Heartbroken

Another ten days passed, but no trace of the entrance, and the weather tonight wasn't the best for them to stand outside.

It was raining, thundering, and kicking up tremendous wind that made the tidal waves rise and make the ocean hard to sail through.

Everybody sat inside the kitchen.

Ayuka read the news, Cassidy and Trinity slept next to each other, leaning their heads on their shoulders, and Chiaki played with her pendant from boredom.

Timothy was practically sleeping on the table with his head placed on the table. He seemed exhausted and had a hungry stomach. "Tim... You should take a nap. You've been taking care of Aurora all by yourself. Let me take care of her." Chiaki responded, sitting up straight to keep herself awake.

"I'm not tired..." was his one and only response. He seemed to keep one eye on the stove and think about possible casualties they could suffer, "The weather's terrible, and there isn't much happening. I even read several other books, and there's nothing else to lead us to Cyber Refuge but that one picture we found ten days ago."

He replied, taking a deep breath and clutching his forehead, covering his eyes, "And this headache doesn't help." His stomach growled, receiving looks from Ayuka. "I just wish Ralphie was here. I'm sure his food would've gotten me back on track."

Ayuka placed the newspaper on the table, stood up, and closed her eyes. She walked toward the stove, followed by everyone's eyes.

She opened the cabinet and dragged out a knife. She pulled out an onion, plates, and other things for cooking and began chopping the onion with her fingers at incredible speed.

She turned on the stove for the fire to start searing, placed a pan, and poured in some oil.

Timothy raised his head from the table, looking at her back, "Ayuka... You're gonna cook?" She paused for a second, her hair dangling in front of her eyes, "Don't think I forgive you..." She sped up the process of cutting vegetables and even grabbed some meat the ship had stored in the fridge.

"Thanks..." He smiled and became composed, allowing Chiaki to respond with an inquiry, "Is Aurora any better? She's been in bed ever since she vomited. Are there any signs of her recovering?"

Timothy glimpsed at her with a disappointed expression as if he was in fear and stress. "No... Honestly, she's been getting worse than better. I don't know how many days before she'll finally be gone." He was looking at his palm, which shook without stopping once. He tensed his muscles, closing his hand into a fist.

"I... I'm worried. I know you said not to make promises, but I can't leave her like this. I need something to keep her self-esteem going. If I can find a cure... If I can heal her disease to cleanse her of that infection, she can live happily. She won't need to get haunted by the worry of dying. She shouldn't need to suffer because her parents didn't take her to the doctor in time. I'm going to fix what her parents couldn't achieve."

The muscles in his hands tightening sounded through the kitchen, and suddenly they heard Aurora's agonizing scream from the room.

Timothy and everyone else dropped what they were doing and sprinted inside the bedroom, and without realizing it, Ayuka dropped the match on the floor.

The wood slowly started to burn.

They entered the room, seeing Aurora in pain. She couldn't breathe: that was evident due to her voice becoming pitchless as well as whispery.

It sounded as if she was choking, piercing her nails into her skin from torment. "She can't breathe!" Timothy yelled, and Ayuka hurriedly ordered him what to do, "Take her outside. She needs fresh air!" Timothy obeyed Ayuka's suggestion and slipped his right arm beneath her legs and her other below the back.

He picked her up, others stepping away to let him through, but as he prepared to enter the kitchen, his eyes suddenly came in contact with a disturbing odor.

His nose couldn't bear it, and as the odor slipped inside his mouth, he began coughing loudly, and so did the others who followed him. "S-Smoke! *cough*" Timothy opened his eyes, his vision blurring. "The ship's on fire!"

Everyone gazed at them, and Ayuka became speechless. She paused and felt guilty, "F-Fire..." She didn't notice it earlier, but it came flooding back to her: a vision of her dropping the match on the planks.

"We need to get out! Now! *cough* The smoke's killing Aurora more than the illness itself!" He struggled to breathe. He could see Aurora's nose and mouth begging for fresh air. It forced her to cough louder than anyone else.

And because Aurora was in his arms, Timothy couldn't manipulate fire without harming her, while Ayuka couldn't use ice as the room was too small and could wound everyone else.

"A-Ayuka... The wall *cough*!" Ayuka zoned off momentarily but turned around and raised her right leg. She bent it and then rammed her sole into the wooden boards, breaking down the wood. "Hurry!" Everyone else rushed outside. However, when Timothy tried, his road got blocked by burnt planks.

The rain continued pouring, but it couldn't reach the inside parts of the ship. "Tim!" His sisters called in anxiousness, "I-I can't help them! I don't want to hit them!" Ayuka shouted in fear, but Chiaki immediately placed her palm on her chest and tried to connect with Timothy's soul.

But the more she tried, the more she failed.

"The smoke... The fire... It's preventing me from linking! I can't get in touch with him!" It horrified everyone else, and they didn't have a secure option to save them.

Timothy was left alone with Aurora. He was the only one who could come to find a way to the outside. "I... I can't breathe..." His view became foggy, and his arms weakened. "I'm going to... pass out..." He felt nauseous, breathless, and hopeless, but he got interrupted by Aurora's lifeless and fainted eyes. "W-Water... Jump... in the water." She somehow managed to gather enough breath to speak and even the strength to grab Timothy's jacket.

"A-Aurora... I... *cough* can't... If I jump in the water..." She interrupted him, "I-I know... But- I... I trust you..." As he heard her begging and her will to trust her own life into his hands, his eyes became terrified. They shook due to knowing that he was taking a risk.

He tried to find a different way out when another piece of the wall collapsed in front of him. "I... Damn it!" He shut his eyes, his heart beating at a rapid pace. "I... I have to take that risk. But you need to hold your breath..." Aurora nodded with a smile and held her breath as much as she could.

With that done, Timothy hurriedly jumped over the fire and rushed toward the destroyed wall. "Don't fail me now, body!" With trust in his body and trust in Aurora's strength to hold her breath without suffocating, he leaped outside and splashed in the water.

Timothy made sure to press Aurora's face into his chest to ensure she had her breath held at all times and suddenly felt his body growing weaker every second.

The water started exhausting him, hurting him, and even forcing him to lose consciousness.

He would get worse the longer he stayed in the salty water, and the pounding waves made it even trickier to swim through.

But he made the decision to gather himself and push his body to resist the water. He took care to kick his feet so that he would have enough force to swim through the currents and to the surface.

He struggled, but he didn't let go.

He fought the raging ocean and swam to the surface, shouting to Ayuka upon peeking his head outside the water, "A-Ayuka! P-Platform! I... I can't... my body won't-!"

Everyone looked over the ship's edge, but Ayuka didn't hesitate even a little. She froze the body of water around the ship. She stopped it from floating on the sea and allowed Timothy to latch onto the ice floor and climb outside the soaking water.

He lowered Aurora onto the ice and looked at her.

She didn't move.

She was lifeless.

"A-Aurora... H-Hey. C-Can you hear me?" He tried to wake her up, but she didn't react or move a muscle. "Aurora! Please, talk to me!" As he tried to shake her awake, his eyes came in contact with a strange symbol. He gently slipped her top to the side to reveal her cleavage and neck and noticed an infected skin.

It was blackened as if it was a rusted iron, and the part was rough to the touch yet cold at the same time. "Her infection... it... it killed her... N-No... Aurora... Aurora!"

His eyes were shaking in panic and horror. He couldn't feel even a bit of warmth passing through her body. "A-Aurora... please... answer."

She did not.

His eyes became as dead as a fish, and just as he was about to give up hope, Aurora's body reacted with a jolt.

She coughed and spit out water as well as lacked oxygen in her lungs.

But she was alive.

Timothy became relieved, "Aurora! Talk to me!" She couldn't open her eyes properly, but she managed to share a simple glance with Timothy, "H-Hey," she coughed, "You're alive! I don't believe my eyes. I thought you were gone, this time for good."

She chuckled a little, "I... I said I trust you... didn't I?" She said before resting and allowing herself to get picked up by Timothy.

Everyone observed their burnt-to-crisp ship, standing on the ice Ayuka created, and they didn't have another way to proceed.

Ayuka collapsed onto her knees with wide open eyes and blamed herself for everything, "It's all my fault... I rushed into the room without realizing I dropped the match. It's all..." She felt devastated, "I'm blamed for everything..."

They had never seen Ayuka so heartbroken, and now they were stranded in the ocean's middle on an ice floor, waiting for the storm to pass with a sickened comrade.

To be continued...