Cecilia recognized the voice that called out to her, and the smile disappeared from her lips. "I was about to…" Chris tried to speak, but the human gently pushed him aside. He hung his head low and kept silent; he recognized that this was not the time to intervene.
Cecilia instinctively covered her mouth with her hands, and she began to sob. "Pops? Why are you here?" She trembled from anxiety, seeing her grandfather aboard the barge of the dead. "Please tell me you just got lost…please tell me you're not really here"
Tears poured from the old man's eyes, and he walked towards his granddaughter, then enveloped her in a tight embrace. "Is this where you work? Oh my poor child, why are you in this place? How did you end up with such a fate?"
"Pops…Pops, you can't be here, you haven't enjoyed life yet, you can't be here yet!" She broke away from the old man's embrace and turned to Chief Murillo, holding her hands. "Chief, you're in charge of the new passengers. Maybe we can overlook this and erase my grandfather's name from the manifest?"
Murillo bit her lips and gently stroked Cecilia's hair. "That is beyond me, Miss Bermudez. I am so sorry."
"You can't?" She then saw Chief Officer Bustamante and Martinez arrive. "Chief…please call Triple-A, he can bring my Pops back to life!" When the chief officer shook his head, she turned to Martinez. "Chief Bustamante and Chief Murillo won't help me." Her eyes were now red from the despair. "Please tell me what to do to bring him back to life!"
Martinez responded with an embrace, "I'm so sorry, we're so sorry, but we can't do anything," he explained to her.
Cecilia broke away from Martinez. She then turned to the one person she knew could undo her grandfather's death, Chris. She held him by his hands. "Captain, you have power over life and death, right? You can bring him to life, right?" Her words trembled as she said them, "You can undo what happened to my grandfather, can you?" But Chris only lowered his gaze away from her and gently shook her head.
"No? You can't?" She turned around, looking for someone who could help her. "No one? Not one of you can help him?" She begins to pound on her chest, "Why won't any of you help me? I did everything that was asked of me! Why won't you help him?" She shouted at the captain, "I beg of you, Captain, please help him…help my poor grandfather," she pleaded with all heart and soul.
Seeing how desperate Cecilia was to bring back her grandfather broke Chris's own heart; he cursed at his inability to help the woman who made him smile. "Let's go," he softly said to her
"Where?" Cecilia asked as she continued to sob, silently praying that Chris would help her.
"Your grandfather's soul is here, but his body is alone," He gently whispered to her. He turned to his three officers. "Find crewmembers who can handle your duties, then follow us," he instructed them.
Without another word, Chris, along with Cecilia and her grandfather's soul, disappeared into a white light. When they reappeared, they were inside their house. Cecilia looked around at the scattered furniture, clothes, and numerous other things that littered the floor. "What happened here?" she wondered while carefully navigating the mess. She then noticed her grandfather standing at the doorway to her room, staring at something. "Captain?" she called Chris, who was surveying the area.
Chris tried to run to the room before Cecilia, for when he saw the old man standing by the door, he perfectly knew what was waiting for her there. Yet Cecilia got to the room before he did, and when he entered, he saw Cecilia cradling her grandfather's body, while his soul watched on. Cecilia looked up to her grandfather. "Who did this to you? What kind of heartless beast would do this to you?" She then glanced at her grandfather's body and, with her hands, she caressed her grandfather's face. "You were so kind, so gentle, loving, and caring. I don't understand why you would meet such a tragic fate. Pops…my poor Pops…I'm sorry…I'm so sorry. If only I were with you…If only I were here…"
"Then you would have met the same fate as I." The old man kneeled beside his sobbing granddaughter. "I am so happy that it was just me. You don't know how happy and relieved I am that you are safe, my child." He gently took Cecilia's face and dried the tears running down her face.
Chris could no longer stand the sight of Cecilia crying; he turned around and walked out of the room. Chief Bustamante, Murillo, and Martinez had just arrived when they saw Chris walking out of the house. "Captain? How are things inside?" Bustamante worriedly asked.
Instead of answering, Chris gestured with his hand at the three officers. The cold, pale color of their skin soon turned to a warm hue. They all reached for their chest and felt a beating heart, something they all forgot how it felt like. "I gave you three temporary corporeal forms. Help her in whatever she needs."
Murillo was quick to protest, "But Captain…with these forms, we won't be able to tend to our duties on the Twilight."
"The chief is right, Captain, we cannot neglect our duties to the ship." Martinez seconded Murillo's trepidations.
"I don't care!" Chris growled at them. He panted, the fury and anger consuming him, "What I do care about is Cecilia...and she is in pain!" Chris shoved the three aside as he went off to who knows where.
The chief did not protest, nor did he try to stop the captain; instead, he gave specific instructions to the other two: "Martinez, go to the nearest station and call the police and file a report." He then turned to the other, "Chief Murillo, Miss Bermudez will need all the support she needs; make sure she gets that support."
"What about you? What are you going to do?" Murillo asked
"I'm going with the captain, I know what he is thinking right now…I'm going to make sure he doesn't do it." He then ran in the direction that Chris went. The two exchanged glances and went to do what the Chief Officer instructed them to do.
Chief Bustamante found the captain standing in the middle of the dreaded intersection. He cautiously approached Chris. "Captain, what are we doing here?"