6 of 6
July 21, 2009
It seemed like no longer than a few seconds when Evi woke to the familiar swaying of the Immortal on the open sea. What was normally a familiar and welcome rock, was enough now to make her sick. And it did. Lurching upward off the cot, she rolled over one side and let loose what little was left in her stomach onto the cabin floor. The nausea was intense and unfortunately didn't alleviate once she'd dispersed what she'd eaten. Her brain pounded angrily against the inside of her skull. She moaned as she sat upright and away from the smell of her own vomit. It would take a while to regain her sea legs after this hangover.
"Kitts! Thought you'd deserted on us." Laughed a deep pounding voice from somewhere in the general direction of the door. Evi should have guessed that Falkes would come down to see her and make her miserable. Evi and Falkes were good friends, if you could call them that, and his resounding bass was absolutely beating her brain against the inside of her head. She hissed painfully.
"Ugh…not so loud." She waved her hand at him to quiet him, but he yanked her standing by her outstretched arm and hugged her jovially with a hard slap on the back. She had always been able to think of him as an overenthusiastic labrador. He knocked the wind out of her lungs with an audible wheeze, and went on ranting about her not being there to see his newest furnace for the blacksmith's quarters he had acquired. Rommel Falkes was a simple-minded man by many standards, but when it came to carpentry, the man was an absolute genius. It was interesting to watch him switch back and forth between complete understanding and obliviousness when someone changed the subject on him.
"Alright. I think she's had enough visitors for today." Said Blitz as he walked into the small cabin, seemingly stern when juxtaposed against Falkes. It was comical in a way. Falkes simply looked confused.
"But I've been the only one."
"Fortunately." Evi wheezed out, holding her hands to either side of her head in a futile attempt to make the pounding stop. Blitz smirked as he slapped Falkes across the back of his large mountain of a shoulder.
"Let's let our littlest crewman get some rest before we throw her to sharks tomorrow hm?" he joked. Falkes laughed at the 'littlest crewman' bit and stalked off rumbling with deep cavernous laughter. Evi would have made a characteristic smart-ass comment, but the booming vibrato of Falkes was enough to make her eyes cross and her jaw lock in place. She groaned -but that hurt too- and so she stopped and simply stood as still as she could, having trouble keeping her balance in the rocking cabin. Blitz took her by the elbow, gripping a little bit harder than was truly necessary, and led her to the door of the makeshift infirmary.
"Where are we going?" Evi snapped, her ears throbbing painfully as she fought his grip. It just made him squeeze tighter. It was beginning to hurt. Evi jerked harder, her body not really capable of putting up much of a fight at the moment. Blitz tugged her harshly into his captain's quarters and shoved her down into a wooden chair that was bolted to the plank flooring. Evi started to try to stand again, but her swimming head and Blitz's sudden forceful downward push on her shoulder kept her firmly planted in the uncomfortable seat. "Stop you ass!" she hissed over the ringing in her ears. The door slammed behind her with a loud slap. Blitz paced around her chair and sat across from her in a slightly more decorated chair on the other side of the desk. She had only just noticed it's ornately carved bevels and iron lion paw legs. It screamed antique, no matter how pristine Blitz kept it. He leaned forward, glaring at her with his cerulean striking eyes. She hated when he did that. Even on her best days she had trouble staring him down, and today was a no contest. She looked away from them immediately but played it off as an annoyed eye roll, and pretended to be very interested in the porthole view across the cabin.
"You have to start telling me the truth Evilyn." Blitz broke the silence with an exasperated sigh.
"Don't call me that." Was her automated response. Only her father ever called her that, and even with him gone, it would stay that way.
"I can't help you if you don't trust me." The leather of his chair stretched as he leaned back into it, taking a more comfortable stance. He was settling in for this to be a long conversation. Great.
"Why should I trust you?" she said, playing a touche to his posture. She propped both legs up on one arm of the chair, and let her back arch over the other in a disinterested gesture that made her temples pound in protest. Her stomach lurched a little, but she held her composure. She had nothing left to vomit, so at this point it would just be pointless and painful to heave. "And I don't need your help." She added stubbornly, staring at the ceiling with her mouth hanging open.
"Don't be such a child. It's time you took some responsibility for yourself."
"You're not my fucking father, so stop acting like it."
"There are people on this ship that would have you marooned." He said plainly, intentionally delivering it as a threat. "Or worse." This was nothing new. Evi was well aware of the pirates who didn't want her around. She dealt with them more often than she would ever tell Blitz. He would kill people over the things she'd had to put up with in his absences.
"Tell them to cock the hammer and pull the trigger then." She droned, completely unfazed. "I'm not afraid."
"It's high time you adopted a healthy amount of fear. Caution." He seethed, his icy eyes narrowing as he stood from his chair slowly. For the first time in a long time, Evi tensed her shoulders in reaction to him. It wasn't often that he disrupted her in such a way, but something about him was different now. She sat up, swinging her legs back to the front of the chair in what would have been a casual gesture.
"Yes well as thrilling as all that sounds, I think I'll just head back to the infirmary until whatever the fuck it was that you gave me gets the fuck out of my system." She spat, standing and putting some distance between them as Blitz slowly rounded the desk to leave nothing but air between them. This was getting dangerous and she could feel his tension in the air, but she had never had reason to fear anything from Blitz before. Now, that healthy amount of fear was creeping into her throat like a snake. The only thing she knew how to do was to act like she wasn't afraid. It was all she had ever done. Blitz thought she was never scared? Oh she was scared all the time. But Evi had just mastered the art of concealing it. There was too much she hid from him to ever be truly honest with him about anything. She turned her back on him with much deliberance and headed slowly towards the door so it didn't seem like she was running.
"Kitts. You will respect your commanding officer. Turn around." The words were blatantly and order. She paused just a foot from the door. She couldn't really run from him. Not on the open sea. Yes, she could get high in the riggings, but he was a sure shot, and even if he didn't shoot her, outrunning the entire crew would be impossible. Her hand twitched, wanting to reach for the door, but she didn't turn around.
"This is my ship. Not yours." She mumbled, knowing he would hear, but fearing to say it too loudly. She glanced over her shoulder. He leaned against the desk, his arms folded across his chest. It might have seemed casual, but Evi knew better. The glare in his eyes told her differently.
"I am the captain. This is my ship, and you will obey your captain." His tone implied the 'or else' that didn't pass his perfect lips. Evi reached for the door, but her arm was wrenched behind her before she could turn the knob. Blitz pressed her body between his and the door, holding her arm firmly locked behind her back and pressing his face close to her ear.
"You will learn…" Evi fought in reaction. She'd been in this position too many times to not know how to defend herself. Blitz had never laid a hand on her, and her mind was racing as she pushed away from the doorframe with her legs, creating enough space to twist and throw a free elbow into his gut. He grunted, but was mostly unfazed by her feeble counter. He postured his frame, and with his grip still firm on her wrist, swung a hard backhand, striking her across the cheek with enough force to knock her off to one side. Evi's head jerked as the blow completely blindsided and disoriented her. He threw her to the floor and mounted her before she could regain her senses completely. He wrapped his fingers around her throat and squeezed lightly. It wasn't enough to choke her by a long shot, but the uncomfortable pressure on her windpipe and his weight on her torso was enough to render her immobile and very painfully aware of where she stood in the line of command. She panted, trying to catch her breath as she looked up at him wide-eyed. Her surprise turned quickly to defiance though as she caught the look of anger and loathing in his eyes. What had changed in him she would never know, but she was beyond caring. Men were prone to violence. People couldn't be trusted. She was stupid for having thought differently of him.
"Kill me if you fucking want to, but I'm not giving into you or anybody else." She growled, her lips curling back over her teeth in an animalistic sneer. Her body was heating up, her head was throbbing, and she wasn't sure if her arm was functioning properly. She couldn't feel or move it, pinned to the wooden floor underneath his leg.
"Kill you?" he sneered, more a statement than an actual question. He seemed robotic; like he was being operated by some remote controller. His striking glare scanned her face, analyzing her expression. "You have a lot to learn about punishment Kitts." His lips curled back to mimic her face, and he raised his free hand as if he were going to backhand her again. Her instincts told her to fight it and move out of the way, but her stubborn human nature made her stare angrily back into his gaze without blinking, letting him know she wasn't afraid of him. Truthfully, any other crewman wouldn't have scared her. She was far too accustomed to beatings from them. But Blitz was an entirely different story. He terrified her with his harsh eyes and harsher blows.
"Punishment?" she laughed a hollow sounding single syllable. "As if there could be anything else you could possibly teach me." Blitz flinched visibly, clearly affronted by what she'd said. His grip around her throat tightened and his jaw set angrily. Evi glared steadily back at him, her blue eyes darker and more calm than his own lightning colored irises. His grip became tighter and tighter gradually, though he seemed not to notice. Evi ignored it stubbornly until it grew beyond an uncomfortable inconvenience. Her body tensed as her lungs tried to expand for the air his fingers deprived her of. Instinctively she coughed as her free hand grasped his wrist in an intense and irrational urge to fight. It was nearly uncontrollable and fiercely prominent in the forefront of her mind, no matter how she tried to force it away. The ringing in her ears grew louder and her perception of events became slightly warped. She looked up into his eyes, furrowing her brow and wondering if this man with Cerulean eyes would be the end of her. Would Blitz – who had protected her against her wishes and hawked over her every move – be the one to free her from this life? Part of her wanted him to squeeze harder and to make it quicker, but the other half of her fought violently to bring the breath of life back into her failing lungs. Her mind's torn indecisiveness rocked her heart uneasily.
Somehow in that moment, trying to say please with words that would not escape her lips, his face changed. His furrowed brows arched back in a shocked kind of expression that clashed oddly with his locked jaw and striking eyes. It could best be described as confusion or horror, but before she could discern between the two, he stood, releasing his deathly grip on her neck in a sharp jerky motion. Evi rolled to one side, bringing her hands to her throat and her knees to her chest, coughing, gasping and hacking. The air was salty and dirty, but it surged through her lungs like fire, warming her frozen chest and awakening her long-ignored hunger for life. Blitz stood over her, glaring down at her, his broad chest rising and falling as if he himself were having trouble breathing.
For a long minute there was silence, broken only at first by their heavy breaths. Evi did not look up at Blitz as he stared down at her, standing at her feet. She still held one hand to her throat and glued her hard gaze to a knot in the cabin wall, purposefully ignoring Blitz's hard stare penetrating the small of her back. Tattoed on the backside of her right hip was a small but noticeable butterfly. It's wings were deep blue fringed with gold, and within them, thin streaks of white veins. It was captured mid-flight, fluttering away on some imaginary breeze. Blitz stared hard at it, his gaze captured and held there as complete isolating silence blanketed the cabin. The sea was oddly calm, as not even the rocking of the ship disturbed them now. He opened his mouth as if he would say something, but for once, anything appropriate to say had escaped him. There was no order for an apology, and anything else would be extraordinarily out of place. Evi stayed on the floor, her mind flooding with thoughts and questions. She was at his mercy. What had just happened? He could have killed her, but he didn't. A warning perhaps?
The tension in the room could only be described as smothering, as both tried desperately to figure out what to do next. With no words to be said, Blitz had come to a wall. He straightened his posture, as if he had simply found himself slouching, and smoothed his shirt. The noise of his motion forced Evi's eyes to gaze over her shoulder at his feet. Not even divine will could force her to meet his eyes. He paused for a few seconds to gaze down at her face, trying to read to the emotion written there. He found exactly what he was afraid he might: total unfazed defiance and loathing. He had seen that look before, but having it directed at him made the muscles in his chest tighten and burn. Before he could gasp for the air that had been taken from him once more, he turned abruptly and left. He shut the door quietly behind him, as if he were trying not to wake an infant from sleeping. Once on the other side of the door, his shoulders slumped and his hand raked through his hair in frustrated tension and agony. Why must she complicate everything? He growled and marched down the corridor and up to the main deck once more.
As soon as he reached the sunlight, he looked to his side where a crewman sat taking a break near the side rail.
"Do you think this is a cruise ship Mr. Pitley?!" The man had no time to answer before Blitz shouted again, his jaw pulsing with the intensity of expression. Every muscle in his body was poised to draw his talwar and slice the man so quickly that his intestines would decorate the main deck and thick red blood stain the wood. "Perhaps when you're done sunning yourself you can climb up and fix the goddamn riggings on the goddamn mainsail!" The man had shot up terrified before Blitz could even finish his order. The portly crewman was halfway up the rope ladder by the time Blitz had stopped to breathe. It was arguable whether he had been running or anticipating the order in the first place.