Captain Dracula

Chapter 23 - Why Not Slit Our Throats?

*Anika’s P.O.V*

The horses were sturdy creatures and it seemed as if they knew the way to their King by heart.

Maybe it was because they had taken so many people as prisoner back to their King…

They trekked through the pelting rain, thundering lightning and never made ‘hoarse’ complaint.

I have not ridden a horse in a long time. Father used to take me riding on the beach when the tide was out.

The memory made me smile.

I remember riding with Mike.

He was so clumsy when he was riding, the amount of times he had managed to fall off and land on his arse was unbelievable.

Sometimes he would let me ride with him and I would lock my arms around him.

I remember how warm he was; like a hot water bottle wrapped up in the same leather waist coat he wore every day.

“Don’t worry, Niks, I got you.” Mike used to laugh right before the horse would set into a gallop and we went flying down the beach, sea spray in our faces and the bitter wind making a mess of my hair.

Come to think of it, that is how I am riding with the Captain now.

I squeezed my arms over the Captains torso momentarily, just to check if he was still there and had not fallen on his arse like Mike had done so many times before.

But unlike Mike, the Captain’s back was straight and his hands held the reins firmly.

Mike always used to ride slouched over; sometimes he would just hold on to the horses mane and ride bare-back.

But that was normally the reason as to why he always fell off.

Mike and the Captain were opposites but they also have similarities.

They were both controlling.

The Captain still is…

But Mike is at the bottom of the sea along with the remaining scraps of the Captains ship.

I rested my forehead against the Captains back and sighed.

I want this journey to end.

I want to go home, wherever that is.

I want Mike back; he was always so good at comforting me.

No matter how hard I try to recall his blood-thirsty attack, all the good old times I spent with him just blurred it out.

It was like a tiny spec of my memory was out of focus, but I do not plan on concentrating on that spec until I remember every second I spent feeling like my life was about to be cut short by the man I loved.

I loved Mike.

I still do, but he must have found being with Esmay was more appealing than constantly having to coax me to smile.

“Look.” The Captain’s order snapped my out of my spiralling thoughts and I peeked over his shoulder to find that we were less than a mile away from the King and the huge city that surrounded his magnificent castle.

There were huge, stone towers that looked more like jagged dragon’s teeth than a tower, though.

Their small, cone like roofs had small, glowing windows dotted around randomly.

There were hundreds of towers, all of different sizes, but they were all located around the ginormous keeps section of the castle.

I could imagine it from the inside already.