‘What’s your name?’ I work up the courage to ask her as I try to stand and stretch in the eerie light of the new area. I look at her but only briefly. I can feel myself start to blush every time I meet her eyes and her lips start to curl into a smile for me.
‘You don’t know?’ She asks sweetly but disguises a small amount of offence. She knows who I am. That much is clear. But I guess she would given what I went and did. I know her by face. By her body and its tantalizing contours. But I don’t know her name even though I really wish I did. I shake my head. I’m too embarrassed to say anything.
‘It’s Lucy.’ She doesn’t add a surname and I’ve ran out of courage to ask it. She calms her voice and introduces herself like we had been life long friends. Like I have amnesia or something. My head is spinning with questions that I want to ask her. I try to focus on the area and not on her.
She must think I’m ignorant but I just can’t look at her. I pace around a little to get a feel of the place. The floor is polished clean but the walls are caked in soot and flame scars. The fire that destroyed most of the inside of the ship, and probably the same one that killed my friend Kolt, must have been severe, quick and relentless.
‘How did you make it here before me?’ I glance to her gorgeous face but quickly look away. Her thin smile fades into a frown almost instantly. I feel like I’ve upset her. Time to man up. Time to stop acting like a smitten teenager. I need to engage with her and get over a silly little crush I seem to have developed out of nothing. I stop scouring the floor, looking for bodies I’m afraid to recognize, and face her head on for the first time.
‘What is it.’ I reach out a brave hand to comfort her. She lets me get close. I run my hand close to her and run my open palm across her cold cheek as she begins to sob.
‘I…’ she begins. I can already guess how the sentence will end and it sends my stomach to the pits yet again. ‘I don’t remember.’ I want to shiver at her admission. I want to tell myself that it’s just coincidence and it has nothing to do with the way Kolt was. I think she can sense that she has shaken me. I rub her cheek a few times and even force a smile. She reaches up and holds my hand in hers. I relish the moment. I don’t care how silly it is. If it is real or not. I just want to touch her and I love that she wants to hold my hand back.
I manage to press the issue after basking in her love for just a moment. I have to press it. I have to know what is going on.
‘Did you come here for me? To kill me?’ She doesn’t reply right away. She turns away from me and stares into the distance. ‘Or capture me, take me back for what I did?’ I keep on asking her the same question in different ways until she meets my eyes again. I lose my chain of thought as soon as I am lost in her gaze.
‘What did you do?’ She asked so sympathetically that even I might have believed I was innocent. I killed men and I stole.
‘You don’t remember?’ I ask and put my other hand on her other cheek. If that sounded sarcastic or mocking, it wasn’t meant to be. If she is here to kill me, even though I don’t feel that is true, I’m going to make it worth it.
‘No.’ She admits but smiles. ‘I feel… funny though.’ She loses my stare momentarily and seems to drift away into thought.
‘How do you mean?’ I stoop down just a few inches so that we are the same height and make her look at me again.
‘I feel… lost. But that’s ok. I feel peaceful about it.’ My heart drops into my knees and I can only let my mind race thinking about what she means. It can’t be coincidental. It can’t be. Kolt said the same thing. He was a ghost. He was dead and he didn’t even know it until he saw his rotting old ship again.
‘Will you kiss me?’ She asks me out of the blue, staring at me like a besotted young girl in love. She is smiling again. She has her mouth open just a touch in anticipation. Like I would ever turn her down. I can’t remember my last date. I can’t remember the last time I kissed a girl. Even her name. It has been so long that I’m not sure if I ever have in reality. If I have only dreamt of it. I don’t know if this will be my first kiss or not.
She closes her eyes and pulls herself close to me. She is strong but limp. Firm but caring. She lets me reach out for her and press my lips to hers. They are warm and soft and we spend the next few sweet moments caressing one another’s lips with our own. She giggles just a little as we break. I didn’t even realize we had our eyes closed until I open them.