The deep: I know you're not okay

Assuming Part 1

   "Earth to Ant," Fontaine says as she snaps her fingers in front of my face. Right, reality. Focus. On. Reality. For some reason I seem to have trouble doing that lately.

   "Yeah? What is it? Is something wrong with Mom and—" I start suddenly worried I spaced out well something important was happening.

   "Nothing is wrong with Mom and Dad. Though something must be wrong with you. I've been trying to get your attention for the past two minutes, though you were just staring off into space. Are you okay?" Fontaine rambles as she cuts me off with panic and worry clear in her voice.

   "Sorry. I'm fine, just thinking about something. Must have just got a little distracted," I say trying to look away. 

   "A little? You were just standing there staring into space for 2 minutes, not blinking, hardly breathing, and looking like you died standing up, and the only explanation you have for that is that you were, 'a little distracted'?" Madeline exclaims in a voice that says everything she doesn't. 

   Well this may have been expected from her two years ago when she was eleven, Madeline has changed a lot since then. Her birthday is two days before mine, so she is currently thirteen. She has went from a girl who doesn't give a thought to what she's doing or saying to a girl who is quiet, secluded, and definetly much more mature then him. She never yells or raises her voice, and even though she didn't, what she has just exclaimed is so different from how she normally acts she may as well have.

   "It's none of your buisness!" I exclaim suddenly, and I'm not even sure why. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to—I'll just go," I would try explaining myself, but there's nothing to explain. Finn and Fontaine both seem quite shocked by how Madeline and I suddenly snapped. It could be more suprise then shock, but I'm too busy going to notice. 

   The truth is, Madeline isn't the only one that's changed recently. I've been having trouble with anxiety and keeping focus lately, and I'm constantly on edge. Dad says it's just from not getting enough sleep, though the problem is that I can't fix my sleep that easily. It seems like whenever I really need to sleep I don't get a wink all night, and whenever I need to be awake it seems like I'm falling asleep. So I just try to keep myself busy all the time, and when I feel so tired that I'm going to pass out then I finally go to sleep.

   As soon as I get to the moonpool, my communicater lights up and Dad's voice comes through. "Ant, Your Mom and I can't get Hammerhead to let this useless treasure hunt go, so can you perform your usual task and mess up some wiring again? I have to go Ant, make sure that you mess that wiring up," as the communicater goes silent I wish we never ran into the Dark Orca this morning. Nevermind, at this point it's probably past lunch and afternoon already. Forget my plans to go back to my room on the Arronax.

   I go to the nearest entrance to the vents and enter into it. After that I make my way to the wiring and hear someone else coming into the vents, and immediatly figure that it's Madeline. Of all the places to be right now, in a vent with her is not one of them. We off of the usual routine, I pull out the ones that arn't important for anything well every once in a while Madeline plugs one back in.

   Well sitting there I suddenly notice some bruises coating Madeline's right arm. About 5 bruises are on her arm, all quite big and quite new by the looks of it. I consider asking though at the moment I don't think that's the best course of action. Instead I decide to stay quiet and not mention anything. Maybe this has something to do with that conversation. 

   "Sorry for yelling at you. Truce, so that we don't end up killing each other like we used to try everytime we saw each other?" I offer hopefully to break the tension as we both wait for the message that it's time for me and my family to leave.

   "Okay. Even if you didn't say that, we probably wouldn't end up killing each other as you think for some reason," she says in a simple emotionless voice.

   "Why would you say that? We always used to be quite intent on it," I say with a chuckle, although I am a bit hesitant to hear the answer.

   "Used to. Things change. People change." she stops for a second, looking down with a sigh. "People that you think you know aren't always who you think they are. Nothing stays the same forever, things always change eventually," the last part is barely above a whisper, and I have to strain my ears to hear it. For a second I think the last part is talking about how well I really know her—though she is obviously talking about someone else. 

   I see her roll up her pant leg well she thinks that I'm not looking, and I see more bruises on her leg. It's on her right side, the same side as her arm that is covered in bruises. I wouldn't be surprised if she has even more bruises based on what I can see. But what would cover her in bruises like that? Could she have fallen over? Or gotten pushed over or something?

   "How did you get those bruises?" I say as I look at her with intent, showing that I was listening. "I won't judge you if you fell over or something. We live on submarines, it happens twenty-four seven. I did it four times this week alone already," I say laughing a bit at the end, which gets a little smile out of her, and also a look that says 'really?' 

   Even before she answers, I can see her struggling to come up with an excuse. "Okay, fine, I admit it, I fell when Hammerhead ran into something again," she smiles when she finishes, though I have seen that smile too many times. It's the smile that someone makes when something is wrong and their trying to hide it. Mom and Dad used to do it to me and Fontaine all the time, though we eventually we began to see right through it.

   Suddenly, I notice something else wrong with what she said. "Since when do you call your dad Hammerhead?" something is wrong. I can tell by the way she suddenly looks uncomfortable. "Did something—" 

   Before I'm able to finish, Dad's voice comes through my communicator. It's time to go. I start making my way toward the nearest exit from the vents. I guess I'm not getting my answer.

   As I'm closing the opening, I hear Hammerheads voice bursts to life on Madeline's communicator. "Madeline! Get over here you little—" The vent is sealed before I hear Hammerhead finish whatever he is yelling at Madeline. Though I do notice one thing—he sounded really angry with her. Could he have just tried to get her a few times already? That's probably it. 

   As me and Fontaine make our way back to the Aronnax in the Rover, I ask her if she noticed anything off about Finn. She says she didn't notice anything off about him, and that she's worried about me. After she says that I pretend to be distracted by something and look out the canopy of the Rover. I allow myself to drift into my thoughts for a minute, though we are already in the moonpool before I can figure out anything that's been going on lately. Mom and Dad have already put there knights away and are off doing their own thing already.

   I go to my room and finally get a minute to think for once. What is going on? I can tell something is wrong with Madeline, though I don't know what. This shouldn't even matter to me, it's not like she's my friend, and on top of that it's none of my buisness. I should just let it go. So why do I get the feeling that something really is wrong?

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Hello! Please leave a comment on what you think and any feedback you might have. I am currently working on part 2 of this chapter which will be in Madeline's POV and will try to post that within the next week. 

Also this chapter was 2,111 words!