Angelique Chapter Nine Date: 12/12/01 3:43:09 PM Central Standard Time From: Aesgaard His head was swimming and her body was numb as her eyes opened to the water surrounding her. Trapped against a light in the ceiling, only the small lower part of Angelique's back was warm as the freezing cold water of the North Atlantic rushed into the hold of the mighty ship. Fighting to keep awake, she gasped for air from the small pocket trapped in the ship and removed her dress. She was already so cold, but swimming in the heavy water-soaked thing was only going to slow her down. Treading water long enough, she dived under the floating boxes and tried to remember her way out. Floating in her slip and underwear, she eyed the stairway already submerged and paddled like a trapped mermaid to reach it. Through the twists and turns of the corridor, her head finally broke surface in the dim watery stairway. Groaning filled the ship as she heard the heavy water tight doors closing throughout the ship. "Nooooooo !!!" She sloshed sleepily toward the thick sliding door. Her skin freezing on her and ice in her hair, the hold of the ship was closed off. The doors were quicker were quicker than she thought. She struck the door with her curled up white fists. She couldn't feel her fingers. "Don't leave me down here !!!!!" The water exploded behind her as Bathory's stolen water tight sarcophagus broke the surface. Angelique spitefully and hatefully looked back at her. It was her fault she had to come down here ! "At least I'm not dying alone." the female vampire laughed through the lid. "Drown why don't you." Angelique spitefully and hesitantly bounced off it back into the water. It was so much more colder now, or seemed like it as she wearily dived and swam through the bowels of the ship around floating and drifting debris and crates. She cringed from the remains of a dead porter and fought off the sleep trying to possess her. The ice cold was trying to stop her, but she had to keep going. There had to be a way out ! Gasping for air in trapped pockets and led by vents and pipes, she found herself caught by the undertow of more water rushing into the ship. The ship had to be slipping further ! How much time did she have left ? Was the ship still breaking water surface ? A railing whirred past her dimming sight as she clutched at it. Holding fast, she pulled herself against the current as she swam up into another flooded corridor. Her head finally breaking surface, she shivered painfully, her mind about to drift off permanently as she sloshed slowly in water up to her waist. No obstacles this time, she felt optimistic as she turned a corner. Another water tight door stood closed to meet her ! "No, no, no, no,,,," her voice quivered five times worse than any winter she had ever experienced. Seemingly trapped in slow motion from the cold, she struck at the door fearfully and desperately. "P...p..please......... i..i..is there.......ssssssomeone, aaaaanyone...out there ?" Her tears were already cold as the water saturating her slip froze to her body. The water was now up to her chest. She never thought she'd die like this. Lonely, forgotten and trapped in the bowels of a sinking ship.........
