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The Hares and the Hound – Part 02

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Translator: Kell

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We ran as fast as we could in the direction the voices came from.

After turning the corner, we found ourselves by the elevator hall, illuminated by a white incandescent light. The lower we descended, the darker and dirtier the corridors and cabin became, yet the elevator was unusually bright.

The voice came from here, but there was no one in sight.

As I looked around in confusion, a thick arm suddenly appeared and grabbed me by the hair, pulling me hard.

I screamed. Then I heard the owner’s voice by my ear.

“Help!”

A familiar voice with a German accent.

I turned around and saw arms reaching toward me through the bars of the elevator. Inside were the German and Austrian boys. Their large bodies trembled as they stretched their arms toward us.

“Wh-What happened?!”

“Help! I-It’s locked!”

I set Lee down on the floor and dashed to the elevator. I shook the bars, but it was locked from the outside. The others asked them questions, but they were too scared to speak properly.

“Th-There’s a ghost!”

“It took the gun from us and threw us in here!”

“Oh.” Yang turned around. “Alex, the gun!”

When I took out the gun, the two boys inside screamed in fear.

“Stand back!” I aimed at the lock and pulled the trigger.

A sharp jolt ran from my arms to my shoulders. My ears went numb from the loud bang.

The first shot missed. I immediately fired another.

Clank!

The lock broke and came off the bars.

“Good!”

I felt deeply relieved. The boys’ faces also softened.

Yang tried to open the bars, when suddenly, the elevator began to descend.

The boys’ faces contorted in fear. Their eyes widened like their eyeballs were about to pop out, and they stretched out their thick arms toward us. They grabbed me by the hair again. I screamed out. They were screaming too.

I felt a dull pain in my scalp and eyes as strands of my hair were pulled out from their roots.

The last thing I saw were the faces of the two boys, behind iron bars, gripped by fear and fury. A rattle, and the iron cage descended rapidly into the abyss.

Their ear-splitting screams quickly grew more and more distant.

And then a splash from down below.

The elevator had been destroyed. Yang and I desperately tried to raise it, but it wouldn’t move. We hit it repeatedly, crying out as we did.

The American boy gently laid his hand on my shoulder.

I turned around, crying, and quietly shook my head. Behind him, the French girl was also weeping silently.

“They’re gone,” he said.

“It can’t be…!”

“It’s been more than ten minutes. I think they drowned.”

The Italian boy roared like a beast as he pounded on the wall.

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We couldn’t stay there forever. The ship was slowly being flooded. I carried the unconscious Lee on my back and started walking with the rest of the kids.

We trod carefully, checking for traps. We found the wall again and returned to the stairs. The lower we went, the darker it became, and the more shabby the corridors. The sound of water was getting closer and closer.

“You said it was locked from the outside,” Yang murmured.

I nodded. “A ghost did it, apparently.”

“I wonder what that means.”

“Who knows?”

“All the traps we found were unmanned,” Yang continued. “But that one was different. There’s someone else out there. Hiding in this ship and hunting us. It’s the only possibility.”

We plodded down the poorly-lit hallway, barely able to see our feet.

No one talked. All we could hear was our own footsteps.

Suddenly, Lee let out a groan.

“Lee? Are you awake?”

She opened her eyes and winced in pain. She then looked at me and gave a weak smile, as if to say thank you.

For a while, Lee remained silent as I carried her. But then she suddenly started screaming and flailing. I quickly set her down on the floor.

“What’s wrong?” I asked.

Lee pointed at her neck.

“Oh…”

Her pendant was gone. A pink enamel pendant in the shape of a heart. Lee’s precious lucky charm.

“Now is not the time for that,” Yang said. “You can just buy a different one. If you make it out of here alive, you can do whatever you want. For now, be patient.”

Lee shook her head again and again, tears in her jet-black eyes.

Ignoring her, Yang used his own shirt to stop the bleeding from Lee’s wound.

It looked like it would take a while.

Suddenly, I remembered Lee’s warm smile when I first woke up on the ship. My heart ached when I thought about this girl who had been next to me and cared for me. She let me touch her precious heart pendant to give me strength.

She was now pale, silently enduring the pain.

I rose to my feet.

Yang looked at me curiously. “What’s the matter, Alex?”

“I’m gonna get it back.”

“What…?”

“The pendant. It’s probably around where Huey collapsed. When those guys started fussing about the knife, I don’t think she was wearing the pendant anymore.”

“Alex!” Yang tried to stop me. “It’s dangerous. Stay here with us.”

The others chimed in as well.

“He’s right. She can just buy another pendant!”

“It’s dangerous. Let’s stay together.”

“We should refrain from doing anything unnecessary.”

I looked at Lee’s ashen face. I wasn’t sure how long she would last. I wanted to find the pendant and give it to her. Lee and I didn’t speak the same language. I couldn’t tell her how grateful I was for her kindness.

“It was on a landing, so it won’t take long. I’ll be right back.”

I started running. I could hear their voices calling me from behind.

I climbed the dark stairs, illuminating my feet with the flashlight that Yang had taken from the elevator. I took one step at a time, careful not to step on any trap.

The white tiles of the stairs gleamed coldly in the round light. Fear gripped me. What if I would never see them again? Would I have to wander this ship alone? The thought brought tears in the corners of my eyes. As if to ward off the dark thoughts, I continued to climb, step by step.

Just when I thought I was almost at the spot where Huey had collapsed, I stepped on something round and bouncy and almost tripped. I thought it was a trap. A chill ran down my spine. I looked down at my feet and saw not a trap, but a small ball. A tennis ball.

What’s it doing here? I wondered as I picked it up.

I went up the stairs again.

…And gulped.

The body was gone. There was nothing where Huey was supposed to be lying. No signs that there was even a body there. It had vanished without a trace.

I sank to the floor, stunned. The light from the flashlight showed a pink, heart-shaped enamel pendant at my feet. It was Lee’s treasured pendant. The moment I saw it, I felt relieved, as if I became connected to her.

I picked it up and squeezed it tight. I couldn’t understand what was happening. Tears formed in my eyes.

Where’d the body go?

Who hid it and why?

Are there other people on this ship besides us?

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