And Silent Were The Stars - Part 2: The Awakening
And Silent Were The Stars
Part 2: The Awakening
Kate Amedeo
Copyright 2016 Kate Amedeo
And Silent Were The Stars
Part 1: The Survivor
Part 2: The Awakening
Other short stories:
On The Beach
The Bridge
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For Stefano
And Silent Were The Stars
Part 2: The Awakening
Large purple jellyfish were the only source of light. The glow they emanated ripped out a small patch of the mess hall from the clutches of darkness. A thick shadow submerged the rest of the room, silhouettes of the metal dining tables and chairs with plastic seats sprouting out of the gloom behind her back. Rebecca put one hand in front of her face. The shape of her slender fingers - dark and unclear - was surrounded by the mauve glow coming from the huge aquarium in the background. She touched the thick, cold glass which separated her from a large, bulbous shape with long tentacles the color of pomegranate stretching behind it as it silently floated through the water.
The deep, cold silence was interrupted by faint, unclear noises that were coming from far away. Rebecca turned around. She felt the humid, cold air on her skin. It was coming from the other side of the mess hall, invisible, creeping closer and enveloping her, sending shivers through her body. She took one step back and the darkness seemed to have crawled a little closer towards her. Somewhere near, she heard the legs of the chair scrape the floor.
“Who is there?” she asked, hoping that the answer would not come. Her voice sounded faint, a faint echo followed every word until the sound was erased by the silence. For a moment everything fell quiet, only the distant moaning persisted, penetrating through the thick walls of the Syracusae hidden in the darkness. The floor and the mess hall furniture in front of her seemed to be shifting, lingering as the jellyfish behind her back floated by, one moment closer, the other farther away from the thick glass pane, creating a game of light and shadow where every object seemed to be alive. A muffled groan came from the bowels of the ship deep down in the engine rooms.
Rebecca leaned forward and squinted her eyes. For a second, she thought she could make out a shape in the darkness, a man sitting behind one of the tables. She took a step into the darkness and tried to make out if the shape she was seeing was really there.
At first, she heard just a low humming which then grew in strength and permuted into words.
“…twinkle little star…” It was her brother’s voice.
“Tom?” Rebecca took another step closer. Her voice trailed away into the penumbra in front of her and dissolved in a vague echo. Now the light from the jellyfish tank seemed to penetrate deeper into the darkness and she was sure that the man she saw sitting by the table was actually there.
“Up above the world so high…” His voice was weak, the intonation on the last word broken, making the song sound crippled and eerie.
“Tom, is that you?” Rebecca took one more step closer. It was hard to concentrate. Her mind felt heavy, the sounds repeating themselves - muffled and unclear as if the entire room was submerged under water. “Tom, it’s me, Rebecca.” The light seemed to follow her further into the mess hall with every step she took. Now she could see the man sitting at the table with his back turned towards her. She could see the upper part of his body above the plastic back of the chair. He was naked, his head shaved, revealing the structure of the skull. He sat there shivering.
“For you n-never sh-shut your eye…” He was stuttering. He skipped a whole chunk of lyrics, melody now barely recognizable.
“Oh, my god, Tom…” Rebecca gasped.
“Though I know n-not what you are…” With every word, his voice turned more gritty like a rough sandpaper. His shoulders trembled and Rebecca rushed towards him, taking off her jacket at the same time and putting it on him.
“I’m here, darling.” She hugged him, closed her eyes and felt him shiver in her arms. “Shhh, I’m here now.” Tears streamed down her face as she slowly swayed back and forth, pressing him against her breast. “Shh…”
She rubbed his cold shoulders under the jacket and felt something sticky and cold under her fingertips. Rebecca opened her eyes and looked at her hand. The dark brown goo covered her fingertips. She drew back from him and saw that the man was all covered in this slime.
“Tom…”
“Twinkle… Twinkle…” Now the words sounded almost distorted, barely understandable, the last part of the song muffled and instead of words he gave out a groan and turned sharply in the chair. Rebecca backed up as the creature - it could not have been her brother - slid down to the floor from the chair which collapsed to one side, making lots of noise. Her jacket was still covering the thing’s shoulders as it crawled towards her. It was reaching out its long limbs, trying to touch her. The face of what slightly resembled a man was distorted, pale skin stretched over the skull, black eyes deep in the eye sockets. Its nose had sunken in, no cartilage to support it, and the lips were drawn away from the teeth. The dark-brown goo seeped from the gums and dripped in clots from its chin. Rebecca moved away. The creature almost grabbed her ankle with its bony fingers. It gave out a disappointed cry, followed by clicking and a low growl.
“No…” Rebecca whispered, her feet shuffling backwards, backing away as the creature tried to get closer. “No…” She hit the wall of the jellyfish tank with her back and heard it crack right before the glass shattered. And as the ice-cold water poured over her she took a deep breath and closed her eyes…
Rebecca opened her eyes, still holding her breath. She exhaled until her lungs were empty and sat up on the bed. Catching her breath with her mouth, unable to get enough oxygen into her body, she shuddered and looked around. The she saw the numbers on the digital clock glowing in the dim illumination of her private cabin - 02:13. The thin thermal blanket lay crumpled on the floor by the bed and next to it an empty pill container. A wave of shivers coursed through her and she broke out in a silent sob, hiding her face in her palms.
(•••)
Rebecca kept her eyes closed and felt warm water flow down her body. She moved her face under the stream and let it caress her skin and pass through the short auburn hair. The palms of her hands slid from her shoulders down to the small breasts and further down to the flat belly. The sound of water hitting the rubbery surface of the shower filled the silence.
She felt it again. The feeling of someone watching her crept over her like thousands of tiny spider legs, crawling on her skin, making her hairs stand on end. Rebecca opened the eyes and turned around. For a moment she thought she’d heard a noise. It was as if it was coming from the locker room located just out of the shower area. She reached for the taps and turned the water off. As the valve of the faucet turned it gave out a sad screech and then the silence hung in the humid air. From somewhere deep inside the walls a constant humming sound quietly reverberated through the hull of the ship. The Syracusae made all kinds of noises as life support systems pushed enormous amounts of water and air through the filtration systems every second of the ship’s lifetime to support more than a thousand souls aboard. It took Rebecca some time to get used to live with the constant humming and droning.
Rebecca looked out into the long narrow space between the two lines of showers, placed one if front of the other, convincing herself that it was just her imagination playing mind tricks on her. She washed the face and the hair, the foam disappearing into the drain in the floor, and as she did so s
he heard the same sound again. The shrill, cutting noise as if someone had scratched a metal surface with the tip of a screwdriver. This time she was sure the sound she’d heard was real and that it wasn’t the Syracusae ‘breathing’. Slowly, she leaned out of the shower, looking at the end of the narrow passage. There, behind a corner was the locker room. Her fingers found the tap and she turned the water off and reached for the towel hanging right outside the shower cabin. As her feet touched the rubbery surface of the floor, she could clearly hear the hinges of a locker squeal and metal hitting on metal as someone opened the door of a locker.
Rebecca wrapped the soft, white towel around herself, brushing the short curls back with her palm and letting the water drip from her hair onto the back. A small puddle formed under her feet. Barefoot, she walked down the corridor between the shower cabins. Right around the corner, the tall metal lockers were organized in four rows, a narrow bench dividing them.
From somewhere up ahead she could hear rustling and another sound that distantly resembled soft purring or gurgling. She passed the first row and looked left and right, making sure there was no one there. Rebecca walked on, placing one foot in front of the other very slowly. The second row was empty as well. Wet footprints