“Don’t be shy. Come join me.”
Against every alarm going off inside my head, I step forward. Holly and Aurora follow my example. The captain’s quarters don’t open all that much, but it’s still larger than the suite the fancy English man had.
The captain is sitting in a chair in a corner, staring out the windshield at the vast desert expanse.
“I don’t get visitors often anymore,” he says, still not turning. “This is truly a treat.”
“We were told about some sort of force field keeping us all hostage,” Holly says, “and we’re hoping to fix the situation.”
“Fixing it implies something is wrong,” he says, finally turning to view us. Like the smoking figure, his face is scarred and distorted, but his mouth is fully intact. All that’s missing are his eyes. Two black voids fill the spaces where they once were.
“True, someone sabotaged the shield system some years ago, crashing the ship and dooming a few of us to an eternity of occupying the empty space between realities. But it’s not all bad. For starters, you’re here.”
He smiles. His teeth are mostly rotted.
“Yeah, that’s great and all, but I don’t think the crew is a big fan of the whole ‘eternity of occupying the empty space’ thing, so we’re shutting it down.”
“I’m afraid I can’t let you do that. I’ll kill you before you have the chance.”
He stands, and we both step back.
“Game plan,” Holly whispers. “I’ll distract him if you look for the shield thing and get rid of it.” She straightens her posture. “What’s your name, sir?”
“I am Captain Max Pruss. I command this airship.”
“Haven’t you ever considered taking a day off? This thing isn’t flying anytime soon.”
I remove my shoes and silently slip to the side of the room. Aurora stays behind, as if understanding we must be absolutely quiet.
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“A break? When the enemy is causing mayhem in my ship? Outrageous. Preposterous.”
“Oh, I assure you, we’re no enemy. We are but accidental trespassers whose plane crashed nearby. We only wanted shelter. Trust me, we’ll be gone in—”
“I shot your plane down, you American imbecile.”
“What?”
“I blasted you out of the sky with a cannonball.”
I stop moving. What I saw was real? A cannonball from a long-destroyed ship stranded us and killed all but four of my classmates?
“I, uh… why?”
The captain struts towards Holly. “Because this war has not ended, even if I’m stuck between two worlds. We will prevail.”
I need to find the shield thing.
I reach a door to the right of the man and try to open it silently. Holly raises her voice to help hide my noises.
“The war ended forever ago, dude. You guys lost.”
“As long as I’m unkillable, the war will go on!”
He lunges for Holly, who screams. I pound on the wall beside me, hoping to throw him off and have him chase me instead. As she dodges his attack, he turns his head in my direction.
This was a bad idea.
He runs my way, his haunting void where eyes should be somehow filling with bloodlust. I dip into the room and am met by a strange spherical machine with the same blue tentacles as the phased.
“I know you’re in here, you fiend. Reveal yourself and maybe I won’t make your death painful.”
A shiver trickles down from my head to my knees. I’ve never fought the urge to scream this hard. He’s right behind me.
The floor creaks, indicating that Holly has joined us.
Why’d you have to follow, Holly?
“Oh, goody. Both of you are trapped. It’s time for you to meet your end.”
She loops around the side of the room to stand next to me.
“If we’re going down, it’s together.”
I fix my gaze on her. She could’ve run away. She should’ve run away. Why didn’t she?
Hours ago, I hated her guts. She knew that. Now, she’s standing here with me, facing death, and I don’t even hate her anymore.
I’m actually glad she’s here, if not upset with her stupid idea.
The captain unsheathes a long blade, almost the size of a sword, and moves to swipe at us. As his blade travels through the air, we watch Aurora burst into the room and charge at the man. It’s a matter of racing the clock.
With one last hope, I duck down a little, praying the rabbit will reach him before my head rolls away.
The rabbit, despite being considerably smaller than us, packs a surprising wallop against the ghastly man. He gets thrown forward, drops the sword in shock, and careens straight into the glowing metal sphere. The machine sparks and whirs, and a pulse of some sort of energy sends me and Holly off our feet.
“No,” the captain says, on his knees. “What have you done?”
Another pulse wave emits from the sphere, and the man disintegrates. We’re not given time to process the development, however, because Aurora glows brightly, and a moment later, the world turns black.