This chapter is a bit confusing. Basically, the ones in italic is Haley's dream and the ones that are not is the stuff that is actually happening. and the guy in her dreams, she doesn't know who he is and I have made no reference to him being Nathan or anyone else. Thanks and enjoy the chapter!!
The night came for her; just like they always come. As the sun hid itself behind the darkness and the warmth it brought gave way to the cold…always the cold... she lay in her bed, wondering why she felt so different.
"I'm alive" she whispered as she watched the moonlight dance on her walls.
No longer would she drift through meaningless days filled with empty smiles and lifeless souls. Something was born inside her; stirred her like nothing before. True her smile was now broken rather than empty and her soul and her heart didn't seem to belong to her anymore but she could feel again.
Haley could feel the tears of a crying child that had just fallen down along the slippery boardwalk; she could feel the anger of the sailor that had just gotten yelled at for not doing his job properly and most of all she could feel the laughter…everyone's laughter.
And she honestly thought that she could laugh like that one day…someday.
But then when her eyelids fluttered shut and sleep overcame her, her ability to feel made her vulnerable again. And the little child slept soundly as the night came for; as they always come.
I sat alone in a darkened hallway, my back leaning against the wall and my knees pulled close to my chest. There was a light at the end of the hallway; so bright that for one moment I couldn't see anything but then it dimmed; just like they have to at the end. I breathed out with my mouth as I kept my eyes trained on the ground in front of me. The air condensed in front of me and for a moment I could see my own breath coming out in vapor; it was so cold...
Haley James pushed her blanket off her and groaned, her eyes shut and her mind asleep. She twisted and turned, shivering in the cold.
I could hear the voices now. The people were coming…running. They were being hunted like deer in the forest chased down by wolves…No, it was more like a bear in his domain running away from mankind…Because the hunters were human…and the humans were hunters…
I looked at the end of the hallway and listened to the pounding footsteps…There were children there…they were crying and I wonder if their mother had left them too…I was scared… My heart was beating so fast that I couldn't think straight. At the end of the hallway, the light was blocked by the shadows of the people that were running to this place. I stood up shakily…
Haley sat up in bed, still asleep. She swung her legs over to the side and stood up. Her face was strained yet still her eyes remained shut…
The people finally came into view and it seemed like they were running in slow motion… They were running to my direction… I turned to the other direction and saw another light at the other end. I looked to my left and to my shock; I saw dozens and dozens of people running…They were within twenty feet of me. I slowly turned to my right again…and started to run…
Haley James walked to her bedroom door and pulled it open. She didn't hit anything on her way out because although she was fast asleep, she worked on force of habit. She walked to the cabin door and walked out of the room she shared with her mother. The hallway lights were dimmed and the only sounds that were heard were the crashing waves outside the thin walls.
I turned around as I ran…The people were within ten feet of me and behind them…the hunters came…It was a stampede…As the hunters came, the sound of rushing waves filled my ears…A flood of water poured into the crowded hallway… I turned again and prayed to God to save me…
She climbed down the wide staircase to the deck below.
A few hundred metres away and two floors down, Nathan Scott sat in his cabin, tending to his wounds. As soon as he had been released from his kidnapping, he had wanted to run straight to her cabin and keep her close to him. Keep her safe. But his face was in a mess, there were wounds all over and she would ask questions. And it might lead to her finding out about things she shouldn't know yet. No, it was better this way. She was protected. The wounds were light, she would see him tomorrow.
Her foot seemed to find each stair below her and she held out her hands by her side to steady her. She was silent in her movements and still her eyes remained shut.
Haley…Someone was calling me…I ignored the sound; it was in my head…Haley… Trembling, I stopped at the other end of the hallways and turned around to witness the scene before me. The water was flooding the hallway in tidal waves…The people at the back had fallen and the hunters stepped over them crushing their bodies as the water swept them away. The people nearest to the front had reached me; they pushed me aside as they ran past me and I fell to the ground. The water hadn't reached me yet but it would. I swerved to the right to avoid being crushed and trembled waiting for the stampede to pass. Finally the people that were still standing had left the room. And there was silence.
The water was lapping my body gently. It was so cold…I was so tired. Haley…
Nathan frowned as he suddenly felt troubled. Something was wrong. He didn't know what but he could feel trouble brewing. His mind suddenly seemed unease. Like someplace far in the echoes of his mind, someone was screaming for him. He stood up suddenly and then something clicked in his head. Haley.
Haley…The same voice calling me again. I raised my head slightly to look up. My eyes widened in surprise and my mouth fell open slightly, agape. I pushed myself off the water and slowly stood up on knees that trembled. Haley… I stood up; the water was only ankle deep and looked at him again. Standing alone in the other end of the hallway…my blue eyed savior…the one whose eyes had reminded me of my necklace…The one I had abandoned that fateful day although I had promised I would never leave… He was back to haunt me…
Haley's hand reached for the entrance doorknob and turned it slowly. She walked out into the wooden deck, her hair rising on her arms in the cold. And still her eyes remained shut.
I walked slowly to him…my feet splashing the water as I treaded on it…The tidal waves had stopped and the water remained at the same level it was… I wondered if I should smile at him as I walked to him…He was looking at me intently…Yet he was a child, only a child but as I looked at my small hands and my undersized figure, I realized that I too was a child…Time had stopped for us…or maybe we had slowed it down…
I stopped in front of him, my eyes filled with curiosity… I reached up and touched his face and he closed his eyes at my touch. Then he opened them and looked at me with fierce intensity… "Who are you?" I whispered…His eyes softened and he took my hand from his face and kissed it… "You don't remember me?" he finally asked as he held my hand in between us… I hesitated. "I know you saved me when we were kids" I said slowly… He let go of my hand and I thought I had hurt him. Then he kissed the top of my head and pulled me close to him…He held me close and I found myself holding him back…
"I'll always save you" he said softly… I drew back and looked up at his face… "But I don't know who you are" I murmured… He smiled down at me. He ran his hand lightly through the base of my hair and my eyes followed his movements as my heart stopped…Then my eyes met his ones again… "It doesn't matter" he said softly… "The only thing that matters right now is you…"… I hesitated before saying "the only thing I remember is I think I loved you" I laughed softly as the tears fall down…I looked down, ashamed… "Does that sound ridiculous?"… "No" he whispered, tilting my chin up. I looked in his eyes again. "It doesn't Haley"…
He looked in the end of the other hallway and frowned… "We don't have much time"… I wiped my tears with my childlike hands… "Why?" I asked confused… He smiled gently… "It's the way it is…" Fresh tears fell down my face and I cried softly… "I don't want to leave you again…" He kissed my tears and I closed my eyes… "I loved you too Haley" he whispered…
But when I open my eyes again…he was gone…
Haley stood in the middle of the wooden deck, the wind blowing her for once let down hair. And although her eyes remained shut; tears rolled down her cheeks.
I would have cried there and then but at that exact moment, the sound of pounding feet echoed through the hallway. I looked up at the other end of the hallway and saw the hunters…They saw me and smiled cruelly… I screamed…I turned; my hair whipping around my face and ran…
Haley turned suddenly and started to run down the long deck to the other end of the ship.
I ran down the hallway to another one. I ran down long corridors, panting and crying… I ran until I couldn't breathe but the steady footsteps that followed me and the cruel cackling sound prompted me to keep on moving… I turned around to find them within ten feet of me…I suddenly turned right around a corner and found myself staring at a dead end. I turned around to find at the other end, a balcony…
Haley stopped at the other end of the deck. The wind was howling at her head and the tears were now dry on her face. Sleep walking; she made her way to the railing at the end of the deck.
The hunters would kill me if they caught me…The only way to survive was to jump off the balcony… I walked over to it and looked over the railing at the ground below… The ground loomed at me from twenty feet down… I looked at the corridor I had come from to find the hunters there already…They smiled at me like a predator would at its prey… They walked slowly to me and I knew that I had no choice… I swung one leg over the railing…
Haley walked to the railing and swung one leg over.
And swung the other too…
Haley stumbled a little as she tried to swing the other leg over. She tripped; below her the ocean raged on. She managed to swing the other one over. Sixty feet below her, her death awaited her in the form of icy waters.
I turned to face the hunters… "Don't come near me" I screamed. "I swear to God I'll jump"… They laughed at my threat…I looked down at the ground, some twenty feet away.
"Don't come near me" Haley screamed at no one. "I swear to God I'll jump". She turned around and looked down, ready to jump.
"Don't do it" Nathan said as he ran to the deck. He saw her standing over the railing, her hair billowing in the wind and at that moment he had never been so scared in his life.
"Don't come near me" she screamed. She was sobbing now. "Stay back"
Nathan stopped running the moment he was ten feet away from her. "Take my hand and I'll pull you back in" he said gently, his voice breaking at her pitiful state.
"No!" she said. "Stay where you are. I mean it. I'll let go".
"Don't. I won't lose you again" he said softly as he slowly walked to her.
"Don't come any closer" she threatened. "Leave me alone"
He made a decision there and then. He took off his shoes and walked closer to her. "If you let go of that railing and fall down, then I'm jumping in there and saving you" he said as he took of his jacket.
"What?" she said, distractedly.
"I mean it" he said. "You jump, I jump".
Haley James opened her eyes finally. She looked down at the raging ocean below her and her confusion gave way to terror. She started screaming as she held the railing tightly. Her vertigo gave way as she felt herself slipping, slipping into the vast darkness of the ocean.
"I got you" someone said as he grabbed on to her. "I've got you" he steadied her and then wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her in. She clutched to him and held on until she was safe and even then she didn't let go.
"I've got you" he kept saying as he held her close on the wooden deck of the ship and she cried into his shirt; the vast darkness of the night enveloping them. And the night would come for her…as it always came…
Yet he would always save her…