in the picture and making this a trip they won’t want to remember.”
 

Did he just say pirates?
 

He turns and sees me at the door, and quickly ends the call.
 

“Did you say pirates?” I ask, a little confused.
 

“I did.” He sighs. “Unfortunately, we have occasional problems with them.”
 

“As in ‘arrrr’ pirates?”
 

He looks confused
, his eyes are narrowed and
he’s
shaking his head slightly
. “Yes.”
 

“I thought they were fictional?”
 

He smiles a little. “No love, they’re certainly not fictional. The word pirate is more the fictional part. There’s always been groups of them on the ocean, they come out here to do illegal business, being that the law is very different in certain areas of the ocean.”
 

“I don’t…quite understand. I thought they weren’t real.”
 

“Of course they are, and they cause a lot of problems.”
 

“Is there a problem now?”
 

My heart is hammering, and I feel a little nervous.
 

“We should be fine, there has just been a sighting, but the navy is certain they’ve turned them around.”
 

I swallow and nod.
 

God, I hope so.
 

The sea spray hits my face, and I groan with delight. I love the smell of the ocean; it’s something I don’t think I’ll ever get sick of. It’s day two, and we’ve been taking our time. Eric and I have enjoyed every second. We’ve spent hours in the sun drinking beer, we’ve feasted on fresh fish and prawns, we’ve slept, and we’ve even swum once. It’s been so relaxing and perfect. It’s just what I needed, and by the looks of Eric, laying on the sun lounge, it’s been just what he needed, too.
 

“You look comfy,” I say, walking over and dropping down beside him.
 

“I am,” he yawns.
 

The sun is just setting over the horizon, and the cool evening air is coming in. I lie back on the other lounge, and sigh deeply.
 

“God, I don’t want to go back to work,” he murmurs.
 

“No,” I moan. “I don’t want to find a place and think about life again.”
 

“At least it’s in a new place. It’ll be fun.”
 

“Truth,” I yawn. “I’m hungry. I could use a big juicy steak right about now.”
 

Eric grunts. “You’re such a man sometimes.”
 

“Hey,” I giggle. “It’s perfectly okay for women to like meat.”
 

“Yeah,” he laughs. “Maybe John has some for us.”
 

“He has everything in the fridge. The man is well worth the money I paid.”
 

I close my eyes and stretch, sighing deeply. I’m just about to drift off into a late afternoon nap when Eric’s sun lounge creaks loudly beside me.
 

“Do you smell that?” he says.
 

I take a deep breath in, and scrunch my nose. My eyes flicker open.
 

“Smells like…smoke?”
 

“Yeah, it does.”
 

Suddenly he’s on full alert, looking around. His eyes widen, and he quickly gets o
ff
his lounge. I turn, concerned, and see a puff of grey smoke coming from downstairs.
 

“John!” Eric yells.
 

John comes rushing out of his office just as the yacht’s alarms sound. With wide eyes, John swings the door to the cabin open and rushes down. Eric and I both run over just in time to see him open a passage at the back of the yacht. Thick grey smoke pours out, followed by flames.
 

“Oh God,” I whisper, clutching Eric.
 

“Get in the lifeboat,” John yells, running back up toward us. “The engine is on fire. I had someone work on it recently because it was playing up, I thought it was fixed, I’m so sorry. It’s very dangerous, if it breaks into the gas line, it’ll blow. I need to get you both to safety before I see what it is.”
 

Without even an argument, Eric and I run towards the lifeboat at the edge of the yacht. We climb in and pull the chain as instructed, and the boat lowers. When we hit the water, Eric uses the paddles to push us a little away from the yacht. As we float, eyes wide, we watch John running around frantically with his radio. He’s calling “Mayday, mayday,” and we both know that means emergency. Something has gone wrong in the engine, and it’s obviously on fire.
 

“Should we get him off the yacht?” I ask, frantically.
 

“No, he knows what he’s doing,” Eric says, gripping my hand.
 

“I’m scared, Eric.”
 

“It will be okay, it’s probably just an engine…”
 

We hear a loud boom, and then we see the smoke thicken. John rushes down, and Eric stands quickly, yelling for him to stop. He doesn’t. He goes below deck and then, for the longest moment, we hear nothing.
 

“We should go back,” I cry, standing too.
 

“No,” Eric says, gripping my shoulder. “If it blows…”
 

“We can’t leave him in there, that smoke will kill him!”
 

“It’s his yacht, he knows what he’s doing. We can’t go in there
.
”
 

“But…”
 

“If it blows,” Eric yells, “we die.”
 

“If we leave him there, he dies!”
 

“Indigo, there’s nothing you can do right now. Getting in his way will only cause a problem.”
 

I drop back down, wrapping my arms around my stomach and trembling. I feel sick. How did we end up here? Five minutes ago, we were chilling and enjoying the afternoon. Now, we’re sitting in a rescue boat, wondering what the next few minutes will hold.
 

“Hey,” Eric says, dropping down beside me. “It’s going to be okay. He’s probably just going to put the fire out and wait for help.”
 

“He hasn’t come back out.”
 

“He will.”
 

I stand, shaking. I was taught never to leave someone behind, and I can’t just sit here and wait. It’s not right. He could be hurt.
 

“I’m going to get him, he could have passed out, or worse…”
 

“No,” Eric says, gripping my arm. “It’s dangerous.”
 

“I’m not leaving him, Eric!” I scream. “This isn’t your choice to make.”
 

I lunge forward, and that’s when it happens. The explosion. I’m just gripping the paddles to row back toward it, when we hear the ear-shattering blast. Flames roar out from below deck, and black smoke fills the sky. I know I’m screaming, and I know Eric is pulling me back
as I try to fight forward. I squirm in his arms, begging and panting.
Fire roars up onto the deck, and right before our eyes the yacht begins to crumble. How can something burn down in the middle of a bed of water? It’s cruel.
 

“Please,” I rasp. “Eric…”
 

“He’s gone,” he whispers. “He couldn’t have survived that. Indigo, we have to paddle away. If that thing blows more…we die too.”
 

“Help will come,” I whisper, shaking. “We can’t go far.”
 

“We have to row back!”
 

“No, Eric!” I scream.
 

“Indigo, look at me!” he yells, spinning me around. “You have to trust me right now.”
 

“He could be alive!”
 

“Do you see those flames?” he bellows. “He’s not alive.”
 

“Eric!”
 

He pulls me down and into his arms, tucking me into his chest. “You have to trust me
.
H
ush, Indigo.”