Chapter 10: Rock the Boat

Enid picked up the long silver knife; the disgusted look on her face nearly sent Claire into a fit of giggles. The knife was dripping with that watery substance that Tlaloc had exploded all over the kitchen. Enid wiped it clean with a rag and then handed it back to Claire.

"You know, I've seen plenty of real gore." Enid studied a clump of blue gooey flesh that had landed on the counter. She then gestured down to her wet socks, wriggling her toes for emphasis. "Is it weird that this is grossing me out more?"

Claire snorted. "Ask me again next time we see somebody's hanging guts." She considered the blade for a few moments before pushing it through one of her jeans' belt loops. It didn't have a handle, but it was just thick enough to stay put. "Well? What do you think?" Claire struck a superhero pose, jutting her chest and putting her closed fists on her hips. Distractedly, she blew at the clump of blood-matted hair that fell in her eyes.

Enid burst into laughter. "You're a mess."

"A hot mess." Claire grinned despite her split lip. "Come on, let's go see if anybody's up yet."

Carl was the closest one to them. Claire pointed out the cabin ("cabins, not bedrooms, Enid") with the scribbled lopsided X on the door. They found him still knocked out in that unnatural sleeping pose, which quickly put a damper on their post-victory high. Somehow, they both assumed that killing that demon (or whatever he was) would break the spell (or whatever that was), waking everyone up from their shared dream (or whatever it was). Obviously, what worked in stories didn't really work out in real life.

"What happened to his face?" Claire asked after a moment of silence.

"My ex-boyfriend shot his eye out."

"...Wow." With her normal degree of tact, she added, "was he the jealous type?"

"Shut up. It wasn't like that. Ron was aiming at Carl's dad." At Claire's side-eye she shook her head. "...It's a long story." Enid sighed. "We didn't think he was ever going to wake up. But he did. Carl's got a way of surprising people." Enid looked like she wanted to say something else, but thought better of it. She sat down on the bed, taking his limp hand in hers.

"Hey," Claire hip-checked her. "Plan A, remember? We still need to find Cas. He'll know what to do."

They headed for the stairs, stopping to grab a couple of flashlights from a utility closet. The ship had a lot of floors; climbing back up was going to be a bitch, Claire thought. Like before, she noticed that the lower they got, the brighter it seemed. They switched off their flashlights eventually. Finally, they reached the Under Deck, a long narrow corridor that eventually opened up into a great hall. It seemed that they've only been traveling along one side of the great vessel.

"This ship is huge," Enid breathed in genuine awe. "It's like… the Super Star Destroyer Executor."

"I have no idea what you just said." Claire rolled her eyes at Enid's offended face. "I think it's one of those ships that haul containers around."

Size notwithstanding, it was pretty cramped; most of the space was occupied by large machines and a complex system of walkways, and those were fairly narrow as well. Very often they found themselves doubling back, having arrived at a dead-end. The machines themselves looked dormant and dusty, although from time to time a few moving parts would surge into life, as if they've received an unexpected surge of power.

A strange vibration seemed to permeate the air.

Claire had a sudden thought. She stopped, both hands on a safety rail, and turned to Enid. "This is gonna sound really strange," she said, "but don't you think that rumble is… kind of familiar?"

"What rumble?"

"You can't feel that?" Claire asked, surprised. Enid shrugged, shaking her head no.

Claire found she didn't have the right words to explain. That vibration was calling out to her somehow, and in some strange way… a part of her seemed to call back, or resonate, in response. Claire had already figured out that Enid was like her, like Jimmy had been. What did Castiel whisper to her all those years ago? Special. But unlike her, Enid had never been possessed by an angel.

Claire closed her eyes, focusing on that tiny thread inside of her. Trusting her instincts, she followed that lead. "I think I know where to go now," Claire said. The thread led them to a steel bulkhead door that looked like it was taken out of a submarine, complete with a wheel operated deadlock. There were signs on the door, most of them too faded to read, except for the words DANGER and DO NOT OPEN in great, big, red fonts.

They exchanged nervous glances. "I really hope the ship's not powered by nukes," Enid said.

"Wait, that's possible?" Claire blanched. She knocked on the door, calling out, "Cas! Are you in there?"

"Hey Claire, look." There was a utility closet nearby, labeled "Safety Equipment". Enid pulled out a couple of heavy looking suits. More stuff spilled out to the floor: heavy looking gloves, safety goggles, and even S&M-esque protective masks. "You think this can help?"

It took a few minutes to figure out how to put all the stuff on and a few minutes more to actually put it on. The equipment wasn't really their sizes; Claire felt awkward and clumsy. The mask was too heavy on her injured scalp and also made it difficult to see. Still, as a precaution, it seemed more than enough.

It took their combined strength to unlock the door. Finally, with a hiss, it opened. And then... there was light.

Enid screamed. Claire pulled her back into the relative safety of the hall then pushed forward herself. The light was so strong, in spite of the welding mask she was wearing. The chamber itself looked like it was taken out of horror movie; the ground and walls were covered in strange red markings and chains crisscrossed the space like spiderwebs. In the middle stood a man-shaped pillar of light.

"Cas!" she called out, one hand raised protectively in front of her face.

The feeling, the vibration that resonated in her, twinged a little. Through her stretched fingers, she thought she saw him move. "Claire," he grunted. "Seal… on the ground."

At first, she tried to scratch the paint off with her boot. It didn't seem to work. Looking around frantically for anything that might help her, she spied a little tin paint bucket by the door. The lid was crusted shut. Her heavy-duty gloves were getting in the way, so she shook them off and tried again, prying the lid open with her nails and nearly ripping them out in the struggle. Finally, the lid came away.

Claire threw the bucket's contents on the ground. She slipped, partly because of the momentum, but mostly because of the mask (she did not see that chain in front of her face). Thankfully, the mask absorbed most of the impact. She landed on her backside right on top of the wet paint puddle.

The light didn't go out in a blast like she expected. Instead, it seemed to hum and slowly pull back - back into Castiel. He glowed for a long moment… and then everything went dark. It took a few seconds for her to realize that it wasn't just a change in the brightness' settings: the ship itself had gone dark.

Using the wall for support, she climbed to her feet, grimacing at the feeling of the wet paint on the back of her jeans. She took off her mask and dropped it at her feet before taking an uncertain step forward, hands raised in front of her.

"Cas?" she whispered. "Castiel, can you hear me?"

With a hum, the ship's lights turned back on, dimmer than before. It looked like Castiel had been the one supplying power to the ship; maybe it was a bleeding effect of some kind. Now that he stopped, she realized that the ship's emergency systems had engaged. Yellow lights flashed on and off at the hall outside. An alarm had activated somewhere on the ship; she really hoped it wasn't the (maybe) nuclear reactor.

A beam of light appeared in Claire's light of sight. Enid was standing in the doorway, mask removed, shining her flashlight at Castiel.

Enid gasped. "Are those wings?"

Somehow in all the action, Claire had missed the enormous white wings coming out of Castiel's back. Although, in all fairness, a moment ago it quite literally hurt to look at him.

Castiel himself didn't look so hot; he was dirty and his clothes were in tatters. He stood at the center of the room, perfectly still, but not by choice. The collar around his neck was hooked to four different chains and those were pulled taut, leading up to different corners of the room. His arms and feet were cuffed, although their chains ended up in metal hooks on the ground, just between the markings. Feathers littered the floor at his feet, and the great wings were bound as well: cuffed at the joints and linked to chains that forced them to spread wide and high.

The chains clanked. Claire looked over and saw that Enid was pulling at a big knot of them. With a jolt, Claire realized those chains weren't just bolted to single hooks - they all went through multiple hooks and accumulated at a single point at the far wall, where they had been tied together. Luckily, there wasn't a lock; the chains were simply wrapped around one large hook. Together, they managed to untangle them.

"Look out," Claire called out to Castiel belatedly.

She and Enid had to jump out of the way when the chains suddenly lost their anchor. They swung about violently, gravity taking hold. Castiel didn't stagger from the backlash. He tucked his wings against his back but otherwise did not move at all.

"Cas?" Claire asked, stepping forward. With a trembling hand, she reached out to touch his arm. "Are you okay?"

At last, Castiel's painfully familiar eyes focused. "Hello Claire." His head tilted. "You're hurt."

Without thinking, Claire threw her arms around him. She felt him flinch, more startled by her than he was by the sudden weight of all those chains. She sobbed against his chest, the weight of that entire year unexpectedly heavy in her mind. After a moment, he wrapped his own arms around her, uncertainly. She felt something incredibly soft at her back. His wings, she realized, and only cried harder.

A/N:

It's canon that angels leave behind a piece of their grace when they leave a vessel. I always thought that's so interesting.

Speaking of vessels, the ship is definitely not nuclear powered. There's only one cargo ship that runs on nuclear propulsion in the world today, and it's not a mega class like this one is.

What do you guys think of the story so far? I'm anxiously awaiting feedback, as always!