Chapter 12
I must have blinked at the sound of the bullet being launched from the gun barrel, in a second the dying ship and all its passengers were gone. Somewhere in the back of my mind I must have known I was dreaming, for when I caught sight of the familiar doorway to the wine cellar the terror and pain of being shot at evaporated and I could breathe again.
"Are you alright, Miss Dawson?" Asked a low, melodic voice. At the sound of it I whipped my head around at the casual form of Mr. Caledon Hockley leaned against a wine rack looking pleased with himself.
"You!" I spat pointing a quivering finger at him and crouching back against the wall. But it was seeing his puzzled expression that I realized that what happens in dreams can only happen in dreams. "Oh, I'm sorry Mr. Hockley." I coward. I glanced around the room warily, and slowly as I took in the surroundings, I noticed that I wasn't in the same place I had been before. It was a basement-like room with a dank, musty smell. The walls and floors were poured cement and incased in them were rows and rows of wine bottles. "Where are we?"
"Why, we're in my secret wine cellar." He rocked off his heels and began to pace the floor. The archness in his voice made me recoil and I backed against the wall a little bit more, hiding in the shadows of a wine cabinet.
"How did we get here?" I asked him, narrowing my sultry green eyes to slits. "Where's Nathan?"
"Don't you remember, you followed me down here and tripped over the stairs in the dark and hit your head." Mr. Hockley said.
"No!" I said, a hot, fevered sensation rising in my head making me feel dizzy. "Something hit me in the head from behind, I was in your study, alone I could have sworn...where's Nathan?"
"In bed I should hope. It's about two in the morning." he kept pacing, swiveling his shot glass in his fingers, making the amber liquid slosh and spill out.
"No. Ruth, your maid, she was going to wake him up for me." At first I wasn't sure I was remembering right, he sounded so convincing. "Yes. Why wouldn't she come back for me if she couldn't wake him up?" I asked myself. Perhaps Ruth meant to let me get caught; now that was a troubling thought.
"Ruth is asleep as well." he answered softly. "You and I are the only two in the house still awake after hours. So," He chided taking a seat next to me on the floor, "what made you awaken so violently, sleeping beauty?" He stroked my lose curls tucking them neatly behind my ear, almost like a father would.
"A nightmare." I said with a shudder. "Me and Nate, we were somehow on this sinking ocean liner. Someone had chained him to a pipe down below so he would drown. I managed to free him but once we got to a life boat I- I just couldn't leave him." nodded in comprehension. "I almost left but jumped back on at the last second. We were hugging down below when-"
"Someone fired a bullet at you." Mr. Hockley cut me off in a second, smiling cunningly into my eyes.
"How did you -?" I asked him, warily.
"Oh, believe me; I've had that nightmare many times." He said staring off into space. "But mine are always from a different perspective." The corner of his full lips crooked into a subtle grin. I didn't dare tell him he was the shooter in the dream; I wanted to get out of here as quickly as possible.
"Well, I'm sorry for coming by so late...and for falling down the stairs. But I should be going. My parents must be awfully worried." I got up and headed for the door, but the following words made all the vigor drain from my body.
"I'm sure they are." He said, a roguish smile spreading across his face. "After all you've been up to these past few days, lying about where you're going, sleeping with my son..."
"How did you know that?" I demanded backing up against the door, my fingers curling around the door knob in case I needed to make a quick exit after his answer.
"Elizabeth, darling, I'm a very powerful man." He stated, leaning over so his forearms rested on his knees and his dark, lustful eyes pierced mine. "I know many things. For instance, I know that you and my son slept at the beach in that little shack last night, I know that my son, though his intensions may be honorable, could never really love a person enough to risk his life for them. And I know that you are the little mistake of my former fiancé Rose Dewitt Bukator and that slum dog, Jack Dawson. Both of whom I presumed to be dead until a few days ago. I owe that epiphany to you, Miss Dawson, you were the last piece of the puzzle." He tipped his glass to me.
"Leave them alone!" I screamed. "Leave my parents alone! What could you possibly want with them now, it's been fourteen years! Just leave them be!"
"Oh, but why do that?" He said, still sitting. "When I have the solution to all my problems right before me?"
"What do you want? Whatever it is I'll give it to you, if you leave my family alone!" I sobbed. "I'll keep away from Nathan, whatever you want!" Those last words tore at my heart.
"I could care less about Nathan." he took a long swig of brandy. "What I'm interested in is that diamond I know you have somewhere, tucked away in your room." He must have noticed the abashed look on my face because he began to elaborate. "My two lovely little girls were getting ready for bed a few nights ago, and as I was passing their room I could have sworn I heard something about a diamond necklace called Le Cour de la Mer being presented to them that day by one Elizabeth Dawson. And if they delivered that note to Nathan promptly they'd get to keep it."
"Damn!" I whispered sharply. I should have known better than to trust eight year olds to keep their idiot mouths shut.
"Yes, that was a turning point." He sighed. "It was from there that I knew to have my valet follow my son to the beach last night." He smiled to himself at his genius.
"You can have The Heart of the Ocean." I told him. "I don't care how much it's worth. It's just a stupid necklace!"
"Oh, but you see I would settle for that if that weren't the only thing denied from me that night." His eyes left my face and traced the outline of my body.
"You're disgusting!" I shouted, even louder than before, hoping someone would wake and come to my rescue.
"Rose never really loved me, no matter how hard I tried to win her." He moaned. "I only asked two things from her, that she honor her future husband and that she do what I asked of her. She did neither." His eyes brightened in the darkness as his gaze fell upon mine again. "But seeing as I can't very well get to her, now that she has a husband to protect her, I guess I'll have to settle for you." He got up and advanced toward me. My sweaty fingers slipped around the door knob but it would not turn. Locked.
"A little too thin for my taste, I must say." he breathed, pressing up against me, squeezing the air from my lungs. "But you'll do just fine." I opened my mouth to scream but before I could mouth a word he jammed his tongue in my open mouth and with his free hand, gripped my wrist and twisted it far to the right until it snapped. Tears streamed down my face, but he wouldn't allow me to cry out.
He whipped me around him and pushed me violently to the ground. As I lay there, clutching my broken arm and taking in those last few pain free moments, I prayed to god that he'd change his mind that he'd somehow gain a conscience and let me go. It was an empty hope. I was at the mercy of the infamous Caledon Hockley now. The only thing I could pray for that might actually come true was that he'd give my body back to my parents when he was done.
