Lieutenant Hawkins and the Angel of Death
Chapter Seven
Meanwhile…
After traveling to her family's lakeside manor within the Enchanted Forest for their honeymoon, Princess Angelica and her new husband, Lieutenant Jim Hawkins of the Royal Navy spent the last six days and nights together in marital bliss. Nothing could have made either of them happier. Until the sixth night, while they lay in bed in each other's' arms asleep, King Driscoll's daughter strangely began to dream as an uneasy feeling fell over her. In her mind, she saw her Kingdom falling under siege and of her father crying out in pain. The flashes were brief and when they vanished, the Princess immediately sat up as she gasped awake in utter terror.
Jim wearily sat up beside her upon sensing his wife's distress and hearing her gasp out in fear despite his own exhaustion from being awakened in the middle of the night, then tenderly wrapped his arms around her and asked worryingly, "Angelica… what's wrong? Was it a nightmare?"
The Princess nodded her head and then whispered, "It was horrible. My father… our Kingdom… Jim, I fear something terrible has happened. Or is happening maybe. I don't understand it, but somehow I know my nightmare wasn't just a nightmare. Only… I don't know what it was I saw exactly. Not really."
"All right… just slow down and try to stay calm," her husband answered her gently. "I'm not sure what you saw, or think you saw… but I'm sure it's only just a nightmare. Perhaps your dreams are only playing off of your feelings of insecurities. You've been a little homesick. And it's understandable of course… with how close to your father you are. I know you've tried your best to hide it from me. But I know you, Angel."
"No," she quickly responded with a shake of her head. "I'm telling you, whatever I did see was real. Longbourn is under attack and my father's in trouble. I heard him crying out. We have to go home, Jim. Tonight."
The Lieutenant turned her around to face him more directly while he took her face into his hands, then replied, "It's late… We're due to leave in two days time. If you'll just trust in me and have patience, I'm sure we'll arrive home and find that everything's just fine."
Angelica suddenly stood from the bed after she pulled away from him and cried out, "I can't wait for two days! Someone is going to murder my father!"
"Who?" Jim questioned her in concern when he stood up behind her and continued to try to calm her down. "Who do you think is going to try to kill your father and destroy our Kingdom, Angelica? Who are you so afraid of?"
"I don't know!" the Princess answered him, as she stormed out onto the balcony so she could look beyond the ocean in the direction of her Kingdom. "Okay? I just… I didn't see who it was."
All of a sudden, a stranger appeared within their bedroom behind them as he spoke out saying, "You may not, but I do."
Both of them immediately spun around to face him despite the darkness and the Lieutenant swiftly rushed towards the chair beside his side of the bed where he had left his sword leaning up against it before going to sleep, pulled it from its scabbard, grabbed his wife by her arm to pull her behind him to protect her, and raised his blade high as he shouted sternly, "Who are you? How'd you get in here?"
"Forgive me for this intrusion at such a late hour," the stranger responded, then sat down in another chair across from them, completely unfazed by the soldier's threat. "I promise you, I am no threat to you. In fact… I've come to offer you a deal. My name's Hades, Lord of the Underworld. I could prove it to you. Although one day, I would really like it if for once you mortals wouldn't ask me to. It's so… demeaning."
"You said you know who was attacking my Kingdom?" Angelica curtly replied without bothering to ask the God for any proof of what he spoke. "Please… tell me. Whatever you want…"
Jim sternly interrupted, "Angelica… what are you doing? We don't know who this man really is. He might be telling the truth, but he also might be something else. You can't just make some kind of deal because you're feeling desperate."
Hades rolled his eyes and groaned in frustration, then magicked a golden handled mirror into one of his hands to reveal the truth of what he was saying as he stated, "You can see for yourself that your Kingdom has been invaded by pirates. Just look in the mirror. But if you want to know the whole truth including the name of the man who brought this war on, you will have to do something for me in return. I can't give you something for nothing, you know."
"Why would you leave the Underworld to come here to help us?" Lieutenant Hawkins suspiciously asked him upon being skeptical of this all-powerful being's intentions.
"Because what I want from you, I can't take for myself," the God answered, then magicked a goblet of scotch into his hands to drink before he continued. "Because the Underworld is my domain, I can't harm anyone among the living. But once they're among the dead, I collect their souls. And I want the souls of these pirates winning this war raging on as we speak. I can tell you the means needed to make your enemies pay for however long it takes for you to be able to get your revenge against them. But you must kill them all for me. You will be my emissaries. The Angel of Death and her brave knight. You'll get your revenge and I'll get my souls. And if that hasn't persuaded you, I'll even sweeten the deal and get you back to your Kingdom just in time to be able to save your father."
The Princess eagerly responded, "You have a deal. I'll do what you ask."
However, her husband disagreed with her as he crossly replied to her, "Angelica… you can't. You can't become a murderer. You are a good woman."
"Lieutenant… Hawkins, is it?" Hades began to question him. "Would you not have done whatever you could if you had the chance to save the Captain who you guided you? Protected you? Even loved you like a son? As you loved him like he was your father? Would it interest you to know that one of the men responsible for Silver's death and the death of his crew, is also the one responsible for what's happening now? Because they're one in the same. This man helped incite a mutiny among the crew, then encouraged them to follow his brother's orders which led them straight into the tempest that killed them all, except the two of them."
"We are not killers," the Lieutenant adamantly answered, though there was a part of him who wanted to take Hades up on his deal upon learning what he knew to be the truth behind what really happened to Captain Silver years ago.
Angelica looked into her husband's eyes and she saw his plea in them, then she finally nodded before she turned back to the God of the Underworld again and said quietly, "Jim is right. We are not ruthless killers. We'll make our own way back. One band of pirates no matter what size they are, are hardly strong enough to destroy my father's army and my father is not a weak man. He can and will stay alive, for my sake. And if all you say is true, then we will discover the identity of this pirate captain ourselves and see to it he is brought to justice. The right way."
The God looked between them and asked, "Are you sure you won't reconsider?"
"You heard my wife," Jim responded again, just as adamantly as before. "Our answer is no. We will have justice for Longbourn, not revenge."
"I doubt it," Hades callously replied to them. "Eventually, you will come to see just how wrong you are and will regret not trusting me enough to make a deal with me. Maybe there'll be another opportunity for us to work together. Goodbye for now. I'm pretty certain I will be seeing you again soon enough."
