I sat on the ground washing the blood from Graces leg. Hud had sealed the wounds up with a match after he punched Hansel in the eye. Will had kicked him in the shins and then helped me wash off the blood. All of us sat in silence. Hud was trying to get Will to go away. Cindy and Gretal were fixing up Hansel.
When we got her leg all wrapped up tight, I was washing my hands along with the bullet from her leg. It wasn't made of medal. It was more of a stone.
"Hey. Whats this bullet made of?" I asked no one in particular.
"Lapis." Hansel replied. I could see that. It was blue.
Eventually we were all back Jack's back. Will held Grace in his lap while Hud sat in front of him. Cindy sat behind Hansel, who sat behind Gretal. We all were pretty upset to be smushed again.
Grace woke up. She sat up pretty quickly and almost fell off. Luckily Will caught her. She slowed down a bit to look around. She loved the feel of the wind on her face. I turned around to see how she was doing and ended up being a hair away from Hud's face. We just stared at each other uncomfortably. I was still pretty upset with him.
"Alana." He said.
"Yes?" I said in a monotone.
"You still mad?"
"Yeah."
"Why?"
"Because what you said was mean. I don't have any real family. I haven't actually told you guys everything. My mom died when I was twelve and my Dad walked out on me when I was thirteen. You guys were all I had." I was crying. Everyone was staring at me in shock. I didn't really care that much.
"I still don't understand why it means so much to you. It isn't like I meant it."
"But what if you did? Besides if it was about me you probably wouldn't mean it, but this was Grace. You don't love anyone as much as you love Grace, so I don't think anyone would be surprised if you meant it." I turned around and faced Cindy. Everyone was fighting. I didn't like it.
The rest of the trip was pretty quiet. Grace and Will quietly talked to each other on occasion. Even when we landed on a beach no one talked. We left our tents in wonderland so all we had were some blankets in our sacks.
We all kind of kept our distance away from one another. Will and Grace sat near each other. Hud of course sat near Grace. Cindy talked to Hansel a bit. She mainly listened to his stories about witch hunting. Every now and then he would tell a story about her mom. Even though the rest of us hated him, we all listened to the words he spoke.
None of us slept that night. We were afraid. We knew what we were up against. To make matters worse we all knew that we had no idea what the witch was capable of.
Sense no one was sleeping anyway, we decided to go find the safe. None of us knew were Hansel got a submarine but he said he knows a guy. I decided not to asked anymore questions. Us kids had our faces glued to the Windows. We wanted to see what was out their. I hoped it would calm me. Not a lot of fish are out at night so we didn't see very much. We did get to see the occasional shark though. Hansel and Gretel were scanning the ocean floor for the safe.
We eventually came to what looked like a fish grave yard. No signs of life were in this little circle. In the center was what appeared to be a shaking green cube. Us kids all got into scuba suits and used a water doore to leave the compressed vessel. We sat all the way to the cube. High pitched screeching made me feel like I was going to die. We all lifted up the cube and the screeching stopped. I let out a sigh of relief. We swam the safe up to the water door. It was a lot heavier than expected because of the weight of all the water piled on top of it.
When we got it into the submarine, it became significantly lighter. I carried it into the room with Hansel and Gretel. When I set it down it started screeching again. Out of the water it made a sound so loud that you can't even hear it. I covered my ears and assumed the fetal position.
I felt my ears bleed and my head explode. I blacked out.
I woke up in a netted hammock. I sat up and hit my head on the roof. Below me was Cindy. I guess we both blacked out. We weren't in our scuba suits. Instead I was in my lose worn out jeans with a grey t-shirt that was clearly to big for me.
I walked out of the dripping room and walked over to the control wing. When I got in there everyone stared at me waiting for me to do something. I felt like I was missing something.
"Is there a reason you guys are staring at me?" I asked. I didn't hear myself say anything though. I couldn't hear anything. I stomped my foot. Nothing. I screamed. Not a single sound. I was deaf.
Hansel took me into what appeared to be the medical wing. I sat on a large silver table. It was cold. Hansel grabed a flash light and shined it in my ear. He frowned, then he wrote on a piece of paper. I read it with fear.
The sound blew your eardrums. You're deaf. It might be able to heal but I can't make any promises.
So that was that. I guess I would have to learn sign language. I suppose it wouldn't be so bad. I tend to keep to myself anyway. I don't really talk to people.
Hud walked into the room and looked at me. He said something. I just sat there and stared at him. He repeated himself. I just shrugged.
Grace talked to him. I assume she explained what was going on. He looked back at me in question. I stared. He walked over to me and pulled me out of the room.
He dragged me to a window and we looked out. More light was shining in the ocean now that it was morning. There were so many fish. They were absolutely beautiful.
Hud pulled me into a hug. I think he was more upset than me. When we pulled away he kissed me. When I pulled away and looked at him, he distinctively mouthed the words I'm sorry. I knew he wasn't talking about my hearing.
We stared at the fishes for a long while.