He considered it for a couple moments, then put his paw slowly in there, softly touching the hilt of the appliance. He picked up the knife slowly, inspecting it. He was hesitating; he was unsure if he should continue. Dread started to appear in him, a foreboding that he did not have enough time. It was coming.
Footsteps came down the hallway, and the doors slid open. Peso leaned against the doorway haphazardly, tears in his eyes and utterly broken. "We're being attacked, Captain," he cried. His flipper, the one Barnacles had wrapped in the Arctic mission, was laying limply at his side, injured.The medic put his head against the doorway, trying to shield himself, "It was only a matter of time. We can never run away."
And then the ship rocked. The water came, sweeping them in the current. Barnacles was lifted up from the floor, floating. He tried to scream, but the water came into his lungs. He was always drowning... always drowning.
He sat up, struggling against the blanket. He panted, looking around. He was in the hallway.
He rubbed a paw over his face, trying to calm his breathing. The nightmares were usually bad, but the hallway was supposed to prevent such big outbursts. He wasn't sure, but he thought he screamed in real life. But sleep was still over him, draping him like a smothering blanket.
He was away from the bedrooms. No one should have heard him.
Oh, how wrong he was.
He stilled when he heard automatic doors open, somewhere along the hall, around a corner.
"Hello? Is someone there?" It was Shellington, sounding rightfully nervous.
Barnacles' heart quickened. The sea otter was supposed to be in his room! Why was he in the lab right now?
Barnacles was so stupid. It was slow going the last few days, so he thought Shellington wouldn't have anything to research. It seemed that he was dead wrong.
He heard footsteps. Shellington was getting closer.
What should he do? What should he do?
Shellington must have fallen asleep in the lab again, because when he was jolted awake, he was at his desk with equipment strewn about.
He listened for anymore sounds. He could've sworn he heard a scream. The voice sounded sort of familiar, but just barely in his half-asleep mind. He looked back at the desk, his paws in nervous fists, the lamp still on from before he drifted off. There weren't any ghosts in the bottom of the sea, right?
But he was being irrational, like Kwazii. (Though with everything that's happened, Shellington didn't really know anymore). If there was anything, it's probably a creature that stowed away on the ship. It had happened a few times before; and the Octonauts were always able to find them and convince them to find another home. But he never heard any of them scream like that.
He got up and cautiously went to the doors, which opened on their own accord.
"Hello? Is someone there?" he called out.
He stilled, terrified, when he heard shuffling around the corner.
It took a moment, but he gathered his courage and went forward. He quickly turned the corner, trying to surprise the creature. There was nothing there.
Ok, this was getting creepier.
The sea otter continued down the halls, looking for any signs of life. After about fifteen minutes, he decided to call it a night and head to bed. He was still shaken and nervous; and he decided, I'm gonna have to tell everyone about this tomorrow.
That way, if it really is a creature, they would be able to find it.
Barnacles was able to slip away in time, discreetly going through a couple halls and entering the bathroom. He crouched down, keeping the lights off, trying to stay quiet. The blanket and pillow were haphazardly strewn onto the floor next to him.
His back was against the locked door. He tried to quiet his erratic breathing, trying to not make any noise. He heard the sea otter's footsteps, and he held his breath, hoping he wouldn't come into the room. Yet, he could not lie to himself, he at the same time did want to be footsteps got louder, but then they passed the doorway, getting quieter as they went by. And then everything became silent. There was no noise, nothing. No sound of the air conditioner, none of the ocean outside. Barnacles couldn't even hear his own breathing. It was only darkness in the room and pitch black in the mirror, and the pale, sickly lighting that his eyes could scarcely pick up in the room, that wasn't really light at all.
It was a silence that Barnacles only had once, when he was a child, and he woke up one night in the darkness of the Arctic and saw that he was alone, because his mother and sister were still asleep. It was dark, heavy, surrounding him and causing his throat to tighten. Because it was true loneliness, the one where there was no sound, no movement, nothing; and it caused a despair unlike anything one would normally feel.
That same despair came upon him, and a lump formed in his throat. He lowered his head, and he couldn't completely control the sob that escaped him, although he stifled it by biting his lower lip. (Why wasn't it enough? Why weren't they enough? Why wasn't he enough?)
Because although, before, his despair was just an illusion; this time he was truly alone.