Imperium

Chapter 3

I can hear the water. And birds and a ship nearby.

Now, where am I?

My back feels cold, my legs and head are also cold. I feel like I'm resting in the softest bed ever; it carries my weight like a caring mother would her baby.

I open my eyes, only to find out I'm floating in the ocean. No wonder I was cold. I sink, lifting my head up to take in a gulp of air, before being pulled back in. Water floods into my mouth like a wave washing onto the shore.

I gulp in water, coughing out water as more floods in. My stomach fills up with water. The water now covers my head, gravity wants me on the ocean floor now more than ever. My chest begs for air as I descend, I kick, turn, and try my best to go back up. This is when a hand grabs me and pulls me back up.

"Breathe kid, breathe," he ushers calmly.

I cough out water, taking in some much-wanted air. The man swims with me towards the ship I had heard. My lungs thank me for the air as I pant, my breaths short and forced. We board onto the ship, all eyes are now on me. Something I never liked even at school.

I shake as I look at the people, fighting back the urge to bite my nails. Most people here must think I got shipwrecked, and I'm lost. The only thing I've lost is my dignity because I didn't notice that I am naked.

I try my best to cover myself, my eyes roaming around looking at everybody. The people have now made a semi-circle in front of me. They all stand from a distance, none bothering to come any closer. A child hides behind his mother's leg whilst peeking at me with one eye.

A woman strides towards me, balancing herself as much as she can with her wooden stick. Her swollen jointed fingers grab onto her stick as her legs look like they're about to fail her. She reaches me and covers me with a blanket.

"Thank you," I murmur.

She strides back to the crowd as I use the blanket as cover and a source of heat, though I didn't really feel cold. Two boys slowly make their way to me. They have clothes in their hand, giving me blue jeans and a black t-shirt.

I am now dressed and standing next to the woman who had given me the blanket. Just by looking at her I could tell she was beautiful at her youth, though her face has clusters of wrinkles and is sagging.

"Where is the ship headed?" I ask, a lot more confident than I was when I first made into the ship.

"It's heading straight for Mac," the woman answers.

I smile, "It's heading straight home."

The sun is out in the blue sky, not a cloud in the sky. The clouds must've cleared out really quickly. Just this morning the sky was grey and not a beam of light touched the earth. Now not a cloud hovers up in the sky.

I see a man reading a newspaper, upon further inspection I notice that the newspaper's front page isn't the same as the one the people who took me were reading. I look at the newspaper again as I recall the front page of the kidnapper's newspaper. It isn't the same, but the newspaper company is the same.

I try to focus harder on the newspaper's date. I try my best to zoom in with my eyes at the newspaper. My eyes seem to see through the newspaper. Infront of my eyes now is a man smoking his pipe. The man's beard covering most of his upper lip. The man is bulky. Even with his clothes on, it was easy to identify that.

I quickly close my eyes and open them again. Everything is back to normal when I open my eyes. Did I really see through the newspaper? I shake the thought off and start a conversation with the boys who were nice enough to give me a pair of kicks.