Chapter 3 - The Lost City of Atlantis; Curse of the Sea
I glance out the window, as Florence sighs and rests his head on his hand. “Are we there yet?” he enquires in a bored tone.
“How old are you? No, we are not there yet.”
Florence had decided that it would be a great idea to carpool since we’ll be gone for about a week. If I had known that he had the patience of a toddler I would have declined immediately.
As we pull into the harbour’s lot where Desdemona had told us to be, Florence gets out and stretches, my car being much too small for him. Which should have been more obvious in hindsight, seeing as he’s over a foot taller than me. “You all good?” I pop open the trunk and hand his bags over to him.
“Where did you get that car?” he asks, popping his neck as he slings the bag over his slim shoulders. “Did you get it second-hand from a circus?”
I ignore the jab, and grab my bag, slamming the trunk closed and spamming the lock button as the car beeps. “You know that means that it’s locked right?” Florence asked, unimpressed as he starts walking.
“Just making sure,” I say as I skip a few steps to try and keep up.
Florence looks like he wants to say more, but we’re cut short as we approach Desdemona and a tall, blonde woman standing next to her in a white button-up and black dress pants. As we get closer the tall woman spots us and points us to Desdemona, who turns and somehow, her smile gets even wider.
She skips over, taking my hand and shaking it with enthusiasm. “Professor I am so very glad to see you,” going over to shake Florence’s hand who lets his arm shake around, Desdemona not noticing or caring.
The tall woman approaches me, holding out her hand. “Hello, my name is Dr. Lilith Leviathon, I’ll be accompanying Ms.Carita on this expedition.”
“Eric Morgan, a pleasure to be meeting you,” at this, she narrows her eyes at me.
“Eric Morgan as in the leader of the failed expedition from twenty-three years ago?” A shiver goes up my spine. She opens her mouth to say more, and Florence, shocked by her boldness looks down at her, glaring with fury.
Desdemona notices this and decides to break the tension by grabbing Dr.Leviathon’s arm and dragging her up the steps to the ship. “Come up, we’re just taking the boat till we’re close enough to the fissure and we’ll dive in,” she says excitedly, glancing behind her as we begin dragging our luggage up the steps. “I’ll just show you two to your rooms so you can settle in and then I can give you the grand tour, and you can take a look at The Dragonet,” Desdemona had released Dr.Leviathons arm by now, and stepped back to walk in pace with us a Dr.Leviathon walked off, Florence flipping her off as she walked away.
“I assume that’s the name of the sub?” I glance one last time at the sea as we step inside the ship's covered area.
“Yep,” she said as we walked downstairs, taking a left down a hallway of doors. “That’s the kitchen, restroom, my room, the medical bay, and Levy's room,” Florence snorts at this. “ And here are your guys' room. You can settle in now, or we could go take a look at The Dragonet?” She trails off in her question looking between me and Florence.
I drop my bags in the doorway of my room, shutting it. “Sure, we’ll go take a glance at it.”
“Pass, just knock when it’s time to eat,” Florence says before shutting his door.
Desdemona takes Florence's rejection in stride and turns back to me. “Well, let’s head over there,” she says, passing me and continuing down the hallway.
“I do have something I’ve been meaning to ask you,” I say as I follow her a few steps behind. She’s tied her hoodie around her waist and has her curly hair thrown up in a ponytail, and the scales didn’t stop at her forearms. They went all the way up her arm. And up the nape of her neck and down her spine, where they were about double the size. “A few things actually.”
“Hm? Just ask away, I’ll be happy to answer any questions you have,” She glances back at me, taking a left.
“How are you able to afford any of this in the first place? I mean, a top-of-the-line ship and the latest submarine that has come out?” I look through the large paned window to my right, showing that we’ve left the harbour by now.
“Well, I don’t know much about my mom, but apparently she was loaded,” she says looking out of the window as well, slowing down a bit. “Wanted my Dad to live as comfortable life as possible so, just gave everything to him I guess,” She shrugs, crossing her arms behind her back as she continues down the hallway.
I want to ask her more about her mother, but I restrain myself. “How’d you find my expedition to Atlantis, and why’d your doctor know about it as well? Last I checked the government had hidden it as best as it could,” She looks up at me guiltily, with owlish eyes.
“Yeah,” she says stretching it out. “My dad came across it because of rich privilege or something, because he was looking for Atlantis too, beats me why,” she takes the stairs down again, holding the railing to stabilize herself. “Levy just knows because I ended up blabbing to her about it,” she laughs awkwardly, looking like a kid with their hand stuck in a cookie jar.
“I’m sorry, I meant no harm, truly,” She stops at a door, looking at her hands before looking back at me. “I just thought it was so cool when I was younger, you know? I always wanted to be like you.”
I blush and look off, not expecting admiration or anything similar. “It’s fine, I- just-,” words fail me, and she takes notice, helping me out of my discomfort, opening the door, and showing The Dragonet.
“Well here she is,” she clasps her hands together as I stand in awe. It is absolutely gorgeous, similar in shape to a manta ray, and is a deep, blue metal, a lighter silver taking up the bottom. The two attenae look like the release area of a defense mechanism, and as I walk around it I realise that Florence would have loved to see this. With two propellors in the back, and two in each of the wings, it is a display of technological and engineering genius.
I point up at an ovalish orb in the front between the two antennas. “What is that for?” I ask. She looks up to where I’m pointing and turns back.
“Oh, that is the captains' deck, steering, navigation, all the works,” she says smiling, turning back to The Dragonet. “It may seem really dark, but those are actually just panels so everywhere that is dark black, you can see outside through a screen, even with night vision.”
“She is absolutely beautiful,” I say, looking up at the cords holding it.
“Right? Levy says that thinking that about inanimate objects is a very odd behaviour, to say the least,” she says, looking upset.
“You don’t have to listen to her” I say and she snorts, looking embarrassed.
“Nah, she’s kind of scary when she’s upset, besides she knows what’s best for me,” walking back out, she holds the door open for me and we walk back to the rooms in comfortable silence.
Passing the abundance of doors she stops at mine. “Supper will be ready at about 6:30, I’ll stop by to grab you and Florence when it’s ready,” she turns to leave but then turns back. “Are you cool with cod and lemon rice soup?” she asks.
“That sounds amazing, Florence loves just about any kind of soup,” I say, and she looks relieved. “Do you need any help?”
“Thanks for the offer but you’re the guest and my dad sent us with a cook,” she says looking embarrassed at the fact. “Feel free to rest and roam about anywhere, You know where I am and the captain is just up top.” she starts walking off but turns her head. “Toodles,” she says, disappearing into her room.
I gently shut the door behind me, and as I walk further into the room I realize there is a huge window on the side of the room, showing the ocean waves as the boat pushes forward against the sea. I take out my computer and phone, seeing it’s only three in the afternoon. I lay down on the bed and open my laptop, turning on a show as I open a book to read.
Before I know it, Desdemona is knocking on my door softly, trying to be quiet enough so if I were asleep she wouldn’t disturb me. As I get up the soft knocking is soon followed by what I can assume is Florence kicking the door with reckless abandon.
I hear a sharp smack followed by Florence cursing loudly. “Good fucking lord, what the hell was that for?”
“You’re acting like a complete moron you imbecile,” Desdemona shout-whispers, obviously still trying to be quiet.
I open the door, Desdemona looking mortified at being caught scolding Florence, who looks bored. Florence walks ahead, feet silent on the floor while mine and Desdemona make resounding clicks. The kitchen is full of the people working on the ship, laughing and joking, clearly familiar with each other. Slipping into a chair, I notice Florence getting a steely look, and in walks the captain and Dr.Levaithon, the latter sits next to Desdemona and immediately pushes more vegetables on her plate, looking down her nose at Desdemona as she picks around them.
“Morgan?” Florence's whisper next to me snaps me out of my thoughts, unnoticed by the other people sitting at the table. He gives me a look I know all too well, making me uneasy, but I start to eat anyways, which seems to sate him.
I struggle to keep up with Desdemona's rapid talking, so instead, I settle with listening, chiming in with the occasional, “Yeah,” or a hum. The captain eventually gets up to retire for the night, leaving the four of us.
Florence waits as I finish, and as the both of us say goodnight to Desdemona and Dr.Leviathon, Florence ignores the latter entirely, and as we leave the kitchen Desdemona calls out. “Toodles!”
With my steps echoing around me in the hallway of doors I turn to leave, but Florence grabs the edge of my shirt. “If you need me I’ll be right across from you,” he seems to notice how awkward that sounds, choosing to shove his hands deep in his pockets.
I smile, clapping my hand down on his shoulder. “I appreciate the sentiment, but you need to sleep, be bright-eyed and bushy-tailed tomorrow instead of looking like a wet mop,”
He grins good-naturedly, blowing air out of his nose and shoving my arm off his shoulder. “I don’t need sleep.”
“All humans need sleep,” I say, yawning exaggeratedly to prove a point.
“I’m not human,” he teases. “I just wanted to let you know,” he walks into his room, turning back to look at me.
“I’ll be over if I need to,” I say over my shoulder before closing the door. We both know that I won’t though.
I walk in and immediately shut the curtains, finding one of Florence's many hair ties and using it to keep it covered. Stepping back, I shrug off the look, as it still blocks out the view.
Collapsing onto the bed I sit up, rummaging through my bag as I look for a pair of pyjama bottoms. Pulling my day clothes off, and shoving on the black shorts with cartoon starfish on them, I turn on my computer, finding another movie to listen to. I lay it on the nightstand next to me, and try to relax by reading a book, but after being unable to focus, reading the same page five times I put it to the side, along with my glasses and lay down, turning on my side and slipping under the covers to watch the movie.
I struggle to fall asleep, trying and failing to get past a few pages in the book I had brought. I end up just watching another two movies, yawning my way through them all. I turn off my laptop, but that leaves me rolling, tossing and turning, turning for a while, as I try to fall asleep, eventually passing out at an ungodly hour to a night of restless sleep.
Waking up to the shrill sound of an alarm clock is never pleasant. Pressing the off button on my phone to silence it, I turn over to see that Florence’s hair tye had come loose, leaving the curtains to wiggle open a crack. From what I can see, the sky is darkening with clouds, a promise of a storm in the next few days. Stretching and rolling out of bed, I grab my toiletries bag, eager to get into the bathroom before Florence otherwise I’ll be waiting until noon.
Walking across the hallway, I see Dr.Leviathon on my way. She spots me and quickens her pace a step, which causes me to stumble a bit, startled by her determination.
She stops in the middle of the hallway, leaving me no room to slip by and avoid the conversation. “Professor Morgan, I am glad that I,” she pauses looking me up and down, And I realize that I’m still in my pyjamas, while she’s washed up and in a crisp white coat, “ran into you this morning.”
Feeling my embarrassment in my ears, I try to swallow down the lump in my throat. “Yeah, thought that I would just freshen up first,” I chuckle to try and ease the tension, and she seems to notice my predicament, and laughs quietly but it sounds forced and doesn’t meet her eyes.
“Yes, well I just wanted to apologize for my behaviour the other day, I was just startled, to say the least,” she says, plucking at the cuff of her coat. “I just didn’t think that you would be the best choice, Desdemona has a tendency to make rash decisions.”
I am taken aback, stepping back, which she quickly covers in a step of her own, the distance between us remaining the same. I quickly recover, looking up at her, as she stares down her nose at me. “I disagree, Desdemona is perfectly capable of making her own decisions,” I’m done with this conversation and step to the side, she takes the hint letting me past.
“Apologies, it was not my intention to insult your capabilities, Professor,” she says as I walk past. I get the sense that she is used to working with others having the same brash attitude and wonder how Desdemona can remain so positive around them.
“It’s fine,” I reply, knowing it’s not.
Stepping into the washroom, I quickly do my business, it’s only when I’m rummaging through my bag that I realize that I’ve forgotten my razor. I shrug it off, and start brushing my teeth, only to be startled by the door handle rattling and incessant knocking.
“Wait, one-please,” I yell, trying to shove a pair of pants on, my toothbrush still in my mouth.
“It’s an emergency, hurry up!”
I rip the door open, startled by the urgency in Florence’s voice, to find him staring down at his phone, his toiletries bag balanced between his other arm and hip. He looks up, only for me to slam the door in his face, locking it before he can try to shove it open.
“Come on, Morgan please,” he whines through the door. “I need to get in there.”
“You can wait your turn,” I snap at him putting a new drop of toothpaste on my brush as he continues to whine outside the door. Taking my sweet time, I open the door once Florence has finished his hissy fit. Walking out, he rushes in and I throw my bag in my room, going down to the kitchen.
Walking in, I am greeted by Desdemona, who looks up and tries to talk through a mouthful of cereal spewing it everywhere.
I snort, grabbing a bowl and making myself a bowl of cereal as she tries to mop up the mess she’s made. Sitting down, she has managed to clean up most of the mess.
“Please excuse my table manners of a toddler,” she says as she wipes off the spoon she had dropped. “I was just asking you how you’d slept.”
I look at her, finishing up the bite. “Excellent, the boat doesn’t rock as much as I had expected it to.”
She looks excited to tell me about the reason behind this. “Yeah it has this technology in it, so it rocks with the waves better, minimizing the amount it leans over waves,” she says as I continue eating. She continues talking between bites while I listen, and by the time I’ve finished, she still has half a bowl of now soggy cereal.
“Ah,” She says, looking down at it, I get up to wash my bowl, and she takes that as me leaving. Eager to continue the conversation she shovels the cereal in her mouth, getting up in the middle of it and racing over to wash it as I start drying mine.
We end up going back down to The Dragonet, talking about the ocean and all the things that interest us. Finding my way back to my room as she goes to get tests and blood work done by Dr.Leviathon, I step into my room, and close the curtains, tying Florence's hair tie around it extra tight.
Getting into my pyjama shorts, these being a dark blue with submarines on them, I pull the covers over myself, pulling out my phone noticing the mass of missed texts from Florence.
“I really need in there.”
“Stop ignoring me you fuck.”
“You’re humming is off-tune.”
“I’m sorry, that was below the belt.”
I snorted, not realizing he had been listening to me hum off-key to Ship in a Bottle. He stopped for a couple of hours but had obviously gotten bored.
“The doctor keeps trying to talk to me about biology and stuff cause I said I majored in it.”
“I’m not talking about work on this vacation.”
I closed the messaging app, Florence found other ways to entertain himself, obviously unaware of the location of The Dragonet after brushing off Desdemona the other day. Opening up my downloaded music, I quickly fell asleep to the same song that Florence was grieving about me humming.
Brushing my hand through my hair, I realized that I could get away with not showering today. I thought to show Florence the location of The Dragonet, so he would have an area to ‘escape’ Dr.Leviathon. Pulling on a pair of pants and a button-up purple shirt with the Kraken on it, I open the door to be faced with Desdemona in inner turmoil.
I bounced back a step as she turned to me, seeming to make up her mind after I had opened the door. “Do you want to come with me for the blood work?” she asked, looking down at my shirt. “I just thought you’d be bored, sitting around all day.”
I glance over to Florence’s room, her eyes following mine. “I’m not so sure about me being bored, but I’ll come with you,” I turn around to grab my phone off the charger and text Florence about the location of The Dragonet, getting a swift middle finger in response to missing his previous texts.
“I can invite him if you think he would want to come, I just thought he wouldn’t be ecstatic about it,” she said, crossing her arms. “He was complaining an awful lot about biology to me.”
Closing my door, she leads me down to the infirmary. “Yeah, he was doing the same to me,” I turn to follow her into the room, spotting Dr.Leviathon near the back, preparing tubes and needles. A shiver goes down Desdemona’s back.
“Not a fan of needles?” I ask while she sits in the chair.
“Not really, you think I would have gotten used to the by now,” she laughs, sparking Dr.Leviathon’s attention.
“Good morning Ms.Carita, Professor.” She says, pulling an antiseptic wipe out of its package and rubbing it over Desdemona’s left inner elbow.
“Morning Levy,” Desdemona says cheerily, though I can see the blood already starting to drain from her face as she looks at the butterfly needle in Dr.Leviathon’s other hand.
“Good morning to you as well.”
Dr.Leviathon has thrown out the antiseptic wipe and is getting ready to draw Desdemona’s blood, who looks petrified, looking into the corner of the room.
“I’ve been looking into coral reefs lately and how to help them,” I say, trying to distract Desdemona who looks at me. “Florence and I have been developing a new protein that takes to the coral, and protects them, similar to a shield of sorts, protecting them from calcification,” I ramble on, and Dr.Leviathon draws her blood, but Desdemona doesn’t look as scared, instead focusing on asking me an array of questions, quizzing me on what I know.
Dr.Leviathon cracks a smile, glancing up at Desdemona who is happily talking away. As the tests move on Dr.Leviathon takes all of her vitals, eventually, she brings out another needle, and after disinfecting the elbow area with missing scales, she numbs the area.
This strikes my interest, prompting me to interrupt Desdemona. “What’s going on now?” I ask, aiming my question at Desdemona once the needle is put away.
Desdemona looks at her arm, exclaiming. “Oh, just taking a scale,” she says looking nonchalance about it.
“Doesn’t that hurt though?” Dr.Leviathon looks up after grabbing the tweezers, considering me.
“I mean after,” I press on, not letting that short of an answer go by.
She sighs, looking at me. Desdemona fills in for her quickly. “It’s fine honestly, I have some numbing cream for it after and I always have pain meds if it gets too bad.”
“Too bad?” I repeat her words back to her in disbelief as Dr.Leviathon gets her tweezers under a scale at the edge of the patch of missing ones.
“Well yeah, I’m used to it anyhow, I’ve been doing this for years now, and they always grow back anyways.” she winces as Dr.Leviathan pulls, which does nothing o sate my nerves. “Don’t you do the same with fish when you’re trying to find what’s wrong with them?” looking at me questioningly.
I give her a look. “If we’re pulling pieces off the fish to find what’s wrong, it’s dead by then and we’re trying to figure out the cause,” I wince as Dr.Leviathan fails to pull the scale out again, blood spurting from the wound, which makes Desdemona look away as it is wiped up.
“Good thing she’s not a fish then, isn’t it?” Dr.Leviathan asks rhetorically as she finally pulls the scale free from Desdemona’s skin, who looks relieved at this, sinking into the chair. The scale is put into a container and slid into a freezer alongside the blood. She turns back to Desdemona, spraying disinfectant on before putting sterile cotton on and wrapping it in a bandage.
She turns back to the table, ignoring the two of us as she begins pulling out materials I’m familiar with to look at what was just taken from Desdemona under a slide. Not eager to stay any longer, I look at Desdemona, smiling. “So you all done here?”
“Yep,” she says, popping the p at the end of it, pushing herself out of the chair.
“Would you like to head down to The Dragonet? Maybe we can catch Florence and drag him down with us,” She grins at the thought of it.
“Hell yeah,” she says with determination, already making her way down to Florence’s room.
She walks at a pace faster than mine, and I can hear her banging at Florence’s door before I have turned the corner. I hear a thump, followed quickly by Florence cursing expletives all the way to the door, ready to raise hell. I take a stance leaning against the wall and try to mimic his bored expression, though I’m not nearly as skilled at it, so a smile begins creeping through my face.
He throws open the door, unimpressed by being disturbed. “What the hell,” he says, drawing out the hell. He looks at me, starting to lean against the doorway before realizing my stance and using his shoulder to bump himself off.
“Going down to the Dragonet,” grabbing his hand in a grip unlike her, she pulls him down the hallway with him sputtering. “And you’re coming with,” she says, sounding pleased with herself.
I close Florence’s door before following behind the two at a leisurely pace, Florence trying to force his hand out of her grip, as she tightens it to keep him from getting away. “The hell I am, Morgan stopping standing there with your dick in your hand and do something,” he screams shrilly, looking back at me as Desdemona takes a sharp turn, causing him to nearly hit the wall, “Watch it,”
I shrug his attitude off, seeing the smile he’s trying to hide.
Finally reaching the Dragonet, Florence has quieted down considerably and as he looks up at the submarine, he whistles lowly. “Shit, how many sugar daddies you need to pay off that?”
Desdemona rips her hand back, disgusted at the thought. Florence chuckles at her red face, before making his way around the room, looking up and admiring the Dragonet. Desdemona rubs her hand off on her shorts, trying to get the ‘grime’ from Florence off, causing me to chuckle.
Florence sits on the floor, patting it enthusiastically looking at Desdemona with an exaggerated smile. Desdemona sits down next to him, albeit hesitantly rolling her eyes and groaning. Once Florence starts asking questions she’s talking away though. I sit close to them on the floor, struggling to not fall flat on my back as Florence looks at me humour dancing in his eyes while Desdemona has stopped talking, ready to help me should I ask for it.
As I finally sit Florence snickers but lets me off easy as Desdemona jumps back in from where she had ended. As I make my way back to my room I regret my decision to have sat on the floor, cracking my back and feeling pain shoot up the base of my spine.
Bidding good night to the two, Florence flipping the bird as Desdemona gasps at him in disgust. Closing my door, I can hear Florence’s voice raising. “Des, don’t you dare hit me again,” followed by Desdemona’s quieting snickers and Florence’s door closing.
Though I’m in a good mood I find it difficult to sleep, the nerves about going back down to the fissure coming back full force. I double-check Florence’s hair tie is tight around the curtains, as I listen to movies and music trying to relax. I fall asleep early the next morning, hearing Florence’s alarm go off and him quickly making his way to the washroom.
