Finally—
The creature stopped moving.
After several final spasms, the massive body collapsed completely onto the deck. Thick black fluid slowly poured from the split wound in its skull, spreading through the freezing seawater in dark, cloudy streaks.
Nora let out a heavy breath.
It felt as though her entire body had finally been pulled back from an extreme state of tension.
Slowly, she released the sword’s hilt.
The blade made from narwhal tusk still remained buried deep inside the creature’s skull, its white surface now nearly stained black.
Nora turned around.
Then extended a hand toward Tim.
Tim was still sitting on the slick deck, water dripping from his hair while his breathing came hard from cold and exhaustion.
He lowered his eyes toward the hand stretched out before him.
His brain paused briefly.
This was—
Her trying to pull him up?
For a short moment, the two of them simply looked at each other.
The atmosphere suddenly became strangely awkward.
Only minutes earlier, he had been locked in a desperate fight for survival with a monster.
And now this had somehow turned into something resembling a heroic rescue scene.
In the end—
Tim reached out after all and let her pull him to his feet.
Nora’s hand was freezing cold.
But Tim’s was not much warmer.
Just as Tim used her support to stand and quietly muttered,
“I owe you one”—
The entire ship suddenly groaned with a horrifying metallic scream.
The next second—
The ship that had once been called unsinkable lurched violently to one side.
The angle changed far too suddenly.
Almost on instinct, Tim grabbed Nora’s hand in return.
Both of them immediately began sliding down the slick deck.
Seawater, chunks of ice, shattered furniture—everything lost control at once and rushed in the same direction.
Tim slid while desperately searching for anything he could use to anchor himself, but the situation was absurdly bad.
They had to keep dodging collapsing deck chairs, tables, luggage, and scattered debris all crashing downward with them.
A second too slow—
And they would be swept straight into the ocean.
Wood smashing.
Metal shrieking against metal.
The entire world was collapsing downward.
Just before they slid completely over the edge of the deck and into the black freezing sea—
Tim finally caught hold of a thick rope.
His hand clamped onto it hard enough that the force instantly sent sharp pain tearing through his shoulder, but he refused to let go.
Quickly, he wrapped the rope around his hand twice.
And then—
Tim pulled the hand he had been tightly holding toward the rope as well.
Nora reacted instantly and grabbed on too.
The two of them hung there on the sharply tilted deck.
Clinging to the same trembling lifeline.
Face to face.
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Tim held tightly onto the rope, veins standing out sharply across the back of his hand from the sheer force of his grip.
The ship was still tilting.
Freezing sea wind swept across the deck while soaked clothing clung to their skin like ice.
And yet—
Even at a moment like this, Tim spoke first to reassure Nora.
“Don’t be afraid. I’ll figure something out.”
His voice had grown rough from the cold, each breath leaving behind pale mist that vanished quickly into the wind.
Nora looked at him.
At the injured arm that was still slowly bleeding.
At his pale lips, drained of color from hypothermia.
Even his fingertips had begun turning purple.
And despite all of that—
His first instinct was still to take care of someone else’s emotions.
For one strange moment, Nora found herself thinking—
The Batfamily had somehow elevated the concept of “vigilante” into something closer to sainthood.
She could not help laughing softly.
It was a very small smile.
Soft.
Gentle.
And then—
The rope groaned.
Fibers began snapping apart one by one.
The seawater-soaked rope was never meant to hold the weight of two people for long.
They were slowly slipping lower.
Closer and closer to the black ocean beneath them.
Nora glanced downward once.
Then lifted her eyes again.
She reached out and gently touched the face of the adult version of Tim.
Nora knew.
After this—
She would not be able to see him anymore.
She looked into those blue eyes.
Then spoke very softly.
“Don’t be afraid.”
Tim froze for a second.
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In dreams—
Falling was always the easiest way to wake up.
The dream was ending.
The next second—
SNAP—
The rope broke.
Weightlessness swallowed everything instantly.
And in that first moment of falling, both of them instinctively wrapped their arms around each other.
Nora closed her eyes and curled into his embrace, waiting for the dream to shatter apart.
So she never noticed—
That during those final few seconds, a pair of blue eyes never stopped looking at her.
Right up until the dream finally reached its end.
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The owner of the dream opened his eyes.
Tim lay in bed, and the instant the ceiling came into view, he remained dazed for several long seconds.
His chest rose and fell rapidly, as though he had truly just been dragged out of freezing seawater.
He stayed still for minutes.
Not moving.
Simply staring quietly upward.
In his ears, he could still almost hear the sound of ocean wind.
And that final sentence—
“Don’t be afraid.”
Tim closed his eyes briefly.
Then abruptly sat up.
The cold dampness was gone, of course.
But the memory was not.
He began replaying the entire dream from the beginning, piece by piece.
And then, almost naturally, he reached for his phone.
His fingers moved rapidly across the screen as he started recording everything before the details faded.
The pale glow of the display illuminated his face.
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On the other side—
The other participant in the dream, Nora, opened her eyes as well.
She lay on her dormitory bed, wrapped in a strange sense of disorientation.
As though she had just returned from someplace impossibly far away.
In her ears, she could still almost hear the Titanic’s long, low whistle.
And the sound of waves.
Nora lay there quietly.
A few seconds passed.
Then she slowly raised her right hand.
Her fingers opened.
And then—
A gemstone dropped down from a chain wrapped around her wrist.
A deep blue light swayed gently in the air.
Clear and luminous.
Like the ocean frozen into solid form.
The Heart of the Ocean.
The jewel that should have sunk into the depths of the Atlantic now rested silently inside a university dorm room, refracting dazzling light beneath the faint glow of dawn.
The tiny room seemed illuminated by it.
As though the entire space had suddenly been filled with brilliance and sea-blue radiance.
ns216.73.217.39da2
and then Add to home screen.