Catrina's legs were powering her down a dirt road, a desert landscape was her entire surroundings, dirt flew up in gusts of fog around her feet. She didn't know why she was there, but she had the urge to just keep on running. She abruptly stopped at an abandoned gas station. With her eyes squinted, she looked about her with her hands on her hips. Her eyes rested on the horizon -where a sizzling tarmac road was on view leading towards her and under her feet. Within the hazy heat waves, she saw a truck come into sight, it came towards her, and slowly stopped on the opposite side of the road. Catrina's mum stepped out of the car. "Honey...honey!" Maureen rushed towards her in disbelief, Catrina's heart leapt -she had finally been found. "Mike...come out here it's Catrina!" Dodge stumbled out the truck.
"Catrina what are you doing all the way out here?" Dodge exclaimed as Maureen embraced her. Catrina was lost for words, a lump was tightly lodged in her throat and she was unable to move -shock had paralysed her to the spot. Even though she didn't know how she got there - she felt nothing could spoil the moment - The only problem was the intense heat wave of the desert made her fever go up...not to mention the contents of her stomach, Catrina pulled back from her mum and bent her back to retch. A hand rested on her back, her head came back up and to her surprise she was back on the ship. Utter confusion and fear filled her voice.
"Why am I here...w-what's going on?"
"Sssssh hush now, you're hallucinating." Jack's voice was slow and calming - there was not a trace of disgust in his voice.
Her back remained bent as she stared about her. "Where's the truck...and the desert...and-and my mother!"
"-It was never here Cat...you're sick remember, now lie back down." He said -leaning fully over her body.
"I want to go back."
"Okay...you can go back to your hallucination -But do it in bed." Jack gripped her shoulder and pulled her up straight, his lips lingered by her ear. "Now go." A shudder went through her spine which seemed to automatically cool her down. Catrina didn't recall herself climbing into bed, but found her head slowly sinking into a fluffy pillow - things around her slowly went into darkness and she felt frightfully alone. Her mind was bewildered...she desperately wanted to be rid of the ship...away from Jack, on the other hand she wanted to stay within his company -a murmur escaped her lips and echoed through the darkness "Jack." Then a hand delicately clasped hers.
A sneer came to Jack's lips as her fingers responded and he found his hand being stroked hers. A lingering desire to jump in bed next to her was pretty strong - but he knew he couldn't, she was sick and unaware...and he was -well, dangerously horny. He swiftly flicked his hand out from under hers and proceeded to the door, he gave her a last look over before leaving. He needed violence and some good sex.
--------------------------------------------------
To Murphy's disappointment...Santos arrived one minute shy of their departure. While Dodge and Munder chatted merrily about comical moments within their past, Greer and Santos were bitching about the others on deck. Murphy cast a cautious eye on Maureen who was looking back at him apologetically.
Dodge had begun to raise his voice in his half-drunken state. "-So when me and the Mrs got home...we found Catrina and Emma- her mate, lying on the front garden laughing themselves silly, dressed in batman and robin costumes." Dodge cracked up...as Munder bashed his fist on the table in laughter. "After Maureen and I had pulled ourselves together, we asked them why."
"They didn't tell us anything...but as I was bringing them in the house, I could smell weed on their breath."
Munder rolled his eyes. "Teenagers."
"It only turned out they had found my old stash in the attic." They in unison snorted as their heads slowly sunk to the table in fit of giggles.
"I bet you were furious...your little girl smoking pot."
"Nah! They're teenagers - what d'you expect? -Anyhow I should of thrown it away soon as we got Catrina."
"Yeah but still she should of known better not to smoke weed."
"No...Emma swore to me she had encouraged Catrina to smoke it - Not much damage was done -except for the exotic after smell which took weeks to fade, every-person that set foot in our house would leave as high as a cloud." Dodge hissed the last bit out absolutely consumed with hysterics. Munder rolled in his chair.
"Oh wait wait it gets better!" Maureen jumped in before her husband could say another word.
"-I think you've said enough..."
Munder stared at her through droopy eyes. "But Maureeeen.." He empathized every letter in her name "-There's soo much catching up to do."
"Well there'll be plenty of catching up to do when we're on our way back home with Catrina." Her voice was strained, as she stared down at the louts before her, she noticed them glance at each other wearily. "Oh I wish you wouldn't do that..."
"Do what?" Santos had just stepped into the kitchen area with Greer. "Showing our concern towards our upcoming death defying mission into no-mans land." His negative speech caused Murphy to turn around from what he was doing.
"If you're going to think negative...why bother coming."
"Hey I didn't start this off...it was tweedle-dee and tweddle dumb over here giving each other hopeless looks."
"-Yeah - But you were implying something."
"No I wasn't...you're just getting paranoid old man -so get off my case!"
"Why don't you make me!" Murphy stepped forward and pushed Santos against the wall and they began to scuffle. Maureen immediately came forward to brake the two up. "Murph take it easy...Santos you shouldn't have said anything." Before they could tackle each other again she pushed Santos onto the other side of the boat. "Now let's chill shall we."
The others settled down, Mike stared up at his wife admirably. "God I love that woman." Maureen blushed slightly.
"Why the hell am I blushing."
Munder looked from one to the other. "Cause 20 years ago he wouldn't have been able to say that...well not out loud at least."
"20 years...that's how long it's been?" Greer outline could just be seen on the outskirts of the table lights, the others nodded in response. "Jesus Christ." He took a large swig out of his beer can. "A lot of those years have been hell for me...always been looking over my shoulder for something to come and -you know- claim me and send me home." He shuddered thinking back to the fall from the elevator shaft. "I could never use elevators again or watch those old Italian films...they gave me the creeps -(shivered) "Oh...and I almost had a heart attack when I saw my daughter's Scarlet prom dress." The others stared at him in disbelief.
Santos scratched his chin contemplatedly "Is this to do with that woman -what's her name...Francoise?"
"-Francesca."
"Ah I remember you writing about her in your letter." Maureen added "Your only letter."
Greer smiled weakly. "Sorry." In all that time they had known each other, the ordeal they had been through, it felt odd they had nothing much to say...not even a million letters could express what they went through.
They stood/ sat there fiddling with anything they got there hands on before Munder broke the silence. "At least your death was quick...I was-" He swallowed sharply, his went eyes out off focus. "Grated agonizingly slow through clockwork in the engines." Everybody winced and cringed at what he had said.
"-Burnt alive I was." Santos blurted out -feeling rather stupid afterwards. The others nodded reasonably.
"To those of you that didn't know...I drowned." Murphy sank down into a chair as if just confessing a sin, he glanced at Maureen to find her eyes had glazed as if reflecting back. Then she was brought out of thought when she realised Dodge still hadn't said anything, everyone else had noticed to and were eagerly waiting for him to tell them about his death. Her heart went out to him as he just sat there knowing everybody was watching him.
"Oh come it's not like you have to know." Dodge mumbled- he messed with his cards on the table awkwardly. Maureen placed a loving hand on his shoulder and squeezed it.
Munder coughed, thinking of the right words. "I think it would be best for us all to know buddy. Get it off you chest." He smiled sincerely. "Like spilling the beans A.KA maggots."
Dodge released a huff of laughter. "I knew that was coming." The others looked at the two quizzically by what they were talking about.
"See it's getting easier every step of the way going down memory lane." A simple nudge on the shoulder caused Dodge to sit up slightly in his chair.
"Okay." He sighed. "At the time I always thought Jack to be a bit of a weed, never liked picking a fight, always backed down when brought into a fight- you know always the momma's boy." The others brightened at his personalized humour, and sunk down on chairs around the table.
"I always seemed to push him around, even if it wasn't when I was angry with him." Maureen was starting to feel sick...She knew it was getting close to the point - some things had been left unsaid during their marriage...and now he was about to come out with it in the open.
"-You mean like when you molested him after finding the gold." Munder grinned as Dodge narrowed his eyes at him. 'Molester!'
"It was an aggressive manly wrestle dipshit - Anyway I'd pushed him about a bit..."
FLASHBACK
'Let's just be grateful we still have the gold and our lives." Jack gestured his hands innocently while confronting a pissed off Dodge. Everybody else was settling down rubbing there wounds and trying to dry off from the big plunge.
'Yeah-tell that to Santos asshole!'
Maureen- 'Hey Dodge ease up!' Munder glances from one to the other.
Dodge - 'This is bullshit!'
Jack. -'Santos came out here out of his free will just like the rest of us...' Dodge made for Jack across the room and grabbed him by the jacket and knocked him back onto the bar. Munder and Greer rushed forwards to prize Mike off him. Dodge- 'WHAT THE FUCK DO YOU MEAN?---SANTOS IS DEAD!'
Maureen- That's enough!'
Jack - 'shit fuck geroff me!' Munder grabs Dodge by the waist and lifts him off a freaked out Jack.
END FLASHBACK
"I had just turned my back on what I thought was his corpse -when.."
Dodge stops in mid-step as he hears a groan from behind him, he nervously turns to be confronted with a blood drenched Jack slowly getting up, as he did his wounds melted away into nothing as if he had never been shot. Jack craned his head - his eyes fixed on his prey with a cold stare.
"You think that was going to stop me?"
Mike's heart was pounding fast, he could feel an unpleasant force in the atmosphere around him. He tried his best to hide his fear. "Actually yes I thought it would...but I'll think of summut."
Jack tilted his head, a cruel smile played on his lips. "You better think fast cause I coming." He unexpectedly lurched forward towards Mike-who stared at him wide eyed in surprise. Soon as contact had been made, Mike felt himself pinned to the floor -Jack was straddling him.
"You always liked knocking me about...now it's your turn." Mike saw a fist fly towards his face SMACK, his head careered back at the impact - a groan escaped his lips. For the first time he felt powerless...this punk kid had suddenly over whelmed him with defeat. Another punch in the jaw brought him back to reality. 'Who was this guy, why did he really want the ship fixed?' He ignored his own questions and brought his hands up sharply and pushed Jack hard against the chest, he fell back against the hard floor. Dodge was still in panic as he dragged his numb self up and began to crawl away from Jack who was slowly getting up...to his uneasiness Jack was laughing his chesty laugh as he struggled.
Mike spat out blood and glared at him. "What the fuck is so funny?"
"You are...you're so weak and pathetic."
"What and that makes your perfect?"
"No not perfect...special." Jack just stood there staring at him. Mike knew what he was doing- he was trying to Syke him out. Dodge had his fists clenched at the ready -but nothing came- Jack had begun motioning himself one way then moving the other, slinkily, as part of an attack manoeuvre.
"What the hell are you waiting forJack!"
Jack grinned while moving around a counter- "For you to make your effortless first move."
Mike mind was scanning for ideas...then it randomly decided to quickly pick up an object and throw it as a diversion. A spanner went flying through the air, with Jack's quick reflexes he slid over to one side and it narrowly missed him by inches. By the time the spanner had clattered to the floor, Mike was already running down a stairway towards the fish tank. He had to somehow reach Maureen in time so he could double back and get her off the ship, all he wanted was to get her out of the way before Jack could get his hands on her. He skidded to a halt when a huge lump rose out of the floor and pushed up the carpet, blocking his path. Dodge stood transfixed to the spot as the lump moved towards him. "You've got to be kidding with me." He muttered, his eyes wide. The carpet reached his height then slowly moulded into the shape of a person, then it dissolved away to reveal Jack standing there smugly.
"Pretty cool huh..?" He grinned sinisterly at him bearing what looked like fangs. "Don't worry it gets better." Before Mike could ask what? He went careering backwards into a door which splintered at the force -Shit that's gotta hurt.
Dodge groaned, he could feel every muscle in his body slackening and his spine vibrating. The taste of copper came to his mouth, he could tell the end was near. He struggled up, with dread being his companion. Jack was crouched next to him by the time he looked up, his unearthly blue eyes bore into him with no trance of mercy. "Okay I'm bored now." The younger man grabbed the older man's throat and began to squeeze hard, his wind pipe was abruptly closed off, restricting the oxygen flow. Dodge's face turned purple as he coughed and spluttered, he brought his hands up to prize Jack's hand away but with no prevail. His arm thrashed around helplessly beating Jack hard. Mike grew weaker and weaker as his lungs slowly collapsed in on themselves, every second became worthless as darkness slowly crept over his eyes - which felt like they were bulging out of his skull. His arms which were raised gradually dropped to his body as his energy left him, even though Jack was in his sight, an image of Maureen flashed through his mind, then he died.
- "After I had...died, I felt like I was floating then I was suddenly in this dark room, then there was this -"
"-Burning sensation in your hand." Santos finished, rubbing his own hand, the others were nodding slightly.
Mike looked around at Maureen. "I'm glad you didn't go through any of that." She felt dreadfully guilty for not experiencing what they went through.
Her lips parted ready to speak- she sighed. "After you were...marked, where did you go?"
"It's kind of hard to explain we were still on the ship, just not whole...sometimes we would be in this dark room where we couldn't do anything much, other times it would be like we were moving...but with somebody else, Jack to put it bluntly." Santos was leaning side on into a wall. "Like looking through his eyes or something, but wondering the ship was something I always done, it was better than the dark room or being a part of Jack."
Murphy sat scowling in the corner of the room. " Sure Santos...miss out the part where you were tormenting me!"
"Hey I didn't know what came over me then, I was angry at you but not angry enough to haunt you...I was a claimed soul!"
"-You threatened me with a knife, and I had to defend myself!" Murph stood up absolutely seething.
Maureen suddenly stumbled on something she remembered, Murphy had looked at her bewildered and frightened when she had approached him on the ship one day and he had attacked her. "Wait I was there...you somehow thought I was Santos...I remember the look on you face when you saw me...then you attacked."
Murphy was wide eyed "What!" To imagine he would try and kill Maureen was absurd and hurtful. "I did!"
The others eyes rounded, realisation came to there features. Santos scratched his head. "Wait now I remember; I was commanded to cloud over Maureen's image."
"Why would you do such a thing!" Dodge and Murphy said in unison while Maureen acted non-existent.
"I was a claimed soul...I couldn't do anything about it!"
"Oh don't give me all that claimed soul bullshit...what you did was dangerous!" Dodge exclaimed, inches away from pouncing on him. "Maureen was your friend."
"Hey guys I'm still here!" Maureen raised her hand like a kid in a classroom.
"-It was out of my hands...anyway she wasn't killed!" Santos squawked gesturing his hands stereotypically.
"Yeah, well it was darn lucky Jack was there to stop it all!" Dodge said not realising. Everybody else froze.
--- "Wait hold the phone, Jack is behind all of this...he was letting everything run it's course so he would look like 'the good guy!'"
"Thank you Maureen!" Santos indicating to her. "See, so it wasn't my fault...it was all Jack's mystical doing."
Murphy stared Santos out with a twitchy eye. "Yeah fine...whatever." 'You could of stopped it' He mumbled turning his back on the situation.
"Hey I think we should focus here...we've got a big job to do in a few days." Greer crushed his cigarette into an ash-tray on the table. "We shouldn't bite each others heads off if we're supposed to be working as a team."
"Yes let's ease up." Santos then followed Greer outside for another discussion, briefly thanking him as they went through the doorway. Murphy sank down next to Munder at the table.
"Well...what's our plan?"
Maureen and Dodge looked at each other, they hadn't really considered an official plan. "We thought we would get on the ship, find Catrina and get her off...if we bump into Jack on the way we'll..."
"-Blow him up." Her husband finished. "Pretty stupid I know, but guns don't work so we will have to."
Murph nodded -it seemed pretty straight forward.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
"You twist it...like this." Katie snatched her spelling toy out of Francesca's hands, her ghostly fingers spun a cube around causing a letter to fix next to another. "See?" Francesca peered at the cubes.
"Ci, now 'ow do you write Gold?"
"Easy." There heads leant over the toy as Katie began to explain while fiddling with the cubes. Their moments of rapt concentration came to an end when they heard a great gasp. Katie's head snapped up at the same time as Fran's, and they saw Catrina sitting up in bed.
"Oh darn...she pulled through." Francesca's voice rung through Catrina's ears as she turned towards Katie who was the only other person in the room.
"I pulled through...what does she mean by that?"
Katie earnestly looked at her while floating towards her bedside. "You had a raging fever and bad hallucinations over night."
"That explains the desert." Catrina added in an amused tone, tucking a strand of her hair behind her ear - She immediately stopped smiling when she caught the odd look plastered across Katie's pasty face. "Why are you looking at me like that?"
Katie was looking at her heavenly before replying with. "I think I can see it too."
Catrina cocked her eyebrow. "What?" She then brought her hands up to her face. "Do I have a bruise or something?" Katie shook her head at a snail's pace, still looking at her with a slight smile. "I know I have similar facial features as you.. but-"
"No deary, I can finally see why he is enamoured with you."
Catrina blinked. "What Jack -No- he just sees me and wants something he can't have."
"Yeah- well maybe, but I see you have a glowing aurora, which illuminates you. You have a special gift Catrina...a gift of brightening up a room with you cute facial expressions and striking body language." Catrina couldn't believe what she was hearing, she was being complemented for being a decorative ornament.
"Why are you telling me all of this?"
Katie brought a tray from under the bed and placed it onto Catrina's lap. "Because for ages I wondered why people spoke of this obsession Jack had with you, I wanted to know the attraction...and now I see it, it's not just new sex it's the curiosity of discovering something new."
Catrina's eyes were darting from side to side downward in bewilderment. "Sure men are attracted to different types of women...Jack's not enamoured, just horny." She knew men had been drawn to her before but this was different Jack was dangerous.
"You know Jack was watching over you all of last night...but then he had to go and get charged." Katie bent two of her fingers in mid-air at the last word. Cat already knew what this meant -another night of Jack on the prowl for sex driven women. Katie brought her out of thought. "Now I don't know if this 'thing' is good or bad...if he is infatuated with you then he won't want to hurt you and do 'that', or he could be driven by this 'thing' into lust and want to do 'it'..."
Her mind was racing - too much talking of sex, she just wanted to run, she leapt out of bed, past Katie who was still standing there addressing her, then she swung the door open and ran into Jack who was looking as startled as she was, her heart stopped -it was an ultimate cliche. "Jack." She breathed.
He nudged her back into the room and followed her in, closing the door behind him. "Good to see you out of bed, now if you wouldn't mind climbing back in." Jack realised he had caught her in the middle of a terror spree, added. " On your own to sleep."
"Well can you get out...please."
"Excuse me? I'm not endangering you...I'm under control." 'For now' Jack pursed his lips while looking her up and down, standing inches away from her. "See." Aaaww so appealing when she's frightened.
"I'm not worried about now, I'm still pissed off at what you do for a living and what you've already done...and I don't want it in my room - so stay away from me Jack." Catrina noticed a genuinely hurt look in his eye...which then vanished when he sneered.
"Okay- you're right, a leopard can't change his spots." He walked to the door with his hands in his pockets. She had driven a blunt object through his heart, and once again he told himself it wasn't love just lust for sex and kill. "I'll check on you later...feel free to go for a walk around." He then left a stunned Catrina on her own. No sooner had he gone into his own sanctuary he heard her feet padding along the corridor, she briefly glanced through the doorway realising it was his room, then she awkwardly strode past hoping he wouldn't follow. 'Jesus she's only just got better and now she's going back outside in just a nighty.' His head poked around the corner of the doorframe and he caught sight of a fleeting hem of dress rounding a corner. Couldn't resist, he just had to follow.
A new feeling of freeness was upon her and she didn't want to neglect it any further. She pushed a door open and stepped out into the open sea air...and to imagine she could have never have felt this again since she had almost died. Sure Jack had saved her but what world had he brought her back to, a trapped life, even on a normal day in Boston, she never felt like living her home -the cuckoos nest, but she dragged herself out as a mindless routine...trying to be like everybody else. School seemed like somewhere to stash kids, boyfriends just seemed like an accessory -but a nice accessory, an accessory that walks you home at night, holds your hand in the park, squeezes your knee in a movie theatre and just makes you feel special when everything else seems bleak and lonely. When she did reach home after another day had gone by she would touch a brick of her house and think 'There are many bricks that make up this house as does the people that make up the world, but even though I feel sad and lonely cause I feel like I'm everybody else, I feel sad cause I know I'm not like anybody else...somebody's watching over me, and they're coming to take me whether I like it or not.' And she always knew it. Didn't live by it - But sensed something was around the corner she couldn't stop. Catrina sank down to the floor and found herself silently crying, she abruptly stopped when a navy jacket was draped over her shoulders.
"Don't cry." He said plainly, not the slightest bit of sympathy in his voice.
"Do you mind...I'm having a very tough time right now, leave me alone." Catrina could sense him watching her, then a scuffling noise as if he was preparing to seat himself down next to her.
"I just don't like it when women cry."
"-You mean you don't like to see women cry, cause normally it is your fault." She hiccupped as he unexpectedly grabbed her wrist and jerked her towards him.
"You can sometimes be a real b.." He stopped himself. "Well actually no, I don't like it when women cry because it's the ultimate distress sign...it shows their point of weakness, the breaking down of emotions." He noticed she was listening intently. "And sometimes it acts as a door into a persons soul...and I can see almost everything distressing about there life, usually I don't mind...but sometimes it gets way to emotional, I don't feel - it just experience it." They were sitting rather close and they could feel each others breathe on their cheeks, he raked his eyes out of hers as Catrina's cheeks flushed slightly. He hastily let go of her wrist and she slide away from him. Catrina wasn't crying anymore, in fact she was just staring at him...utterly drawn.
"Jack, what happens if they are crying with joy?" She wondered, leaning her head into one of the bars, his pale blue eyes came back to her again. "Surely that's not distressing or shows any sign of weakness?"
"Why would someone cry with joy?" Catrina raised her eyebrows to Jack who was looking at her bemused.
"Maybe they're pleased to see somebody they haven't seen in a long time?"
"I'm not the type of person to be around when someone's crying with joy, nobody is pleased to see me." Catrina's eyes were wondering off to the side back to the ocean, a sort of sadness clung to the atmosphere. "I mean...it's not like I deserve to have anybody to genuinely miss me, look what I've done." Jack saw her nod out of the corner of his eye, and his lip twinged into a casual smile. He decided to remain quiet within her thoughtful and wondrous state while admiring the view, and what a nice bit of scenery it was...a young fair complexion, pink pouty lips, deep emerald eyes, and long wavy brown hair which glowed red within the sunset. She was beautiful and untouchable, like an irresistible ornament that a mother forbids you to play with. Catrina couldn't really focus on the sunset - she had the sensation of hot sticky eyes on her, as much as she would like to steal glances at him... she couldn't, it felt like a sin to start lusting after an enemy...so she shut it out as hard as she could.
"Catrina." Her head came around to meet his powerful gaze. "Let's go for a walk." Before he could let her reply he jumped up and dragged Catrina along with him. This was crazy - she thought. She was scared of him but attracted to him, she was pissed off with him - but slightly keen to have him around. Her back leaned away slightly, unsure if she wanted to follow, even though her body allowed him to take
her away.
Tune in next chapter...Jack's gonna get nasty. A storm brews over the Arctic Warrior 2 as Santos and Murphy...well...they will never get along. Greer takes up muffin making, Dodge wants sex...
... and Elect Munder for President (Presidental music). 'I'm just kidding'