The hall felt colder than it should've.
Like the static from a broken television: obnoxious, endless, almost alive.
A silence stretched too long to be comfortable.
"Malik . . . what are you thinking about?"
Kaya blurts as Malik blankly stares at her with his bright grey eyes of an unearthly hue, like that of a ghoul.
The cold atmosphere suffocates Kaya as she itches for an answer. It presses against her skin not with temperature, but with pressure. The pressure that coils around your ribs like a python until you forget how to breathe.
"Nothing . . . What's up with you, Kaya?"
Malik asks worriedly as his eyes widen. "Kaya? You good?"
Repeating her name as she drowns in her own confusion, The hall felt colder than it should have been.
"Yeah, yeah, I'm good, don't worry. It's just that . . . I wonder—Malik, are you human?" Kaya asserts her statement.
"Welp, I've got two eyes, a nose, arms, legs, I don't see how I couldn't be." Malik teases her ridiculous question.
Kaya gulps, "I must've phrased it wrong. The question is, do you feel human?" She corrects herself.
"In a physical sense, yeah, I'd say so, but if we're talking mental . . ." He pauses. "I'm as real as what my mind makes me to be . . ."
His steadiness raises suspicion in her, as if he knows something is not ordinary about himself, but has already accepted it.
Kaya replies with a forced, weak laugh.
Thoughts rush Kaya's brain as the echo of Malik's paradoxical mind whispers in the back of her head while she recollects herself. She knows he isn't lying.
"Reading your mind is like a maze with no start or end. It just goes." Kaya replies heartfully.
"You're right, Kaya." Malik nods. "It's like my own memories aren't mine, nor is my voice." He tilts his eyebrows and looks down in shame, expecting ridicule.
Kaya softens, "It's okay, Malik." She lays her hand on his arm to assure him.
"That's why I watch the ocean. It makes sense to me." He adds.
Turning, his eyes guide themselves to the ominous door, the one that hums to you when you draw too much attention to it.
"If there's an answer to what I am—No, to what we all are, then that's the place to start."
Darting his pointer finger at the intimidating lock, which demands a phrase to be spoken.
Malik takes a leading step as he turns to face Kaya. "You coming?"
She nods firmly, like a soldier entering enemy grounds. The two march up each creaking step on the stairs. Nevertheless, one must face what's in front of them, not what they have passed.
Only to be abruptly confronted by the door of steel, shining brightly.
"So this is it up close and personal, huh?" Kaya comments.
Malik, staring at her with a daring look, shifts focus right back onto the door, as if it turned his head for him like a jealous spouse.
With four bolts, it didn't hum like machinery. It breathed. As if the door itself resented being ignored.
"You know how to open this behemoth?" Kaya asks.
"Not really. I've never seen Dad step foot near this, never even heard a phrase." Malik says.
He sticks his hand out, inching his fingertips to graze the stern steel to perhaps gain a recollection of a memory to get a clue.
"Maybe if I just—"
A voice interrupted him, a deeper one. "Wouldn't do that if I were you, man. Ya know how the Cap is."
It echoes to Malik as he turns his head sharply to the left.
"Kamil?"
"Who else?" Kamil laughs as he strolls near the door.
Tall, olive-skinned, wearing a black tank top, along with a frog charm hanging from his neck. He has short hazel hair with slight stubble, tired, almost dead-like brown eyes.
"Hah! We were looking for you, man!" Malik cheers.
They walk towards Kamil and rest their arms on the railing of the second floor as they glance at each other.
"Good thing you didn't touch that damn thing. Coulda gotten us in a lot of trouble." He says, playing with the charm on his neck like it were a pet.
"Yeah . . . Where were you?"
Kamil snickers. "Ah, taking a nap. Cap's always on my ass about that."
He pauses and notices Kaya to the left of Malik, staring at the light glistening in her dark brown eyes. Then, he bumps elbows with Malik with a grin.
"So who's your pretty lady-friend on your left?"
Malik laughs. "Ha! That's Kaya. She's part of the crew now, she's great. I think she'll love Amaya, don't you think?"
"They'll be like bread n' butter. Welcome to the family, Kaya." Kamil sneers innocently.
"Nice to meet you, Kamil. I'm glad to be part of the family." She grins, simultaneously activating her eyes.
She blurts, "You're thinking about frogs?"
Kamil gives a puzzled look, then instantly replies, "Well, yeah, I love those jumping little critters."
Kaya exhales and lets her guard down. It was a force of habit that overloaded her mind.
She giggles. "Not to judge, but I think cats are better by a long shot."
"Ahh, to each their own. You got your kitties, I got my hopping buddies."
Kaya adds, "Forgive me for being nosy, but who's this Amaya girl?"
Kamil's eyes widen, holding in laughter as he keeps his composure.
"Meanest person on the ship, she'll tear you apart limb from limb." He lets out a little laugh.
The door behind them creaks open.
"So what's this about a meanest person?" With her left hand on her hip and her other on the door, she stands with dark green eyes and glasses atop them.
Standing at an average height with brown hair and a striking look with white skin. Her long white trench coat being most distinctive.
Kamil flinches like a fool, whilst Malik and Kaya stare at him, chuckling.
"Well, I . . . uh—"
She inspects Malik and gives a daring glance from head to toe. Amaya narrows her eyes at Malik with unexpected precision.
"Now just wait a damn minute . . ." Stepping closer with her arms crossed, "Malik, when in the hell did you get taller than me? It hasn't even been that long since I—"
He rapidly blinks. "Since you . . . what?"
Her eyebrows raise and her expression hardens. "Forget it. Guess I have to crane my neck to see you now."
"Hah. That's funny to say . . . 'hasn't been that long'. Didn't you meet him when he joined the crew?" Kaya asked.
Amaya's eyes slide from Malik to Kaya, not hostile, but calculating. "I joined this crew nine years ago. I've seen that boy before he even grew a full set of teeth."
Malik chuckles. "Kaya, you didn't know? I was raised on deck."
"Yep. And somehow, he isn't the most immature. That award goes to those two other bastards, Lias and Zayne." Amaya remarks.
"Wow, I didn't know you were raised here, Malik. Were there other crew here before everyone?"
Malik opens his mouth, but Amaya answers first, casually but with a worried undertone. "Yeah . . . there were others."
She frowns with a shrug and adds, "Good folks. Didn't stick around, though."
Kamil leans on the railing. "Some transferred, some retired . . ." He gives a playful smirk "Some got chewed up and spat out by the ocean, you know how it goes."
Malik gives a faint smile that doesn't correspond with his eyes. "Let's just say, the sea doesn't forget, but people do. It should stay that way."
Kaya narrows her eyes, viewing the main deck that holds a thousand untold stories.
Amaya exhales, "Some chapters aren't meant to be re-read, Kaya dear."
Kaya notices Malik glancing towards that large door. Her eyes follow his gaze like an arrow, the light flickering on its steel surface, begging to uncover its mysteries.
"So . . . frogs, am I right?" Kamil jokes to lighten the mood. The others laugh lightly, and it seems as if a force has pulled them back into the present. However, in Kaya's case, what pulled her was a question.
Like all possible questions at sea. They are patient. They are drifting.
Until the tide decides what it wants remembered.