Most passengers had already gone below deck before the sun had fully set and ushered in night.
No one wanted to be the one still on deck when the light disappeared.
Everyone but Sonder. She watched the sunset, and when it was finally done, and a sailor on night watch had told her the curfew was kicking in, she also went down.
There was nothing to argue about.
Her "quarters" were the same as before: crates, tarp, and sack.
She sat on the edge of it for a while while feeding Sireacht.
The food in the jars still seemed to be good, all three of them.
There was no smell of anything rotten or any bitterness, nor any discoloration.
Then she wondered again what it was. But Sireacht didn't complain and happily ate whatever she got.
When Sonder lay down, she could hear the ship creaking and the water move along the hull when it came in crashing.
When there were moments of quiet, she also heard footsteps pass overhead. The watch, she assumed.
Everything sounded normal.
And time passed.
Sonder wasn't sure how much, but it did.
She stayed still because there was something.
And after a moment, there it was again.
That sound.
It was soft, not a splash or shout, but more like a scrape.
Like something was dragged lightly across wood, and it came from above.
The deck.
Sonder sat up slowly, and the sound came again.
Then it stopped.
Sonder waited.
Nothing followed.
No footsteps. No voices. No alarm.
Just the sea.
She stood.
Quietly, she moved toward the stairs leading up.
She stopped at the bottom.
Would it be the right move to go up?
The captain's curfew demanded that she not, and how was she to know that that noise was something out of the ordinary? She hadn't spent much time in her quarters, so maybe it was completely fine?
She hesitated.
And then she heard someone from above.
"Oi, did you hear that?"
Another voice answered.
"…Hear what?"
"That. Just now."
A pause.
"…No."
Silence again.
More footsteps now. A bit quicker.
"…Where's Joren?"
A longer pause this time.
"…Wasn't he on watch with you?"
"He was."
"I just turned around for a moment-"
"Well, where'd he go?"
"I don't know."
Their voices were louder now.
Not shouting.
But close.
Panicked.
Sonder stepped up one stair.
Then another.
She stopped just before the top.
"…Joren?" one called out.
No answer.
The wind moved through the sails.
And Sonder thought that whatever she may have done, she was too late already and went back to her quarters.
When the next morning came, it was clear that the mood had changed.
The sailors were far quieter than they had been the days before. They didn't joke as much as they did.
And they looked at each other far more often, counting.
The passengers noticed too.
Whispers started again, with less doubt and more fear.
"…another one…"
"…during watch…"
Sonder stood near the railing again.
She looked out at the sea.
She thought about the sound.
The scraping.
It didn't sound like someone slipping, like some accident.
She frowned.
"There's something here," she thought. "Either on the ship or around it."
For once Sonder didn't think it had been a coincidence.