Author's Note: Just wanted to apologize for the delay. I've been going through a lot, including a hospital stay where they wouldn't let me have my phone or computer. I still have a lot on my plate to deal with, but I promise to try and update as soon as possible. Thanks for your patience and thanks to everyone who've supported me and continue to support me. You all mean the world to me. :D
Chapter 60: Sinking
"We have to find him!" Micky exclaimed as they took off toward the door. He hated himself for letting the Devil get away so easily.
"Gee, you think?!" Davy yelled following them. When they made it to the hallway, they saw the Devil turn a corner and chased him. After 15 minutes, however, they lost him.
"What do we do?!" Peter exclaimed doubling over and clutching his stomach gasping for breath. "We have a little under 2 hours now."
"Split up?" Davy suggested.
"Only option," Mike said. "Peter, go up with Davy. Micky and Piper, you go down with me. Anyone finds him, tie him up or knock him out. Do whatever it takes to subdue him and bring him back to the rom. I don't care what it takes. No one let him get on that lifeboat."
"Right," they all said in unison and split up. Micky raced around the ship with Mike and Piper right behind him, but they didn't have any luck. The crew were already trying to calmly get the passengers to the lifeboats when they first split up and they were trying to make sure it was first class first so when they saw Micky and the others, they tried to get them to return to their cabin. After a while, they began to get good at avoiding the crew, but it still made Micky a little sick to his stomach to see the crew ignoring the second and third class passengers to get the first class on lifeboats first.
"The only thing I can think is he's gonna try and pass himself off as a first class passenger and get on a lifeboat," Mike said after a while. The crew finally started pulling the second class passengers up and began loading the first class onto the boats, but none of them had been lowered yet.
"So we get up to the the boats?" Micky asked.
"Best bet," Piper agreed as they all made their way up. They met Peter and Davy on the deck who'd apparently come to the same conclusion after searching the rest of the ship.
"We need to blend in," Piper said. "They think we're third class, they'll send us back down below."
"This is not fair," Davy muttered as they walked around the deck trying to look at all the faces on the ship. "I hate this."
"We all do," Peter said. "They don't even fill up the boats as much as they can. We know most of these people are going to die. Horribly."
"There's nothing we can do, Peter," Mike said placing a hand on his shoulder to help relax him. "We just have to focus on the task at hand. We have to find the Devil and stop him from taking someone else's spot."
"I know," Peter answered. 45 minutes after the passengers first began to congregate on the deck to get in the lifeboats, the first one was finally lowered into the water. Micky quickly scanned it, sick that it was nearly empty but relieved the Devil wasn't on it.
"Is that him?" Peter asked another hour later pointing at a man standing in next to a boat and very close to a little boy, almost as if he were pretending to be the boys' father. Panic had started to rise and people scrambled about the ship trying to desperately getting to a lifeboat. They started seeing the ship start to tip forward and water was already making its way through the inside of the shit. Micky and the others quickly made their way over to him and picked up on the conversation the Devil was having with the crew member.
"I'm sorry, sir, women and children first," the crew member said.
"But my son," the Devil said. "I'm all he has. Please sir, you have to let me get on that boat with him."
"Hi," Mike said grabbing the Devil by the shoulders, "found you."
"Officer, this man is lying," Micky said to the officer that looked very confused. "This man is with us. He has no children."
"Where's your mom and dad?" Peter asked kneeling down to the little boy's level.
"He said he would hurt them if I didn't go with him," the little boy whispered.
"We aren't going to let that happen," Peter answered.
"Officer, can you please return this boy to his parents?" Davy asked.
"If this man kidnapped this little boy, then we need to deal with this," the officer said.
"Ok, we'll wait here," Piper said though Micky knew she was lying. "You should probably go find this boy's parents though. I'm sure they're worried sick." The officer seemed a little hesitant, but eventually led the boy away. The Devil tried to fight them off, but Piper had managed to freeze just his legs when they'd first found him so he couldn't run away again. Once the officer left, Mike and Micky grabbed his wrists and held them behind his back while Piper quickly froze them in place together so they could quickly drag him away.
"Let go of me!" the Devil roared. "Please, someone help me! They're trying to make off with me!"
"Can't you shut him up?" Davy asked.
"Gladly," Piper said and flicked her wrist again. It took Micky, Mike, and Peter dragging him down the hallway to a small dining room in the back of the ship. They had decided if they went downstairs, they'd drown a lot faster that way. They found a rope and tied the Devil tight to a steel pipe in the room and Piper's freeze wore off just in time.
"Let go of me!" the Devil roared. "Untie me!"
"Shut up!" Mike yelled suddenly clutching his stomach again.
"Mike, you ok?" Micky asked rushing to his friend who was now turning a light shade of green.
"I think the spell's wearing off," Piper said just as they heard groans coming from the sinking ship.
"How's he seasick when we aren't even moving?" Peter asked innocently. "And the water's very calm. Part of the reason no one saw the iceberg."
"Cause the ship is tilted and sinking," Davy answered.
"Mike, just sit," Micky said leading Mike to the corner where he could rest until this was over. "Piper, can you do the spell again?"
"Of course," Piper said kneeling down next to Mike.
"You people are all stupid," the Devil said. "We're all gonna die here!"
"Shut up," Micky said turning to him and letting Piper work on Mike again.
"We're going to drown," the Devil continued. "The ship is sinking."
"We're well aware of that," Peter snapped.
"I need it to be quiet," Piper muttered.
"Magic isn't going to protect us the way you think it is, darling," the Devil sneered at her. "You have to be proactive. Spells go wrong all the time. Untie me and I can save you. We can still get on a boat."
"What the hell makes you think she's going anywhere with you?!" Micky yelled angrily.
"Please," the Devil laughed. "She's a powerful witch and you're nothing but a simple boy. You really think that would ever have worked? Power is always drawn to more power. Not the other way around."
"Shut up!" Davy yelled and punched the Devil in the face before Micky could do anything other than curl his fists.
"Gag him or something," Piper said starting over as Mike actually started dry heaving. Micky could only stare angrily at the Devil. His words flying through his mind. He was evil and Piper would never fall for him like he was implying, but maybe he was right about it never being able to work with him. Piper was powerful; he was simple.
"You'll just get in the way, Micky," the Devil laughed as though he could see the thoughts in Micky's head. "You know that as well as I do. She'll be too worried about protecting you. She'll eventually leave you. For someone more powerful. Like me." Peter rushed in front of Micky before he could launch himself at the Devil and once again, Davy took care of it for him. The ship groaned and creaked again and a table rolled across the room and crashed into the wall, breaking slightly. Davy broke the table leg the rest of the way and slapped the Devil hard across the face.
"Davy!" Peter exclaimed looking at him in awe as the Devil slumped over unconscious.
"What?" Davy asked innocently. "It got him to shut up, didn't it. And it's not like it killed him. And it's less than what I'm sure Micky was planning on doing."
"Thank you, Davy," Micky muttered knowing Davy was right. Micky turned to Piper to see how she was working with Mike and now that it was quiet, it seemed like she was finally making progress. Davy squeaked a little and pointed at the closed door a second later drawing all their attention to the water that had begun creeping under it.
"Just keep going, Piper," Micky said pushing the Devil's words out of his mind for the time being and taking control because Mike couldn't. "Peter, Davy, trying and stuff stuff under the door to keep the water out."
"How is that going to do anything?" Davy asked. "The ship is sinking!"
"I know, but it'll delay it!" Micky answered. "Just do it!" Peter and Davy nodded and ran to try and grab some tablecloths to shove under the door. Mike looked like he was gonna pass out trying to keep himself from throwing up, but Piper was working quickly to try and get the spell done. In the meantime, Micky grabbed a champagne bucket, dumped out the ice and brought it over to Mike. "Here you go, buddy. Just throw up. You'll feel better." Mike nodded slowly and threw up into the bucket. After another minute, the ship groaned again and Mike was starting to look a little better. The groan however, was followed by a terrible sound.
"What's that?" Davy asked frozen in fear.
"Sounds like rushing water," Micky said just as scared.
"And breaking wood," Peter added leaning against the door.
"Peter, get away from the door," Micky said getting up. Before he could get to Peter, the door snapped off its hinges and smacked Peter to the ground. Several inches of water rushed in the room knocking them all off their feet Micky felt the sharp ice cold water wash over him. The water rushed in with such force, it actually held him under for a while no matter how hard he tried to get up. He swallowed a large amount of ice cold water, feeling the sharp pain in his lungs.
He finally pushed himself above water and started coughing up the water he'd just inhaled for a few seconds before his mind caught up to him. He quickly looked around for the others and spied Davy and Piper helping a still sick looking Mike up out of the water; the Devil was still out and tied to the post, but was now underwater; and Peter was nowhere to be seen. He really didn't care about saving the Devil, but knew that if he died, they'd all be stuck here on a sinking ship; he had no choice.
"Davy!" Micky exclaimed coughing up more water, "get the Devil up and out of the water."
"What about Peter?" Davy asked wading through the water that was up to their chests towards the post holding the Devil.
"I got him," Micky said as he dropped down under the water. He opened his eyes to look for Peter, but shut them almost immediately. Between the cold and the salt, his eyes instantly stung. But he knew he had to fight it. He opened his eyes against the pain and saw Peter after a second. He jumped out of the water and instead of wading through the water to get to Peter on the other side of the room, he decided to just swim it. He reached Peter and heard Piper swimming behind him as he reached under and pulled Peter up.
"Is he ok?" Davy asked pulling the Devil up, to.
"Don't know," Micky said almost falling over from the weight of Peter lying limply in his arms. Micky placed his ear next to Peter's mouth, but didn't hear anything.
"Devil's still out, but fine," Davy confirmed. "Still breathing anyway. Probably didn't inhale much water because he was out cold."
"Peter's not," Micky said.
"What!?" Mike exclaimed from where he was leaning against the wall trying not to throw up.
"We have to do something!" Davy exclaimed. "CPR or something!"
"How?" Mike asked. "The whole damn room is flooded!"
"Relax!" Piper exclaimed and waved her hands moving the water apart in a large enough area for Micky to set Peter down. "Micky, do you know what to do?"
"A little," Micky answered.
"Push on his chest right here five times," Piper said, "then stop when I breath in his mouth. Got it?"
"Got it," Micky said. Inside he was terrified, but knew he had to stay calm long enough to save Peter. He moved to start pushing on Peter's chest, but the entire room rocked and a loud thunderous crack echoed throughout the ship.
"Now what!?" Davy asked as the water actually started receding from the room.
"The ship is cracking," Micky said just as another crack roared through the room and the ship rocked and rumbled. He remembered from history class what happened just before the ship went down; the entire ship had broken in half. How could they possibly perform CPR on Peter with the ship breaking apart all around them?