Travis
TRAVIS
Thunder cracked outside, lightning lit up the sky, the rain fell in biblical amounts, and the boat bounced around amongst it all. Each time a wave hit or we were thrown around violently, I expected this to be the end—we’d capsize or be broken into pieces and tossed into the water, but by some miracle, we hung on.
“Life jacket,” Jasper insisted.
“I can’t. My arm.” Finn was cradling his arm against his chest protectively.
I closed the distance between them, my fingers dusting along his jaw, as if I couldn’t bear to touch him properly in case he was a figment of my imagination, and he’d vanish like a puff of smoke.
Jasper set Finn down and turned him slowly, letting us see his obviously dislocated shoulder. My relief that he was alive was doused by the anger that someone had hurt him and lied about killing him.
“Let’s get the life jacket on you. I’ll be careful,” Jasper promised as he reached for one and eased it over his arm as Finn whimpered, biting his lip in obvious discomfort. “I’m so sorry they did this to you, little one.”
I saw red. “You told us you killed him. You let us think he was dead,” I screamed at the men who didn’t even look sorry. “You hurt him.” I looked back at Finn, who was pale, his eyes red from crying. “They hurt you.” My voice cracked. We’d persuaded him to come on the boat with us. This was our fault.
Like he could read my mind, Finn spoke. “Not your fault, my love.”
Emotion burned in my throat, my guilt eating me alive. Unable to stop myself, I stormed over to the men, raising my fist, ready to punch the smug fucker who reveled in telling us that Finn was ‘fish food’, but before I could smash him in the face, hands braced around me.
“This isn’t you, Trav. Breathe. I need you. We need you to find us a way out of here. Can you do that?” Jasper’s voice dampened my anger, and my fist uncoiled.
“If… no, when we get out here, you better hope the police arrest you because if I get my hands on you, I will kill you both.” I spat my angry words as Jasper pressed his hand into my lower back and led me back to Finn. I sat next to him on the floor, pulling him into my lap and breathing him in, relief that I got to hold him again hitting as hard as the waves struck the boat.
“We thought we’d lost you, Twinkle.”
He pressed his face into my chest. “I was so scared.”
As Jasper and I crowded Finn, soothing his fear and tears, Jas leant in and whispered, “How bad is it?”
I looked up, my eyes locking on his, hoping he could see my answer without me having to say it. We’re fucked.
“Can’t we call for help?” Finn mumbled against my shoulder.
“No comms. Our phones got smashed.”
“Lifeboat?” he asked.
“Wouldn’t last five minutes, and these idiots trashed that too.”
The boat continued to heave and roll as the three of us held onto each other, one thought echoing loudly inside my head: If we’re going down, at least we’re going down together.
As I let the notion that we probably weren’t getting out of here alive sink in, I forced down my emotion and lifted my gaze to theirs.
“If you had one wish… for the future, what would it be? No holding back. I want to know.”
“To get off this boat,” Finn replied instantly, making me glad that some of his sass was coming back.
“Not what I mean, Twinkle.”
“I want you to stop with that name.”
“Never. Now, stop deflecting. What do you want? You get one wish. Make it count.”
The boat let out an almighty groan as if it was giving up its fight against the storm. I braced myself against them, knowing that if it breached, the devastation would be fast.
I forced my face to stay neutral. “Jas?”
“I don’t want to work in an office. I hate it. I mean, I’m glad I did it because it brought us all together, but I hate everything about it. I want to be back out on the water.”
Finn scoffed.
“Okay, back on calmer water, but I miss diving so much that sometimes I feel like I’m dying inside. I want to live by the beach. I want to explore the deep, but I want someone else to do the budget setting and the spreadsheets and the organisation.”
Finn rolled his eyes. “You’re listing all the good bits. That’s the stuff that gives me life.”
I couldn’t help but chuckle, but the groaning noise cut that short.
“Finn?”
He sighed. “Ever since my parents threw me out, I’ve always felt scared to be myself.” I knew what his parents did to him, and I hated them for it. “Half the time, I don’t know who I’ll want to be that day. But, if I had one wish, it would be to be enough for someone. Never too much, never having to downplay what I want or need. I’d wish for someone to see me for me and never make me apologise for my existence.”
I pressed a light kiss to his lips.
“And you? What would you wish for, Trav?” Jasper asked.
“That’s easy. Marriage, kids. I want a house on the beach in the sun while I get to play in the dark water all day.” The sinking feeling in my gut told me that there was no way I was getting that because we weren’t going to see dry land again, but it was what I wanted. What I’d always yearned for, but never dreamt I’d get.
“You two are certifiable. Why would you ever want to go near the water again? I mean, it’s literally trying to kill us. If this were a movie, this would be the part where a giant sea monster joined in on the act and we vanish beneath the waves…” A look flashed across Finn’s face. “Your phones got broken, I presume by Tweedle-dee and Tweedle-dumber, but what about mine?”
I looked to Jasper, who shook his head.
“No, there were just two phones.”
“Mine was in my bag. I turned it off earlier and forgot to put it on charge after our little…” He blushed, and it was adorable, but then the boat listing dramatically to the side brought our attention back to his phone. “In the bedroom,” he instructed, and I pushed up, running through the boat as fast as I could in the circumstances.
I found it, turning it back on as I hurried back to them. In a minute, Finn was unlocking it and handing it to me.
“We’ve hardly got any signal. I could go outside and see?—”
They both cried, “No” together.
“Okay, let me try to call the Coastguard.”
It rang, but the line was so bad, I wasn’t sure if they’d answered or hung up, so I spoke anyway.
“Can you hear me? This is Professor Jasper Fischer on the Deil Research Boat One. SOS. I have no idea where we are. Five souls on board. We’re stuck in a storm. No power, no comms, no navigation. Help. Hello, hello?”
The phone lit up, telling me the call had ended, and I had no idea if they’d heard us. Another ominous creak of the boat told me that we didn’t have long, even if they did.