So I'm having a bit of trouble with the next chapter to Parent Trap, but when my friend dragged me into watching the Titanic, I got the idea to write this. I hope you enjoy the story because I had lots of fun writing this.
He never thought much about his death and how it would happen.
Death was something he had known since he was a child. It took his parents away and left a huge hole in his heart that hasn't healed. But as he grew older, his attention shifted to other things like becoming the next King.
But now, when he was hanging on to a piece of wood belonging to the so-called unsinkable ship that the grand visor swore wouldn't sink, stranded in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean in the middle of April while the "unsinkable" ship was at the bottom of the ocean, he supposed that it was a good time to reflect about his life.
He knew that his life could've been worse. He had everything that he had wanted, a loving father and mother who would always give him the best of everything. He was a handsome young man and was desired by many. He was from a powerful and rich family since his great- great- great- great- great- great- great- great- great- great- great- great- great-grandfather had become King. He was the perfect image of a perfect man that everyone dreamt that their son would be. On the outside he was a perfect young man, but on the inside he was screaming.
Screaming for so long in his head, that he was surprised that no one could hear him. But then he had realized that if someone had heard it, they wouldn't even care.
At least, that's what he had assumed.
Until he met her.
Louis slowly lifted himself to look at her, with his hair sticking to the front of his face. The wind blew fiercely and he shivered. His cloths now wet and flimsy offered him no warmth. Despite the intense weather, he still managed to give a small and weak smile that miraculously warmed him up a bit as he looked into her beautiful, mesmerizing blue eyes that he could never get enough of. Those eyes belonged to the girl he had met recently, but still loved and cared deeply about the most.
Corinne, who floated near the board piece that she helped him get onto so he wouldn't drown or freeze to death from being in the cold, was holding onto him tightly with the intention of not letting go and refusing to give up. Looking at her, Louis realized how horrible he was, only thinking about himself while the girl he loved was slowly freezing to death much faster than he was. Her clothes, a thin nightgown and a small jacket were completely soaked thorough, her skin paler than normal because of the cold and her lips had turned into a bluish colour.
When she had first gotten him to go onto the board, he tried to convince her to join him, but she refused. She was very stubborn and reasoned that if a feather had fallen on the board, it would tip the board over and she said that she could handle the cold water.
His smile had soon faded when he realized that she was as cold as he was and that she was shivering uncontrollably, made his guilt seem ten times worse. Gently, he used his free hand to turn her head so she was looking at him and caressed her cheek while looking into her eyes. He saw determination, stubbornness and an affection that she wasn't scared to show. But in the deep depths of her eyes, he could see something that he himself was feeling at the moment, but never thought could be seen in her eyes.
Fear.
From the moment he turned her to him, multiple things were going through Corinne's head as she was waiting for the boats to come and made sure that Louis was as comfortable as possible.
She was wondering how long it would take for those arrogant people with rescue boats to realize that there were thousands of people left to save. She was thinking about her life and how Aramina had convinced her to board the ship that everyone claimed as the ship of their dreams. And how she ended up meeting someone she never expected to feel attracted to, and was the most important person in her life.
The water was freezing, it felt like a thousand swords were piercing into her body. But after awhile, the pain seemed to lessen as her body became numb. But she barely noticed that while she was wrapped in her thoughts, but broke from her thoughts when a cold hand touched her face.
She looked into the dark chocolate coloured distressed eyes, belonging to the dark haired boy and placed her hand over the hand that was caressing her cheek.
"It's getting quiet," he whispered, referring to the lack of screaming people around them that were screaming as the ship went down and they were left in the ocean. For the last several hours, they had screamed for help as well in hope that someone would come rescue them. But those hours had passed and no one came. It was now pretty quiet.
Too quiet for his comfort, the silence being eerie and scared him more as the minutes went by. He looked at the sight of people bobbing around without a sound coming out of them.
"The ships will be here soon," Corinne tried to convince him, but he could tell that she was starting to lose hope on that one. Under her breath, she muttered, "If those people will get their heads out of the sky to look around."
Louis almost chuckled, he was close to smiling, but soon caught himself as the seriousness settled in his stomach and realized that it wasn't time to smile or chuckle when there was a huge chance that the ocean would become his grave.
Before he was informed of the ship sinking. Before Corinne decided not to board the life boats and stay with him instead. Before the second half of the ship that they were clinging onto went down, he never gave much thought of how he would die.
But going through a slow and gentle death with Corinne by his side seemed like the right way to die.
It was already clear that they weren't going to get rescued. Time dragged slowly, the minutes stretching into hours. They wasted energy screaming and crying for help, hoping someone would hear them and come. But they never did. There were hundreds, or even thousands stranded in the waters, but only a few of them, including himself and Corinne, were left alive while the others had most likely passed.
This really is the end, he thought. Facing death was something he had never feared. He welcomed it with open arms.
"I love you Corinne," he murmured, meaning every word with his whole heart.
For a moment, she looked at him in shock, as if she had never expected him to say that, before she turned away. For those few seconds, he wondered what was going through her mind. He wanted to ask, but knew he wouldn't get an answer and wondered what was wrong with his words. He really did love her. More than anything in the world. She understood him more than anyone else and saved him in multiple ways, both physically and mentally and really opened his eyes to the world.
When he said these words, he expected to see a smile, or for her to say it back to him. Instead, she was still and quiet, her eyes faced the water until she slowly turned to him and looked at him in the eyes. Her gaze bore right into him, and grew more intense with each passing second. "Pardon?" She asked, her grip on his hand tightened as her gaze grew more intense.
He flinched by her words, as if he had received a harsh blow. If she reacted this way, it meant that she didn't feel the same way. He sucked in his breath, and felt like he was punched in the stomach and felt ashamed for being such a fool. Tears rushed to his eyes, but he held them back, not wanting to seem weak, he tried keeping his voice even as he asked, "Why? Don't you love me?"
She shook her head, making him feel even worse until she said, "Of course I love you. Louis, how could you think that I don't?
He smiled at her words, but before he could confide his worries in her, she spoke first."And I love and care for you too much to let you give up and say goodbye. This isn't good bye you know."
"But Corin-" She cut him off again.
"Listen to me Louis," she told him, "You're going to survive and make it out of here." She sounded so confidant and sure in it, he wanted to believe her. She smiled assuringly, as if she could already see it, Louis rescued and living a happy life in a nice house where he would raise his family and live life to the fullest. "You're going to have lots of kids and watch them grow. You're going to die as an old man with your grandchildren around you , warm in your own bed."
He let the words sink in for a moment, his gaze casted away as he digested those words and turned back to find himself looking deep into her blue eyes.
"Not here," she murmured with assurance and confidence. "Not this night. I need you to make a promise to me."
"Anything," he vowed.
"Promise me no matter what, no matter what happens, with or without me that you'll never give up and never let go of this promise." Her gaze was so intense and serious, he easily got caught in its trance and found himself slowly nodding his head, the words slipped out from his tongue before he could catch them.
"I promise."
Smiling, Corinne kissed his face and held his hands in an attempt to warm them. "Never let go," she said.
Time seemed to have slowed completely in that moment. Louis had no device to tell the time, so he wasn't sure how long they were waiting, but it seemed like forever. To help pass the time, he looked into the sky and watched the stars shine in the dark velvety sky. He remembered when he was little and his mother would take him up to a hill to see the stars and she would sing him a lullaby until he fell asleep. He sang the same lullaby under his breath as he waited for the boats, while holding Corinne's hand.
Suddenly, he could see a beam of light coming their way. Curious, he stopped humming to take a closer look and saw that it was actually a boat coming their way. A man was holding a flashlight screaming, "Hello! Can anyone hear me?"
Feeling a smile spread across his face from the excitement of being rescued, Louis shook Corinne's hand to wake her from her slumber. Turning onto his stomach, Louis shook her again, this time her entire wrist while calling out her name, but no change could be seen.
"Corinne! Corinne! There's a boat!" He cried out, his voice dry and husky from the lack of clean drinking water. Corinne was as still as a statue and quiet, while her beautiful blue eyes stayed closed, her lips were dark blue while the rest of her body was frozen from the icy waters. Panicking, he felt her neck for a pulse and couldn't feel a single beat under her skin.
"No," he thought as a stinging sensation began burning in his eyes and he felt streams of hot tears trail down his cold face as he began to sob. He buried his face in her arm and sobbed, doing nothing but crying and he didn't intend to stop until she either woke up or he cried until he could cry no more.
How could she do this to him? How could she leave him all alone? Especially at a moment where he needed her the most.
Those were the questions flying through his head, but the fact that he had no answers to them made him cry even harder than before. When he had shed his last tear, he looked up and felt shock rippling through him. The beam of light from the flashlight was growing dimmer as the boat was starting to leave that area.
"Come back!" he tried screaming, but his dry voice made it sound like a whisper. "Come back!"
His eyes darted to the right, where he saw the dead body of a light haired man, by the look of his clothes, he could tell that the man was an employee of the Titanic. In his hand was a gold whistle that he recognized as the one he had used to blow for help to come.
That whistle was the key to him being rescued.
Louis glanced between the whistle and Corinne's face, knowing that time was running out and was torn between the two choices, although he knew that only one could be made. He could stay here with Corinne's dead body and wait until death took him away to where he knew she would be waiting for him on the other side. Or he would have to let her go and save himself.
As he was going back and forth between his two options, her last words were echoing in his mind.
Promise me, you'll never give up and you will never let go of that promise. Never let go.
Those words were spoken so clearly, it was as if she had just whispered it into his ear as a reminder of the promise he had made to her. He promised that he would never let go, that he would never give up and he knew that Corinne would never forgive him for breaking his promise to her. He knew just what he had to do.
It took the majority of his strength to loosen Corinne's frozen hand away from his and once he succeeded with that, he took his time looking at her face and implanting each and every detail in to his memory so he would never forget. He kissed both her cheeks and pecked at her hand as a final farewell before he finally let her go, watching her body slowly sink to the bottom of the sea with his heart with her.
"I'll never let go," he said, "I promise."
"Louis."
"I'll never let go," He promised.
"Louis."
"I'll never let go!" he vowed, meaning it with all his heart.
"Louis!" With a jerk, he opened his eyes and his balled up fist lashed out and made contact with Corinne's arm, surprising her with the painful blow.
While Corinne was wincing in pain, Louis sat up straight and ran his hands over himself, feeling anything he could touch. He saw that he was in his living room, on the couch and was dressed in a T-shirt and jeans. The TV in front of them was still on; the movie was still being played, but was almost over.
"That's it!" His heart nearly burst out from his chest from the sound of that voice, knowing that there was only one person with such a temper yet was so important to him. With tears of joy filling his chocolate brown eyes, Louis turned his gaze to Corinne and watched her inspect her arm, where he accidentally hit her.
"The next time we watch that sappy movie Louis, I'm going to-"
Suddenly it all came back to him. With the night to themselves while their friends were away, they decided stay in and watch movies. Louis had chosen that movie by accident. He had gotten really into the movie until he fell asleep not long after the Titanic sunk and Rose was saved.
Which meant that this was all a dream, he thought. Corinne's not dead, she's still here.
"Corinne!" He cried with joy, feeling tears well up in his eyes and flow down his cheeks. He jumped off from the couch, ran to Corinne and gave her a bone crushing hug as tears were streaming down his face. He pulled back slightly, and then quickly buried his face in the crook of her arm. "You're okay!"
"I'm … Fine..." she weakly said, trying to figure out what was going on with Louis. First he made her sit through a movie that she hated so much for its sappiness, then he fell asleep during the movie and nearly broke her arm with that punch. And now, he was hugging her as if she had died.
It was official. She would never understand men.
Her thoughts were cut short as she heard sobs coming from Louis. Pushing all thoughts aside, she returned the hug and didn't say anything as he cried.
As soon as she was sure that he had calmed down, Corinne slowly pulled away from his hug and asked him what was wrong. Louis didn't want to tell her about his dream because he knew that she would roll her eyes and think that it was silly. But looking into her eyes always made his heart melt and he found himself telling her everything that he could remember from the dream.
"Did you follow through with your promise?" she had asked as soon as he was finished.
"Yes," he answered, wondering where they were getting to.
"Good," she nodded, "I'm glad you did."
"What? I had to leave you alone in the Atlantic Ocean. I had to watch you die and I'm feeling sick to my stomach just by remembering that. How could you be glad about that?" he exclaimed.
"Because you followed through with your promise," She reminded him. "In your dream, you promised that you would never give up and never let go. I'm glad you did, even if it was hard for you. And Louis, even though that was a dream, it might still happen to us. I want you to promise to never give up. Even if you have to give me up, I want you to promise to never let go. Promise me?"
That moment felt too much like the tense moment in his dream, and like in his dream, he was completely light-headed at the moment and hypnotized by her eyes. Taking a deep breath and looking deep into her eyes while he entwined his hand with hers, he said "I promise."
She leaned forward and gave him a peck on the cheek.
When Corinne pulled away, she said, "Never let go, Louis."
"I promise," He smiled, "I'll never let go."
If you're confused, the dream takes place on the Titanic and when he wakes up, he's in the 21st century. But was the ending too sudden and the idea too silly?
Cheerio,
Lasting Violet