My ship, Bruce Ismay said just a few days ago that in the eyes of God this ship belonged to me. I built her from scratch, from the keel plates all the way up to her funnels. And now, she's almost completely submerged into the unforgiving waters of the Atlantic Ocean.
As I stand here, awaiting the inevitable, I can't help but wonder what the world will say when they find out the 'unsinkable' ship has sunken. Will things change? I hope they change, I hope there become laws saying there must be enough lifeboats for everyone. I wanted enough boats, but everybody else denied my request! They said they took up too much deck space! Said 'you don't need lifeboats on an unsinkable ship'! And now look at what has happened!
I'm immediately dragged from my thoughts by the sound of shattering glass and rushing water. I don't even have a chance to look up before I'm hit with by an icy wall of water. It knocks me off my feet and slams me against the wall. I can't fight it though, it will only prolong the pain of drowning to death, or freezing. I don't really know which will come first, it appears to be drowning though, as the water has already almost reached the ceiling of the smoking room.
The water sucks me under and I hold my breath. Try as I might to claw to the surface and find a breath of air, I know that I won't ever take another breath ever again. My lungs burn the longer I stay under the water. I pray the pain will end soon, take me away from this horrible nightmare! I'm beginning to lose the strength to kick my legs and wave my arms in the water, I feel as though I'm falling, falling into nothingness.
It must be close to the end then! I can't even feel the water anymore, I'm just falling! No more pain, no more fighting, just falling. Wait a moment, something must have gone wrong! I've landed on something, something hard! I open my eyes and quickly take in my surroundings, I'm lying on a carpeted floor in a small room, with two large beds.
As I sit up, I am met by two big, brown, confused eyes. There's a girl sitting on one of the beds, a small device of some sort in her hand. At first glance, I can hardly believe my eyes! For one, she's wearing glasses, that is most unusual for a young lady such as herself. That's not even half of it though! Shockingly, she's wearing trousers! Trousers! They aren't even regular trousers! They're made of some sort of odd blue material! And her top half! It looks as though she's wearing a pink sack with sleeves, and white writing on the front, and there are pockets on her stomach! It even has a hood like some sort of cloak! And there's a strange thing on the front of it, looks like little tracks or something!
She looks puzzled, but there's a big smile on her face, as though she's attempting not to laugh at me. I take a deep breath in, a breath I thought I'd never be able to take again. "Hello?" I ask, maybe she's friendly, even if she dresses like some sort of, I don't even know! A delinquent perhaps? At the sound of my voice she finally lets herself laugh before answering me "Sup?".
What is this 'sup'? Is that an odd way of saying hello? Is it slang for something? I try my luck again to see if she can speak coherent english "Would you mind telling me where I am?" I ask her. She shrugs "Heck if I know. Someplace in Virginia in a fancy hotel. Newsport or something I think" she answers. Well that sounds a little more like english, but she definately does not speak properly! I am almost positive now she's a delinquent!
Just as quickly as I held her full attention, I lost it. She's staring at that small object in her hand again, tapping it every so often. I get to my feet and begin examining my surroundings. She said this was a fancy hotel? It doesn't appear to be very fancy! There's not even a sitting room! I move over to the window and peek out, what meets me though is not like the world I thought I knew, to say the least.
I look back at her, this couldn't be heaven could it? No, this girl is no angel, and besides, she said we were in Virginia. How on earth did I get to Virginia? What happened to my ship? What happened to everybody? One minute I was drowning the next, I'm standing in some bizarre room with a delinquent in Virginia! I clear my throat and she looks up at my expectantly "What might the date be today?" I ask her. She looks back down at the little object in her hand, skimming her finger across it's surface and tapping it a few times before looking back up at me "June 1st" she answers. "The full date please miss" I ask again, I have to make sure, something isn't right here, but I have to know for sure.
She gives me another odd look before answering "June 1st, 2012". That cannot be correct, 2012? That's 100 years from now! But after what I've seen, maybe it's true, I can't know for sure. As I stand there in shock the girl looks up again "Hey, where'd you even come from? There's no hole in the ceiling or nothin, so like, where'd you come from?" she asks. This girl has an odd way of speaking, she didn't even call me sir! And she's asking me questions I myself don't know the answer to!
"I came from the Titanic" I reply. Her eyes grow wide before she picks up a device on the table "I'm calling security and telling them there's a crazy man in my room" she tells me plainly. I quickly rush up to her and grab the device out of her hand, pulling it from the wall and getting it away from her "No! I'm not crazy! And you young lady are going to give me answers before I go anywhere!" I tell her firmly. She narrows her eyes at me "Fine, ask me whatever".
What to ask first? Perhaps the little delinquent's name could be useful "What is your name young lady?" I ask her. She doesn't even bat an eye "Gabby" she answers. Alright, that was an easy enough of a question. Next question "Do you know of the ship called RMS Titanic?" I ask her. She laughs, as though I just asked something incredibly foolish "Duh, everybody knows about that ship!" she replies. Everybody? Is it so obvious that everybody knows my ship? My ship that sailed and sank 100 years ago?
The girl stands up, plodding over to a yellow bag that's sitting on one of the chairs in this room. She quickly pulls out another device, this one is much larger than the one she was so interested in before. She opens it up, there's a flat upper panel, and then there's a lower panel with little square buttons, each with different numbers, letters, and symbols on them. She hits one of the buttons and the upper panel lights up, a symbol being displayed on it, dell? What is this dell? Is that what this object is called?
The panel glows, and has a silly picture of a cartoon clock smiling next to a cartoon candelabra. I point it out to her "What is that?" I ask her, she raises an eyebrow to me "Uh, Lumiere and Cogsworth?". Lumiere and Cogsworth? What are a Lumiere and Cogsworth? She touches a small square and a little arrow on the glowing panel moves, touching small pictures of things and pulling up others.
Suddenly the screen goes dark, before the device flashes on another picture, that has several words written down the side. Play movie, scene selection, theatrical trailer? What do those even mean? And there is also a picture of a young blonde boy, from his appearance he looks like a third class passenger. And then in a smaller picture, there's a girl. She, quite opposite to the lad, is dressed like a first class lady.
Once again, the girl touches the little square, guiding the arrow towards the option called 'theatrical trailer'. Hitting a button, the panel flashes green, with a box that says the movie is 'rated pg-13'. What does that even mean? What is this? This can't be real! Maybe I'm dreaming, maybe Titanic never sank, maybe I'm not in Virginia in the future, with a delinquent! Suddenly the green goes away and is replaced by an object I can't even describe. I'm not seeing this! I'm not seeing this!
I think my heart just stopped beating, I'm staring right at the bow of a ship, a ship that is underwater, with rust and grim and dirt covering her. But I know, that has to be her! My ship! Oh Titanic! More and more of the ship becomes visable, I can't believe what I'm seeing! It can't be real! How is this girl just watching my ship, with such a nonchalant additude? How many times do you see this? A ship, underwater? And what's more it's my ship! My ship that I built from scratch in Belfast!
Now there's an old lady, saying she'll be damned! My god what is wrong with women? Saying they're damned! I've never heard such a thing out of a women's mouth before! Now the lady is saying that some young girl in the picture is her! I'm so confused, where did my ship go? Oh god this panel is going to kill me, since going down with my ship didn't! There she is! Looking just like she did when she was leaving Southhampton!
It's exactly the same! It's as though I'm seeing the scene all over again! The people waving and cheering! People saying it's the grandest ship in the world! Oh great, those two young people from the screen before are back! The poor boy and the rich woman! Get back to my ship! I want to know about my ship! I don't care about these people! Well, that's rude, I suppose I do care if they are passangers on my ship, but I don't need to follow them! I need to know what happened to Titanic!
My God! It's all on this screen! The grand staircase, the first class dining saloon, everything! Now that boy is shouting that he's king of the world! Right off the bow of my ship! Oh I wish I had been able to do that! When we set sail I certainly felt like king of the world! I'd never been more proud of a ship in all my life! Woah woah, wait a moment, the girl's about to jump off the back of the ship! What on earth is this?
I don't even think the delinquent is watching anymore, but I can't rip my eyes away from this panel! More images flash before me, of course the young people are a little intruiging, but now Titanic has hit an iceburg! She's sinking! Oh god she's sinking! People running around the deck in terror, them launching the boats. Hey! That man looks like me! He's questioning one of the officers why the boats are only being launched half full, but I asked that just a few hours ago! When I was standing there!
This isn't right, I can't be watching this! The ship breaks apart, and my heart breaks apart with it as I watch. Who's this James Cameron fellow? His name just flashed across the panel, but I can't think about it too long because the glass dome over the staircase has broken. There are people there! Oh God, the water is going to take them out! Now people are jumping off the rising stern! Oh please let this hurry up and end! I regret asking! Turn it off! Turn it off!
The boat's sinking! right before it disappears completely though, the panel turns black, once again showing the underwater bow. 'Titanic', indeed, that was my ship. I look back at the girl, who is currently staring at a box, with a similar panel to this 'dell', only hers has a man trapped inside it standing in front of a map, pointing at green and red blobs.
"Did you like it?" she asks, not even looking my way. Did I like it? Who in their right mind would enjoy watching people die? That was terrible! I try to think for a moment, alright, I'm in the future, that much has to be clear now, but how did I get here? And more importantly, how do I get back to my own time? Suddenly my eye catches on a book, sitting on the small table in between the beds. That book has my name on it! And a picture of me! I reach out and pick up the book, turning it over in my hands. A book about me? Who wrote a book about me?
Suddenly the girl looks up "Hey, that's mine!" she says. I swallow and look up at her "This is about me?" I ask, her eyes widen "What? No! It's about Thomas Andrews" she tells me. My hands are shaking "I'm Thomas Andrews" I tell her, she stares at the book, then at me, then at the book again. Before a giant smile comes upon her face "Awesome!".
Yes, this is a self insert story. Everybody get ready for a wild ride! Next chapter should be a bit better than this one, but I just had the urge to get started and I HAD to get this out. So, here's the opening. Poor Thomas seems rather confused. Let's see if I can straighten him out...
As always, please review! Especially for this one! It will be writing quite outside my normal narrative and I'd like feedback! Thanks for Reading!