Chapter 5
The lone candle struggled in the darkness, barely able to illuminate his rushed movements. The rucksack was full beyond capacity but still he attempted to stuff it.
He cursed beneath his breath, brushing away a stray hair from his eyes. He needed to hurry. The ship would be ready by sunup.
Silently shuffling across the room, he gathered his boots and jacket, attempting in vain not to disturb the sleeping form beside him.
"Leland?" her eyes blinked open in the candle light. A thing of beauty.
Gods she was an angel.
"Leland, what are you doing?"
"I'm sorry Sarah. I have to go. I don't have the time…"
He moved, barely allowing himself the chance to kiss her.
"I don't have a moment to spare. Please don't get out of bed."
It was too late, she was already up. Her legs came out of the covers as she pulled herself from the bed.
"Why? What's wrong? Where are you going?"
Her face was one of panic and he didn't blame her. He was leaving… again.
"Sarah, its Swann, he needs me again. He's…" Leland Hawkins licked his cracked lips. "He's in trouble again."
"What? What sort of trouble? Leland. You just came home. You promised this would be the last time."
He said nothing, merely shoving a foot into a shoe.
She was beginning to get hysterical now.
"Leland. You promised! No more! You can't leave again. What about Jim? He needs you. I need you. I can't…" She couldn't breathe. "I can't do it alone."
"Sarah." He stood, grabbing her by the shoulders… cupping her chin. "Sarah, just this once. Just a few more months and it will all be over. I promise."
He went to kiss her but she looked away, a face wet with tears.
"No Leland, you won't be back."
How could he look at her? This heart breaking in front of him.
Gods she was an angel.
A siren sent to haunt him from the very depths of space.
"I love you Sarah Hawkins."
He left her to stand in her misery.
Her shadow swept across the room, stopping only short of the sleeping lad in his bed. She gave a half smirk almost amused by the Human creature that snored loudly on his bed. Soft skinned yet taut in shape, he looked barely out of adolescence. A head of mop-like hair hung over his face only to be contrasted by the light coating of stubble that covered parts of his cheeks and chin. An arm half hung over the side of the bed where there, in his hand he held the very item she had spent those many years looking for.
The map…
And all she had to do was reach out and…
A stir of the boy made Elizabeth jump, pulling back as he turned, flopping over onto his stomach.
Silence lingered, Elizabeth remaining frozen in the darkness over his bed.
But the Human merely gave a sigh, muttering beneath his breath before falling back to sleep.
The blue demon could only curse, for, in his stir, the blasted boy had taken the map with him. She watched where it now lay beneath the masses of his form. It couldn't have been comfortable… but the boy's sleep seemed deep enough for him not to notice.
A hand was under his pillow, the other still holding the item protectively beneath him.
This would prove to be a little more complicated than a simple snatch.
Elizabeth gave a squint, fingering the gun at her side. Patience, unfortunately, was not one of her virtues.
Flicking the gun from her belt, Elizabeth set the charge. Its hum ringing silently throughout the bedroom, she hardly thought something as this would disturb such a sound sleeper.
But she was to be sadly mistaken as she approached the bed again.
Elizabeth didn't even see the hand tighten from beneath the Human's pillow.
The only touch he got to feel on his back was the gun's barrel before suddenly, and in a great flurry of sheets and blankets the boy flipped around. Two feet pelted the pirate in the chest, sending her staggering backwards over a chair. She could only give a cry of startle as caught completely off guard her gun was batted from her fingers.
Elizabeth dove for the floor after it, only to find herself facing the wrong end of a barrel.
"Don't… move!"
The boy stood, legs apart and ready to fight.
Crouched on the floor, Elizabeth stared back into the gun's barrel, only inches from her head… stared into the face of the boy more agile than she had originally anticipated.
"Leland!" Her first reaction was made by instinct, but quickly covered over with a slow raise to her feet.
"Or you'll what? Master Hawkins?"
The daughter of Flint gave him the raise of an eyebrow.
"Or you'll shoot me?" her grin was dangerous but the boy's face was determined… unwavering.
"You're a pirate, what do you want?"
"I want what's mine, I want my map."
The boy stared down at the ball in his hands, then back to the pirate.
"Alright, it's yours." He threw it her way to which the Pirate caught it with glee.
He let her toy with the sphere for a moment before a frustrated growl escaped her jaw.
"It's a fake you know."
Two fiery, orange eyes snapped back onto the boy with the gun.
He waved it, seemingly innocently.
"Don't you know? The real one was destroyed along with treasure planet almost six years ago."
"What?" came her response, low toned and dangerous, Elizabeth dropped the sphere.
"Where is my treasure, boy?"
Jim Hawkins backed up defensively, his gun finding its way back at the pirate's head. But it really didn't bother her, especially so as she ripped the second one from her coat.
"What did you do with my Treasure?!"
The boy couldn't contain the gasp that escaped his lungs, he backed up immediately.
Tumbling back into his own bedside table. The pirate advanced, pressing the pistol deep into the skin of his forehead.
"You don't want to tell me it is all gone, Master Hawkins. Trust me, you really don't want to do that."
Meanwhile, elsewhere in the house life of another sort was stirring.
Flint's Bio-Electronic-Navigator- BEN had finished his nightly regeneration cycle. The android's eyes 'blinked' awake with the flash of a yellow beam. He gave a somewhat noisy yawn before proceeding with his morning yoga session- to get those old gears running.
There was something different about this morning however... something he was supposed to remember…
BEN hummed in thought, retracing his steps around the kitchen in attempt to boot up the old memory files.
"Wake up, stretch… oil change?..no….Wake up…. Mrs Hawkins!...Wait no not not that either. Argh! BEN!" He racked his old mind, feeling the gears clunking around in his head before all at once the droid exploded in a frenzy of excited energy.
"WAKE UP JIM!"
BEN smiled, clapping his hands together. He headed up the stairs to Jim's old bedroom.
"WAKE UP JIM!"
BEN sounded the alarm in his loudest voice as he swung the door open to his old bedroom.
"ITS TIME TO…. AHHHHH!"
What greeted him there was not at all what he expected.
The blue demon spun, her gun swivelling in his direction.
"AHHH!" the droid screamed again.
His first instinct was to dive into the arms of his new master but this seemed impossible as the pirate stood in his way.
BEN could only shutter, the memory chip flying into overload
"ELIZABETH!" He screeched. "Wha….What… what are you doing here?"
To which he was followed up by a unison.
"Android?"
"BEN, you know her?"
The android couldn't take his eyes off the familiar face, and especially off that familiar gun. Oh boy was he in trouble.
"Oh! Elizabeth! How long has it been? Why you don't look a day over seventy!"
"Quiet BEN. Now tell me, what are you doing here?"
The driod's mouth snapped shut.
"Oh…umm…"
"Wait a minute." Jim was almost forgotten amongst the confusion.
"Do I know you?"
Elizabeth's stare turned back on the Human, her voice only interrupted by the realisation that suddenly dawned in his eyes.
"The Elizabeth? As in the Daughter of Nathaniel Flint?" He didn't seem to believe his own words. "But you would have to be… at least a hundred years old."
"A hundred and twenty, half wit."
Elizabeth's growl was quick and full of frustration as her gun found its home back on Jim's skull.
"And I am going to get my treasure, even if I have to skin you and bleed it from your very veins, Master Hawkins."