▼¿▼

Where could she have gone? Are ghosts this easy to lose too?

Tom wondered, as he made his way through the people on deck- lumbering to and fro in a less than agile manner.

He was checking the stern of the ship for the Captain. For she had taken Ray with her after the commotion.

The woman's image, Ray's image, had become shrouded by the haunting smoke of her attempted suicide. Which in turn, made her even more difficult to find.

Not to mention that Tom couldn't see the Captain at all. Her blue and white cap remained undistinguished amongst the crowd.

He shook his head in frustration. The chances of finding either one of them was fraying quickly, along with Tom's patience.

The only person Tom had recognised was Kate. She was standing alone and, having seen her in the same place he just left moments ago, Tom realised that he must've ended up back to where he had started.

So he set off once again and turned to the direction that he thought was left. Though, there were too many people on the ship for Tom to be completely sure of his direction.

As he searched he hoped that the Captain could be trusted but he was uncertain of her loyalties. Of whether she truly followed the Goddess Mother Nature and the government's Laws of Redemption.

The District of Lakes housed two types of people- those who only pretended to whole heatedly conform and those who didn't have to pretend. It was the latter you had to watch out for.

The boy pushed past these practisers and pretenders and checked the bow for the ship's controller.

Ouch!

Tom's hand shot up to his partially clothed arm. The water had left small bullet shaped holes in his shirt- giving temporary sight of the raw burns, as his skin shifted beneath the cloth. Creeping back into his synapses, the pain had returned to replace the numbness- making an assault on his body receptors.

Many people hadn't even spared Tom a sideways glance for fear he would put them in danger, or even worse- cause them to be noticed. They'd retreated back into their minds that were stuffed with pastel pink fibre glass.

With everyone eager to ignore Tom, it meant that it didn't take him long to notice when someone was watching him. He didn't look up quick enough to catch the person's face. Nevertheless, he felt a gaze puncturing the already poisoned air around him.

Yet he wasn't surprised. He'd lost the capacity to be so. With the visions and echoes of his lost friend's voice, he felt like he hadn't left the facility at all.

The world had given him a whole new set of side-effects.

Tom straightened up and forced himself to keep walking, in order to ensure he was out of the gazer's sight.

"Have you seen the Captain?" he tried, aiming his question at anyone who would be kind enough to reply.

The young man with coffee coloured hair coughed and pretended he had heard no-one. No answer. The lady with wrinkles, the ghosts of a smile, frowned. No answer at all.

Tom wished he could be at home. To the home in the past. Where he was at least safer than he was now. In a place that he thought knew.

Dépaysement Tom mused, comforting himself with another government permitted word. It's the disorientation of being in a foreign country or culture. Tom pretended as though Kate and Flynn had asked him what it meant.

He turned to leave but someone was stood in his way.

"Hey!"

He backed up, shocked by the verbal contact from an unknown person and fearing that it was the person who he had felt staring at him before.

"Hey!" A voice softly called again. Tom faced the direction in which the sound emanated from. "You were standing with Kate earlier weren't you? " asked the woman. Friendliness hung in her tone of voice. Though the timid vibrations of speech gave a subtle hint of her anticipation.

It was Cleo.

Tom was struck with a sense of verbal laryngitis. He realised he hadn't properly spoken to anyone other than Kate and Flynn since he'd been abducted. Four whole years it had been. There was so much that could go wrong. His last attempt to reconnect, with his brother, had crumbled almost as soon as it had begun.

"That was definitely her name wasn't it? Kate?"

Cleo, the rounder woman, stood on her tiptoes so that she was level to the gaunt lady next to her. Whom of which would've gone unnoticed to Tom had she not interacted with Cleo.

"That's right," Sam replied, twirling one of the green streaks in her hair. It wasn't uncommon to see shards of decay on the people in The Lake District.

Though the frequency of the weather was unpredictable, one thing was for sure. When the clouds blew up like over encumbered balloons. The acid rain would come- unstoppable as it was. Leaving marks on those caught up in it.

Tom tried to shake off his anxiety and opened his mouth. He imagined that if he'd ever heard a toad- they would've made a sound similar to the entity that was lodging in his throat.

He coughed in an attempt to clear the frog sounding blockage. Sam eyed the boy in slight disdain.

"I don't think we should be talking to him. Don't you think we've talked to enough people today Cleo?"

"Oh live a little!" she replied. "What's one more?"

Sam sighed in disbelief. "He's one of the Darshana boys," she observed.

Tom swallowed. He hated that everyone knew his family. At school people used to whisper, talk about how wealthy he was. Tell him that he didn't even need to be at school. He could be sitting at home stuffing himself with enough oxygen to last him a lifetime.

But the government would never allow it. He would've certainly considered a life like that, had he been given the chance.

He nodded reluctantly in conformation, realising that he'd momentarily forgotten what he was doing talking to them.

He cleared his throat once again whilst his brain rebooted.

"You don't happen to have seen the Captain have you?" he asked.

"You mean that woman who might as well have no eyes?"

"Sam!" Cleo chastised. People around them were beginning to stare. They were being too loud. Communicating too much.

"Keep your voice down!" Sam replied. "Well she wears that hat so far down her face I'm surprised she hasn't fallen off the boat yet as well."

Cleo stifled a cruel giggle in response but Sam just continued talking "Yeah she went below deck with the rather striking looking girl. She'll probably be in 'er quarters. She is a Captain after all. "

"Ah yes.. The girl." Cleo sounded concerned. She clearly disapproved of Tom's interference with fate.

Then Cleo stared at her wife. Her frown deepened as she took in the details of the conversation. "Hold on a minute. I thought I was striking," moped Cleo. Tom went to leave them to their business but paused when he realised that he in fact, had no idea where the quarters were.

"Sorry," he interrupted "You don't know where the Captain's l quarters is do you?"

"Below deck. There's a hatch door. " Tom thanked Cleo and Sam, then left.

This time he scanned the floor instead of his surroundings on eye- level and between the shuffling feet Tom caught sight of a latch.

After a small tug at the rusty handle the hatch swung open. Tom climbed down the metal clad steps- bashing his oxygen tank clumsily on the way down.

*

The corridor now surrounding Tom was dark and stuffy, the only light source being a few oil lamps that swung with the ship's sways of movement.

He didn't need to go in search of the right door, for there was only one- at the end of the hallway. It had been left slightly ajar and the captain's voice permeated through the space between the door and wall. Her harsh tone was increasing in volume as Tom walked down the corridor.

"Please, tell me why you tried to jump, love. Or I'll 'ave to pass it on to the guards when we dock and note it as suspicious activity."

"Why do I need to tell you anything?" replied a voice. Tom presumed it was Ray's.

"Because I'm the kindest of the lot. If you don't tell me then the matter will have to be taken by the guards, or worse the coordinators." Silence. "You know what, why don't we just tell the Prime Minister instead! There's plenty he could do to you." Tom flinched- becoming very aware of the scar on his arm. He knew fully well the power of the government.

"Don't threaten me. I am not afraid of that shady bastard." She's going to push the Captain over the edge, Tom thought. He pushed open the door to the Captain's quarters, stumbling into the fire-lit room.

Curtains draped over the metal-gridded windows in a muddy green colour that matched the disused bookshelves. Most of the books must've been confiscated, Tom presumed, or cast into the sea like the by-products of a canteen lunch.

Tom remembered a book he'd seen in the confiscated library- Jules Verne was the author and the book had a golden submarine on the cover. He hadn't had time to take it. His brother Jack was far too careful to let them get caught taking advantage of their father's work status.

Had Tom's younger self known that his father wore the shell of a monster for his job he might have thought twice about even looking at those books.

The bookcase in the Captain's quarters was so barren in comparison. Beside it stood the Captain herself, leaning over Jay in anger.

"Ah. You! Just in time," she said straightening her Captain's cap so that it fell neatly over her eyes once again. "Maybe the savior can talk some sense into this fool," she spat sarcastically.

Tom saw the look on Ray's face as she sat on the floor. She was ready to attack, but the blueish pallor of her face gave away the effect suffering had on her body.

"Leave it, please. She's tired. Let her rest," Tom said, closing the door politely behind him.

"Don't tell me what to do boy."

The Captain walked towards him threateningly.

Tom stepped as far back as he could until the Captain had cornered him in a room. She grabbed hold of his arm and it singed with the pain from acid burns.

Then, a creak.

Drawling, like the laboured laugh of a man in a hospital waiting room.

It could be heard outside of the door. Tom had the similar feeling that someone was watching him. He looked between the slit of the door and saw an eye looking ahead, rounded like blue sea glass.

Then it's gaze shifted towards Tom, locked onto his figure like a homing weapon.

Author's Note- Hey guys. To begin with, I am so sorry about these updates. 2 months is far too long to not upload a chapter for. For those who are still reading- thank you! It really means a lot. I've been working on this chapter and another one recently so the next one should be up within the next few weeks. (P.s the little symbols at the front of each chapters are clues to what will ensue in that chapter! ) -hippywitch