They followed San-Li down three hallways and up two flights of stairs. Fred seemed completely at ease and was peppering her with questions, but Sam still had a few reservations about her. One the one hand he was grateful that she came to free them, but then again she was the one who had them arrested in the first place. And Sam could never forget the image of her sword going through Fina's chest.
"So what's it like being a time thief?" Fred asked eagerly. "Do you really get to keep everything you steal? And no one notices?"
"If I'm careful yeah." San-Li shrugged. "Although you'd be surprised at how little something considered seemingly priceless is worth on the black market."
"Then why sell on the black market?" Fred asked. "In the time we come from treasure is treasure."
Sam saw San-Li's fist tighten momentarily and a look of irritation flash through her eyes. It passed and she smiled at Fred.
"I'm well aware of the intrinsic marketing values of your time period, Fred. As for my involvement with the black market, let's just say my business is my business and I'd like to keep it that way."
Fred shut up, probably trying to figure out what the word intrinsic meant. Sam jumped when San-Li suddenly turned towards him. She didn't say anything, just looked at him with an unreadable expression on her face.
"What?" Sam asked.
She grinned wolfishly without saying anything and turned back around again.
"So what time period are you actually from?" Fred asked.
"21st century just like you two." She answered. "I usually reside either in America or Japan on my down time."
"America huh?" Fred smiled. "You should visit us sometime. I know a really cool restaurant called Ray's Pizzeria. You could meet my girlfriend Jodie. She's pretty cool although she can act kinda spastic around other cute girls."
"Aww too bad," San-Li cooed. "Maybe I could persuade her to share you? Just for a night of fun perhaps?"
Fred's jaw dropped and Sam could feel his own cheeks burning with embarrassment. Had San-Li seriously asked what he thought she just asked? When he took a closer look at her face though he could see that her lips were pressed tightly together in suppressed laughter. Sam didn't know why but he suddenly felt relieved.
"She's just messing with you, Fred." Sam rolled his eyes feeling annoyed at the both of them.
"Oh, right." Fred cleared his throat and looked away. "I knew that."
After a while they started coming across doors again and San-Li opened one and ushered them inside, closing the door behind her. The room wasn't totally bad looking, but it was no where near as fancy as first class. Inside there were two pairs of bunk beds, a table, and a chair. Underneath one of the bunk beds was a duffel bag. The stood in the middle of the room while San-Li lounged on the bottom bunk of one of the beds.
"What are we doing here?" Sam asked nervously. "Shouldn't we head to the library so we can find The Book before the ship sinks?"
"We will. The ship won't start sinking until around 12 or 1 am tomorrow." San-Li yawned. "Right now just relax and get some sleep. Start tomorrow fresh. You look like the type to stress out easily."
"Tell me about it." Fred rolled his eyes and sat down on the bed next to her. "Sam never has fun when we warp. He always thinks we're going to die or something."
San-Li suddenly sat up and got Fred in a choke hold with one arm. With the other arm she pulled out a knife and laid it against Fred's cheek.
"Oh but you could die." She whispered menacingly in his ear. "You could so very easily die, Fred."
She then burst out laughing, let go of Fred, and gently nudged him off the bed with her foot. Fred nervously laughed with her and exchanged a look of terror with Sam. San-Li threw her knife at the light switch to turn it off, casting the room in darkness. She then pulled the blanket over herself and settled down to sleep.
"What do we do?" Sam whispered to Fred. "We still don't know where the library is."
"Go to sleep I guess." Fred said loudly. "Boy am I exhausted."
He then leaned closer to Sam and whispered out the side of his mouth. "This chick is definitely off her rocker. I say we pretend to sleep for a little while then make a break for it in the morning before she wakes up."
"But," Sam whispered and glanced at her sleeping form. "We promised we'd take her with us remember? Her pocket watch is broken and she'll be stranded when the ship sinks."
"Yeah, but she's a girl remember," Fred shrugged. "They'll let her on a life boat."
"But what if she doesn't make it to one on time? The ship doesn't have enough stocked for everyone."
Fred gave a huff of exasperation. "Look, this girl seems like she's an expert at this okay? She'll probably be fine. We, on the other hand, are not experts. And I don't trust her okay?"
Sam scoffed and rolled his eyes. "You didn't seem too scared of her when you were inviting her to Ray's."
"That was before she pulled a knife on me out of nowhere and started laughing like a maniac." He grumbled.
Sam shrugged his shoulders feeling torn. On the one hand Fred was right about not trusting her, but then again they couldn't just leave her here could they? Fred climbed to the top bunk and the mattress creaked as he settled in. Sam yawned suddenly feeling drained. Casting one more glance at San-Li's sleeping figure he laid himself down on the scratchy bed and tried to catch some sleep.
It was Fred's snoring that woke him. That wasn't unusual though, Fred was a heavy and loud sleeper and often broke Sam out of his own slumber whenever they slept over at Joe's house. He was debating whether or not it was worth it to go back to sleep again when he noticed a blueish white light out of the corner of his eye. He put on his glasses and saw San-Li sitting on the floor with her back against her bed. Her headphones were in and she looked interested at whatever was happening on the screen. Her eyes flashed towards him and she took out an ear bud.
"You too huh?" She said gesturing towards a still snoring Fred.
"Yeah," Sam sat on the floor as well and gestured towards her tablet. "What are you doing?"
"Watching House of Cards. I have the whole season downloaded."
"Really?" Sam found himself grinning. "That has to be one of my favorite shows. Joe and Fred hate it though."
"Not surprised." San-Li shrugged. "It has a lot of political mumbo jumbo, but that just happens to be the sort of thing that interests me."
"Really?" Sam said quietly still smiling. "Me too."
San-Li smiled back at him, her face illuminated by the glow of the tablet. Her bangs were tucked behind her ear for once, leaving her eye patch completely exposed. Sam found himself staring at her with the extreme urge to see what was under that eye patch until he remembered the knife she had pressed against Fred just an hour or two earlier. He looked away quickly and waited for his heart to slow down. He had to remember that she was a dangerous time thief and she was incredibly manipulative.
He felt a ripple of cold air and suddenly San-Li was directly in front of him. With a seductive smile she placed her hands on the bed on either side of him, effectively boxing him in. She held his gaze for a moment before pulling out a large, black knife and held it to his face.
"You seem like a very, very smart guy, Sam." She whispered softly. "And, to be perfectly blunt and honest, I find myself feeling a bit attracted to you. However-"
Suddenly she grabbed a handful of his hair and slowly, but in a surprisingly gentle way, tilted his head to the side until his neck was exposed. Sam stifled a scream of terror as she gently traced his neck with the very tip of her blade. He glanced at her face to see if there was a chance this was one of her horrible jokes but she avoided his eyes and stared blankly at his neck instead.
"However," She continued in a low whisper. "I heard your friend talking about reneging on our agreement and planning on ditching me in the morning. I don't have to tell you that it hurt my feelings a little."
She removed the knife from his neck and he took in a shaky breath of relief. His heart was still pounding though and he had a temporary moment of insanity.
"You know, you pulling knifes out on us doesn't exactly win our sympathy, you know!" He hissed angrily.
He then blinked in surprise, shocked at his own boldness and saw that San-Li looked just as surprised as he was. Her lips twitched and for a terrifying moment Sam was afraid that she was going to snap and cut his throat. She burst out giggling though and Sam felt himself relaxing a little. He instantly tensed again when she pressed up against him and gently brushed her lips against his ear.
"I'm a bit of an unstable person Sam, if you couldn't tell." She whispered making him shiver. "But if you spend enough time with me, I bet I could make you unstable too."
"And why would I want that?" Sam grabbed her shoulders and gently pushed her away. "Why would I want to become unstable?"
"I dunno." San-Li chuckled and looked away.
There was an awkward silence as they listened to Fred move around in the bed and start snoring again. Sam felt extremely uncomfortable. What was San-Li trying to accomplish? She had clearly just threatened him hadn't she? Then why did he feel like he just hurt her feelings. Without another word or even as much as a glance towards him, San-Li got off the floor,climbed into her bed with her back towards him, and pulled on the blankets.
Sam felt to agitated to go to sleep, but he laid back down on the bed anyway. He must have dozed off because the next thing he knew someone was shaking him awake.
"W-wha?" He blinked confused. "San-Li?"
"San-Li?" Fred whispered, leaning over him confusion written all over his face. "No it's me. Come on, let's get out of here before she wakes up."
Fred pulled him off the bed and started dragging him towards the door. Sam hesitated though and glanced at San-Li's still sleeping figure. He felt bad. It was weird to admit it, but he felt bad for her. She didn't seem like a totally bad person, just...crazy. Crazy with a seemingly unlimited supply of knifes.
"Well?" Fred whispered urgently. "Are you coming or what?"
"Yeah," Sam swallowed nervously. "Let's find the library so we can go home."