CUT TO: 183 INT. FOYER / ELEVATORS
(Cynder runs up as the last Elevator Operator is closing up his lift to leave.)
OPERATOR: Sorry, miss, lifts are closed-
(Without thinking she grabs him and shoves him back into the lift.)
CYNDER: I'm through with being polite, you fool! I may never be polite the rest of my life! Now take me down!
(The operator fumbles to close the gate and start the lift.)
CUT TO: 184 EXT. OCEAN / BOAT 6
(Ember and the two seamen are rowing, and they've made it a hundred feet or so. Enough to see that the ship is angled down into the water, with the bow rail less than ten feet above the surface.)
EMBER: Come on girls, join in, it'll keep ya warm. Let's go Elora. Grab an oar!
(Elora just stares at the spectacle of the great liner, its rows of lights blazing, slanting down into the sullen black mirror of the Atlantic. CUT TO: 185 INT. FIRST CLASS ELEVATOR / CORRIDORS Through the wrought iron door of the elevator car Cynder can see the decks going past. The lift slows. Suddenly ICE WATER is swirling around her legs. She SCREAMS in surprise. So does the operator. The car has landed in a foot of freezing water, shocking the hell out of her. She claws the door open and splashes out, hiking up her floor-length skirt so she can move. The lift goes back up, behind her, as she looks around.)
CYNDER: Left, crew passage. (She spots it and slogs down the flooded corridor. The place is understandably deserted. She is on her own.) Right, right... right. (She turns into a cross-corridor, splashing down the hall. A row of doors on each side.) Spyro? Spyro?
CUT TO: 186 INT. MASTER AT ARMS OFFICE / CORRIDOR
(Spyro is hopelessly pulling on the pipe again, straining until he turns red. He collapses back on the bench. realizing he's screwed. Then he hears her through the door.)
SPYRO: CYNDER! In here!
(187 IN THE HALL Cynder hears his voice behind her. She spins and runs back, locating the right door, then pushes it open, creating a small wave. She splashes over Spyro and puts her arms around him.
CYNDER: Spyro, Spyro, Spyro... I'm sorry, I'm so sorry.
(They are so happy to see each other it's embarrassing.)
SPYRO: That guy Hunter put it in my pocket.
CYNDER: I know, I know.
SPYRO: See if you can find a key for these. Try those drawers. It's a little brass one. (She kisses his face and hugs him again, then starts to go through the desk.) So... how did you find out I didn't do it?
CYNDER: I didn't. (She looks at him) I just realized I already knew.
(They share a look, then she goes back to ransacking the room, searching drawers and cupboards. Spyro sees movement out the porthole and looks out. A LIFEBOAT hits the surface of the water, seen from below. CUT TO: 188 EXT. TITANIC / BOAT ONE While the seamen detach the falls, Boat One rocks next to the hull. Lucile and Sir Cosmo Duff-Gordon sit with ten others in a boat made for four times that many.)
LUCILE: I despise small boats. I just know I'm going to be seasick. I always get seasick in small boats. Good Heavens, there's a man down there!
(In a lit porthole beneath the surface she sees Spyro looking up at her... a face in a bubble of light under the water. CUT TO: 189 INT. MASTER AT ARMS OFFICE Cynder stops trashing the room, and stands there, breathing hard.)
CYNDER: There's no key in here.
(They look around at the water, now almost two feet deep. Spyro has pulled his feet up onto the bench.)
SPYRO: You have to go for help.
CYNDER: (nodding) I'll be right back.
SPYRO: I'll wait here.
(She runs out, looking back at him once from the doorway, then splashes away. Spyro looks down at the swirling water. CUT TO: 190 INT. STAIRWELL AND CORRIDORS Cynder splashes down the hall to a stairwell going up to the next deck. She climbs the stairs, her long skirt leaving a trail like a giant snail. The weight of it is really slowing her down. She rips at the buttons and shimmies quickly out of the thing. She bounds up the stairs in her stockings and knee-length slip, to find herself in- 191 A LONG CORRIDOR... part of the labyrinth of steerage hallways forward. She is alone here. A long groan of stressing metal echoes along the hall as the ship continues to settle. She runs down the hall, unimpeded now.)
CYNDER: Hello? Somebody?! (She turns a corner and runs along another corridor in a daze. The hall slopes down into water which, shimmers, reflecting the light. The margin of the water creeps toward her. A YOUNG MAN appears, running through the water, sending up geysers of spray. He pelts past her without slowing, his eyes crazed...) Help me! We need help!
(He doesn't look back. It is like a bad dream. The hull gongs with terrifying sounds. The lights flicker and go out, leaving utter darkness. A beat. Then they come back on. She finds herself hyperventilating. That one moment of blackness was the most terrifying of her life. A STEWARD runs around the nearest corner, his arms full of lifebelts. He is upset to see someone still in his section. He grabs her forcefully by the arm, pulling her with him like a wayward child.)
STEWARD: Come on, then, let's get you topside, miss, that's right.
CYNDER: Wait. Wait! I need your help! There's-
STEWARD: No need for panic, miss. Come along!
CYNDER: No, let me go! You're going the wrong way!
(He's not listening. And he won't let her go. She SHOUTS in his ear, and when he turns, she punches him squarely in the nose. Shocked, he lets her go and staggers back.)
STEWARD: To Hell with you!
CYNDER: See you there, buster!
(The steward runs off, holding his bloody nose. She spits after him. Just the way Spyro taught her. She turns around, SEES: a glass case with a fire-axe in it. She breaks the glass with a battered suitcase which is lying discarded nearby, and seizes the axe, running back the way she came. 192 AT THE STAIRWELL she looks down and gasps. The water has flooded the bottom five steps. She goes down and has to crouch to look along the corridor to the room where Spyro is trapped. Cynder plunges into the water, which is up to her waist... and powers forward, holding the axe above her head in two hands. She grimaces at the pain from the literally freezing water. CUT TO: 193 INT. MASTER AT ARMS OFFICE Spyro has climbed up on the bench, and is hugging the water pipe. Cynder wades in, holding the axe above her head.)
CYNDER: Will this work?
SPYRO: We'll find out. (They are both terrified, but trying to keep panic at bay. He positions the chain connecting the two cuffs, stretching it taut across the steel pipe. The chain is of course very short, and his exposed wrists are on either side of it.) Try a couple practice swings. (Cynder hefts the axe and thunks it into a wooden cabinet.) Now try to hit the same mark again. (She swings hard and the blade thunks in four inches from the mark.) Okay, that's enough practice. (He winces, bracing himself as she raises the axe. She has to hit a target about an inch wide with all the force she can muster, with his hands on either side.) (sounding calm) You can do it, Cynder. Hit it as hard as you can, I trust you.
(Spyro closes his eyes. So does she. The axe comes down. K-WHANG! Cynder gingerly opens her eyes looks... Spyro is grinning with two separate cuffs. Cynder drops the axe, all the strength going out of her.)
SPYRO: Nice work, there, Paul Bunyan. (He climbs down into the water next to her. He can't breathe for a second.) Shoot! Excuse my French. Ow ow ow, that is cold! Come on, let's go. (They wade out into the hall. Cynder starts toward the stairs going up, but Spyro stops her. There is only about a foot of the stairwell opening. visible.) Too deep. We gotta find another way out.
Yikes! Talk about a cliffhanger! Sorry I haven't been editing in so long, school just started up for me 4 days ago and I've been kind of busy otherwise. But now we're seemingly back on track. I know I said I would not edit on a Sunday, but I felt like I'd been leaving you guys in a cliffhanger for too long, so I decided to break my normal routine and do this. Anyways, now it's time for the riddle of the chapter! But before I do that, here's the answer to the last one. Why is Silk like Grass? Because they are both measured by the yard. Again, I received zero comments with an answer, so let's see if you can even bother to read this next one! Today's riddle is: "What do bells, curtains, twins and hair have in common?" Here's a hint, the answers contain one four letter word. Anyways, to see if Spyro and Cynder make it out alive, tune in Next Chapter. Same Time, Same Channel! (P.S. There will be a new story posted on the main Spyro fanfiction archive by Wednesday, keep an eye out for it! You'll love it I'm sure!