BLACK BUTTERFLY
Chapter 1
Cracked and dry, pale pink lips, parted in effort to release a chocking gasping sound as the struggle to draw in the first breath begins. The lungs strain to grasp a single breath, as the feeling of fullness overpowers their duty. It was as if the sacks of air had been replaced and filled with water instead; sending a soft but dangerous chocking coughs to erupt.
A physical force, as fast as an electric shock and as deadly as a bite, flushes throughout the stiff limbs causing a painfully ache to break through. Muscles strain with effort to move, getting a single twitch of a set of fingers as a response. Another heavy breath is drawn before long, dark and delicate eyelashes flutter, once or twice to grasp an idea of the surrounding.
At first its sight was filled with nothing but blur, like a smudge of colours blending together on an artists painting. But a few more single blinks allowed the sea green orbs to adjust to the light, and see everything clearly.
Lying still, on the scratching surface of what felt like grass, the eyes moved from left to right, examining every aspect held before them. Trees stretched tall enough to reach the sky, urrounded with flower like vines and other blooming plants. The sound of the birds chirping fluttered in amongst a cool breeze, along with a single white butterfly. Large leaves on strong and thick steams arched into the crystal blue sky. They were large enough to be trees, yet strangely they were not. The humming of crickets and other interesting and peculiar insects drifted into sound here and there, along with the smooth sound of running water. It was all clearly a sight worth seeing.
"Heaven?" The fragile lips questioned softly, before its owner began to stir and force its stiff yet softening muscles to move. A moment or twos struggle went by before it sat itself up with effort. Muscles clenched and strained to maintain its position, as they fought to feel, once again, the feeling of life in them.
A long main of waist length, dark, velvet silk hair, framed a small angelic face, one or two strands curling into a small fringe resting just above eye level. The large yet warm sea green eyes looked from left to right once more, with still the same questioning puzzle. Was this heaven? ' It asked itself mentally, trying to recall how this place surrounding it had come to be.
"Am I dead?" The delicate lips questioned softly, once more glancing around at its surroundings. This time, the eyes looked down upon itself to notice an aspect that struck the heart and mind like an arrow full of the poison; memory. It was wearing the same pale blue night-gown at a length that reached just above the ankles, and it's feet were bare as it remembered- so were the sleeves to the gown that had been rolled up to the elbow. However the main important sight to behold was the reason why this must have all come about. From the tip of the wrist to the beginning of the elbow sat dark and dried rivers of blood. A slit sat on each arm; 4 inches give or take in length, which had been suspected to have stopped bleeding due to blockage the dried blood had made on the wounds.
Everything had come clear on the sight. They were self inflicted, done of purpose to end a suffering that had been burdened and condemned to her. She began to remember the last scene she saw in before she woke up here; the scene of taking her own life as she shed tear after tear- piece after piece- of her soul, knowing little that her attempt at death would bring her here to such a strange and abandoned forest. No, this was not heaven, not when she could see the damaged she had caused to her own wrists.
Moaning, in fear and pain, she forced her still stiff limbs to stand. The back of her blood covered hand wiped away a few tears that had escaped with the memory of it all, before she turned around and tried to understand why she had awoken up here, in this place. Whimpering, she forced her bare feet to walk on the rock and soil ground, pushing aside branch after branch, trying to find a sign of anyone else she could turn to.
Her hands were shaking with her every move, not only representing, but clearly outlining her fear and uneasiness of the place she was in. Was this hell? Was this the place all those that take their own lives went to?' She began to doubtfully question.
But sadly there was no answer. Just the tearing of her gown that sometimes seemed to have gotten caught on the tree branches, and the sharp stinging pain of the scratching being inflicted on her skin with every move. Another whimper escaped her as she stumbled and fell to the ground, landing hard on her elbows and scraping more
skin, this time along her knees.
A soft yet loud cry of pain left her fragile lips as tear after tear began to stream down her cheeks. She was scared. So very scared at her surroundings and what could happen to her now. It may appear to be stranger, for she wasn't scared enough to take her own life. But at least she thought she had a guarantee that she was going to die quickly, rather then now she was going to die slowly and painfully, full of fear and wonder as to where she was.
Whimpering once more, her fingers dug into the soil, clenching a fist full of dirt as an attempt to be rid of her pain. She would have done more if it wasn't for the loud and masculine voice of a man to drift towards her ears with the wind.
Her head snapped up towards the direction it had come from with a spark of hope lighting in her heart. Quickly she scrambled to her feet and stumbled towards the voice, catching herself on a tree before she lost her balance and fell again. Swallowing a lump in her throat, she forced another breath into her lungs before peering over a bush to
see who the voice had belonged to.
A rather large, bald man, full of tattoo's on his arms, a sword strapped around his belt and a red bandana on his head stood tall with his back towards her. He was calling out to a bunch of men that stood about on the sand ten meters away from her, lifting crates onto small rowing boats.
Describing the precise feeling of relief she felt wash through her veins, is more than what words could express. The feeling of joy was so overwhelming that she couldn't help but laugh a broken sound; a mixture of crying and laughing in one. Steading herself on the tree for a brief moment or two she pushed herself forward to walk through the bushes and stand directly behind the man.
"Help Me!" She cried, her voice breaking enough to swallow the 'me' sound.
The man quickly turned to face her, un-sheathing his sword to hold it up into an attacking state. He growled, allowing his dark and cruel eyes to run over her body in an assessing manner.
"Well, well. What do we have ere?" He cackled motioning his sword forward to touch the tip of her neck. "A pretty li'le girl..." He sneered, sending a cold shiver to run down her spine.
She gasped at the feeling of the cold sharp tip of the blade just touching her warm yet fragile skin. Her body began to quiver as she watched the man with nothing but fear. He called over his shoulder to the men at shore behind him, who instantly dropped the crates and came running towards them, swords held high in their hands ready for a fight.
"Please..." she whimpered in a sound that could barely be heard as she took a small step back and away from the man holding her with his sword. She would have turned and bolted and have been long and gone if it wasn't for the sword held against her in such a manner.
" Ello girly!" Another vicious man beamed, grinning wide enough to reveal that most of his teeth were missing aside from three of the front ones.
"Oh... Ye look yum enough to eat!" Another commented.
In a matter of seconds she was surrounded by dirty and rotten men, who were foul and filthy to stare upon, and cold and cruel in manner. Out of fear she held back the bile that had risen in her throat from their stench, their appearance and most of all the disturbing glitter in their eyes that took not even a fool to know what it meant.
"Me first!" One shouted, " I aven't had somethin' other than a savage benea' me for years!"
"I found er," the man she first encountered snapped. "I go first!"
"What in the devils hell is going on here, you WORTHLESS PACK OF MAGGOTS!" A firm and cruel voice cut through the argument. The men seemed to have frozen at it's sound, and the sword that was being held towards her began to quiver lightly.
One by one, each man dogged or was flung to the side as a tall and domineering being made it's way through the crowed. The dark black hat containing a feather, forced a path to form between its feet before it came to stand beside the first man she encountered.
Glancing around, she noticed that the men had straightened, and seemed to have become stiff and tensed with fear.
"Perhaps you'd care to elaborate on the situation, Manson? Mmm..."
Every possible colour that was found on the mans face seemed to have evaporated and disappeared. He lowered his sword away from the girl, dropping it to the sand at his feet.
"N...n...nothing... Cap'n!" He stuttered.
"Really? Nothing?" The feather hatted man mocked.
A tight smile formed across Manson's lips for only a brief second before it faded away due to sharp steal object being held in front of him. The point of what appeared to be a hook barely touched the tip of his nose.
"My Hook tells me you are lying..." He hissed.
"I...I ...f...f... found er Cap'n." he stuttered swallowing hard. "S...s...s...she was spyin' on us!"
As quickly as the hook came into view it disappeared to rest back beside the tall figure. The black rich material embroidered with gold, turned to look down at her in a glare.
"Who are you?" He demanded coldly.
The girl was too afraid to reply. All she could do was shack and shiver in fear.
"Are you a spy?" He asked again, with the same ice cold voice as his vicious and piercing blue eyes narrowed.
Still no reply left her trembling lips.
"Answer me?" He shouted, a little louder and crueller.
Still nothing changed. Her lips remained sealed and her voice remained speechless.
"Well, have it your way." He sneered before un sheathing his swords. "I'll just have to kill you!" He raised the sword into the air and prepared it to descend down upon her.
She held her arms in the air, in front of her body as if to stop the blow from hitting her face. Her eyes squeezed tightly shut. But the movement gave the men and the Captain a clear sight at the blood staining the underside of her arms.
"My God," a mans voice cried, through the hissing of disbelief from others. As for the Captain that was threatening to kill her, he did nothing but slowly lower the sword and stare at her with a cool expressionless face. If he was feeling something towards her wounds, he showed no sign of it.
Even though the domineering man showed no signs of attacking her, she still maintained her position, arms held in-front of her face and eyes tightly shut. When nothing came after a whiles wait, her eyes snapped open in the next moment carrying nothing but shock to not have felt the sword met its destination. Instead of seeing the metal slice through her she saw the Captains cloak flutter gently as he knelt to her eye level. For the first time her sea green orbs met his eyes. Their blue depths had somehow softened, sending her mind into yet another spiral of confusion. "You're injured," he said in a tone strangely tender that it sounded out of place when you were to gaze at his physical build.
Slowly his arm reach out to touch her, but the sudden movement only sent her scattering away from him like a crab. A small yelp left her lips as her shuffling came to end once her back hit the trunk of a tree. Yet still she struggled to move further away in a manner that indicated she was waiting for the tree to swallow her and make the men disappear.
"Easy there my lady. If I wanted to kill you I would have already done it so." The Captain spoke. He held out his black leathered glove hand, extending it as a polite invitation manner. "You are injured," He repeated before commanding, "Let me look at it."
Swallowing the lump in her throat the girl shook her head furiously; daring not to utter a single word, for her fear had eaten her voice. She tucked her hands closer to her body, refusing to obey the frightening stranger. How could he go from threatening to kill her to wanting to help her so quickly?
"BLAST IT GIRL!" He suddenly shouted, extending his hand out to her again with more aggression. "My patients is not endless!"
She jumped at his voice, pushing herself closer to the tree.
Noticing her reaction, the Captain silently cursed himself before forcing his lips to form the closet thing he could get to a warm smile. "I gave you my word..." He spoke, slower and less cruel than he had ever spoken before- especially in front of his men. "Give me your hand..." He beckoned. "Please..." The word managed to wedge itself through his tightly clenched lips. After all he was no man that gave into people in such a manner. Who on earth needed please when all he simply had to do was take? The please' sounded out of place coming from him. However it managed to allow progress.
Slowly and hesitantly the girl reached out her hand and placed her fingers into his large palm.
As soon as her skin came in contact with his glove the Captain quickly closed his fingers around her wrist and jerked her into his arms. Muffling the closest sound she could make as a scream, the girl landed hard against the Captain's body. His hooked arm was thrown around her waist, holding her tightly to him as his hand twisted her arm back enough to give him the view of the damage.
Her heart suddenly began to hammer against her chest strongly at the closeness of his body next to hers. The way his arms held her in such a domineering manner became to cause the most disturbing memories in her past to arise. Her breath began to come in heavy pants as she watched the way his expression changed with every twist and turn he gave her arm.
"When did you do this?" He demanded harshly as his finger ran slowly over the gash.
Her reply was nothing but another muffled cry and a small tug to free her arm from him.
"Sit still..." he whispered as he continued to closely examine the self inflicted wound.
Sit still? Alas, how could she do such a thing? Did he not know how scared she was.
"Sit still" his voice came again, more demanding then before.
Suddenly, panic washed over her before she drew in a hissing breath of pain. The Captains touch had caused the wound to start bleeding again. Whimpering with fear she began to furiously tug at her away, trying with all her strength to pull free from the man. But it seemed he would not have it.
"BLAST IT GIRL...I said sit still!" The Captain yelled as he lost his patients, out of pure reflex his hook came up to rest against her throat sharply, implying the most terrifying message of all. One sudden move out of line and he would slit it.
That bold move was all it took to still her. Her body instantly went limp in his arms, collapsing against his chest that she had tried to avoid touching before. Without looking down at her, the Captain knew, she had fainted.
