Chapter 15: Rose
I screamed as the shadow of the submarine disappeared completely beneath the water.
Caleb tightened his grip around my waist and pulled me up toward the hatch, but I continued to struggle.
“Let me go!” I cried.
He gripped both of my wrists with one hand and lowered me into the hatch with the other. Hands beneath me grabbed my legs and pulled me down. When my feet touched the ground and Caleb slammed the hatch shut, my knees gave way and I crumpled to the floor, sobbing.
“Ben! Ben! No!”
I shut my eyes tight, and prayed that when I opened them, I’d wake up back in Kristal’s condo. This would all be a dreadful nightmare. I’d get up and rush into Ben’s bedroom to find him snoring and splayed out on the mattress in his blue pajamas.
“Ben, Ben, Ben,” I breathed, as if saying his name would bring him back to me.
Caleb crouched down beside me. I looked up into his brown eyes, my own eyes blurred with tears.
“I’ll get your brother back,” he said, his voice deep, his face ashen, dark hair soaking wet from the rain.
He stood up and began walking away.
“Wait,” I stammered, scrambling to my feet and following after him. “How? How will you get Ben back?”
Caleb didn’t look back at me as he continued walking along the narrow corridor of the submarine, injured vampires zigging and zagging in and out of rooms and crossing over our path as we walked.
He didn’t answer me until he reached a door at the bow of the vessel, pushed it open and took a seat in the control room, behind hundreds of buttons and dials, next to a vampire whom I assumed was the captain of the submarine.
Once seated, Caleb swiveled in his seat and faced me again.
“I’m going to speak to his superior. He had no authorization to do what he has done.”
I sat down in one of the spare seats behind them as the vampire on the right moved the vessel forward.
“But where are we going? Why don’t we chase after their submarine and get Ben back right this instant? Just like you rescued me.”
Caleb shook his head and set his eyes forward through the window screen.
“It’s too late for that now.”
“But what if they do something to him in the meantime?”
“They won’t harm him.”
“How do you know?”
“I know.”
Racing forward in the opposite direction from my kidnapped brother was the most painful experience I remembered having. “Where are we going now?” I breathed, tears spilling from my eyes again.
“Back to base.”
“Base?”
“You’ll see,” Caleb said, impatience beginning to show in his voice. “Enough questions.”
I gripped the back of his seat and, wiping away my tears with the back of my sleeve, looked forward through the screen to try to make sense of where we were headed. All I could see was an endless expanse of black ocean.
I sat back in my seat and closed my eyes.
Please, Ben. Be safe. Please.
Then I thought about the mobile phone they had confiscated. Our parents were used to us calling thrice a week. Usually Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. If we didn’t call them, they’d get suspicious.
But how on earth will they find us? They’ll contact the adventure company’s office only to find that we checked out long ago.
Goddamn it. We should have called to tell them about those vampires.
Tears threatened to consume me again, even though there was no point to them. Tears weren’t going to help bring Ben back. Or help our parents find us. I looked up at Caleb.
He’s our only hope.
I still didn’t understand his motivation for helping us, and I couldn’t trust him. But he was the only glimmer of light we had in this darkness.
I sneezed. My clothes were soaking from the rain.
Caleb turned around in his chair to look at me and immediately got up. “Come with me.”
I followed him out of the control room, along the passageway. We stopped outside a door. He knocked three times.
“Frieda,” he called.
The door opened and a tall ebony-skinned vampire nursing a painful-looking gash in her arm appeared in the doorway.
“Do you have anything this girl could change into?”
Her chestnut-brown eyes settled on me and she nodded.
“Yes, I’m sure I can fix her up with something. Come in.”
Celeb placed his hand on the small of my back and nudged me inside. Frieda closed the door behind me.
“Let’s see what we’ve got here,” she said.
The cabin was tiny—barely large enough for a single bed and a cabinet. She crouched down and pulled open a drawer in the chest in the corner.
The first thing she pulled out was a towel. Then a long cotton nightdress.
“It’s not much, but it’s better than staying in those wet clothes.”
She placed both on her bed and left the room for me to change.
I wasn’t sure what to do with my sopping wet pajamas so I just put them in a corner of the room. I dried myself as much as I could with the towel, then pulled the nightdress over my head. I wrapped up my wet hair in the towel to form a turban.
I opened the door to find Frieda waiting outside.
“Thank you,” I murmured.
She nodded and was about to shut herself back in the room when I asked, “Could I ask you a few questions?”
“I think it’s best you ask Caleb any questions you have. I don’t know how much you’re allowed to know.”
She shut the door and I made my way back to the control room. When I pushed open the door, Caleb turned around and looked me over briefly, then turned back to face the glass screen.
I sat down in my seat.
“How much longer until we arrive at your ‘base’?” I asked.
“About three hours.”