petals and glass Who: Katie When: Early morning (3 AM) Where: Her room, the halls
"Ring around the rosie, pocket full of posies, ashes, ashes, we all fall down..."
Katie's eyes shot open, as if waking from a nightmare. She was breathless and cold. She thought she heard children singing. For a few long moments, she was unable to hear anything above her own labored breathing, and her heart, which was pounding in her ears. She felt paralyzed; she was utterly terrified, and at the same time, she had absolutely no idea why. Had she been dreaming? Was she awake now? Was any of this real?
She heard it again. Little girls' voices, singing that song. The Americanised one, that Katie had always sung instead as a child, because- She made a pained face and blocked all thoughts away. There were children singing. Focus on the now. She got out of bed, absent-mindedly grabbing her silk robe from the chair and pulling it on. After finally being seen by a doctor the previous morning, she had returned to her room and only left again long enough to hear that bullshit story they had given everyone. Then she had returned to her room, undressed, and fallen into bed without ceremony. She hadn't budged since. Her head was pounding, her neck aching, but she didn't notice it so much just yet.
Her room had been an utter mess yesterday, broken glass everywhere, as well as water and roses. Roses. Roses were everywhere in this bloody room, always had been, but now they were mostly on the floor. The broken glass had all been cleaned away, but many of the roses remained on the floor in the bedroom. Some poor housekeeper had probably been too afraid to risk getting yelled at by cleaning close to the bed. She walked over the remains, bare feet crushing rose petals beneath her steps as she headed for the door, trying to figure out where that sound was coming from.
In her bedroom, it had sounded like it was coming from the sitting room. In the sitting room, it sounded like it was coming from outside her door. Eyes still adjusting to the darkness, Katie simply stared at the door for a moment, watching the small trail of light coming from the crack between the door and the floor flicker as people walked through the hall. The movement was erratic, not steady, like strides.
Don't open it. As she hadn't known why she had awoken terrified, she didn't know why she had that thought, and so strongly. Some inner part of her was screaming, go back to bed, go hide, just don't open that door. But the children were still singing.
"Ring around the rosie, pocket full of posies, ashes, ashes, we all fall down..."
She walked through the sitting room, taking long and slow, steady strides across the floor. She jolted and let out a surprised breath when something cut through the ball of her foot - a broken piece of glass that had somehow been missed. She paused for a moment, but the singing continued. After closing her eyes briefly, and taking another breath, she continued to the door. There was another moment of hesitation before she opened it. She let her forehead rest against the door as watched the tiny glimmer of light beneath the door flicker. It was louder now. Worse, it was getting closer. She could feel something ascending on her, as if the shadows in the room were all joining to attack her from behind. Feeling terror threaten to seize her heart and lungs, she threw open the door and hurried out into the hallway.
There was no one there.
Katie stood in the center of the hall for a moment, feeling utterly stunned. The hall was empty, and everything was steady. Quiet. The only sound was her door closing, and then - absolutely nothing.
She looked around her, taking what felt like a long time - a minute? five minutes? ten minutes? she didn't know - to just look, turning in all directions as she felt like she had lost her mind. There was nothing. But then? It started again. She had moved deeper into the hallways, standing where they T'd to form an aisle between the rows of elevators, and she was staring off in the other direction. And the song started again. Quietly - so quietly, like echoes of whispers from long ago. Somewhere deeper within the ship, which shouldn't be possible - the salon was closed and all public rooms were locked up. Maybe it came from down the stairs. It was hard to tell now where it originated, even though it had changed slightly. It was just one little girl singing now. She sang the one and only verse most children ever bothered with, and simply stopped. And for no reason at all, Katie knew it had actually stopped this time. The terror that had been threatening her had left her now. Her heart rate was slowly going down. She felt a bit warmer. It was over, and she was left standing barefoot in the hall, her foot bleeding.
I am losing my mind. she confirmed, sighing and shaking her head as she went to return to her room. When it had been happening she'd been completely in its grip, terrified and captivated by it. But now that it was gone... it felt silly. She felt silly, maybe because there was no way to justify what she thought had just happened. She went to open her door, and realized she didn't have the key. She smiled a small, humorless smile as she let her forehead lightly hit the door. "Great." It was a long walk down to the desk to get a new key. And a bandaid.
"Bloody concussion." she mumbled, pulling her robe tighter around her body as she headed for the stairs. "I swear I'm going to buy this damned ship when this is all over and my lawyer's bled them dry." And then she'd blow it up.