Delta woke up, in a daze. Her eyesight took a little more time than normal to adjust. She whimpered a little as she slowly forced herself up off the ground.
Delta stared at her surroundings as she began to realize she was in a small gorge.
"Oh..oh no" Delta mumbled to herself. She patted herself down and looked around wildly for her axe, but it was nowhere to be found.
"You don't need that" A voice snapped at her softly. Delta whipped her head around looking for the source. The crunching of leaves grew louder as the owner of the voice came into the light of the gorge.
"Tate..what are you doing ?" Delta hissed bewildered. She spoke a little slower, still recovering from the blow to her head.
The green haired man appeared from the darkness, looking nonchalantly at Delta as if he didn't just drag her across the forest and knock her out.
"Thats what I've been meaning to ask you" He sneered at her.
"I told you...I'm joining the pirate crew. Why can't you just accept that?" Delta frowned, backing away from her supposed friend.
"I can't let you do that Delta. I need you to give me answers." Tate glared at her, his green eyes glowing in the light.
"Answers to what!?" Delta hissed. She was getting angry again. But she needed to stay. Calm.
"Everything. Your sudden bouts of anger, the fact that you almost killed your boss. And how you can just up and join a pirate crew without a second thought?! And how you manages to just live through all of that back there with the marine! You hit your head on those steps. Hard. You should be DEAD! Or at least in a coma by now" Tate shook his head at Delta.
"I just got lucky." Delta tried to brush his comment off.
"No. You didnt. No one has that much 's something you're hiding. And I want to know " Tate blinked.
Delta shook her head. She was backed in a corner. The crew wasn't anywhere near her and she had no idea where she was herself exactly.
"You don't need to know Tate. Besides I would have left sooner or later." Delta explained.
"I don't understand...you'll tell that blonde pirate you just met anything...but you hide from me. How stupid can you be Delta?"
Delta swallowed and looked away.
"If anyone deserves answers it's ME." Tate started screaming and nearing towards Delta again.
"How much of an idiot are you? You trust these people with your life..you expect it to go well. But it won't, I can promise you are only three things that can happen to you with them; they either rape, sell or kill you. Possibly all three of them. They aren't your friends. You. Are. all. alon-"
Tate stumbled back and crashed against a tree. Delta had raced towards him aiming a series punches in his and face. Tate rested his back against the tree defenseless, but Delta just kept on punching. And punching. And punching. Delta shrieked angrily as she unleashed her unbridled rage onto her old acquaintance. When she heard Tate give a guttural cough, she stopped.
"Thats all I needed to see. Was that so hard?" Tate wheezed between breaths.
"What the hell are you talking about?!" Delta barked. She barely understood what he said she was seeing so much red.
Tate laughed a little as he pushed himself up from the tree. He stumbled over to the middle of the clearing and hunched over as he began to wretch on the grass. Delta squinted in horror as liquid poured from Tate's mouth. But it wasn't blood. It was a thick black shiny liquid. It resembled tar, but darker and it ran more like a normal body fluid. Delta tripped over her feet and scooted her body into a darker corner of the gorge as she watched Tate continue to throw up black liquid out of every orifice on his face. Tate's body began to tremble and he crumbled in on himself on the grass, becoming still. The black pool that had grown began to bubble slightly and while Delta blinked, it rose up and began to take the shape of a tall muscular male. The black figure continued to take shape in the clearing and a face appeared on the pitch black head that only Delta could recognize.
" I just wanted some clarification" the being chuckled innocently. It had a very deep, cold,metallic voice that sent chills down Delta's spine.
"...wh...why..." Delta tried to ask a question but she could not find her words.
The being stepped towards Delta. She didn't even try to run.
"I just wanted to see how you were doing." The black figure crouched down in front of her and gently placed a hand on Delta's neck before lightly stroking her cheek. Delta squealed in terror but didn't dare move.
Delta got a better look at him, not that she needed to. He actually wasn't black, more of a dark dull charcoal. His pupils had many rings around them, all a different shade of red. His face wasn't of a man but of a machine. There weren't many discernable features on his face, except for different shades of gray around his eyes and high cheek bones His body was very muscular although there was no flesh and blood. And his hand was so cold.
"Why are you here?" Delta choked on her words forming tears.
The figure chuckled softly.
"I just wanted to give you a friendly reminder. I'm always watching you."
"And no matter who you meet, no matter how far you run and how mortal you pretend to be, you'll always be the same as before. We don't die, and we surely don't change. I thought you knew that." he whispered into Delta's ear.
With those words, the strange figure faded into darkness and disappeared, along with Tate's body. But now Delta knew there was no such thing as Tate. He was a lie, an illusion. Just like her life. Delta sat in the gorge for the longest time, a blank expression on her dark face. She let the tears roll down her cheeks and didn't try to stop them.
She had never felt so weak and alone.