by Holly Hook
“Okay.” I sigh. My heart's pounding. I grab onto the side of the crow's nest. “I'm sorry. My friends sent me up to do this on a dare. We'll head back down right now and go back to bed.” Frank's still down there. I have to mention him. “Can you have someone escort us after all? There's a man down there with a knife who threatened us if we didn't do the prank.” He must be climbing up now, right behind Simon. I have to get the crew to arrest Frank.
The man sighs. The iceberg looms larger behind him. “Why didn't you tell us? Let me call the bridge for you now.”
He picks up the phone and everything lurches and grinds.
The man goes down, falling onto his partner. The two of them grasp the railings and I stagger. Isabel cries out. Simon curses somewhere below us.
Frank must be coming up the ladder, but the deck is so far below us. I'm dizzy. The ship stops lurching. They must have cut the engines. I glance overboard. The same dark shape, as high as a building, looms just in front of us. We're stopped. The nose of the ship rests right over grayish-blue ice. There's a horrible scraping sound. We've struck the iceberg head on instead of having it open up the side of the ship.
Even if we have stopped the ship from ultimately sinking, water's still rushing in somewhere. It could even be right below us.
One of the crew members picks up a phone. He's talking gibberish to the bridge. I'm freezing. Isabel grabs my arm. “What do we do now?” she asks.
There's another grinding sound. We're still scraping up against the iceberg, but the ship doesn't move to the side. It's blocking our path forward. We've changed history again. Not quite in the way I wanted, but maybe, just maybe, those watertight compartments will work and only the first one will fill.
Simon and Father won't have to die.
But will we?
I lean over the hatch and pull Isabel out. Simon emerges right behind her. And directly below him, climbing the ladder with his knife between his teeth, is Frank.
He's still coming. I have an idea.
I face Simon and glance at the deck far below. The five of us are so crammed up here in the crow's nest, this might not even work. But we have to try. Frank's so crazed that he'll murder us for certain now.
We've got to push him over the edge. Literally.
Frank emerges from the hatch. Isabel screams and backs away into one of the officers. "It's him!" she shouts. "Arrest him! He's got a knife!"
The younger officer pushes past me, cramming me against the freezing railing of the crow's nest. I'm dizzy. I could fall. "Sir, are you bothering these young ladies?" he asks.
But Frank's reaching up to take the knife from his teeth. His intentions are clear. Gold flashes in his eyes. The crew member backs away into Simon. Frank brandishes the knife. Growls. He might even kill them, too. Whatever's scared him into hunting us must be horrible if it's driving him to this.
"Move!" he shouts. "You don't understand what's going on here. Let me do my job and put this back the way it should be."
I'm still holding the butterfly.
Its wings are still sharp.
I charge Frank with my weapon in front of me. I stab it into his side and he gasps, eyes bulging open. There's a gross sucking sound as I pull the hair clip back. Even in the dark, I spot a dark stain spreading across the side of Frank's shirt.
He drops his knife and grabs at his side.
I ram into him and shove.
Frank leans over the rail curses. Simon joins me. We grab Frank's belt. Lift. My arm trembles. Frank screams as we tilt him over the side. Golden blood smears on the metal.
His boots catch on the railing and he hangs there, waving his arms. The knife falls into the night. “No!”
Isabel turns away. “Let him fall.”
I hesitate. I know what it's like to plunge. I just won't watch. But one of the crew members pushes past me, grabs Frank's boot, and pushes him the rest of the way off the edge.
Frank's screams reverberate on the way down.
And then, there's a sound like shattering glass as he hits the deck.
The crew member turns away and grimaces. But then he gets his composure and asks, “Are you ladies okay? Did he hurt any of you?”
“What was he?” the other man asks. He's eyeing the golden blood still on the railing. “His eyes--”
“I don't know,” I lie. I have to come up with an excuse and get down from here in case the water's rushing up from below. I can't be certain we stopped the ship from sinking. “All I know is that he threatened to stab us if we didn't climb up here and tell you there was an iceberg. Simon here had to punch a stoker to get up here, and we're very sorry.”
But both crew members have turned away. They're not listening. Instead, they're studying the deck far below, where Frank must be lying. I know he's not dead. He can't die.
I join them.
Frank lies twisted in a heap far below. He's a dark smudge against the expanse of the deck. Water parts somewhere, and the iceberg recedes into the night. They're reversing the ship. I don't want to imagine what the front looks like now, but I picture it anyway: smashed in, with a hole opened up to the icy Atlantic.
We have to get down. Now.
Frank lifts one arm and pushes himself up.
“He's still alive,” one of the crew members says. There's awe in his voice. “This shouldn't be happening. Call the bridge. Tell them there's a madman on the loose.”
I grab Simon's arm. Isabel stands there, stunned. I slug her on the arm. “Ladder,” I say. The crew isn't concerned about us now. Now's the time to make our getaway. There's no time to thank these two men for stopping Frank.
The three of us scramble down the ladder, Simon first. The descent seems to take forever. I strain my ears for any rushing water. There's none, at least not here. The stokers below us must be scrambling out of the first compartment by now.
We could have avoided this, if only those men above had believed us.
Now history has changed in ways I can't know, and as regular mortals, the three of us can't change it again.
Light opens up, and we reach the bottom of the ladder. I have to run back to my berth to check on Melvin and Father. Thankfully, they're sleeping in the back of the ship, far away from this mess. Frank will have a hard time getting to us again, with the entire crew up and either searching for him or figuring out what to do with the other new development.
“There they are.”
We stop.
It's the stoker that Simon punched. He's up, rubbing his jaw with one hand and clenching his other fist. Three black-uniformed officers stand behind him, waiting. Shouts ring up from below us, but no panicked crew members rush up from below.
One of the officers steps forward. “Come with me,” he orders. “The three of you are under arrest.”
Chapter Three
“What's going on with the ship?” I ask.
The officers lead us through several corridors and through another gate. We're headed deeper into the ship. I want to scream. Simon keeps his hand locked with mine. Isabel comes up behind us.
“What's going on with the ship?” I repeat.
“I assure you, we are perfectly safe,” one of the officers says. He stops before a door. “From what I have heard, only the front watertight compartment of the ship was breached, and it is doing its job. We will not sink. Now, if the three of you hadn't entered an unauthorized area and distracted our crew, we might not have struck the iceberg at all. Our arrival in New York is no doubt delayed.”
“Or we would have sideswiped it and opened four or five compartments instead, ultimately sinking the ship and killing fifteen hundred people,” I snap.
The officer puts his hand on the knob and stares at me as if I have tentacles coming out of my ears. “What kind of ridiculous scenario is that?”
“Be glad we're not going to experience it. I hope.”
I don't think he knows what to think. He opens the door on a small office and waves us inside. “Sit tight,” he orders. “We wil
l figure out what to do with you as soon as things are under control.”
I step inside. I'm not sure whether to be relieved or terrified. Even though I know the officer is probably right about the ship not sinking, it doesn't quell my racing pulse. Simon enters the room behind me and Isabel comes in last. She hasn't spoken since we came down the ladder.
They close the door behind us, leaving us with silence.
Isabel's breathing grows louder. She's hyperventilating.
“Isabel. We're safe. I know how this ship works. We're not going to go down.” I want to add that I don't think we are, but I have a feeling that won't help calm her.
She turns away, eyeing the walls for any possible escape. I know what she's feeling.
“I suppose we're even now, aren't we?” she asks.
“We are.” I take a deep breath and manage a smile at Simon. “Isabel—your family will be fine in thirty years. Simon and I will make sure they don't board the Gustloff at all. We have a long time to plan for that. Since, you know, the Timeless us won't be there now that we've rewritten everything.”
Simon snorts, and then laughs.
“What's so funny?” I ask. Isabel's panic attack is anything but. I set the butterfly down on the desk, glad that the officers were too distracted to think of taking it. “We still have to learn what our punishment is.” That's nothing compared to an icy, black death, but it's still something.
“Do you know what we just wiped out of existence?” Simon asks.
“A horrible disaster?”
“Well, yes. This one, and another one.” His hair hangs in his face as he keeps laughing. “A certain very popular movie is never going to be made now. That means a certain horrible song is never going to torment the world in the late nineties.”
He must read my clueless expression. “Song?” There's something about it, faint in Isabel's memories that swirl through my head. "Oh."
“You don't want to know,” Isabel says. “Even we Timeless had to hear it when we went on assignments in that time period. Wiping it out is an accomplishment, believe me.”
“I'll take your word for it.” I'm so glad to see Simon making jokes and not brooding. Even though it never happened now, I can still remember it all: Simon angry. Simon hating the universe and Time itself, and praying for its death. Simon glad that Time was sick right after we stopped Isabel's ship from going down. I don't remember anything that happened after that. The Timeless me downloaded her memories right there in the corridor, in the middle of all that red fog and amongst all those rifts. Isabel must have run here after that happened. And Simon doesn't even have his old Timeless memories—only mine and some of Isabel's. I might need to fill him in as much as I can.
“You know,” Isabel says. “I'm technically a Rogue now. Sooner or later, even if Frank doesn't find us again, someone will arrive to take me back to my old time. I will never remember any of this.”
“You don't have to.” I don't miss the frightened tone of her voice, the dread. “Oh.”
“I don't want to go back there. Even if the two of you stop the Gustloff from sinking and we make our voyage safely.”
“Oh.”
Her father.
She can't bear to go back to him, even though she will forget what a monster he is. “We left him in that bathroom in that German port town,” I say. “You'd have to explain why you vanished into thin air right in front of him.” I'm just trying to avoid saying the worst.
Isabel turns away, almost like she's hiding something. “I know I should go back for my sister,” she says. “I should let the next Timeless take me back. Frank might have killed me. That's a lot of the reason I didn't go with him.”
“You can stay with us for a while,” Simon offers. “We'll hide you.”
“I can't stay here forever.” She turns back to face us. “There are things I need to do.”
“Simon and I aren't going anywhere,” I say. I realize with a start that my time travel days are over. Even with Arnelia's butterfly and the ability to keep my memories if I hop time to time, I no longer have the ability to see rifts. This is where Simon and I are staying for the rest of our lives. Where we'll marry, and raise a family. Where fifteen hundred people who should have died will now live out their lives and contribute to the world. This is how it should be.
What changes have we created? I know, in general, how the next hundred years will unfold. Nancy and Monica will be born, and they'll live without me. I hope they'll still be happy.
But I can't quite shake a nervous feeling from my stomach. I don't know where it's coming from, but I don't like it.
A lock turns and the door comes open. The three officers have returned, including a gray-haired one who waves us out of the room. “Ladies,” he orders. “The two of you will return to your berths. You are not to leave your section until we dock. Sir, you will come with me. You will be detained for assault until we dock at New York. Unfortunately, that will take longer than planned. Thanks to your distracting our crew, we will need to be towed the rest of the way to our destination.”
“Did you find the crazy man?” Isabel asks.
“We did. He is detained and will not be bothering you again. I'm amazed that he survived the fall my crewmen described to me. We're all stunned.”
A thought hits me. “You're not going to house Simon with the madman, are you?”
Next to me, Simon's fists ball up. “I might kill him if you do. He tried to murder these girls!”
“Of course not,” the officer says. He has bags under his eyes. “We do not want any more problems tonight. Now, sir.”
Simon gives me a small kiss. Even though it's not much, it's the best one I remember in a while, because it will be the first of many, many more. Simon will survive tonight.
He follows the officer and out of my sight. I don't want him to go. The officer waves us out again.
Isabel and I head back to my berth. Neither of us speak. As far as the officers know, she's a fellow passenger. Her 1940's dress isn't that different from what I would normally wear.
There are other passengers out and about, too. Mothers ask stewards why we're stopped. Reassuring words surround me. No worry, ma'am. Return to bed. We're going to be towed. There's no scrambling, no banging on doors, no reaching for life vests like I remember. There's no panic like in the version of the Titanic that now, there never was.
Father stands outside our berth. He's adjusting his overalls like he's ready to go searching for me. Which he, I'm sure, probably is.
My heart swells and I wrap him in a hug.
He's going to live.
He and Melvin aren't going to spend eternity on the bottom of the ocean after all.
“I love you,” I say.
He hugs me back. “Where have you been?”
“I was...” I gasp for air. “I felt a shudder, so I went to ask about what was going on.” I don't care if he suspects that I went to see Simon. I'll explain his detainment later. I'm just glad that we're going to make it safely to our destination after all.
So long as they keep Frank locked up.
How long will they detain Frank, anyway? Will they call the police when we dock and get him for attempted murder?
I don't miss the worried gaze Isabel sends me. She stands against the wall like she's unsure what to do.
Father releases me. “Why don't you return to bed? From what I understand, the front compartment of the ship is flooded, but the others are closed tight. We're safe.”
I stand there and shift my feet, making sure I can't feel the floor tilting. We seem to be even. A part of me wants to dive into safety and celebrate, but another part isn't so sure. This seemed too easy, like there must be something more that we need to face.
“Okay,” I tell him. I need to talk to Isabel. There's something she wants to tell me and I think I know what it is. I nod to her and head back into our berth. I hope she waits for me, that no other Timeless come to take her back to World War Two quite yet. I need to pretend to
go back to bed.
I climb in and wait for Father to settle in the bunk above me. His snores begin after ten minutes, ensuring that there is no way I will sleep for the rest of the night. I catch a glimpse of his pocket watch, which he's left on the floor. It's past one in the morning. The ship should be listing forward by now, enough for me to notice.
And yet, the noise outside the berth is dying down. Footfalls grow farther apart. Kids slowly silence. People are returning to bed rather than gathering at the foot of the staircase, trapped below decks.
We're safe as long as Frank is captive.
Or are we?
If he's as desperate to put history “right,” won't be try to kill us again?
I get back up out of bed. My head is beginning to pound, but I ignore the pain.
Isabel still waits outside my berth. I'm glad to see her here. She's pacing up and down the corridor. “Are you uneasy, too?” I ask.
She nods. “Frank remains Timeless. I know why he's so desperate to stop us.”
I lower my voice. “Why?”
“You know that we made Time sick,” Isabel says, “by stopping my ship from sinking. I do not know what in the future we have changed, but it must have been something. We didn't find this out until after you downloaded your memories onto the chip, so you don't remember this, but when Time gets sick, these things called Chronophages start roaming the Hub. They eat the Timeless who dare mess with history and they consumed Frank's twin brother. Frank escaped by agreeing to help them stop things like this. I think he's scared that they'll come after him again if history gets out of control.”
“Frank had a brother?” I ask.
“He told all three of us this,” Isabel says. “It was after you put your memories on that thing, so they're not there. It was after I...after I found the rift here again.”
I can't help but wonder if she's hiding something. “Are those Chronophage things still around?”
“I'm not sure. They can't attack mortals. Only Timeless.” She blinks and glances up the hall. “The Timeless versions of you and Simon are gone. They would have been either way, now that you changed history.”