Chapter 2 – Eustass Kidd
Skyler felt her body sore, tense from the altercation from before. Her mind was racing to piece together where she was when she opened her eyes and, much to her dismay, she was not anywhere familiar like the gym's floor or her home.
She moved her arms up to rub her eyes, with great effort to raise them up, feeling everything so sensitive. Looking around she noticed she was in a sort of infirmary but she did not recognize the place. Slowly, she sat up on the bed, her legs dangling in the air, unable to reach the floor, and massaged the back of her neck to stave off any discomfort. Her torso had multiple bandages, whatever was left of her top covering the dressings. She didn't even want to think how her face looked after so many splinters had made contact with it.
The wounds she had, the bandages all over her body and the throbbing pain on her thigh, proved her that what had happened was real. Somehow she had found herself in the middle of the ocean, on a ship, with people she didn't know, that were dressed like they were ready for some BDSM action. Skyler wanted to go back home, get away from all this chaos that she had gotten herself into but she did not know where to start. She had offered the deal to the redhead that they could leave her at the next stop but what would she do then? She had no clue where she was and even dared to think that maybe she wasn't even in her own world but, taking a deep breath, she decided to take one step at a time. She would not allow anxiety to come up, not at a moment that she couldn't show she could falter.
She had to come up with some plan for her to go back home, but how, she did not know. Again, one step at a time. Maybe these pirates could help her, if they were willing to do it but she doubted. The redhead seemed too ruthless and impatient and the blond, Killer, she knew she did not leave a good impression on him.
"Finally awake?" She raised her head towards the source of the voice, seeing Killer leaning against the door frame, arms crossed over his chest. He spoke softly, in a low tone but the sound still vibrated in her head, hammering it with pain. "You passed out, the captain thought you had decided to cut his work short and die." He picked a bench and sat in front of her, preventing her from trying to get off from the bed.
"What a gentleman." She rolled her eyes and noticed the proximity between the two of them. She shifted uncomfortable, still anxious of what he could do to her, especially after she had landed such a perfect kick between his legs. His ego could still be bruised and maybe he was looking for revenge.
"How are you?" He asked, leaning forward and resting his arms on his thighs.
"What do you think?" She looked at his mask with a squint in her eyes, receiving a shrug in response from the blond. She sighed. "Like crap…" She ran her fingers through her raven black hair, letting out a tired sigh. Even the small gesture was a struggle and the dressings she had on seemed to only limit her movements further. Looking down she noticed Killer reaching out for her leg and she quickly grabbed him by the wrist. "What are you doing?"
"I need to check that wound on your thigh." His head tilted slightly up so he could look directly at her green eyes. "I need to see if it's getting inflamed or showing any signs of infection."
"At least ask first…" She mumbled under her breath and released him.
The two fell silent while he lifted the gauze that was applied on her thigh and gently pressed his fingers around, making her flinch. Skyler mumbled a 'sorry' under her breath and tried to keep as still as she could.
She allowed herself to feel comfortable with their proximity and, despite having fought not that long ago, she was surprised that he was touching her with such light tenderness making sure not to cause more harm than what she had already suffered. She felt the temperature of her body rise, feeling more aware of his touch. She didn't know if he was a doctor or not and his touch almost felt intimate, his thumbs close to the wound but the rest of his fingers were gently resting on her thigh, almost hugging its circumference.
"Everything's fine so far but make sure to keep it clean." He leaned back on the bench he was sitting, releasing her thigh from his grasp. She almost sighed of relief when he did so. "Heat will be keeping an eye on that, he knows a bit more than I do when it comes to medical care."
"So I just let a pervert grope my thigh, instead of a possible doctor? Great." She grunted but stopped when she heard the lightest chuckle from Killer. It was a nice sound. "So… what now? What happens with me?"
"For now you stay and help repair what you broke." Skyler was about to protest when he held a hand up to stop her and got up from the bench, going to rummage through a low hanging cabinet in the infirmary. "I'll be there too since I am equally responsible for the damages." He threw some clothes next to her for her to change into before he stepped away, towards the door. "Beyond that, you'll be doing chores around the ship until we arrive at our next stop and you'll leave. At least that is the plan, unless Kidd changes his mind."
"Kidd?" Her mind was scurrying to whatever knowledge she had of pirates. "Captain William Kidd?" She knew she was with pirates but if it was in fact the historical pirate then she could maybe pinpoint herself with possibly travelling back in time. At the same time, it didn't quite click right because of the weapons that she had seen, not so much the trident but more so the gauntlets that Killer had. They were too advanced if it were in the time period of said pirate.
"I've known him for long, never known him as William, unless he hid it from me." Killer corrected, noticing that slip she had given him could've been some good piece of information to share with his captain. Could it be a previous crew she belonged to? But she seemed too oblivious to who they were, not recognizing them despite their bounties. Maybe not, but this was some information to start off with. "He's Eustass Kidd, our captain."
So… Not the historical figure that I know. Someone else that was a pirate… a captain called Kidd.
But still… that redhead was the captain? How could a person that came across so hot-headed be the captain of a ship was beyond her comprehension but they were pirates as well. Maybe it was a bonus to have a short temper?
And now her life was in his hands, which was even better.
"If that is all, I'll go tell the captain you're awake and we'll go from there." Killer nodded his head and left the infirmary, leaving her alone to get dressed.
Leaving her alone to her thoughts.
There was no means of escaping in her current situation: swimming to shore was not an option since she didn't know how far from shore they were… even if she tried to do such a foolish thing, the odds are that she would die of hypothermia if she wasn't eaten by any predators first.
But maybe, just maybe, death by ocean creature or the sniffles was a better option than submitting to whatever mercy that the captain could or couldn't have.
The captain, eh?
She removed whatever was left of her tattered clothes, kicking off her shoes and putting on the clothes Killer had left her. It was a polka dot blouse that was bigger than her and some jean shorts that luckily were modest enough, going halfway down her thighs and didn't hike up her butt. As she was buttoning up the blouse, she heard some commotion outside and suddenly the door was slammed open, revealing said captain angrily looking at her.
She was surprise of his sudden barge in but also noticed that the angry stare seemed to fade away from his face as well. It took a second for Skyler to realise that the blouse had not been buttoned up fully and she had her sports bra on that worked like a push up, squeezing her breasts together tightly.
"Get the fuck out!" She took two awkward steps towards him, limping lightly, and threw a heavy punch to his stomach. He stumbled back, shock reflected all over his face but his eyes didn't move away from her chest until she grabbed the blouse, closing it. "Have you ever heard of fucking knocking!? It's common courtesy!" With that, Skyler slammed the door shut and finished dressing up, while mumbling under her breath about Kidd being a savage. Once done, she opened the door and stared at a still stunned captain. "There! Now we can talk."
"I really should just kill you…" The captain growled, finally snapping out of his dazed state. He headed out towards the upper deck, Skyler following him close behind
"Charming, clearly…" She mumbled as an answer, annoyance piling up inside her. She could already feel the veins on her skull pulsing because of her on-growing anxiety. "As much as that idea appeals to you, it definitely doesn't appeal to me. So… can you just drop me off an island withcivilizationand you can go on your merry way?" She found herself tapping her foot on the wooden floor.
"I should just do exactly that, whether there's civilization or not, you will leave this ship." He proceeded, a scowl growing on his face. Killer approached the two, receiving quick glances from both his captain and Skyler.
"I'd prefer to have human interaction, thank you very much." She uncrossed her arms from her chest and set her hands on her hips, growing impatient with the stubborn man that was Kidd.
"I'm just curious about something." Kidd finally spoke up. "How did you even get here?"
They won't believe me…
From the interactions she had had before with the both of them, her answer of 'I don't know' was insufficient but what else would she say? She could make up a lie, an excuse, blame it on sudden amnesia.
No, that would only get her killed at turbo speed.
If she were to lie and make some weird explanation up, it had to be a really good once since nothing that she could think of was rational enough to explain how she appeared out of thin air on that ship.
"I…" Skyler was at a loss as to what to tell them both, how to explain her odd and unknown circumstances that brought her there. She accepted defeat. "I don't know…"
"So you just showed up? Out of nowhere?" Kidd highlighted, his tone growing impatient.
"Yes, I think. I know as much as you do about what happened." She was scurrying her memories, trying to look back to what happened before she appeared on the ship. "I was training, in the gym, and I felt dizzy and unwell and then I was here…" Her voice seemed to lose its intensity as she spoke. "Look, I want answers as much as you and, trust me when I tell you, I want to be out of here as much as you want me to leave."
Eustass frowned at her, arms crossed over his chest, unhappy with her answer but acknowledging that she was coming across as honest as she could.
"Fucking useless…" He said under his breath, and closed his eyes, trying to think of what he could do with her.
"This all feels like a fever dream to me… It doesn't seem real at all and I just want to wake up." Skyler said, feeling more and more defeated since the captain didn't seem to decide what her fate would be.
"Want me to smack you good and see if you wake up?" He offered but Killer put a hand on his shoulder as to stop him from going further.
"Charming..." She stated sarcastically, not enjoying his attitude with her.
"The women love it." He puffed his chest, ego rising as if his sexual conquests would impress her.
"Hopefully they were well paid to say that." She mocked him again, knowing well that no woman would willingly choose to go to bed with someone so pretentious and arrogant.
"What the fuck did you just say!?" He stomped towards her, gabbing her by the collar of her blouse. She had to stand on her tippy toes so he wouldn't choke her, feeling a sting on her thigh where the bandage was. "For someone that suddenly showed up here, you sure are talking back a lot." His voice grew to a low growl, in an attempt to intimidate her. "You better watch that mouth of yours. I said it before and I'll say it again: you are on thin ice." His face grew even closer to hers, her green eyes opening even more, dreading what he would do next. "Piss me off and see what happens."
He let her go, pushing her with a bit too much force. Skyler was not able to land properly because of her injury, stumbling and losing her balance when her back hit the railing of the ship, falling overboard.
She shrieked as she fell into the ocean, the cold shock punching out the air form her lungs. Maybe the shock would wake her up if this was in fact a dream.
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A/N:
I did quite a few alterations to the story and there are certain things that had already happened that I will delay for the future, as well as eliminate certain things that don't make sense (personally)
I will be making changes as I go and proofreading everything to make sure I don't make the same mistakes I've made previously with my writing.
I'll first be focusing on this work before moving on to other projects.