Beneath the Door: the Chrysalis Saga Book One by Holly Jane

Author:Holly Jane [Holly Jane]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Holly Jane
Published: 2022-11-19T00:00:00+00:00

-22-

The crew on The Whittaker are mostly Welsh, as I initially suspect. They sit in tight groups during meals, muttering together in their native tongue, mostly when I am nearby, continuously glancing back at me in a mixture of scepticism and mistrust. There’s an old Texan called Bobby Dee that sits to himself most of the time, murmuring about the good old days and how in his country, he’d be permitted to carry his damn shotgun for protection. A small handful of others were from other parts of the UK and wider Europe.

True to our agreement, Perry puts me to work straight away. I’m sat in my usual seat at the side of the dining hall, peeling sacks of potatoes, carrots and parsnips for dinner. If not for the fact that I didn’t know the first thing about life on a ship, I would have moaned about being assigned such a feminine task – but I zip my mouth and concentrate on the fact that with every passing sea mile, we’re heading deeper into international waters and to freedom.

The women’s quarters were nothing more than a few hammocks in a smaller room down from the kitchen and storage areas. Aside from Serene, who stayed with Perry, it’s just me alone in the darkness with my thoughts and my guilt weighing down on me, threatening to plunge me through the boat and into the cold, unforgiving sea.

The first few days are the worst, and I am caught between playing the attentive role of new crewmate, desperate to stay away from the spotlight and letting out my feelings as soon as the door close behind me at night.

Grief consumes every being of me, every molecule, every crevice. It’s the last thing I think about at night and the first thing when I wake, red eyed in the mornings. The only good thing I could really focus on was that being out in the middle of the water greatly reduced the amount of electrical flow I could feel all around me. It was more manageable, more breathable. I could think without concentrating most of my energy on pushing back the sing of the current and its constant call.

We move towards international waters mostly in the middle of the night at a slower pace than I would expect. When I ask Perry if it was a logistical fishing decision, he mumbles something and makes some excuse up, while asking me if I had been crying in my cabin.

The meaning was clear; if I don’t interfere with his business, he won’t interfere with mine. It’s all I could ask for really.

A guy named Hamish is in charge of showing Darrell and I the ropes. Young Darrell looks more seasick than me, as he leans against the door of the men’s bathrooms, a sheen of sweat across his face. When I appear next to him, he breathes deeply and tries to smile.

“Morgan,” he says, probably the only one to address me directly aside from Perry and Serene.

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