Charles Whispers

Witness

Elen opened her eyes when the sunlight came in from the gap in the balcony of the room. She felt she had slept quite well after drinking the tea Charlie made. She didn't know that the tea was actually enough to help her sleep.

"He's not there? Is he awake?" Elen mumbled when she saw Charlie was not in the room.

But when she heard the sound of water coming from the bathroom, she immediately thought that Charlie was taking a shower. A few moments later, the man came out of the bathroom half wet, shirtless and wearing only a white towel wrapped around his hips.

Elen's eyes widened when she saw Charlie's muscular and sexy belly, dirty thoughts started to fill her head. Secretly, she enjoyed this sight.

"Oh, my God!" She thought. Elen's chest churned, as a young woman who loves handsome and sexy men. Of course Elen didn't want to miss this golden opportunity. She wants to forget her personal problems with Charlie and focus on enjoying the beauty of his body and face which is like a perfectly carved statue.

"Are you awake? Sorry, I used the bathroom first!" He said while drying his hair with a towel.

Elen looked at Charlie's back and she just realized that there was a tattoo engraved on his back. A writing in a foreign language that Elen couldn't understand.

Elen touched the small butterfly tattoo on the base of her neck which she knew was to cover her birthmark. She wondered if the tattoo on Charlie's back was also to cover something up.

"Why should I care? But I didn't expect a man as neat and clean as him to have that many tattoos on his back!" She thought.

Elen who was too busy thinking that she didn't realize that she was currently looking at a naked man who was about to wear panties in front of the mirror and Elen accidentally saw his intimate parts from the mirror.

"You i***t! What are you doing...?" Elen threw a pillow at Charlie and screamed hysterically with embarrassment.

Charlie managed to catch the pillow before it hit him. He didn't know why Elen always shouted and attacked him all of a sudden.

"What did I do? Why did you attack me?" Charlie asked again because he was the victim here. Elen was too busy with her own thoughts to make her become prejudiced.

Seeing Charlie's confused reaction, Elen felt even more ridiculous. She's been acting embarrassingly like a tacky and petty girl. Elen immediately got up from her bed while covering her face in shame.

"s**t! What have I done?"

***

"That's the girl last night screaming on the deck? She said she saw a girl jump into the sea!"

"Really? So someone really jumped?"

"I don't know! But as of now it seems the crew is on a search!"

"I heard there was a woman who mysteriously disappeared. Her husband and family complained to the security officers. Could it be the woman who plunged into the sea?"

"Maybe! Who knows?"

Elen was getting restless hearing everyone talk about what happened last night. Since she was the only one who saw the incident, people were a little suspicious of her and now, she was summoned early this morning to the security guard's room to testify.

In front of her, a middle-aged man along with two men and a woman who were quite old were sitting watching her. This situation made her feel like a murder suspect.

"So, Miss Franklin, can you explain the chronology of the events? When and where exactly did you see the woman plunge into the sea?" Asked an officer who interrogated her seriously.

"I don't know what time it was, I couldn't sleep the whole night because I'm not used to sailing that's why I decided to go to the deck. There's no particular reason, but I'm sure I didn't see anyone around the place at that time. It was just me alone, but suddenly I saw a woman with blonde hair and wearing a red dress already climbing on the bow. I didn't know what she was going to do, but realizing that she was about to jump, I tried to pull her but couldn't!"

"Did you see what she looked like?" Asked the old woman. It was clear that she was trying to hold back tears.

Elen hesitated, she was sure that she didn't get to see the woman's face and every time she remembered the incident, she felt very afraid and uneasy.

"No! I didn't see her face!"

The three of them looked at each other and then, the old lady took out a photo from her bag and placed it on the table.

"This is my youngest daughter, Soraya. She is only 22 years old and she is her husband, Joaquin!" Said the woman while glancing at the middle-aged man sitting beside her.

Elen was a little surprised when the woman said that the man who seemed to be over 40 years old was the husband of her 22 year old daughter. But Elen knew that she shouldn't think about other people's problems.

"We were planning to take a vacation together to celebrate their wedding. But a few days before sailing, Soraya looked really weird. She kept hearing classical music, the sexophone and kept talking about a guy named Charles. Hours before he suddenly disappeared. Soraya and Joaquin fight, because he doesn't want this problem to continue. Joaquin decides to leave Soraya, so he can calm herself down. But when he returns, Soraya is no longer in the room. We looked for her everywhere, but still couldn't find her until we heard that a girl saw a woman plunged into the sea. From there, we felt panicked and very scared!" The woman began to sob. She may have lost her daughter although it is still not confirmed that the woman who fell into the sea is Soraya, her missing daughter.

Hearing Charles' name made Elen remember the last words the woman said before jumping. She was sure she had mentioned Charles' name.

"I think I heard that woman say something before jumping in!"

"Really? What did she say?"

"Charles, I love you to death!"

"Oh no...! Soraya...!" The woman's tears broke hearing Elen's confession. Her husband immediately hugged her, trying to calm her down, while the middle-aged man actually looked very angry. His face was flushed and his eyes were glaring.

He got up from his seat and walked out of the room. The old man and two security guards immediately stopped him from leaving.

"Joaquin, do you want something?" Asked the old man in a hoarse voice.

"I'm going to find that bastard! He must be on this ship too! Soraya and him are already planning to run away together! I'm sure of it!"

"That's not confirmed yet! Calm down! We don't know what that guy named Charles looks like, we've never seen him!"

"I'm going to ask all the passengers and check every person named Charles and force them to confess!" His anger exploded. He looks like a person who has the power to do something.

"Relax, Mr Billman! We cannot tell you about the personal data of the ship's passengers because this is a risk of violating privacy. For now, we will continue to work on finding Mrs Billman's body and we have also contacted headquarters to send a team to help locate Mrs Billman. We hope you haven't done anything rash!"

"f**k it! I don't care! I'll definitely find that bastard and I'll cut off his head!" He said as he walked away and pushed his way through the two security guards who were trying to stop him from leaving.

"Oh my God, Soraya...! What happened to you, my daughter...!" The woman was crying hysterically. Although it is not certain that the mysterious woman who plunged into the sea is her daughter. But the name Charles made her very sure that her daughter was the victim.

Elen didn't know what to do now. She was caught in a difficult situation because she accidentally saw a woman jump into the sea. She truly regretted her decision to follow her family now. Maybe it would have been better if she stayed home and relied on the $1500 until her family got home rather than being stuck in this situation.

Even though security officer allowed him to go. However, they said that at any time they would call him back for further information.

At the end of the hall, Captain Carl was waiting for her and gave her a smile that seemed to indicate that everything would be fine. Elen approached her uncle with a face that was almost crying. Captain Carl immediately grabbed her and hugged her.

"Calm down! Everything will be fine!"

"I literally didn't do anything to that woman, I don't even know her! I was just trying to pull her off when she tried to jump. But it didn't work, it all happened so fast in front of my eyes. I couldn't look down to see if he's still alive or not. I was really scared then!" Elen wept bitterly while trying to explain the situation she was in.

"Calm down, Elen! I trust you! No one thought that you pushed that woman! So calm down! Right now the officers are only trying to get your testimony as the only witness. It's a shame the security guards who were supposed to be on guard that night are doing patrols at the time of the incident. And right now, they're checking the surveillance camera footage around the deck to determine who this woman really is. So, I hope you can calm down and forget everything that happened. Do you understand?"

"Captain, the equipment is ready!" Said a crew member.

"Okay, wait there! I'll be right back!"

"Ready, Captain!"

"Elen, I have to get back to the wheelhouse. If you need anything, you can ask the crew or crew to take you to my place. You can also ask them for help if necessary. Do you understand?"

"Yes, I understand, Uncle!"

"Okay, see you later?"

Captain Carl left with two crew members leaving Elen alone in the middle of the passage. Elen felt empty now, she lost her passion to explore interesting places on this ship. All she wanted right now was to lie in her bed and rest.

A message came in on her phone. This was the first message she had since embarked on the voyage. Elen opened her phone and the incoming message came from an unknown number.

'Hi, Ellen. It's me, Steven. You remember right? We met at the restaurant yesterday. How are you? Can we meet this afternoon?'

Steven texts her and Elen thinks that Steven might not know what happened to her yesterday. Elen felt reluctant to meet Steven today, but she had already promised and it made her feel reluctant to refuse.

'Hey Steve, all right. I'll be waiting for you at the stern at 3 pm. Don't be late because I don't like waiting'

Only a minute later, Steven immediately replied to a message from him quickly.

'Okay, Elen. We meet at 3 pm. See you later?'

***