A silhouette emerged from the shadows. Cierra thought it to be her sick mother. After a staredown for a few moments, the mother reached a cold, pale hand out towards her daughter. Cierra looked at her, wide-eyed, and moved back. But her mother continued moving towards her.
"You'll join your father Cierra. Come here, he's with me..." she said, her voice almost a moan.
"Leave me alone!" Cierra exclaimed. "LEAVE. ME. ALONE!!!" It went dark. All around her, the shadows began taking form, and Cierra soon realized those forms to be her parents, as well as her late great aunt. They were calling her to join them, join them in a world of darkness.
"Leave me alone, please..." Cierra whimpered. The darkness soon fell back, and there was nothing but a peak of light shining at Cierra directly. Cierra fell back on the ground, arms and legs spread out, and closed her eyes.
Something soft, wet. Is it raining? No, wait, even if it were, I'm inside my cabin. Yeah, that's right, room 333. This is a cruise. I'm getting away from it all. So if that's not rain... Opening her eyes carefully, Cierra startled the sweet black cat, who was apparently licking her face.
"You woke me up, Gateau," Cierra said calmly to her cat. "But thank you. I was having that nightmare again." The cat seemed to smile, and it then went to join its companion, the gray cat Serene. Cierra looked out her window, and saw the clear blue sky on the gentle, almost-blue waves. She sighed, and turned around. I can finally get away from it all, she thought. Finally...
Cierra began recalling what had happened earlier. It was roughly 12:30. She ended up being late for the boarding, so she had to rush through the marketplace to get to the docks. She remembered how her cats grew tired, and she had to carry them along with her luggage. She dressed like a regular person would, but she had her regular outfit in the suitcase, hat included. If anyone asked about the cauldron, she'd say it was for in case of a leak in her room.
As she got on the boat, she was told to go to the ballroom around 3:30, where an important announcement would be made. She was then given a key, labeled "333" on it. At first, Cierra thought it some kind of joke, but the person who gave it out to her shrugged, so she ignored the number and went on down to her room.
"OK, guys, who wants a late lunch?" Cierra asked the two cats. Both ran up to her, their tails swishing back and forth. Cierra brought her cauldron from off one of the hooks (which were meant for towels or wet clothes) and got out a couple other materials, including a pan, some sticks to put on the pan, some matches, and some herbs. She began by lighting the sticks with one of the matches, and fortunately, the pan was thick enough a fire on the ship couldn't start. She filled up her cauldron with some water, and place it over the fire. As soon as the water boiled, Cierra tossed in some herbs and waited patiently.
After a while, the meal was complete. It was moist, but still solid nonetheless, just how her cats liked it. Cierra poured the concoction into each of their bowls, and then poured the rest into a jar for safekeeping. She proceeded to wash her cauldron with some herbs that surprisingly cleaned the cauldron dry, and hung the cauldron back on the rack when she was through. Looking at the clock, Cierra realized she had maybe forty-five minutes left until the meeting. She had woken up around 2:15, and it took roughly thirty minutes to get the meal for the cats. Sighing, Cierra laid back down on her bed and began humming a tune softly to herself.
The tune was quite nostalgic, as Cierra thought it to be. Its sad, haunting melody reminded her of how her father tragically died, and how her mother was placed in one of those mental asylums. As she continued humming the tune, tears softly rolled down her cheeks. After realizing this, Cierra stopped and wiped the tears away. It's OK, she reminded herself, they're in a better place. Both of them... She went back to humming again, but hummed a lesser nostalgic tune this time, to wash the feeling of sadness away as the ship moved over the calm, almost-blue waters...