Episode 14 (Serena Season 2)

The silver lining to waking up the next morning is that I feel a lot better.

That's the only real upside to the other side of the bed being empty though,

and guilt bubbles up in my stomach as I take another sip from the vial before leaving for the docks.

(I already took it once.)

There's no sense in being half-sick and half-well.)

(At least being health might ease some of Serena's worries. I hope, anyway.)

It only takes a minute to pick up something to eat at the market,

but I almost drop my fruit when I see the ship.

There's a big wooden ramp leading up to it, sails fluttering in the wind,

and Clyde is knocking on the side of it with his fist.

Clyde: "I think she's sound. We're ready to sail."

Logan: "Yes! Oh, finally."

Logan: "Just uh, you know, pray the compass I just tossed together will point us in the right direction."

TK: "It's a compass. How many ways can it go wrong?"

Arthur: "Let's try and focus on the positives today, shall we?"

Arthur: "And we still have to get the supplies provided by Angelo's generosity onboard."

Angelo: "I'll give you a hand with that, Arthur."

Angelo: "I just hope your group has better luck than we have in the past."

Serena: "How so?"

The sound of Serena's voice catches me off-guard,

but I see her standing right next to Angelo when I get close enough.

My stomach does a little flip as I approach, although Clyde gives me a friendly wave.

Clyde: "Mornin', . You're looking a lot better."

TK: "No kidding. Guess sleeping infixes a lot, huh?"

MC: "...Something like that."

When my attention turns back to Serena,

she's looking away from me out to the ocean, and suddenly I've lost my appetite.

(I never meant to upset Serena like this. It's not that I don't trust her!)

(At least I'm feeling well enough to try and patch things over instead of zoning out in the treehouse.)

Logan: "It's just good to see you back on your feet."

MC: "Thanks. I didn't want to worry anyone."

Clyde: "Ready to give this ship a go? If it floats and stays steady, we've got a way back home."

MC: "Then what are we waiting for?"

TK: "Nothing. Just be ready to swim back in case we start taking on water."

I bump TK's elbow and he laughs, nudging me back onto the ramp and onto the ship.

It's definitely not the cutting-edge cruiser we came in on, but I like how it looks.

(Maybe we could make a cool flag to put on top of the mast.)

Clyde is reaching over to pull up the makeshift anchor tethering the ship to the dock

when I realize Serena is still standing on shore, looking at us but not moving forward.

MC: "Serena! Are you okay?"

Serena: "I'm fine."

Serena: "This is just a test voyage, so I'd prefer to stay here in case someone gets hurt."

Serena: "There's not much help I can give if I'm busy trying not to drown."

MC: "Oh... okay."

(That makes sense, but it's still a little depressing.)

Clyde: "You want to stay down there with her, ?"

Clyde: "Might not be a bad idea if you're still recovering."

A. Good idea.

B. No, it's fine.

---

B. No, it's fine.

MC: "No, it's fine."

MC: "We're not going very far today anyway, are we?"

Clyde: "Enough to let the wind push us around a bit, but if you're still recovering..."

MC: "I'll be okay, Clyde. Don't worry."

Clyde: "Alright, then."

---

Clyde turns and puts his hands together around his mouth to shout towards the opposite end of the ship.

Clyde: "Hey, Logan!"

Clyde: "Get up on that sal for me and I'm going to take the wheel."

Logan: "You got it!"

TK: "Shouldn't you be saying 'aye, captain'?"

Arthur: "That does tend to be the tradition."

Logan: "Hey, I'm an engineer, not a sailor."

Clyde: "You're both right now, Logan."

Clyde: "Eveyone else, grab ahold of something. This might be a rocky pushoff."

I grip the side as tight as I can, only swaying a little as the anchor is pulled up and onto the deck.

When the ramp is pulled away, there's a loud splash,

and suddenly the ship bobs down into the ocean, sending froth eveywhere before it settles.

(Here we go.)

The jitter of nerves settles as we get further from the docks without any sign of a leak.

It's kind of scary to hear the creak of wood underneath my feet,

but as the sail fills with wind, the ship is carried smoothly across the water.

Clyde: "Try making some adjustments, Logan. Let's see if we can turn and the like."

Logan: "Roger that."

Logan: "I mean, aye, or--you know, whatever."

TK chuckles under his breath, but I'm focused on the island getting smaller in the distance.

Serena is so far away now that I can barely make the shape of her out on the dock.

(There has to be some way to reconcile her and Olivia.)

(They could do so much together. Everyone would be safe and well.)

(But neither one of them trust each other, and now Serena feels like she can't trust me.)

MC: "Ugh."

Clyde: "You alright, ?"

I straighten up, surprised to see Clyde standing right next to me on the deck.

MC: "Aren't you supposed to be at the wheel?"

Clyde: "Arthur asked if he could try it. We're just going straight forward now so it's fine."

Clyde: "But you look like something's on your mind."

MC: "A lot of somethings."

Clyde: "Any of that have to do with Serena staying at my place last night?"

(Oh, so that's where she went. I should have guessed.)

MC: "Yeah."

Clyde: "You don't have to talk about it if you don't want to, but I'm here to listen."

MC: "Aren't you her best friend?"

Clyde: "That means I know her best sides and her flaws, lass. I'm sure she'd say the same about me."

MC: "Okay, fair."

MC: "I just..."

MC: "Is she afraid of losing me? Is that it?"

MC: "That I'll be sick, that I'll be hurt..."

Clyde: "Or you'll still be living and you won't be with her."

(She--)

MC: "Serena's jealous."

Clyde: "Can't say I don't see why. Olivia's got a cure for everything with a smile on her face."

Clyde: "And you're young, gorgeous, and savvy. So it goes both ways."

I bush at the compliment but Clyde only smiles, not pushing any further.

MC: "But how do I convince Serena I've only got eyes for her?"

Clyde: "You've already changed her a lot, ."

MC: "Back in 'Straya, I never saw her get close to another woman for long."

Clyde: "A few months would pass without her opening up and it would cool off."

Clyde: "Hard to be with someone who doesn't let things go deeper."

MC: "That didn't happen with us."

Clyde: "No. It didn't."

A. "So we'll figure this out."

B. "That's a good sign."

C. "But what now?"

---

C. "But what now?"

Clyde: "That I can't speak for. Our relationship's not the same."

---

I sigh, leaning over the edge of the ship to look down into the water flowing beneath us.

That's what I expect anyway, but beyond the gentle lap of the waves, everything else seems still.

MC: "Um--"

TK: "Hey, Clyde!"

Clyde: "What?"

TK: "Logan says we're not getting anywhere."

Clyde: "Excuse me?"

Arthur: "For lack of a better term, we're grinding our wheels, captain."

Logan: "Look at the island, Clyde. It's as far away as it was half an hour ago."

Clyde: "Well, that can't be--"

Clyde turns, putting a hand up to guard his eyes against the sun and squinting into the distance.

I follow where he looks, and when I look hard enough, I can still make out Serena waiting on the dock.

(But we've been sailing in the same direction for an hour.)

Clyde: "You've got to be kidding me."

TK: "It's not a trick of the light or something?"

Clyde: "I don't think so."

Clyde: "Let's see if we can turn around and head back. Something's amiss."

(How could this be going wrong too?)

I wake up the next moning to an empty bed again, exhaustion weighing me down against the sheets.

The whole night I was up tossing and turning, my thoughts running in a hundred anxious directions.

(Fo some reason the boat didn't work. We weren't getting anywhere.)

(And when Clyde told Serena that, she stormed off and I have no idea where she went.)

MC: "She sure didn't come back here."

MC: "I should take the last dose of that medicine, I guess."

It still tastes horribly bitter, but the vial is empt by the time I finish.

After a moment of staring at it, frustration building, I toss the vial away and start making breakfast.

MC: "Maybe I should just ask Olivia."

MC: "If she doesn't have feelings for me, then I can tell Serena that."

MC: "And if she does..."

(Then I'm totally oblivious.)

(I don't want to assume every girl being nice to me is flirting, okay?)

(That's how you get crushes on straight ones.)

(And that's a whole different kind of heartbreak.)

It feels silly to eat my eggs right out of the pan,

but there's only so many plates in the treehouse, and I've been trying not to use Serena's.

I want everything to look the same when she comes back from Clyde's.

MC: "I'll just nip it in the bud. Talk to her directly."

MC: "And now that I'm feeling better, she and Serena will have one less thing to fight about. I hope."

MC: "Maybe I'll stumble on something about the plants while I'm there."

MC: "They do work but that's... weird."

(Everyone knows there's no such thing as a miracle cure.)

(I'm glad I'm not sick anymore, but I don't even know what I had in the first place.)

(What if it comes back even worse?)

That thought sours my appetite a little, so I take one more bite before leaving the dishes to soak.

The sun is shining high when I leave the treehouse, making my way through the meadow towards Olivia's

while staying as far from the treeline today as possible.

MC: "Not getting eaten by any monsters today. Nope."

MC: "...I should really start carrying a big stick around or something."

I've just glimpsed the plants covering Olivia's house when she comes into view from around the corner.

I stop for a second, watching as she cuts a blossom from one of the vines before tucking it into her bag.

Olivia: "? Is that you?"

MC: "Yeah. Sorry, am I interrupting?"

Olivia: "No, not at all."

Olivia: "Just collecting a few things while there's sunlight."

Olivia's eyes take me in from head to toe,

a slow examination that catches me off-guard by the time she glances back up at my blushing cheeks.

Olivia: "You look a lot better."

Olivia: "Did you end up taking the medicine after all?"

A. "It worked great."

B. "I didn't have any choice."

<p style="text-align:center;">C. "Yeah, but it was gross."

<p style="text-align:center;">---

B. "I didn't have any choice."

MC: "I didn't really have any choice."

MC: "It was either lying in bed burning up or use the only fix there was."

<p style="text-align:center;">---

Olivia smiles, pocketing her knife and wiping a smudge of dirt off her arm.

Olivia: "Can I invite you inside? I'll get you something to drink."

MC: "Sure. I needed to talk to you about something anyway."

Olivia: "Well, that's ominous."

MC: "...I really hope it's not."

She doesn't seem to hear me mumble under my breath, though, and I follow Olivia inside.

After a quick rinse of her hands, Olivia starts picking out glasses and I take a look around the room.

Something stands out right away.

MC: "Um."

Olivia: "Is something wrong?"

I point to the cage in the corner of her room, its cover thrown back.

The door is swung wide open, and there's no sign of the little plant inside.

MC: "Do you let that thing out for walks?"

Olivia: "..."

Olivia: "No. No, I don't."

A loud snarl erupts from behind us, and I turn just in time to see huge, snapping teeth.