Fall of the Unsinkable

“Lower her! Lower her!”

The yells of the boat hire man echoed through my ears as I kept running. I didn’t know what I was running from. Almost all the lifeboats were gone, and yet…I was escaping them as if they were the portals to Hell. And there was nowhere to go but the ship. Silent tears dribbled down my cheeks; but I would not scream, not now.

Despite the freezing night, with the stars glittering, we were already in Hell. Thousands of voices pierced through the night, crying for loved ones and begging for help; the chorus of the damned. Masses of humanity surged up and down the ship like lemmings, trapped.

We were all trapped.

My high heels pounded across the deck, as fast as I could go while dodging other feet. It wouldn’t be long now until I could no longer move; the deck was angling dangerously…

I heard an enormous thud and a splash. Glancing behind my shoulder, I saw that the last lifeboat was lowered. This was it.

This was the end for us all.

They said she had been unsinkable. Why were we going down? Why did we all have to pay this horrible price for one man’s mistake?

The Titanic’s tendons of wood and metal popped and screeched, making me want to cover my ears. The sound was below me, right in the middle of the deck.

I was reaching the stern now, with the rest of the crowd of what seemed like a thousand. I could hardly balance anymore. Everyone seemed to be holding on to something, be it part of the ship or a loved one; I had neither.

Still she continued to plunge, all cracking rivets and bubbling water like lava. I found one of the boilers and clung desperately to it for my life, facing my fellow passengers dying in the icy waters hundreds of feet below me.

She was breaking now. A thunderous snap roared through the night; the middle of the deck, where I had been just seconds ago, had taken too much pressure. There was a groan of surprise as she arched back slightly.

I watched in horror as human beings, mothers and fathers, old couples and children, all were forced into the water. Deck chairs and tables were sliding down; some desperately threw them overboard as floatation devices.

Now people were losing control, as the stern stretched toward the sky. Wailing and hopeless sobs plummeted away, fading in volume as they tumbled and reached the end of the gruesome slide. I had to look away when I saw one man’s head collide with the railing and he fell overboard, all blood and bruises.

Animal-like screams clawed at my throat, but I didn’t recognize them as my own. I screamed for every lost soul down there, who perished in those black waters…just like I was going to.

Mercilessly the Titanic tilted more and more, her other half lost. She seemed to be bellowing in agony, like she was a bear that had been cleaved in half.

My fingers dug further into the metal, but it was no use. Soon my feet would be dangling, and I’d have to let go. I winced as I held on more and more tightly, my feet slipping under me.

We stood still for an instant. Time seemed to be frozen. Everyone just looked on, watched their own demise.

And we started falling.

She stood as straight as a soldier now, dragging herself downward with all the force and rage of gravity and water. She shook and vibrated violently, convulsing. The cries started again.

Suddenly the lights went out. We were plunged in darkness. Now bawls of shock mingled with the ones of the dead and dying.

The water shot up ever closer to me, churning white and angry.

“This is it!” someone cried.

I let go of the boiler.

It hit me like a wall of ice. It was so cold, numbing my senses and stopping my thoughts behind a barrage of pins forcing into my skin. I was going to die, I was going to die…

The ship’s weight pulled me down, and I was helpless but to follow her. I kicked and tried to swim, but was helpless to her mass…

The surface disappeared, all I could see was black, and all I could feel was the tightening in my chest as I made my way to my cold ocean grave…