Chapter summery: Something is wrong with Lyall. She hopes t Victor doesn't find out, and that when they get to Australia it will fade. Somethings just never go her way.
Notes: Right. I've become one of those idiot people who lost their usb sticks without backing up any files and the two unpublished chapters on it got lost. Yay for me. Lucky for you lot I've finished school and is already bored to snorts dispite it only being the second day. Wow, now I understand why stories are always updated on holidays.
Thank you, as always, for reading.
[()]
Australia. We were finally going. Amy's motherland was so close yet so far. Victor and I would be boarding the first ship to Australia in a few weeks' time, and I could feel Amy vibrating from happiness. Victor had more than once commented on my chirpy mood ever since we had agreed to go to Australia.
Today we started the trek to the nearest port and had to stay at a dingy hotel overnight as the ship would leave tomorrow. The reason why I bring this up is... many.
To save money, because god was the shipping fee to Australia expensive, we had rented a one-bed room and Victor promptly went off to get some beers (which were actually pretty good) and I stared at myself in the mirror.
This might come to a shock to those who knew me in the army, but I was wearing a dress, and an ankle length dress even. It didn't have the bustle or the loops spreading out, just a simple corset, some fabric as the skirt and a little shawl to cover my shoulders. The whole thing was black and silver, as the gloomy feel all of Victorian London held seemed to make everyone grumpy, even me, and to blend in as that was the fashion (for severalyears. Does Queen Victoria really love her husband to morn over decades?).
I try to imagine Amy standing there in her awkward clothes and pants, more often only her underwear and bra, and gently push her presence to the 'front' of my mind. Slowly the slumbering soul of who I once was stretches and blinks my eyes.
Amy looks around and spots the double bed in the corner. She stumbles over and collapses, still in view of the mirror. Her face is slack, like she's stoned, eyes addled and movement is dulled like she's walking through water. Closing her eyes she
and like a rubber band, I'm snapped back into control. Amy slinks back into the back of my mind, far too exhausted to express anything. That wasn't the first time I've tried to do it, but this was the first time it worked.
Victor walks in with five mugs of beer in each hand. I'm so excited by my achievement I nearly tell him. I bounce over and remember just as I'm about to open my mouth. Victor holds out his left hand and I take the five mugs and set them on the table in the middle of our room, throwing back one immediately.
"What's got you so worked up?" he asks and I refuse to reply. Victor gives me a glance but sips at his beer too.
Later we're lying on the bed. This is were it gets weird; for the first second I'm functioning fine. Next - I'm out like a light. When I wake up, I freak out when I go over the night. Normally I hate sleeping because I am aware that I am asleep and yet my brain is still active. I am forced to lie there with the look of sleeping yet I'm still thinking about the day or the night or the most recent fight (and kill).
The night passed in the blink of an eye. I know when to freak out for the bad things, and this was a good time to go nuts over the fact my healing factor was not working.
It continued until around 12:30pm, my feet getting sore from walking for so long, my back aching from the heavy clothes and the bag I had to carry. The cold was seeping into my bones and I was about to shiver from the cold (it was almost bad as Canada) until suddenly everything was fine and I was ready and raring to go.
Whatever had stopped my healing factor was destroyed and it was all fine again. Thank fucking god.
The morning scare threw me back to the end of the Civil War. The third party arrows and the wound not healing until abruptly seconds later. Was this linked? It most certainly had to be. Whatever it was I hoped I could hunt it down and kill it. Without Victor's knowledge, I refuse to get him into this.
However, it was time to start getting to Australia. Hopefully there this enemy cannot reach me and poison me.
[x]
"They say the trip out on the sea brings strange things aboard." Rainard, the ship's first mate, whispers mysteriously in German as the rope in his hands does strange things and did something to the sails. Obviously I'm not exactly a ship person. "Fire appearing in rainstorms. Water rising out of the glass in water flat as a phonograph disc."
"Mutant?" I lean into Victor as Rainard continues his tales. I feel Victor nod through his shoulder I'm leaning on. I don't think that is standard Victorian etiquette, judging by the looks. "Rainard, I don't believe you. But I am interested. Do you know anyone that can give me proof?" The first mate beamed and a barrel of German came spewing out of his mouth. It was too fast for me to understand but a few words.
"Marc is the one... always blabbering about it... captain of Lilly Marian... taking off to Australia... better hurry..." he goes on and on, finally stopping to stare at me expectantly.
"Yay?"I cough when he still stares. "I mean, I hope that what he speaks of is true as the the sun rising." I'm sure that's how they talk. Right? Rainard dips his head in goodbye and returns to the ropes hanging down from the sails.
"Weird man," Victor grumbles in my ear. "He's lying, I'm sure of it. Not in the way you'd expect - like he's not telling everything and lying about all the stuff we don't care about. I'm not sure how to express it."
"Damn, should've known he wasn't 'true as the rising sun.'" I give a little laugh at my expression. Victor grins and I can see some other passengers nearly pee their pants at the sight. "I thought it was good, thank you very much! Was it pommy enough for these lot?"
"I thought it was good enough." Victor replies, accepting my hug when I hold out my arms to him. "What do you think of this Marc guy?"
"We shall find out when the sun rises." I say in a mystical voice, light and airy. My brother and I promptly burst into grins. This was never gonna be forgotten.
[x]
The Lilly Marian sat in the dark, white sails tied up and captain's cabin's lights out. It was a stark difference to the boats and ships all around her, each glowing with lights and full of boisterous laughter. A lone homeless boy sat in front of the ship, staring up at the stars behind it.
"Excuse me," I say, snuggling down beside him. "Do you know where the captain of this ship is?"
"I don't understand you." he mutters, not bothering to turn to me. It's Greek, a language I enjoyed learning because I could understand my own language better. I let us sit for a while before I repeat the question in Greek.
Now he turned to me surprised. He looked at me suspiciously, picking out that I am still not used to these clothes even though I have been wearing them for years now.
"You are not English or American. What are you? What is that accent?" he fires his questions, one after the other. It takes sometime before I decide on an answer.
"It is Australian, Japanese, Canadian and American all at once. What you're hearing the most is the Australian slang."
"That is one weird accent."
"You speak weird for a supposed homeless boy." All he does is turn back to the ship. "But you don't have to tell me anything. We've all got our sob stories. I suggest selling the jewelry and expensive soap; that's how you tell the difference between the poor and rich."
"Marc disappeared yesterday. He hasn't been seen since a night in the pub."
Lilly Marian creaks sadly at the news, like she could hear it. Now the absence of life make sense.
"What do you think of it?" I say, picking up a rock and bouncing it between my palms.
"He's done it before. Disappears for a few days before launching of a new trip and appears seconds before hand, ready to go. You learn a few things living here with the homeless. I would say go talk with them, but I think what I've given you is all we have. People shut up around dirty children and refuse to say anything around you when you're posh, like you're too fragile to handle it."
"I hate that too. People think that as a woman I can't go around and kick people's butt, let alone kill multiple men and compete in a war." The boy turns back to me in shock at my words.
"You were in a war? That's so cool! How did you get in?" I tilt my head towards him teasingly and hold my fist out. Slowly my claws emerge and the white of the bone stands out in the weak light behind us. His silence is all I need. Standing up, I flick him a pound and walk away.
I always like having an epic exit.
[x]
"Found anything?" I direct to Victor when he enters the hotel, door closing lightly behind him. Eyeing the mirror, I tug Amy to the front. Once again, it didn't work. Maybe the one time only worked because of the strange halt on my healing factor.
"Yeah." Victor strides into the only room beside the bathroom and literally rips his overcoat off himself and gives the tattered remains an unimpressed look. He chucks the fifth coat he has had this week into the trash and joins me on the bed. "Marc leaves a few days before an upcoming trip and returns minutes before, ready to leave."
"Not much else." I finish, recognising by the way he opens his mouth of what he was gonna say. "Nobody really knows for sure where he goes, but a few suspect smuggling." Victor gives me a wave of his hand, a 'what you said' motion.
"Had a lovely chat with a few homeless boys," he starts and I know where this is going "turns out that a clawed lady asked the same thing to a Greek friend of theirs. Didn't want you showing off on your own so I showed them my nails. They were impressed."
"Yeah, but mine's more awesome. Bone claws from the back of my hand? That's way more epic than lady nails." I tease and grin to show I'm joking. "Nah, you have it better in fighting style and can hide them better." Victor grins, in his usual sickening smirk, and leans back slowly to wrestle off his boots.
"Fuckin hate these clothes. Hate how we have to wear them to go anywhere." Victor remarks and I shoot him a glare. He doesn't know the pain of wearing a Victorian dress. Half feels like I'm in a steam punk world about to receive news of a cylinder crashing into the Earth any second now. And I don't even have the proper clothes on!
"When's the ship about to launch?" Victor asks when we're cuddled up against each other in bed. I'm always the one to seek heat in the night so it's pointless not to do this.
"In two days time." I recite. "Supposedly 12 pm on the dot."
[x]
"It seems to be as true as the sun rising." I remark and Victor rolls his eyes as I say it again. I don't think I'll ever get over the way these pommies talk. Sure enough, at 11:50 am a calm man strolls into the port yard and the crew moving around the Lilly Marian cheer and roll their eyes.
"'Ey Marc," one man waves and he freezes unexpectedly and coughs uncomfortably.
"Good day," he snaps, French accent lining his words, and stalks aboard. "The passengers may board now."
"Excuse me Marc," I call once I'm done dumping my bag into our designated bed, seeing the extremely short man stiffly stand at the wheel. "Can I ask you a few things? Rainard pointed me towards you." Marc turns and the first thing that I see is a huge scar running from under his jaw and disappear under his stiff collar. It was red, puffy from freshness and slightly ugly from infection. His features, once you get an eye full of his scar, seem dull and unforgettable.
"Never heard of him. What do you want?" he snaps, twisting his head back to the prow of the ship, hands tightening on the wood.
"Rainard says you've been seeing... unnatural things. Such as fire during a rainstorm...?" I trail off, hoping Marc would pick up after me. Instead his scar seem to glow in anger.
"Preposterous!" he snarls, and I see Victor's nails length a few metres away from where he was watching. "What nonsense! I don't want to see you or your brother ever again on my ship when you get off!"
Walking away, I shake my head to Victor, who probably heard the whole conversation anyway.
"Dead end again." Victor murmurs as I'm leaning against the prow, the figurehead of a mermaid under me. "He wasn't lying a single bit. Every word was true... as the rising sun." he adds on the last four words with a mischievous grin. I laugh, glad that he's caught on.
The ride would last months, a few stops across Europe, around Africa, then we'll crawl past India, weave between Malaysia and Indonesia, finally coming to Australia. I can remember the flight Amy took from Australia to London - in a few hours. I never realised how fast planes can be.
But with every passing day, my nerves seem to tighten, my paranoia acting up weird. Something was wrong, and it was wiring me up. I could see Victor effected by it too. What was going on?
It wasn't until Victor whispered into my ear two months into the trip - "Marc hasn't given a order since we've boarded. It's almost like he's scared of his crew."
Something hits the back of my back and as I slip out, I feel myself falling over the rail and I hear Victor roaring with anger.
Amy pushed towards the front, taking up the controls as I dropped to the back of her head, slipping off into nothing.
[x]
Ughhh
What
Victorrrrr
Whats happening
What did Marc do
Help
Amy what
VICTOR
Mary?
Mary what are you
Doing?
Leave Amy out of this
She doesn't
Have anything
To do with Kyren.
LEAVE AMY
alone
VICTOR
"Hello, I'm Amy."
Don't tell Victor
I don't want to tell him.
Amy do you hear me?
"I am not Lyall."
Don't mention Kyren.
DON'T FUCKING TOUCH VICTOR YOU BITCH
NO, THIS ISN'T ABOUT KYREN ANYMORE
Leave Amy out of this
STOP IT
STOP ittttttttt
Amy can't hold it
LEAVE VICTOR OUT OF THIS
"You hold nothing on me, Mary! Fuck you and your bitches too!"
That will do nothing but anger her
It's useless Amy
Tell Victor I love him
Couldn't live without him.
Guess he's my Emma. Remember when she died?
Yeah I do. I understand Lyall. I'll tell him.
Victor don't leave me
Amy just leave Mary alone.
Fighting will do nothing.
Where's the kick arse I know?
Dead. I don't care.
Is Victor okay?
Yes.
Good.
Sorry to drag you into this.
It's fin –
ARGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
AMY holy shit are you okay?
Amy Amy Amy
AMY
Please respond
Just ignore the pain.
Think of something else.
You're not here, okay?
Think of when you were a teenager.
Nobody could believe how ignorant of pop culture you were.
That was fun.
No pain. You were worried about nothing. No pain.
No pain.
LYALL I'm going back to when I was a teenager.
IT'S FINE just ignore the pain.
No pain. Right.
Hahaha, just pulled a dick joke on your brother.
His face was so funny right?
Just focus on high school and how safe it was. No pain.
None at all.
We can do this. Pull through.
All for Victor
All for Victor.
All for
All for
Him...
[()]
Notes:
Wow, I'm surprised how fast I rewrote this chapter. Maybe I can do it without my USB stick. Thank you for sticking through all the shitty writing!
I've been notified that the last part is a little confusing. I've tried to clear it up a bit, but wait until next chapter for it to be explained.
And thank you crazehfreakbehungreh000 for reviewing!