Delia's heart raced as she prowled with a panicked pace in search of Jeremy, Shelby, Gavin, and Karl. She made her way to the gangway first, surmising the group would be there; it was where most of the crew had gathered.

Her eyes flitted from face to face, swiftly moving from one to another and giving false smiles to those whose eyes locked onto hers.

It felt so… wrong.

Delia felt a strange contrast, consumed in despair and dread while the rest of the crew celebrated by the candlelight upon finding land. It was almost eerie, like being a walking wraith, waiting to take away their joy by delivering the news of—she shook her head.

“We don’t know yet,” she said to herself.

She slowed her pace as if treading on eggshells, not wanting to alarm anyone while she moved amongst their midst. Though she knew they would find out soon, she wanted to contain the panic before her Pa got a hold of the situation. It was excruciating. Though she maintained a composed demeanor, her mind silent and calm, her body betrayed her. Her heart rang like the ship's bell, and every fibre of muscle with her twitched, pleading for her to move with greater haste.

She was fortunate she didn't need to keep up the act for long.

“Hey, Del!” a distant voice called to her.

Delia reeled towards the voice, her heart jumping to her throat at the sound of her own name, and found the second mate with Shelby, sharing drinks.

“Easygoing fools,” she murmured.

It annoyed her finding them relaxing during such a pivotal time, but she ignored the bitterness as best she could, focusing on her luck that she found them together. Letting her pent up energy release itself as she hurriedly made her way towards them also helped.

“Hi Delia,” Shelby greeted.

“The captain is calling you both,” she said, ignoring his greeting.

“I already–”

“Now. His room,” Delia said, trying to keep her breathing steady.

It felt like her heart was pounding so loudly in her chest that everyone around her could hear it.

The two nodded solemnly, and after Jeremy downed the bottle in his hand, they made their way towards his room with quick strides.

“Intoxicated idiot,” she said.

Delia then turned her attention back towards the crowd, searching for the boatswain. He didn’t appear among them, and after spending what felt like far too long, she headed down to the other communal spaces, eventually finding Gavin in the Galley.

He was storing items in small portable coolers, the task Greg had assigned Shelby. The third mate must have passed on the duty to the boatswain upon hearing the announcement from Khaleel, favouring to join Jeremy for drinks with the excuse of readying the crew to depart.

She directed him to the captain's quarter like the others, and he acquiesced without asking questions. It was likely he thought it was related to Khaleel's announcement, or perhaps he didn’t ask why, given the brevity of her voice.

Locating Karl proved to be a harder challenge as he had been wandering the winding corridors below deck. She found him as he pushed open the doors and ran onto the main deck, still in a frenzy.

“Any luck?” Delia asked though she knew he had little.

“No,” Karl said breathlessly. “No one seems to know where he is.”

“Did you tell anyone he’s missing?”

“No… I just asked… if they saw him because I’m looking for him.”

Delia bit her tongue, deciding not to chide him for turning the ship upside down in his search. He was lucky most of the crew were fascinated by the newly found land or had already begun drinking. Otherwise, they would have asked why he was running around like a madman.

The thought made Delia wonder why Karl even was searching for him. Felix was a regular shipmate. He had no specific tasks, and for someone who had been on the crew for less than a year, it was odd that Karl searched for him specifically.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

“Why were you looking for him?” Delia asked, unable to stop her curiosity.

“Because Damien and Michael asked me to find him,” he said.

“Oh." That wasn't good. “Sugar.”

Delia felt the small seed of panic within her blossom further.

“You should have said that in the first place,” she said. “Where are they now?”

“They’re waiting by the gangway, I think.”

She didn’t recall seeing them, though she wasn’t looking out for their faces either.

“Go grab them and take them to the study,” Delia said.

“What? why?"

"Just do it."

"And if they ask why?” Karl asked.

“Make something up?” Delia said, her frustration growing. “I don’t know, say the captain wants to talk to them about something.”

He finally nodded and ran off towards the huddled crew whilst Delia hurried through the doorway and down the stairs, in through the hallways and past the hundred doors towards her Pa’s room. Every second seemed to stretch, and with each step found her breath shallower. It was just like the night before, when she stormed towards Cassie's room — when the Sirens first made their move.

Delia eventually reached the door and found it closed, the men within having already begun their emergency meeting. She paused, gathering herself for a quick moment before knocking on the imposing oak and announcing her arrival.

The door opened quickly, Jonah having stood by it, and she found the assembled cast from their earlier discussion along with the doctor. Cassie gave her an acknowledging nod which Delia returned. It seemed Greg had come to the same conclusion as her then.

She proceeded to enter the room quietly as Greg issued a series of instructions to the rest of the room's occupants.

“Shelby, go down there and direct everyone off the gangway, and onto the walkway,” her Pa said. “Split them into groups of five, and spread them out a little. Less chance for them to talk. Gavin—”

“We have another problem,” Delia said quickly, interrupting him. Though she knew Greg didn't like being interrupted, she didn’t want him to issue tasks to everyone without him knowing the full extent of the problem.

“Of fucking course,” Jeremy muttered under his breath. “Couldn’t leave us alone could you?”

“Out with it, Del,” the captain said.

Delia ignored Jeremy's murmurings, turning to her pa. “Karl wasn’t the one who noticed they were gone. It was Damien and Michael.”

“Shit," he cursed. “Where are they?”

“I told Karl to take them to the study,” she said.

“Good thinking,” Greg said.

“What did I miss?” Delia asked, taking a seat to give her aching calves some respite.

“I had Jonah turn the ship upside down in search of Felix, but he’s gone. His bed hasn’t been made, so he hasn’t fixed it in the morning.”

“Which means he hasn’t been in there since the night of the party,” she muttered.

He nodded solemnly. “I also had Cassie here go around speaking with every person by gangway individually, trying to find out where he could have gone. She asked them a bunch of standard health questions, then threw in Felix’s name randomly in between.”

That was smart, she acknowledged. If the crew members asked each other why Cassie had called them, then they would say she wanted to discuss health questions instead of Felix’s whereabouts, though Karl having asked the crew wasn't ideal.

“No one’s seen him recently,” Greg said, nodding towards Cassie to elaborate.

"No one's seen him since the crew started drinking," Cassie said. "Not since last night's party, at least."

The sentence reverberated in Delia's mind, and she felt her stomach drop, the statements a vindication of her speciation. And though Cassie continued talking, the doctor's voice turned into distorted background noise as Delia's stomach churned with dread.

“So I think we’ve come down to the same conclusion as you,” Cassie said. “A siren got to him.”

Delia felt sick. This was on her. Her fault for taking too long to get to Cassie. Her fault for talking so long, explaining to Jonah, and her fault for not noticing sooner.

She gulped, battling the burning sensation that seemed to crawl up her throat.

"It's my fault," Delia said, eyes downcast. "I wasted too much time stopping you and Jeremy. I —"

Cassie put a gentle hand on Delia's shoulder. "Hey, don't blame yourself,” she said softly.

"She’s right. You did a fine job, Del," Greg said. "There are no what ifs and there is no poin' searching for someone to pinpoint blame. It was the Sirens at the end of the day."

“But if I —”

"We can't change what's happened," Greg said with finality. "What we need to do now is find a way to spin this. Find a way to keep it under wraps. How many know he's missing?"

"All of them by now. Karl did go around asking if they saw him," Jeremy said.

"No, that doesn't mean they know he's missing, it means they know that he’s looking for him," Greg said. "How many know he is actually missing?"

"Only two of them approached me," Karl answered, having entered the room at some point. He was panting, so he must have run after dropping Michael and Damien into the study.

“Did they say he was missing?” Greg asked.

“To me? Yes.”

"Delia, go into the study and find out how many they told he is missing. I don't want to know how many they've told they're looking for him. Missing. Got it?"

She nodded firmly before rushing out of the room.