Sadly this story is coming to an end… A very unexpected end… Perhaps...
Chapter 33: Morning Sickness
I woke up in agony, all my limbs ached, I couldn't move without feeling pain. I tried moving my hands, but they were tied. My eyes flashed open and when I looked over at my hands they were tied to the bed post by thick rope. My wrists a bright red, the skin slightly torn and bleeding. I gasped, what had happened last night? Where was I? Oh, I was still in the shanty. I heard loud snoring, I was practically drenched in sweat, my skin listening in the light that shined through blinds of the window.
Vaas was sleeping on the bed beside me, on his chest where his arm crossed over my mid drift. He snored loudly into the pillow under his face, he also glistening with sweat.
I felt my stomach boil at an unknown scent, bile rose up my throat, I tried to swallow it back down.
"Vaas!" I shouted urgently, he snapped from his sleep immediately turning to face the door.
"What the fuck is it?" He coughed out.
"Please let me out!" He growled, only smiling when realizing that I was tied down naked. The events of the previous night surging through his mind, he vigorously traced a hand over my body.
"Vaas! I need to go to the bathroom! Now!" He shook his head, the smile dropping as he stood up from the bed looking around the room for his knife. When he found it he had let her go, staring with her right hand, the dry crackled blood coming from her bruised wrists. He caressed my wrist gently, I sighed at the stinging it brought. "Vaas." I groaned and he cut the second bind. I shot up from the bed running straight to the bathroom, not even looking at Vaas once I crouched down beside the toilet and emptied my stomach.
My stomach hurt and pain took over every limb in my body, I fell back to lean against the wall... Naked. Vaas eventually walked in, leaning against the door frame. It was awkward, neither of us said a word. I assumed the reason behind my sickness was because of all the beer last night, but I was sure no hangover felt like this.
"What happened last night?"
"How much do you remember?"
"As far as you throwing me onto the bed." He grinned, his full body in front of me, mine to view, but I did not care.
"Let's keep it that way." I sniffled, my body lurches and I felt the need to throw up again, I leaned forward and once again, it hit me like a storm. Vaas just chuckle as he watched me in complete pain, probably thinking it punishment for making him jealous... With Michael of all people. He did not come to my side and comfort me, he just watched me.
"I want you to do shit today. When you get dressed go and find Vadim. I think he's going to some village for interrogation or some shit."
"I don't think I can Vaas." I held my aching stomach fully.
"You look fine." He then left the doorway, I stood up shakily, nauseous and finding myself staring blankly into the mirror. Dark circles under my eyes, wild hair, and dark bruises all over my cheeks as my eyes moved down further the purple marks became more visible. I did not look fine, Vaas did this to me, I did not feel fine, Alcohol did that.
"Vaas..." I called gently, he was back at the doorway again, already dressed and ready to go.
"What?" He answered back with an annoyed tone, I looked down at my body making sure the mirror wasn't mistaken.
"Did you-"
"We did and you loved every minute of it." He grinned before patting my shoulder like we were buddies and turning to walk away. I walked out of the bathroom following him.
"Wait!" I called out, he turned as I wrapped my arms around his neck and leaned in for a kiss, but he leaned away, he didn't want a kiss. He had gotten sick of me perhaps... He pulled from my embrace turning away. I felt an ache in my heart.
"I love you." I muttered before he slammed the door behind him leaving me in loneliness. Why did I love him? Why did I even try to give him any affection? He obviously tied me to the bed last night and had his way with me. How could I cope with that as though nothing happened? When something really did and he really hurt me. He was probably just in a pouty mood, I could talk about it with him tonight.
I got dressed and went out searching for Vadim. I received numerous stares, obviously people knew about what happened last night. After about thirty minutes straight of hide and seek, I grew aggravated approaching a random pirate and asking where Vadim was. He gave me a forward answer, there was a shanty across the camp where he slept. Hopefully Vadim hadn't left it at all and I wasn't walking into an empty home.
I entered the shanty, I heard snoring, nothing like Vaas's. Much more distinct and loud, Vaas's was small peaceful and cute. The shanty was small, a thin mattresses bunk across the way with mingled covers and an unconscious body. Vadim was shirtless, the various scars clouding his skin, bullet wounds, cuts and lashes, I could see he years they had behind him. An end table on the side of the bunk rested a handgun, but above that a framed photo, the glass was broken. It's photo ruined, spatters of dry, old spreading across smiling faces.
A woman wearing a vibrant green dress holding a child in her hands, a girl with curly town hair and bright blue eyes, dark light skin. Two boys stood in front of her and holding her by the waist was Vadim. He was different, he wasn't in pirate attire, instead a brown t-shirt with jeans. He looked happy as did everyone else in the picture, now that I remember my previous confrontations with Vadim, he was never this happy.
Why was the picture bloody? I slowly started putting assumptions together, perhaps it was the only good picture he had and somehow blood got on it. I knew it wasn't that though, his family was dead, something must had happened. I slowly made way, closer to the picture, my hand shakily reaching out to grab it before a large firm hand snatched mine. I gasped staring back into Vadim's rage filled eyes, I had never seen him so angry before.
"What the fuck are you doing in here, girl?!" My eyes widened and I broke from his grasp taking giant steps back until I hit the wall.
"I-I was-I- came to find you. Vaas sent me to help you raid some villages today." I saw the rage go away, he stood from the be with no reply to my answer. He grabbed that same tank top he always wore off the floor and put it on, his back facing me. My eyes found the picture again. "They are dead... Aren't they?" He froze the shirt half way on before he pushed it down entirely to cover his navel and barely looked over his shoulder. His dreadful silence was my answer. "How? How did it happen? I mean... If you don't want
to-"
"They were shot... A long time ago, in Africa."
"You should have-"
"No one else knows, but you." He interrupted again, I soon understood the topic was prejudice.
"I-I'm sorry." If anything happened to Vaas then, I would die... I would cry for days on end and never leave our shanty. I would wrap myself in his scent until is was gone, then I would go and cry some more because there was no memory of him. He hated me now for some reason, I am sure of it. I hope I am not just some whore to him, that would scare me... Knowing that he never cared... He didn't care. "Why would you lie about it though?" He turned to me, his expression strict and cold.
"Pity, Bella. I do not want to be pitied." I snorted despite the depressing moment.
"No pirate I know pity's."
"Vaas." I stared right at him, when the name left his lips. "I see it in his eyes when he kills, it always is before he pulls the trigger."
"I never thought that he even remotely showed pity."
"He is a good man, Mirabella. A man who does a job that isn't the best, just like me, and the other men here. He is our leader because he can separate himself from his victims, he looks at everyone as a price tag… Even you. He kills villagers without a care in the world because he knows that they would die anyways..."
"He thinks he is doing a favor." I finished, Vadim nodded in agreement.
"I know what happened last night." I shrugged, not wanting to talk about it, whatever he was implying.
"Vaas was not in such a good mood yesterday." I replied softly, Vadim sighed looking over at the picture on the shelf.
"He loves you... I thought it not true before, but now I know. He can't get lost Mirabella, don't let him get lost." I knew what Vadim was asking of me. I for one felt I had lost myself, that sweet, innocent girl. Enough playing though, Vaas needed help and I wasn't the only one that saw that. What was Vadim's place in Vaas's mind though? What did he think of Vadim, what was their connection.
"Can I ask why you worry about Vaas?" Vadim found himself on the edge of the bunk.
"My story is too long and boring to tell you entirely, so I will make it quick." He patted the mattress beside him, I nodded my head moving closer and sitting down hesitantly at his side. "I was a miner on the Horn of Africa where I lived in a certain village. My family was happy there, but more and more pirates starting to line the coast. It became dangerous to even walk the streets where I was from. It was too late..." Vadim hesitated himself to continue on, he cleared his throat. "In the night they raided our village, killing my children and wife... I ran... Like a fucking coward. Eventually ending up in mercenary work, I came to Rooks. Hoyt use to be a pirate here before he found Vaas, I was Vaas's first to work under him." I then knew that Vaas always strayed away from Vadim in a manner that their friendship was based off of respect. That's why Vadim had his own shanty, why he was in charge of camp murder and in charge of the raid that is to come. "Why don't we go now?" He patted my knee an smiled frankly. "Much work to do, so little time to do it."