Under Murky Waters

THE DOOR CREAKED noisily when Zale pushed it open, creating an entrance that led to darkness. Peering from behind him, Cordelia could only make out the shapes of a fallen chair and an empty table. There was a window to the far left and that was it. The room was barrenly empty, painfully devoid of life.

“The person we’re looking for stays here?” Cordelia whispered, her hands on Zale’s shoulders. “Seems a little creepy.”

“You’re saying that as a siren that stays in the dark depths of the ocean,” Zale snorted. “Come on in. There’s nothing to be afraid of.”

With the door slammed shut behind them, Zale carefully lit up a candle in the room, allowing the light of the small flickering flame to brighten the area. That was enough for Cordelia to see a man sprawled across the bed in the far corner of the room, his hair disheveled and unkempt while a single piece of thin wispy cloth covered him like a makeshift blanket.

“Mr. Langford?” Zale called out, not knowing that the woman that followed behind him had already frozen where she stood. “Are you alright, sir?”

He scurried towards the bed, pulling the blanket off of the man just as he heard a groan. Mr. Langford muttered a few incoherent words beneath his breath, lips moving slightly in a slur. Yet, it was enough for Zale to confirm he was still alive.

“I hope you’ll pardon the mess, Cordelia,” Zale said, throwing his words behind him without offering a glance. His hands moved to help Mr. Langford upright, puffing up the pillow before allowing the older man to rest on it. “Mr. Langford sustained serious injuries a while back and had trouble moving about ever since. I think he once mentioned it was a disastrous journey to sea. A few neighbors and I take turns to care for him but they must’ve not come over in a long time.”

Too busy with what he had on hand, Zale failed to notice that Cordelia had crumbled to her knees, tears streaming from the corners of her eyes in a mixture of horror and joy. Her lips parted, eyelashes desperately trying to bat those damned tears away but to no avail. In her chest, her heart clenched painfully to see the man she admired all her life, someone that always held himself in a dignified and elegant manner, left to waste away into the shell of who he once was.

“Papa?” Cordelia cried out in a whimper, stretching her fingers towards the two men a short distance away.

The tears made her vision blur and at the same time it clogged up her windpipe. For the first time in years, Cordelia felt as though she was dying all over again. Not even the pain on the beach, when she was dried and shriveled and about to burn to crisp from the mere heat of the sun, could compare to the horror that now filled her heart.

Mr. Langford did not hear Cordelia. He was too weak to even stay fully awake. Instead, it was Zale’s eyes that opened wide, lips parted in surprise as he jolted slightly away from the man that laid on the bed. Fingers trembling even though he didn’t quite understand why, Zale took a tentative step towards Cordelia. He was unsure how else she would react.

“What did you say?” His question was no louder than a breath, barely even there. Despite that, Cordelia’s ears were honed and her mind was on full alert.

“That man...” she pointed a shaking finger, “That man is my father. One that supposedly died at sea after I did.”