Tempest’s POV

“Don’t go in there!” Syn shouted behind me as I opened a very ornate door. Why not? If his dragon was in danger, I was going to make sure it was brought back to safety. No creature deserved to suffer, especially at the hands of another. I didn’t know who this Lilith person was but I was starting to think that she was someone we should avoid. I mean, how could she lock a poor innocent dragon away? What did Luci ever do to her?

At first the room inside was dark, but as soon as the door shut behind me, the sudden light was almost blinding. Whoa… were we back in the Silver City? The new hallway seemed to glow with light, the intensity seemingly magnified by the white walls. The new placed seemed celestial and I couldn’t help but smile as I looked around. Was I finally home?

“Where are we?” I slowly spun around to see Syn looking down at his boots. Oh, look water! A hallway seemed like a very odd place for such a large puddle. Maybe there was a leak in one of the rooms? Or maybe it was like that one time my friend Aida left the water on too long in the bathtub and it overflowed all the bubbles onto to the floor.

"Titanic.” Huh? Never heard of that place before.

“Where?” I felt a frown spread across my features as I looked up into his stunning brown eyes. They were magical in their own right.

“Haven’t you heard of Cameron’s movie the Titanic?” I shook my head, feeling really confused. Cameron’s movie? I had no idea what he was talking about. We didn’t have time to watch movies in the Silver City, as it was fairly busy lives and most angels spent their spare time studying. Oh! Maybe when I returned to the Silver City I could start a new course of studies on earth! It had been fascinating thus far and I wanted to learn more… and about Hell too. Everything seemed so much more fun down here and less regimented, giving me the freedom to discover new things that weren’t in a book or lesson from the archangels. “Someone really needs to talk to God about investing in cable tv or something...”

“So... we’re in a movie...” I contemplated, gently stroking my chin. If we were in a movie, did that mean people were watching our every move, right this minute?

“Not... quite the deal here,” Gates corrected with a sigh. He gently took my hand and lead me down what appeared to be a never-ending hallway. “The movie was shot based on true events, so... we’re on the actual ship at the moment.” We hadn’t taken more than three steps before the lights started flickering. What was that? Was something wrong with the lights?
“And we’re... sinking.”

I stopped dead in my tracks and turned to face Syn, a petrified expression spreading over my face. “Sinking?” I swallowed thickly, looking around to see the puddle on the floor filling faster. “As in… going under water?”

The truth was the only water I’d ever encountered was the bathtub and the celestial fountain in the middle of the Silver City. I had no idea how to swim, let alone what to do on a boat that was sinking. Hopefully Syn knew what to do in this kind of a situation.

“Yes, but we need to keep moving if we want to get out of here alive.” Syn pulled on my hand, forcing me to move down the hallway again.

“But… but what about Luci? Shouldn’t we try to find her?” I looked up at Gates to see a deep frown spread over his handsome features as he pinched the bridge of his nose. “We can just let her go down with the ship!” My heart hurt at the very thought of an innocent creature losing their life. I couldn’t let that happen, not if there was some way to help them.

Gates stopped and turned me around to face him, his dark browns bearing down into mine with a pleading urgency. “Luci isn’t in this room,” he said softly, his voice sounding like music to my ears. “I promise we will find her but I need you to listen to me and do exactly what I tell you, no matter what happens here. Can you do that, love?”

I frowned before slowly nodding my head. Something about his tone of voice made me feel a little bit uneasy, almost like I wasn’t going to like what I was about to see.

“Good girl.” He shot me a quick wink before taking my hand and pulling me down the hallway again. “Now we need to move to a higher deck. Stay close and no turning back… For anything.” He added with a pointed look. I nodded as I struggled to keep up with his long strides.

As we reached the staircase at the end of the hallway, I could hear screaming, begging, and crying coming from the next floor. My heart instantly constricted and I looked at Gates with a worried expression. “W-What’s happening?”

“They’ve blocked off the staircase to the upper decks,” he replied as we met a small crowd trying to push and shove their way forward. The men looked barbaric as they basically clawed against each other in fear and desperation, trying to get up the staircase that was blocked by a golden gate. Why were we locked down here? Didn’t everyone have to get off the sinking boat?

“Let us up! You can’t keep us here!” the man next to us screamed. Never in my life had I seen anyone look this terrified. My heart ached seeing them look this way, especially when the solution was as easy as opening the gate. “You can’t cage us here like cattle!”

“Only women an children can head to the upper deck!” a man at the gate yelled back as Gates maneuvered us through the crowd. “Everyone else must wait their turn!”

“Can’t you hear the water? We’re going to die if you don’t let us through!” The man violently shook the bars on the gate as he spoke, to the guard. Wait… people were going to die because this man wouldn’t let them through? No! I couldn’t let that happen. I wouldn’t! Everyone had to get out of here alive.

“Please Sir, just let us through,” I quickly pulled away from Gates and made my way to the gold bars. “There’s not that many of us…” I begged, my purple eyes pleading with him. “We can all survive if you just open the gate.”

“I can let you through, Miss, but the gentlemen have to wait their turn,” the guard replied and the crowd behind me erupted in protests. “Tis the captains orders!”

“I thought I told you to stay close,” the deep voice rumbled in my ear, sending goose bumps down my spine. A pair of strong hands landed on my hips and I sucked in a sharp breath when a shock of electricity exploded in my veins. The feeling from the dream! So it was true!

I looked over my shoulder to see those hypnotizing brown eyes staring back at me, looking unimpressed with my actions. What did he just expect me to let these people die? We were both angels! Our job was to save people, not watch them fall at the hands of another. “I had to help. We can’t just leave them here—”

“Screw the bloody captain and let us through!” I was suddenly knocked forward into the gate, squishing my small frame up against the cold metal. My arm painfully contorted behind my back and I let out a small yelp of pain. Why was I so prone to pain on Earth and in Hell? I never experienced pain in the Heavens… Was it part of the human experience?

“Back off!” Gates growled as he pulled me protectively into side and shoved someone backwards. No, we didn’t need any more violence, especially when we were all trapped on the sinking ship. I hid my face in his side, feeling our bodies being pushed around like rag dolls amongst the aggravated crowd.

“Open the fucking gate!” Syn’s voice sounded so menacing that I almost didn’t recognize it. Was that really Syn? I had to be hearing things.

Within seconds the gate was open and we were washed down another long hallway a midst the crowd. Wait a second? Gates got the guard to open the barrier? I looked up with a beaming smile, my heart over flowing with joy. “You did it! You saved all those people!” I gushed, giddily clinging to his arm.

“I wish that were the case.” What did that mean? We were all going to the upper deck to get rescued. “Come on, we need to move faster if we want to find the right door.”

The new hallway we found ourselves in looked just like the first one. The only difference was that this corridor was decorated with lavish pieces of art and contained more doors. As we passed, more and more people flocked into the hallway with us. Some of them were dressed up and carrying their luggage while others were dressed in the pajama’s, though that didn’t distract from the level of anxiety and urgency that lingered in the air.

“What do you mean?” I looked up at him just as we stopped at the first ornate door. He opened it and quickly shut it again, letting out a curse.

“To get out of the chamber, we have to find the right door.” I watched as he started opening door after door only to find vacant living quarters. The corridor was slowly starting to clear out and for that I was thankful. The quiet was welcome. “The exit will only appear for a few minutes before it disappears, trapping us for a whole new level of hell.”

“So it continues if you don’t find a way out?” I gulped and looked at Gates with terrified eyes. I didn’t want to stay on the sinking ship any longer than necessary.

“This is only level one,” Syn sighed, running his hand over his face after opening and closing another door. “Now if we can only find the fucking door on this boat—”

A loud cracking sound abruptly cut through all the sound in the hallway, followed by the rushing sound of water. “Fuck… run!”

Gates grabbed my hand and we both bolted down the hallway with a wave of water rolling behind us. I wasn’t sure how the water got into the ship that quickly but I wasn’t about to turn around and investigate. I could feel the icy current on my back as we ran, the wave just a second behind us.

“This way!” Syn yanked me toward another staircase and we made it up to the next level just as the wave crashed into the stairwell. I looked back over my shoulder, thanking God that we made it to the stairs just in time. I just hoped the people on the floors beneath us had escaped already.

“Do you think all the people on the lower levels got to safety?” I asked, as we climbed to the next deck. There only appeared to be a few doors in this hallway but maybe one of them was the key to our escape.

Gates simply shrugged and started checking the doors again; unfortunately none of them seemed to be the exit. “Fuck… time for plan B.”

The next thing I knew we were standing on a very crowded top deck where people were being ushered into lifeboats. The only problem was that they only appeared to be letting select people into them and not filling them completely.

“Women, children, and upper class only! Everyone else must wait their turn!” the guard said and I looked over at Gates with a worried expression.

“Why do they keep saying that?” I asked as he pulled me through the crowd toward the boats. “Shouldn’t they just try to get as many people on the lifeboat as possible?”

“It doesn’t work like that here.” Why not? It just didn’t make sense. None of this did… and come to think of it, there didn’t appear to be many lifeboats left for the number of people waiting on the top deck.

I quickly turned to look down over the top of the railing, counting the number of boats. There were only six boats left and what appeared to be more than a thousand people. “Something is wrong here…” I breathed, shaking my head as the sick feeling started to rise in my stomach. “There aren’t enough boats and they aren’t filling them enough. We need to do something…”

“We cant help them,” I felt his warm breath on the back of my neck again and I closed my eyes, shaking my head.

“We have to!” I argued, turning around completely to face Syn. “I can’t let all these people parish because they wont let them on a life boat!”

Gates carefully placed his hands on my shoulders with a solemn expression on his face. He licked his lips and let out a slow breath before he spoke. “You can’t help them because the ship sunk over a hundred years ago.” What? How could that be? We were standing on it for crying out loud! “All these people are already dead.”

My heart instantly sunk to the pit of my stomach and I felt like I was going to be sick. “No…” I shook my head, refusing to believe. “It can’t be. There has to be something we can do to save them!” I could feel the tears rising in my eyes. “Please! We have to do something!” My eyes were pleading as I looked at Gates.

“There is nothing we can do. They will die no matter what we do.”

“No…” I took in a shaky breath, slowly shaking my head back and forth as I looked at the crying families on the deck. I could feel my heart breaking in a million pieces. I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t move. I couldn’t do anything. Knowing that their fate was to die at sea was worst thing anyone could have fold me. I was helpless and completely crushed. The feeling could only be described as being shot directly in the heart.

I slowly sank down the wall behind me in devastation. “They-they’re all dead… and we just have to sit here and watch?” The hot tears were pouring down my face as I watched people jump off the ship in a last stitch effort to escape the doomed vessel. In the distance I could hear screams and please to God. But what hurt the most was knowing that he let this happen. Why didn’t God do anything to save all these innocent lives? That fact crushed me. Never in my life had anything hurt that badly. “What kind of Hell is this?”

The next thing I knew, I felt a warm pair of arms wrap around me pull me into a warm chest. “Enepsigos, look at me.” He carefully lifted my chin, forcing me to look into those hauntingly beautiful. “I know how this must feel but don’t let the fate of others distract you from the task at hand. The chambers are designed to break you…but it doesn’t have to be that way. We can still make it out if we hurry. There are still a few minutes before the ship goes under.”

“But-But what about the-the people?” I sobbed, gesturing to the masses that were suffering right before my eyes. So many good souls lost…

“They were gone even before your time,” he said, wiping away my tears with his calloused fingers. “You didn’t have a chance to save them then, but the people of the future are yours for the saving.” He was right. We were in the past and my future was about looking forward and helping others. “You still have a purpose.”

My jaw dropped slightly as I looked at him, the tears still pooling in my eyes. “My purpose…” I repeated, remembering what my task on Earth truly was, even if Pandora didn’t believe me. “I can still fulfill my purpose?”

“Of course, but we have to go… now!” Gates pulled me my feet just as the ship started to rise up into the air. “Quick! Follow me and what ever you do, don’t let go of my hand,” he yelled over the screams as everything went completely dark.

I felt like we were blindly running straight into the air as screams of panic and despair filled the air. Each one felt like I was being stabbed in the heart but I couldn’t let it distract me, not when my purpose on Earth was to bring the fallen back to the light.

Suddenly I was pulled over the railing and Syn’s face was inches from mine, his eyes glowing slightly through the darkness. “Do you trust me?” he yelled over the screams and cries as the boat sat up at a nighty degree angle.

“Y-Yes…” I still couldn’t bear the sounds of the people suffering. The sound was pure torture and each desperate sound crushed my spirit a little bit more. How could God let so many innocent lives be wasted? It still didn’t make sense…

“On three we jump.” Was he mad? Didn’t he know that angel’s couldn’t swim?

“But—”

“One…two—”

“I can’t swim!”

“Three!” Without hesitation, I latched onto Syn’s hand and jumped into the darkness.

The instant my body touched the icy water, I couldn’t breathe. It was like all the air was vacuumed out of my lungs as I was sucked down a giant black hole. I kicked and splashed, trying to reach the surface as Syn and I spiraled deeper and deeper into the darkness. The icy water felt like I was being stabbed just as all hope of reaching the surface vanished. I was going to die in this icy grave just like the victims of the Titanic…

Out of nowhere, the light appeared and my body was slammed down on a hard surface with a wave of ice water. The impact forced me to cough up the water that was burning in my lungs, pulling air back into them. I was dripping wet and freezing as I opened my eyes, recognizing the red and black hallway that I had landed in.

“Thank fucking god!” I heard a familiar female voice say somewhere in the distance as my ears rang and my teeth chattered together from the cold. “What took you so long? Couldn’t figure the way out of your own damn torture chamber? And why the hell are you wet?”

“I could ask you the same question,” Syn retorted behind me as I was pulled into a warm and dry embrace. Pandora? Wait, if Gates was talking to Pandora, that meant we were out of chamber!

“You wish,” Pandora said before I was wrapped in what felt like a warm towel. “Teek, are you with me? You okay?”

“Pandora?” I blinked a few times before I could clearly see Pandora’s grey eyes staring back at me. She had a small smile on her lips as she looked down at me, slowly shaking her head.

“We really need to set some ground rules, especially about wandering off or opening strange doors. You could have been killed, Teek.” Killed? What happened if an angel was killed? Would I cease to exist or just go back to Heaven? I had no idea because no one in the Silver City ever talked about it. “Got it?”

I nodded and slowly sat up, my wet white shirt and shorts clinging to my small frame. “Could-Could I get some dry clothes?” I asked, looking around the wet hallway to see both Gates and Shadows staring at my back. What? “I’m f-f-freezing…”

“I think I still have some clothes in my room,” Pandora shrugged, narrowing her eyes at guys. “But then we’re getting out of here. We’ve had enough adventures in Hell for one day.”

“You said Syn has the key?” I turned to look at Syn and to my surprise he looked dry already. How did he do that? Though the look on his face wasn’t at all what I expected to see.

“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me…”

Notes

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