SUMMARY: An impromptu viewing of Titanic with her sisters unlocks past life memories for Phoebe who remembers a star-crossed romance between one of her past lives, and a mysterious handsome stranger with a dark secret.
Charmed © Constance M. Burge and The Vampire Diaries © L. J. Smith. I don't own or have any affiliation with either TV shows.
I also claim no ownership of the movie Titanic. That belongs solely to director James Cameron.
Be warned this is a very long chapter. Just an FYI for you all!
Please review constructively and respectfully. Flames will NOT be tolerated.
SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST
"To think I might not see those eyes.
Makes it so hard not to cry.
And as we say our long goodbyes.
I nearly do."
~Snow Patrol: 'Run' (Final Straw [2003])
E Deck: Scotland Road
1:35am
The Scotland road on the E deck was the widest passageway on the ship, used frequently by crew and steerage passengers alike. It ran almost the length of the ship. In the wake of Titanic rapidly sinking in the North Atlantic, steerage passengers move along it like refugees; heading aft. There was a muted thudding noise coming from a nearby door, followed by a frustrated grunt.
Then… CRASH! The wooden doorframe splintered and the door bursts open under the force of the shoulders of two desperate vampire boys. Damon and Stefan stumble through and then help Phoebe into the corridor. A steward, who had been herding people along nearby, marches over with a disapproving scowl on his face.
"Here you two! You'll have to pay for that, you know. That's White Star Line property—"
"SHUT UP!" The Salvatore brothers and Phoebe shouted back at him, fed up with the crew of this doomed vessel.
The brothers lead Phoebe past the dumbfounded steward. They join the steerage stragglers going aft. In most places, corridors were blocked by large families carrying all their luggage. Phoebe shivers, and Damon rubs her arms trying to warm her up as they walk along. An Irishman, seeing the three of them shivering, offers them a flask of whiskey.
"This'll take the chill off." He reassures them.
Phoebe thanks the man and takes the flask without question. She takes a mighty belt and hands it to Damon who grins and follows her example; followed swiftly by Stefan. The brothers try a number of doors and iron gates along the way, trying to find a faster way out. But all of them are locked.
E Deck Corridors and Stairwell
Damon, Stefan and Phoebe push through the crowd. Stefan pulls aside one of the steerage passengers.
"What's the news?" Stefan inquires. The man looks like he'd seen a ghost.
"Apparently, the boats are all going."
Phoebe's eyes widen, as Damon curses.
"We gotta get up there or we're gonna be gargling saltwater." Another steerage passenger shouts in a thick Irish accent. Damon passes Phoebe to Stefan and elbows his way to the top of the staircase where he finds the stewards arguing with some of the passengers. He grab the bars of the steel gate which blocks the head of the stairwell. The crew open the gate a foot or so and a few of the women are squeezing through.
"Women only. No men. No men!" Hollers another steward.
But because of a language barrier, some of the terrified men try to rush through the gap, forcing the gate open. The crewmen and stewards push them all back, by shoving and pushing them.
"Get back! Get back you lot!" The steward orders. "Lock it!" He shouts at the crewmen who struggle to get the gate closed again as the idiotic steward brandishes a small revolver, and another has a fire axe. The gates are locked, and a desperate despairing cry goes up among the crowd, who surge forward pounding against the steel and shouting in several different languages.
"For the love of God, man, there are children down here! Let us up, so we can have a chance!" Growls yet another passenger. However, the crewmen are scared now. The situation has gotten out of hand, and they have an angry mob converging on them now. Damon gives up and pushes his way back down to Stefan and Phoebe.
"It's hopeless that way." He reports, pulling Phoebe back into his arms. Stefan rakes a hand through his unruly light brown hair, looking agitated.
"Well, whatever we're going to do, we better do it fast." Phoebe agrees and follows the brothers out of the crowd, clutching tightly to Damon's hand like a lifeline.
However their brilliant plan to find a different way out fails as they get hopelessly lost. They push past confused passengers: a mother changing her baby's nappy on top of an upturned steamer trunk … past a woman having a heated argument with a man in Serbo-Croatian, with a wailing child next to them … past a man kneeling on the ground trying to console a woman sitting on the floor, sobbing … and past another man with an English/Arabic dictionary, trying to figure out what the signs mean, while his wife and children wait for him patiently.
Damon, Stefan and Phoebe come upon a nearby stairwell and they go up two decks before everything comes to a halt when they come across a small group pressed up against a steel gate. The steward in attendance looks scared as some steerage men yell at him.
"I'll give him something to be scared about, if he doesn't co-operate." Damon vows. The steward somehow gathers up some hidden courage and addresses the steerage men in a slightly shaky voice.
"Go back to the main stairwell, with everyone else." He instructs, and Phoebe realises that they are stalling for time, to get all the First Class Passengers off the ship first and then presumably leaving everybody else to fend for themselves … or drown. "It'll all get sorted out there."
Phoebe breaks away from Damon, who follows her and glares at the steward.
"So why don't I believe you then?" She demands. The steward opens his mouth to reply, but Phoebe doesn't give him the chance. "No, you can forget the bullshit, run around speech. I am not a fool, and I suspect that you are stalling."
The steward pales.
Phoebe inwards grins in triumph. His expression all but made him sing like a canary.
"You're gonna just leave us all down here to drown. Aren't you?" She stated. The steward shrinks underneath the glares of all the steerage passengers, Damon, Phoebe and Stefan.
"I'm just followin' orders…" He answers meekly.
Damon scoffs. "Yeah, well. Follow this…"
He reaches through the bars and grabs the frightened man by the shirt and pulls him close. "You will open the gate. Then you will give any assistance required to those who need it, and you will do it without complaining on pain of death. Repeat." He states, slowly and clearly as he compels the incompetent steward.
"I will open the gate. I will give any assistance to those who need it, and I will do it without complaining on pain of death." The steward parroted. Those all around them were amazed by this unusual tactic Damon had just used to get them all through.
Damon gave a condemning smirk to the luckless man.
"I know you will." He pats the man condescendingly on the cheek and pulls his arm back through the gate as the stewards moves zombie like to complete the task. The moment he steps aside, Damon shoves him aside and escorts Phoebe up the staircase, with a silent Stefan following with his eyes never leaving the back of Damon's head.
"Let it go, Stefan." Damon warns him, his voice indicating that he was in no mood for his little brother's lecture or disapproval.
The Boat Deck: Port
Phoebe, Damon and Stefan burst out onto the boat deck from the crew staircase just up of the third funnel, followed by the large group of terrified steerage passengers. Phoebe stares at the empty davits in horror.
"The boats are gone!" Damon and Stefan immediately seek out other ways to get both themselves and Phoebe off the ship safely. Just then Phoebe notices Colonel Gracie hurrying along the deck, escorting two first class ladies.
She rushes up to him.
"Colonel! Are there any boats left?" She asks desperately.
Gracie nods.
"Yes, miss … there are still a couple of boats all the way forward. This way I'll lead you!"
But Damon had already seized her hand and started sprinting past Gracie, with Stefan close behind. They come across Lightoller who is still getting people into Boat 2. In his hand is a pistol, which he holds to ward off potentially unruly passengers. Twenty feet below, the sea is pouring to the doors and windows of B Deck staterooms. The roar of the water can be heard as it cascades into the ship.
"Women and children, please. Women and children only. Step back, sir." Lightoller continues calling out to the desperate, growing crowd.
Despite being wrapped up in Damon's arms, Phoebe shivers violently in the cold night air. Nearby a woman with two young daughters looks into the eyes of her husband, whom she knows she may never see again.
"Goodbye for a little while … only for a little while." Her husband promises her. He then looks at his little girls. "Go with mummy." The woman stumbles to the boat with her children, holding back her tears from them. It is clear the husband is choked with emotion.
"Hold mummy's hand and be a good girl. That's right." He soothes her. Phoebe scans the other women being helped onto the lifeboats: most are stoic, others are overwhelmed and have to be helped into the boats. A man gives a hastily scribbled note to a woman about to board the lifeboat.
"Please, get this to my wife in DeMoines, Iowa." He urges her.
Damon turns to Stefan.
"You'd better check out the other side." Stefan nods and runs off looking for a way around the deckhouse. Phoebe then realises what Damon's intention is, and she violently protests.
"You can just forget it, Salvatore. I'm not going anywhere without you!" Damon smiles, but moves to escort her towards the lifeboat.
"As much as I love hearing you say that, darling, you need to get in the boat, Rose." Damon insists.
"No. Not happening." Phoebe replies, stubbornly. Damon's eye twitches, before he pulls her in and kisses her forehead, trying to comfort her.
"I'll get the next one. I promise." He reassures her. "Besides, I'm already dead. I'll find my way back to you … Stefan too." He adds the last part somewhat reluctantly. Phoebe chuckles wetly.
"Not. Without. You." She enunciates.
Damon glares at her.
"Damn it woman. If it wasn't for the fact that I'm already dead, you'd be the death of me!" He snarls at her in a low, urgent tone.
Phoebe doesn't care. But before she could protest further; Lightoller turns around and grabs her arm, pulling her towards the boat. Phoebe turns and reaches out for Damon and their fingers brush for a moment, before she is rudely pulled away. Damon snarls at the person who touched her and the crewman shrinks back. Phoebe panics as she finds herself stepping down into the boat. It's all over in a rush and blur.
"Lower away!" Yells Lightoller, and the boat begins to descend. Damon looks down at Phoebe, not wanting to waste a second of his last view of her. Stefan steps up beside him.
"Where's Rose?" Damon wordlessly stares down, and Stefan glances down to see Phoebe tearfully looking back at them.
Phoebe watches everything in slow motion: the ropes going through the pulleys as the seamen start to lower the boat. All sound fades away as she watches Lightoller giving orders, his lips moving … but the only sound Phoebe hears is the blood pounding in her ears … she cannot believe that this is happening. A rocket bursts above in slow-motion as she gazes up at the Salvatore brothers. Stefan nodded at her respectfully, his face emotionless; but Damon has an anguished expression in his eyes and she sees the unshed tears.
Phoebe can't bear the pain she feels.
NO! Then she is up and moving. She weaves her way across the women next to her, and reaches the gunwale, climbing it… She hurls herself out of the boat to the rail of the A Deck Promenade, catching it and scrambling over the rail. Boat 2 continues on without her, but she is back on the Titanic.
"Rose!" She hears Damon shouting frantically. "No! What are you doing?"
Stefan rushes after his brother as he tears off, trying to find Phoebe.
Grand Staircase
Phoebe comes into the A deck foyer, and spots Damon charging at her. She runs to meet him, her coat billowing out behind her as she runs. They meet at the bottom of the stairs, and collide together in an embrace.
"Rose, you're so stupid! You're such an idiot!" Damon growls at her, but all the while he is kissing her and holding her as tight as he can. He can never forgive her for scaring the hell out of him when she jumped back on board the sinking ship.
"You jump, I jump. Right?" Phoebe replies. It was then that it occurred to Damon that Phoebe came back on the ship … for him. Finally! He wasn't the second choice!
"Right…" He agrees, his voice breaking slightly in his joy. Then he freezes when he recognises something sinister in the air, and he senses for the danger and spots Cole on the next deck up pointing a gun at them. He curses and pushes Phoebe out of the way of an oncoming bullet.
"Run! Run!" He screams to Phoebe, and they immediately take off down the corridor towards the First Class Reception room.
Cole gives chase with Stefan hot on his heels. The bottom of the Grand Staircase is flooded several feet deep. Damon and Phoebe come down the stairs two at a time, and run straight into the water making a desperate dash across the room to where the floor slopes up, until they reach dry footing at the entrance of the dining saloon. Cole spies them about to enter the dining saloon, and raises his gun to aim.
"NO!" roars Stefan and he dives in front of Cole as the half-demon shoots twice, and both bullets hit Stefan in the chest and pass through the other side. Phoebe turns when she hears the shots and screams.
"STEFAN!"
Damon turns and sees his brother drop like a marionette puppet with its strings cut. His face twists in anguish, but is relieved when Stefan shakily lifts his head up and looks directly at them. Cole snarls when he realises he'd missed and starts to run at Damon and Phoebe again, but Stefan manages to grab him by the ankle and sent Cole sprawling head first into the icy water.
"Go!" Stefan croaks. "I'll find you!" He promises, as he stays behind to face off against Cole.
Galley: Stairwell
Damon and Phoebe run through the galley and Phoebe runs up some stairs. But Damon immediately stops her and changes course, heading downstairs instead. They pause there momentarily so that Phoebe can catch her breath; they hear a low creaking groan … and the sound of a crying child. Phoebe gasps and go down a few steps to look along the next deck.
E Deck Corridor
The corridor is awash with icy water, about a foot deep. Standing against the wall, about 50 feet away is a little boy of about 3-years-old. The water swirls around his legs and he is crying with fear. Phoebe immediately rushes over to him.
"We can't leave him." She tells Damon, who nods without question and he picks up the boy. They make back towards the stairs, but a torrent of water comes pouring down the stairs like rapids. It becomes too powerful for them to go against.
"Come on." He tells Phoebe and they go running down the flooded corridor. At the end of the hall are a couple of heavy double doors. There is water spraying through the gap between the doors right up to the ceiling. The doors begin to groan and crack under the tons of pressure.
Damon's eyes widen in fear.
"Back! Go back!" Phoebe turns and runs back the way they came, taking a turn into a cross-corridor. A man comes running from the other way and upon seeing the little boy in Damon's arms he cries out and grabs the boy away from the vampire, yelling at him in Russian. He then turns and runs straight for the doors that are spraying water, and picks up a suitcase.
"No! Not that way! Come back!" screams Phoebe, desperately.
But it is too late, the double doors burst open and a wall of water comes tumbling into the corridor, sweeping away the Russian father and son instantly. It almost swallows up Damon and Phoebe too, but they manage to make it to a nearby stairway, going up.
The Stairwell
Phoebe pounds up the stairs in terror with Damon following behind her and nearly runs head long into a steel gate that blocks their way. At the top, Damon slams up against the fence and grips the bars, violently shaking them to break the lock open. A terrified steward who is standing guard on the landing above turns to run at the sight of the water thundering up the stairs.
"Wait! Wait! Help us!" Phoebe pleads.
"Unlock the gate." Damon adds.
For once, the unshakable Salvatore, looked genuinely fearful for not only himself but for Phoebe. The steward tries to ignore them and continues running. However, the water continues to swell around Damon and Phoebe pouring in through the gate and slamming them up against it painfully. Seconds later, the water reaches up to their waist.
"For the love of God, man! Help us!" yells Damon, at his wits end.
"Please!" sobs Phoebe.
The steward stops and looks back, seeing them there with their arms reaching through … then sees the water pouring through the gate onto the landing. He has a change of heart.
"Fuckin' hell!"
He runs back, slogging against the current and pulls a key ring from his belt and struggles to unlock the padlock as the water fountains up around them. The lights overhead start to short out and the landing is plunged into darkness. The steward can feel the water rising over the lock and he is forced to find the lock by feeling around. By now, Damon and Phoebe have been carried by the rushing water to the ceiling and are being pressed against it.
"Come on! Come on!" growls Damon. Suddenly the gate gives and swings open, and they are pushing through by the force of the water. Damon, Phoebe and the steward make it to the stairs on the other side of the landing, and the couple follow their rescuer up to the next deck.
After the steward abandons them, Damon and Phoebe run up seemingly endless stairs as the ship continues to groan and torgues around them.
The First Class Smoke Room.
Thomas Andrews stands in front of the fireplace, staring at the large painting above the mantle. The fire is still going in the fireplace and the room is empty except for Andrews.
An ashtray falls off the table.
Damon and Phoebe rush into the room, out of breath and dripping wet. As they make their way through towards the aft revolving door … Phoebe notices Andrews. The lifebelt he was wearing is off and lying on a nearby table. Damon notices, and his face sobers when he realises Andrews' intentions.
Phoebe walks over.
"You won't even make a try for it, Mr. Andrews?" Phoebe asks, her voice quiet. Andrews looks over at the young couple, a defeated look on his face.
"I'm sorry that I didn't build you a stronger ship, young Primrose." A tear rolls down his cheek. Damon quietly places a comforting hand on her shoulder.
"We better go. The ship's going fast … we've got to keep moving." Andrews walks over to the table and picks up his lifebelt, handing it over to Phoebe who takes it limply.
"Good luck to you, Primrose." He then looks up at Damon. "Good luck to you both."
Phoebe hugs him, tears falling from her eyes.
"And to you, Mr. Andrews." She whispers, before she steps back from him and takes Damon's hand. Without another glance, they disappear through the revolving door.
The Boat Deck and Various Locations
The ignored orchestral band finishes playing the waltz. They look about fearfully, as Wallace Hartley, the Bandmaster looks at the orchestra members.
"Right, that's it then."
They all nod and leave him, walking forward along the deck. Hartley remains where he is and slowly and shakily puts his violin to his chin and plays the first notes of 'Nearer My God to Thee'. One by one, the band members return and listen to the melancholy melody. Slowly, they join in with Hartley, filling out the sound so that it reaches all over the ship during this quiet, terrible night.
As the song is being played, a series of events take place all over the ship:
The Bridge
A seaman takes off his lifebelt and offers it to Smith who declines it by staring through him. Without saying a word he turns and goes onto the bridge, and enters the enclosed wheelhouse and closes the door. He remains there, alone, surrounded by the gleaming brass instruments and seems to inwardly collapse.
First Class Smoking Room
Andrews stands like a statue.
He pulls out his fob watch and checks the time, then reaches out and opens the latch to the mantle clock and adjusts it to the correct time: 2:12am.
The time now reads what historians will record as the time Titanic sank.
Everything has to be correct for the history records.
The Millionaire Suite
The seawater swirls in from the private promenade deck.
Primrose's paintings are submerged; and the Picasso transforms underneath the water's surface.
The Degas painting starts to run. Monet's water lillies come to life.
A random First Class Suite
Two figures lay side by side, fully clothed, on a bed. The elderly woman is crying in fear, but her husband immediately spoons her and they hold hands like young lovers. The water pours into the room through a doorway. It swirls around the bed, two feet deep and rising fast.
A Steerage Cabin in the bowels of the Ship
A young Irish mother, who had been stoically waiting at the bottom of the staircase where Stefan, Damon and Phoebe were waiting impatiently for the idiotic stewards to open the gates, is putting her two young children into bed. She finishes telling them a bedtime story and pulls up the covers, making sure they are all warm and cozy.
Then she lies down with them on the bed, speaking soothingly and holding them close.
Boat Deck and The Bridge
2:00am
A wave travels to the boat deck as the bridge house sinks into the water.
On the port side, a lifeboat that the remaining male passengers had tried to pull down and climb into is picked up by the water. Working frantically, the men attempt to detach it from the falls so the sinking ship won't drag it under. Colonel Gracie hands Lightoller a pocket knife and he saws furiously at the ropes as the waters swirls around his legs.
The boat, still upside down, is swept off the ship by the strong current. Men dive in, desperately swimming to stay with it.
Stefan, who had fought off Cole for as long as he could before the half-demon mysterious shimmers away without a trace, struggles to help out where ever he could. He is worried for his brother and Phoebe's safety, as he is unsure they made it away and got back up to the Boat deck safely.
In the wheelhouse – which is almost fully submerged underwater – Smith stands near the wheel and watches the black water climbing the windows of the enclosed room. He has the stricken expression that someone who is damned would wear on Judgment Day. The windows succumb underneath the tremendous pressure, and a wall of water edged with shards of broken glass slams into Smith who disappears underneath a vortex of foam.
On the surface, a young Italian steerage passenger swims for his life. He gets swirled under a davit. The ropes and pulleys tangle around him as the davit goes under the water, and he is dragged down. Underneath the water he struggles to free himself, and then kicks back to the surface. He draws in breath and gasps for air in the freezing water.
Wallace Hartley sees the water rolling rapidly up the deck toward them. He holds the last note of the hymn in a sustain, and then lowers his violin.
"Gentlemen, it has been a privilege playing with you tonight." He says solemnly.
The A Deck Aft: Port Side
2:05am
Damon leads Phoebe out of the Palm Court into a dense crowd. He pushes his way to the rail and looks out at the state of the ship. The bridge is under water and there is chaos on deck. Damon helps Phoebe put on her lifebelt as Stefan rushes up to them, relieved.
"Stefan!" shrieks Phoebe and hugs him tightly.
Damon smiles warmly at his brother a truce formed between them as he clasps his brother's hand. People stream around them, shouting and pushing. The moment between the brothers breaks as they begin to make their final plans.
"Okay … we keep moving aft. We have to stay on the ship as long as possible." Stefan states.
Damon and Phoebe nod as they push their way aft through the panicking crowd. Nearby, a collapsible lifeboat is spun round like a leaf in the currents, and it slams against the side of the forward tunnel.
The same Italian steerage passenger is drawn up against the grating of a stokehold vent as water gushes through it. The force of the water roaring down the ship traps him against it, and he is dragged down under the surface as the ship continues to sink. He struggled to free himself but finds that it is impossible. A concussion deep in the bowels of the ship belches out hot air from the ventilator, which ejects the young man.
He surfaces in a roar of foam and continues swimming for his life.
A Deck, B Deck, Well Deck and Aft
Damon, Stefan and Phoebe clamber over the A Deck aft rail. Then, using all of their strength, the brothers lower Phoebe towards the deck below, holding her with one hand each.
Phoebe dangles, then falls. Damon and Stefan jump down behind her.
They immediately join a swarm of people literally crawling and scrambling over each other to get down the narrow stairs to the well deck … the only way up. The brothers exchange quick glances and immediately head for the B Deck railing.
Damon goes over first so that he could catch Phoebe, and Stefan helps her over. He lowers Phoebe down again, and Damon prepares to grab her, but is accidentally pushed aside by a group of frightened steerage passengers and Phoebe falls hard, hitting her temple on the deck and she is momentarily dazed and doesn't get up at first.
Damon swore, and turned to the culprits responsible. His rage is immeasurable, but he decides they aren't worth it and immediately goes over to her side, where Stefan is already attending to Phoebe.
"Are you okay?" Stefan asks, urgently. Phoebe is helped to her feet by Damon, as she nods.
"Yes, I'm fine." Both brothers sigh in relief and the three of them push through the crowd towards the well deck.
What they don't know was that Phoebe was lying; the moment her head hit the hard decking of the sinking ship, stars sprang to her eyes. Even now, there was a dull ache pulsing on her temple. Phoebe had a sinking feeling that this was what happened to Primrose, and she knew she would not make it to the Carpathia.
She was literally a ticking time bomb.
Well … at least I know Primrose's fate… and holy crap did it hurt! She thinks sadly.
Damon, Stefan and Phoebe watch as people are jumping rails into the water. The ship groans and shudders, and the man ahead of Stefan is walking like a zombie.
"Yeah, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death—"
"Walk a little faster through that valley, pal!" snarled Damon, from behind Phoebe as Stefan pushes the man impatiently up the rest of the stairs.
Forward tunnel
2:08am
The stay cables along the top of the funnel snap, and lash like steel whips down into the water. The unlucky few watch as the funnel topples from its mounts. It falls like a temple pillar twenty eight feel across it crashes into the water with an enormous splash. People who are swimming underneath it disappear in an instant. Our Italian friend is only a few feet away, but is hurled back by the huge way.
He comes up, gasping … but still swimming.
The water pours into the open end of the funnel draws in several swimmers. The funnel sinks, disappearing but hundreds of tons of water pour down through the 30 foot hole the funnel creates, thundering down into the belly of the ship. A whirlpool is formed in the hole in the ocean, and our friend sees this and swims like hell as more people are sucked down to their deaths behind him.
He manages to clear the whirlpool's suction, and grins weakly, determination on his face to survive at all costs.
Boat Deck Foyer and the Grand Staircase
Water races through the doors and windows, cascading down the stairs like rapids.
J. J. Astor is swept down the marble steps to A Deck, which is already flooded into a roiling vortex. He grabs the first thing he can lay his hands on, and looks up in time to see the 30 foot glass dome overhead explode inward from the wave of water washing over it.
A 'Niagara Falls' amount of water thunders into the room, blasting through the first class opulence.
This is the day of reckoning for elegance.
Stern of the Ship
Phoebe and the Salvatore Brothers struggle as they climb the well deck staircase as the ship starts tilting. Phoebe, barely conscious because of her critical injury, registers that somebody is touching her arse and is surprised when she is immediately boosted up and into the brothers' arms.
"Sorry, Miss!" the Drunken Baker Joughin apologises, which Phoebe waves off, grateful for the assistance.
Hundreds of people are already on the poop deck, and more are pouring in every second. Damon and Phoebe cling together as they and Stefan struggle across the tilting deck. As the bow goes down, the Stern rises. People begin jumping from the well deck, the poop deck, and the gangway doors. Some hit debris in the water and are hurt or killed instantly.
The trio continue climbing up, despite the increase in angle. Hundreds of passengers, cling desperately to every fixed object on deck, and huddle on their knees around Titanic's resident chaplain, Father Byles, who has his voice raised in prayer. Some of the people crowded around him are praying, sobbing or just staring into space; blank with dread.
Damon pulls himself from handhold to handhold, whilst working together with Stefan to tug Phoebe up along the deck.
"Come on, Phoebe. God isn't always reliable, so we've got to do all the work for once." He and his brother stare pityingly at the crowd, as they push through them.
A man loses his footing up ahead, and slides towards them. Stefan helps him up. The ship's propellers are now twenty feet above the water and rising fast, as they make it to the stern rail, right at the base of the flagpole. They grip the rail, jammed in between other people as Damon and Stefan sandwich Phoebe between them, trying to protect her.
Phoebe stares all around her at the faces of the doomed. A young mother next to her is clutching her five-year-old son to her, who is crying in terror.
"Shhh. Don't cry. It'll be over soon, darling. It'll all be over soon." She tries to soothe him, but fails as she is just as terrified.
Various locations within the flooded ship
During the horrific commotion outside, everything not bolted down inside the ship begins shifting. Cupboards burst open and shower the floor with tons of china. A piano sides across the floor and crashes against a wall. Furniture tumbles across the Smoking Room floor.
On the A deck promenade, passengers and crew lose their grip and slide down the wooden deck, like they were on some freak bobsled run going hundreds of feet before they hit the water at high speed. Sarah, Primrose's maid, slips from the grip a fellow crew member has on her and she slides away, screaming. At the stern, the propellers are now 100 feet out of the water and still rising.
Panicking people leap from the poop deck rail and fall screaming and hit the water like mortar rounds. It is doubtful that they have survived the fall, let alone the impact against the water. A man falls from the poop deck and hits the bronze hub of the starboard propeller with a sickening smack that makes Phoebe cringe and whimper against Damon's shoulder.
Surviving swimmers look up and see the stern towering over them, with the propellers rising against the stars.
110 feet … 120 feet…
The Boats drifting not too faraway
The sounds of the dying ship and the screaming people come across the water to the safety of the drifting lifeboats full of First Class Passengers all staring at the Titanic, in stunned horror.
Titanic's stern is high in the air, and angles up over forty-five degrees. The propellers are now 150 feet out of the water. Over a thousand passengers are clinging for their lives to the decks, looking from a distance like a swarm of bees. This image is shocking, unbelievable, and unthinkable.
Philippa stares at the spectacle, unable to frame it or put it into any proportion.
"God Almighty." Molly Brown breathes, eyes glued and unable to look away.
The dying liner's lights flicker and go out over the ship. The Titanic has now become a vast black silhouette against the stars. Bruce Ismay, who had fled the ship minutes earlier, has his back to the ship; unable to watch the steam sink. He is catatonic with remorse, and his mind is overloaded. While he can avert his eyes, he cannot block the sounds of dying people and machinery.
Suddenly there is a loud crack…
The Boat Deck
Near the third funnel, Cole's valet clutches the ship's railing.
He stares down as the deck splits right between his feet. A yawning chasm opens up with a thunder of breaking steel, and as he watches, the ship's structure splits apart right in front of him. He gapes down into a widening maw, seeing straight down into the bowels of the ship and hears a booming concussion that sounds like artillery fire.
People fall into the widening crevasse, looking like rag dolls. The stay cables on the funnel part and snap across the decks like whips, ripping off devits and ventilators. A man is hit by a whipping cable, and another cable smashes the rail next to the Valet and it rips free. He falls backward into the pit of jagged metal. There are fires, explosions and sparks that light up the yawning chasm as the hull splits down through nine decks to the keel.
The sea then pours into the gaping wound.
Titanic
2:10am (about 2 minutes before the finale)
The stern of the ship – almost four hundred feet long – falls back toward the water.
Damon, Stefan, Phoebe and everyone else scream as they feel themselves plummeting. The sound goes up like the roar of fans at a sporting event. The few that are swimming underneath the stern shriek as they look up and see the keel coming back down on them. The massive stern section of the Titanic falls back and thunders down into the sea, pushing out a mighty wave of water.
Damon, Stefan and Phoebe struggle to hold onto the stern railing. They feel the ship seemingly righting itself, and there are some that foolishly think it is their salvation.
"We're saved!" They all chorused.
But Damon and Stefan exchange grim looks and Phoebe closes her eyes tight, still holding onto Damon with an iron grip. Falling from a great height was not helping her in her current injured state.
That was when the horrible mechanics begin to play out.
Having been pulled down by the gigantic weight of the flooded bow, the buoyant stern tilts up rapidly. Everyone feels the rush of ascent as the stern angles up again, and everyone scrambles to cling to benches, railings, ventilators … anything to keep them from sliding as the stern tilts back up once again, going up past 45 degrees, then past sixty.
People begin to fall, sliding and tumbling, as they skid down the deck all screaming and flailing to grab onto something. They even wrench other people loose and pull them down with them as well. A pile-up of bodies grow at the forward rail.
"Move!" Damon yells to Stefan who immediately climbs over the stern rail and reaches down for Phoebe, who is rapidly becoming unresponsive because of her injury. Damon mistakes this for fear.
"Come on! Stefan's got you, I've got you!" He urges as Phoebe finally extends a hand and Stefan pulls her over the rail, and Damon scrambles over once she is clear.
This is the same place that Damon and Stefan had once pulled Primrose back from two nights earlier … only this time they are - ironically - using the railing as a life-supporter, instead of using it as a launch pad into the churning waters below. Damon realises this and hugs Phoebe to him fiercely. The stern is once again straight in the air, reaching for the stars. It bobs there like a cork for a long grace period, the buoyancy stable.
Phoebe pulls her head back from Damon's shoulder, and looks down groggily fifteen stories to the sea at the base of the stern section. The people around them, who didn't bother to climb over, hang by their fingertips from the railing with their legs dangling over the long drop. One by one, they plummet down the vertical face of the poop deck, bouncing horribly off deck benches and ventilators. Damon and Stefan once again sandwich Phoebe side by side on what used to be the vertical face of the hull, gripping the railing for dear life.
Phoebe shakes herself out of her groggy state and takes a hold of the railing to steady herself. Beneath their feet, the gold letters TITANIC are emblazoned across the stern. Phoebe swallows back her fear, as she stares down at the black ocean waiting to swallow her into it. She silently, but deliberately grabs the brothers' hands. They look over at her, and understanding, squeeze back.
"It's the deep breath before the plunge…" Phoebe silently quotes a line from a Lord of the Rings movie.
2:12am
Finally, and horribly, the relentless plunge begins as the stern section floods. Damon squeezes Phoebe's hand to grab her attention, but she can't look away from the rapidly approaching water ahead of her.
"Take a deep breath and hold it right before we go into the water. The ship will suck us down. Kick for the surface and keep kicking. DO NOT let go of my hand or Stefan's." Phoebe nods frantically. "We're gonna make it, Rose. Trust me." Damon reassures her.
The water is almost within their reach and Phoebe stares at the water coming up for them, and grips both of their hands harder.
"I trust you." She yells over the loud gushing water. Below them, the poop deck disappears. Then the plunge gathers speed, engulfing the docking bridge and rushing up the last 30 feet. The stern descends into the sea, and the name TITANIC disappears.
"3...2...1... NOW!" Damon, Stefan and Phoebe draw in deep breaths and vanish under the water.
A/N: And that's a wrap! The next chapter will begin on a very sober moment though, so be warned. Until then.
TTFN xx
