Helen welcomed the sting of the cold salty air that struck her face and whipped her hair back as she stepped out to the starboard deck. The stars blazed cold and distant above. And the titanic bright lights sank low to reflect back in the icy waters.
On all sides blackness swallowed the horizon. Helen Magnus stood on the deserted prow in the frigid night air. She might very well have been the last person alive on earth.
Helen gave an involuntary shudder, realizing one day she very well could be. Time marched on with little regard for who lived to see the dawn. Tomorrow was a new day, it had no use for those who aged with it. James and Nigel were holding up well, but they changed. Each year she could see rested more heavily on James shoulders. Etched a new line in Nigel's face. Even Nikola was only half vampire. He could look 50 years old or more. He could possibly die. And Helen would be alone in a world she no longer belonged to.
She didn't know how long she stood gazing idly out before the looming shape registered. A large section of the stars seemed missing. As though a black hole had come to rest on the ocean. The monster Charybdis raising her hungry mouth to the surface. A bell sounded overhead, Helen looked up as the lookouts cry carried through the still night air. It wasn't Charybdis, or her sister, the six-headed ravenous Scylla, loathing and destroying everything that came into her reach, a peril to all sailors who passed near her. But a rock much more treacherous than either of those titans.
"Iceberg! Iceberg dead ahead!" fleet called out Helen gasped and stared in horror at the floating disaster approaching the ship much too fast. The Titanic gave a great shudder and stopped heart poundingly slowly. The ship inched to the right
Helen held her breath and the railing as the dark shape loomed up and slammed the side mercilessly.
8 seconds. I rail vibrated, the hull screamed and ice clashed with Iron in a battle of elements. 8 seconds Metal and water defied each other, man versus nature.
In 8 seconds the largest movable man-made object sealed its doom. 8 seconds to change the lives of 2,200 people.
The ship of dreams was about to become a fateful nightmare.
Hobbits apologies:
Something went wrong the first time we uploaded this chapter. The notes got cut out.
The iceberg that the Titanic struck was a"blackberg" with a clear surface caused by continuous melting. The clear surface reflected the dark night sky and water like a mirror, thereby making it a black object, almost impossible to see. Not disimilar to the black ice found on winter roads.