Dear Fate

She was running, though from what she didn't know. She just knew that she needed to get away, and fast. She could see faces all around her, but there were no distinguishing features on any of them. The faces began to blur as she ran faster, morphing into one giant face, still with no features she could discern. Her legs began to burn as she pushed on. She raced around a corner and was suddenly met with a dead end. She turned around and pressed herself against the wall, waiting for whatever it was to catch up with her. She could hear a rushing sound coming closer and closer. She closed her eyes and braced herself for the impact of whatever it was. A thousand knives hit her body at once and she opened her mouth to scream before she realized that it wasn't knives, but water that swelled around her and enveloped her in its icy grip.

Holly sat bolt upright, clutching her chest and trying to calm her rapidly beating heart. She looked around at her surroundings and was alarmed to see that she wasn't in her own room. There was a bunk bed across the room from her and that's when she realized she was in the top bunk of another set. The starch white walls shone brightly in the dark, despite there being no moon outside. That was when she remembered what had happened only a short time ago. She leaned over the side of the bed to see Fabrizio asleep in the bottom bunk. She pulled back and laid back down in the bunk, too tired to even try to return to her own room tonight. Surely Jack Dawson wouldn't mind her sleeping in his bed as he wasn't here and didn't look to be coming back tonight considering the late hour.

As she tried to fall back asleep, Holly turned her mind back to the nightmare she'd only just awaken from, which in hindsight was probably not the smartest idea before trying to recapture sleep. She tried to figure out what it could possibly mean. She had several theories in her mind by the time she was on the brink of sleep, none of which would make sense to a clear minded person. Just as she was about to fall back into the welcome arms of sleep, the ship gave a small shudder.

Holly was instantly awake again, sitting up and looking around as the ship continued to shudder for several seconds before falling still again.

"What was that?" she heard a groggy voice ask below her.

The two men in the bunk across from her started speaking back and forth to each other in a language she didn't understand.

"Jack?" Fabrizio called drowsily, having obviously forgotten about Holly being there.

"No, Jack isn't here, remember?" she said softly, leaning over and looking down at him.

He peered up at her through half lidded eyes before rubbing them and yawning, "Ah, yes, I remember now. Are you alright? Do you know what that was?"

"Yes, I am fine, but no I do not know what that was," Holly whispered back.

"Perhaps it was nothing? Maybe we should just go back to sleep," Fabrizio sighed, rolling over to face the wall, his back to her.

The men in the other beds were quiet now, which meant conversation was over. Holly sighed as she pulled herself back into the bed, laying down once more. She stared up at the ceiling for a few minutes, wide awake now. In the absolute quiet, she could hear a small trickling sound, which she had not heard before the shudder. Looking over the edge of the bed to the floor, she could see nothing at first. The light coming from the hall underneath the door sent a bit of light onto the floor, and looking closer, Holly noticed that the light was reflecting off the floor. Curious, Holly swung herself over the railing and onto the ladder, climbing down to the floor.

Dropping onto the floor from the last rung, Holly couldn't help a surprised shriek at the shock. There was at least two inches of freezing water on the ground.

"Holly?" Fabrizio asked worriedly.

Holly couldn't answer, only stare down in horror at the water.

"Holly?" Fabrizio tried again, this time sitting up in bed and looking at the small girl.

The other two men had been roused by her small shriek and were now angrily cursing in their own language, trying to get back to sleep.

"The ship is sinking," Holly said simply, looking up at Fabrizio.

"What are you talking about?" he asked in confusion.

"The ship is sinking," Holly said again, gesturing to her feet.

Fabrizio sighed, pulling the cover from his body and getting out of bed. His own cry of shock spilled from his mouth before a series of Italian curses flew from his mouth.

At that moment, the door burst open and a steward barged in, flipping the light on and pulling life jackets from on top of the small dresser in the corner.

"Everybody up put your life belts on," he called in a monotone before walking out the door.

By this time the other two men were sitting up and blinking in confusion. They hurriedly got out of bed and since they were closer, they made it to the life jackets first. Holly and Fabrizio reached them just in time to see that there were only two.

"Why are there only two?" one of the other men asked, his voice heavy with accent.

Each man held a life jacket and the four of them looked between each other slowly before the two men began to pull them on.

"Wait a minute, shouldn't you give one up to the lady?" Fabrizio asked, clearly shocked at the lack of manners.

"There is probably nothing wrong anyhow, why does it matter?" one of the men asked in broken English.

"Because she is a lady and it is only decent," Fabrizio replied.

The two men simply ignored him and walked out the door, leaving Holly and Fabrizio to stare in shock after them.

"There is obviously something wrong. There should not be water on the floor like this," Fabrizio said, stooping to find his shoes and encouraging Holly to do the same.

"Maybe a pipe burst or something?" Holly suggested, going over to the wardrobe and pulling out their shoes.

Fabrizio thanked her before sitting on the bed to put them on, "Yes, but weren't you just the one saying that the ship was sinking?"

"I don't know what came over me. I had just barely woken up from a bad dream and it must have been on my mind. There is no way the ship is sinking. It's unsinkable," Holly stated, sitting down and doing the same.

They got their shoes on and headed out the door, looking both ways in the hallway before deciding which way to go. Holly spotted a familiar head of curly brown hair to the left and nudged Fabrizio in that direction. He noticed as well and grabbed her hand, pulling her along behind him.

"Tommy! Tommy!" Fabrizio called out.

Tommy turned around and spotted Fabrizio. He stopped to wait for the two of them to catch up.

"Holly," he said in shock, noticing the small girl being tugged behind his Italian friend, "what are you doing here?"

"Looking for you, actually. Where is Olivia? I must speak to her at once," Holly said desperately, looking around for her mistress.

"She is back in her suite, as we both thought you were. How did you get down here? Why would you come down here?" Tommy asked as an afterthought, a scolding tone in his voice.

"I was ashamed of my behavior, and when I went back to apologize, you'd both already gone and I thought…" she trailed off, looking away to the side.

"No, we went looking for you. Oh this is just a big mess. Well, come on, the rats are going this way so that's good enough for me," Tommy said, reaching down and grabbing the hand that Fabrizio had dropped, pulling Holly along behind him.