“What are you going to do with him?!” I cried.
“There is a very large sum of money out for the capture of Captain Fox here.” Jonathan looked at me. “Oh, you didn’t think I knew who he was? My dear, we knew who he was as soon as he sailed in to port. He is one of the most wanted pirates anywhere in the world! Of course, I know who he is.”
He leaned in close to me, taking the back of my neck in his hands. His grip was weak compared to Dimitrius’ but stronger than I could fight. I struggled for a moment or two and then let him hang on, with a hatred in my heart that was making my blood boil.
“And I am going to have him killed! I will be the one to save humanity from Captain Fox’s terror, and I will become the greatest pirate hunter the world has ever known. Aren’t you impressed?!”
I looked at him for a moment, an uncontrollable scowl on my face. Then, I cocked back and launched my spit into his face. He recoiled for a moment, disgusted and then slapped me. I collapsed to the deck, feeling the burn on my cheek. The vision on the left side of my face was slightly blurry as I shook the pain away. Before I could control myself I launched myself at him. One of his guards stopped me before I could get to him. The butt of the gun knocked the air out of me as I collapsed to the deck again, this time gasping for air.
“Seems as though your time with Captain Fox has turned you wild.”
I looked up and noticed he was crouching over me, looking in to my face with a sick smile. I used to take comfort in that smile. Now knowing who this man really was, it sickened me. How could I fall for someone so incredibly terrible? Benjamin had been right, when you look too hard for love you see what you want to see.
“No worries! I like myself a woman with spark. You will learn to be civilized once again as soon as we are married and you are living in my mansion.” He stood up and motioned to his guards. “Put her in my cabin and guard the doors. Make sure she is unable to leave until I have a chance to speak with her.”
He looked back at me with an evil glare. I knew what his intentions were, and they didn’t have anything to do with speaking.
Chapter 8
I was thrown in to the cabin of Jonathan’s ship. I tried the doors, even though I knew they would be locked. I looked around the room at all of the stuffy decorations he had collected. The layout was very much like Captain Fox’s chambers, but Jonathan’s chamber was made of a pear colored wood. He didn’t have large and extravagant windows like Dimitrius had, so the room seemed darker and more compacted. There were so many useless items that he had collected on his trips, that the room was impossible to move around in. The bed off in the corner of the cabin had a canopy and drapes that covered the entire mattress. I couldn’t help but wonder how many women he had slept with in that bed. I caught my scowl returning. I immediately began to look around for a way to escape, but there wasn’t one. I was going to have to do this the hard way; So, I tied the drapes around the bed post, sat on the edge of the bed and waited.
The doors flew open and Jonathan entered. He stood in the door way with his arms open, looking as pompous as ever. He glanced at me sitting on the edge of the bed and raised an eyebrow. I could tell he was intrigued. He turned to his guards at the door.
“You may leave now.”
They did as commanded. It was night now and the moon was shining in to the room from the open doorway. He turned and slowly closed the double doors behind him, locking them tightly. He slithered his way over to me and sat down close. I could smell his body odor and it made me recoil. I tried to play it off, but he must have seen my reaction. He stood and immediately went across the room and sprayed himself with cologne. He turned on his heels and looked dead in to my eyes.
“Oh, how I have missed you.” He said, opening his arms in a grand gesture once again.
“What? Did Colleen get too boring for you?” I spat.
The smile on his face immediately fell away. He looked down at the floor, slightly embarrassed.
“I had a moment of weakness.”
He quickly rushed over to me and bent down on his knees. He took my hands in his and softened his face. I knew this trick now. I used to melt to his words, but no more.
“Please, will you forgive me? It will never happen again! I promise. I miss you, Helena. I love you. I love you so much.”
His eyes glistened over with tears. I looked deep in to his eyes and then I smiled.
“Of course I will forgive you.” I said. “That is all this was about.”
“Really?” He said, shocked.
“Yes, of course! All I wanted was an apology.” I flashed the ring that was still on my finger. “This is yours after all.”
He searched my face for a moment, trying to see if I was serious. Once he realized I was, he smiled. He kissed me, sloppily, and before I knew it my back was on the mattress. He was kissing my neck and making his way down my body eagerly. I pushed him off of me and rolled on top of him. I could see the excitement in his eyes. He had been wanting to take me since the day he put a ring on my finger. I began to kiss him, softly at first. Once I felt his body relax I sat up straight, pinning him to the bed with my hips. I reached on to his bedside table and grabbed the letter opener that I had noticed was sitting there. I put it to his throat and the growing bulge in his pants disappeared.
“Move or yell and I will cut your throat.” I whispered in his ear.
“What the hell do you think you are doing?!”
I pressed the letter opener against his jugular and I felt his body tense.
“I’m saving the man I love.” I whispered to him.
I wanted him to know that I loved Dimitrius. I wanted him to know without a doubt that he had lost me. I wanted him to feel taken advantage of and worthless, just as I had. I reached over to the bed post and untied the ropes holding the curtains. I tied him to the bed by his wrists and his feet. He tried to call out once, in the middle of the whole thing, but that quickly ended when I stabbed the letter opener in to his thigh. I found a sick pleasure in hearing his squeal of pain. When I was finished, I stole the master key from his belt, covered the scene with the bed drapes and began to walk away.
“When I get out of here I am coming for you! I hope you know that! I will KILL you when I find you!”
I unlocked the door and opened them. I immediately felt the cool sea breeze flow across my skin. It lightened the stuffy air of Jonathan’s chamber. I turned in the door way and looked at the covered up bed. Hearing his cries of anger and his threats of revenge coming from behind the curtains… I couldn’t help but laugh.
“Better call for help.” I said, shutting the doors behind me and stepping out on to the deck.
As I made my way below the deck, the crew was eyeing me awkwardly. I was stopped once or twice, but when I told them that Jonathan had given me permission to walk the ship freely, they left me alone. I needed to hurry if I was going to save Dimitrius and get off of this ship alive. I asked one of the cabin boys where the cells were and he lead me directly to them.
“Thank you.” I said, paying him with whatever money I had left on me.
I didn’t have to search long before I found Dimitrius. He looked in a bad way. He was covered in dry blood from the battle and his clothes were wet from the leaky ship. His long hair was matted and dripping and he barely looked conscious. I opened the cell and rushed inside, cupping his face in my palms.
“Dimitrius? Dimitrius it is me.”
His eyes bobbed in and out of consciousness for a minute but eventually he came back to me.
“Helena?” He asked.
I could see that they had beaten him. His face was swollen. One eye was barely open. I needed to get him out of here. I didn’t know how I was going to do it, but somehow I would. I wouldn’t let the man I loved die in a cell. Not like this. Not while I still had breath in my chest. I threw his arm around my shoulders and heaved him off of the ground. He was able to be conscious enough that I didn’t have to support his whole weight, but I knew this was going to
be impossible. There was no way I was going to get him to a lifeboat without being noticed. I put him back on the ground and began looking around the cells for another prisoner. There was only one. He had a long beard and looked as though he had been locked away for quite some time. He watched me silently as I approached. I could smell the stench of mildew and body odor as I approached the cell. I looked at him and then flashed the key.
“Will you help me?” I asked him.
He looked at the key and then me, deciding whether or not he wanted to help. After a moment he nodded his head yes in agreement. I put the key in to the hole and opened his cell. I opened the door and stood in the doorway.
“I need you to take a lifeboat and lower it in to the sea for me? Starboard. Can you do that?”
“What do I get in return?” He grunted.
“Your freedom. You can row with us until we find a suitable place to land. Then you can have the boat and whatever is left on it.”
I could tell the man had his doubts. What would we do about food? Water? How would we survive on the ocean with nothing more than a lifeboat?
“Please! If I don’t get him out of here he will die.”
“We all die anyway.”
He could tell I was disappointed by his response, and I was. I slammed the cell door shut, locked it again and took the key with me.
“Fine.” I spat. “Stay here and rot.”
“Wait.” He said, finally standing. “I will help in whatever way I can.”
I was glad that he had finally come to his senses. Being free with a fear of what may come tomorrow, was better than being trapped inside a cell with fear of what may come tomorrow. I opened the cell once more and the man stepped forward. Come back to me once it is taken care of. The man nodded and made his way above.
I waited with Dimitrius for what seemed like an eternity. The footsteps above made me skittish. I held on to Dimitrius, expecting every footstep to be the footsteps of the men who caught us, but it was never so. The man returned and I couldn’t help but smile and feel a slight relief. He was dressed in a uniform with a blood stain on it. I assumed he had murdered someone for it. He tossed two more uniforms at me and told us to get dressed. I dressed myself and helped Dimitrius in to his uniform. He was barely conscious, so it took longer than I had wanted it to. Once we were all dressed, we began to make our way to the top deck. It amazed me how easy it was to blend in when dressed like everyone else on the ship. My hair was tucked beneath the cap I was wearing, so everybody thought I was a boy. A few people glanced our way, looking awkwardly at Dimitrius, who the jailbird and I were supporting.
“Had a little too much to drink.” He would say. “Move on.”
He was dressed as a lieutenant so the lower soldiers listened to him. By the time we made it to the lifeboat he had supplied, I thought to myself that it was going way too simply. Maybe we would get lucky and make it off of this boat without a scratch. That is exactly what we did. The entire time I believed Jonathan would be freed from his bonds, that his soldiers would find us and shoot us, that something terrible would happen… but nothing ever did. We lowered the lifeboat with Dimitri in it and then climbed over the side and in to it. We sailed off in to the darkness without ever being spotted. How had this happened? It was truly a miracle of God. I kissed Dimitrius lightly on the forehead and listened to the sound of the water as it splashed against the ore. I watched the jailbird as he rowed, staring off aimlessly in to the darkness that surrounded us. I had never been in the ocean at night without there being more than just moonlight to illuminate the world. It was eerily peaceful. I imagined what it would be like to be alone without any moon to light the way and remembered Dimitrius’ story about how he almost died. I felt fear pierce my heart and finally understood what it must have felt like to be alone on the sea. I needed something to distract my brain.
“Thank you for helping us.” I said to the man rowing.
He nodded lightly, but did not say anything in return.
“Do you have a name?” I asked him. “So I may remember it.”
“It is unimportant.” He spoke.
I could tell this man was a terrible conversationalist. I imagined after being locked up for a certain amount of time, the silence becomes comforting. So, I remained quiet and listened to the sounds of the ocean slapping against the ore with each stroke. I held Dimitrius in my arms, happy to be alive. I tended to his wounds as best I could and eventually, while laying my head back against the wood of the lifeboat, fell asleep while staring at the stars praying to God about how grateful I was that he let us both live. I dreamed of all the wonderful times Dimitrius and I had and would have. I even dreamed of our children. Oh, how beautiful they were! Oh, how full my heart was!
That was three years ago today that we escaped Jonathan’s ship. I didn’t know it then, but the jailbird had been my savior just as much as I had been his. He had sailed us to this island, away from the world, and left without a word. I wanted to thank him, but nothing I could have said would have paid the debt that I felt I owed him. Dimitrius and I were alive thanks to him and we had been able to live a happy life thanks to him. It took Dimitrius a few days to recover from his beating, but once he had he was back to his old self. Well, not entirely himself. He was a little different… humbler in a way. His ship had been destroyed, his crew massacred, he had been on the brink of death heading for execution and through it all he learned a lesson that he never believed in before. That lesson was that life is precious, and without the help of others survival is impossible. After hearing from the jailbird how I had saved his life, he looked at me with more love in his eyes than I had ever thought possible from another human being. We made love often, trying to make a child, but for some reason it still hadn’t happened. I prayed over and over again that it would, but to no avail. I always wondered why it was that God wouldn’t grace me with a child; but the day I spotted sails on the horizon was the day I knew why. They hadn’t stopped hunting us. For three years they continued their search and finally they had found us. I was out in the garden tending to the crops when I spotted Jonathan’s ship. It was a familiar sight. Memories of the first time they caught us popped in to my mind and the same fear I felt that day struck my heart. I rushed inside and began packing our things. Dimitrius was watching me, confused by what I was doing.
“We need to go now!” I said, shoving as many items as I could in to the knapsacks we had.
“What is happening?” He questioned.
“They’ve found us.” I said, still stuffing as much as I could in to the travel bags. “We need to go now or we will not escape.”
Dimitrius stood and walked over to me. He placed his hands gently on my shoulders and shook his head no.
“We are not going anywhere.” He said to me.
“What do you mean?” I asked. “We have to go now! We need to run.”
“I’m tired of running.” He said blatantly, a hint of sadness in his voice. “If we run again, we will be running forever.”
“I don’t care. As long as we can be together, that is all that matters.”
“We will always be together.” He said, taking my face in his palms. “Even in death, we will be together. Our love will outlast this life. If we run now, we will be running away for the rest of our lives. We will never have children that have a home. We will never have a real life together. We will only have a mirage of one.”
“But… if they take us, we will die. They will execute us.”
He knew I was right, but he didn’t seem to care.
“Then we will die by each other and live again in a life that isn’t filled with misery and chaos. I can’t run any longer, Helena. It is time to be brave.”
He extended his hand to me and waited for me to take it. So many things were running through my mind. Was I really going to do this for love? Was I going to turn myself in and go to the gallows? I knew he was right, in a way. If we ran now they would continue hunting us and we would forever be running. I glanced
down at his hand, with tears in my eyes and grasped it tightly. I wasn’t ready for this.
“Don’t be afraid.” He said. “We will get through this, just as we have gotten through everything else. Believe in our love.”
We walked out, hand in hand, on to the cliff that overlooked the ocean below our small cottage and watched as the sails grew closer. I prayed, while standing there watching our end draw near, that this would be the last time I would ever have to see sails breaking the horizon.
Chapter 9
They took us, violently. We remained peaceful. They locked us in a cell across from each other so we couldn’t even touch. My heart was breaking every day, as I looked over and saw him on the other side; Unable to feel his warmth, or kiss his lips. They barely fed us. After what felt like forever, we were finally taken to the dungeons of Sunhaven. They dragged Dimitrius away from me, toward the male prison. I fought and clawed and kicked and screamed to no avail. I cried as I watched them drag him away. Why? Why was this happening to me? Why couldn’t the universe just allow me to love?! What had I done so wrong that love had to keep being taken away from me?! I prayed as they threw me in to the cell. I was alone… again; with nothing but my thoughts for company. I cried myself to sleep two nights in a row. On the third night, I heard the Sunhaven bells ringing. They had just announced our death. In Sunhaven, whenever a decision of execution was made, the bells rang out across the land. People would celebrate the death of the so called wicked. Judged by man, and man alone. I became bitter and angry. I cried with rage and screamed as loud as I could. I felt betrayed. By everyone! By my father, by my friend, by my God! Again, after the anger had dispersed, I cried more. It is only when I heard footsteps making their way down the hall that I wiped my eyes and put on a stone face. I wouldn’t let these slaves see my tears; these people that had no idea what it had meant to be free. I had the chance to taste it. To live the life I always wanted. To love the way I always wanted and to have somebody love me the way I always wanted. If death is the price I had to pay for that then so be it. The footsteps stopped and I was staring at my father. His face sagged more than before I left and his hair had greyed. He looked at me for a moment, recognizing me as little as I recognized him, and then he smiled. I did not return the favor.
Romance: Pummel Me: A Boxing Romance Page 79