Star-Crossed

Chapter 15

    I wake up with a giant boulder in my head, and I feel like im going to die. I lay there wallowing in self pity, not knowing whats going on, for several minutes. I attempt to sit up, but find my hands tied down beside me, and a large rope around my waist. I panic, and thrash about trying to loosen my bonds, until I hear laughter like poison fog drift across the room.

      I see a shadow in a corner sprawled across a chaise, and I think to myself, what the hell is this??.The figure rises, and almost dances towards me. Cilla, who else would it have been, emerges. She  looks down on me, and smiles. "You thought I would give up after only one failure? No, I'm a little more confident than that Cassiopeia. I NEVER give up, especially on things that mean the most to me, such as my dear brother. " She pulls out a knife and sits down on my bed beside me."Where shall we start, hmmm? Maybe your grabby little hands, so that you'll never touch my brother again."

      She traces the knife blade across my palms, carving 5 lines in each palm. Blood flows freely, and I feel my own blood warm my arms, and drip to the floor. She talks to me, a hand over my mouth to muffle the screams. " Where to next Cassi, perhaps your pretty face, but Acclimation will fix your scars there...no fun in that...." 

      She smiles, and slides her blade up under my back. "But here will hurt, and leave no trace." The curve  of her wicked blade diggs deep into my lower back, causing my vision to dimm, and my breath to quicken. Cilla grins, and pulls out the knife. She brings out a bottle of vodka, and I wonder what exactly she plans to do with alcohol. She takes a gulp for herself, then raises the bottle and dripps it onto my still open cuts on my hands.

      My scream rings out through the room, before she shoves a rag in my mouth. She tipps the bottle, and pours a thin stream through the rag until I feel like I'm drowning, but with the added bonus of it burning like fire on the way down. She pulls out the rag, and I gasp like a fish out of water.I look up at my crazed captor, her snow white hair streaked with my  deep black  blood, and I can tell she sees the fear in my eyes. She smiles, and raises her knife again, above my neck. "Goodbye Cass, I'm sorry it must end like this, but you got too close to dear Ivan..."

      Just as I think my life is over, the door bangs open, and the twins stagger in, arm in arm, complaining of massive hangovers. Then, after realizing the problem here,the giant, colassal  SLIGHTLY NOTICALBLE problem, they spring into action.

      Tarru runs at Cilla, ducking under a knife swipe and thrusting a solid elbow up into her chest. She slices his arm, but Torro has come up from behind and grabs her by her hair and pulls her to the ground, ripping the knife from her hands. Tarru catches it, and cuts my bonds. He then helps Torro wrangle a writhing Cilla to the chaises, and ties her down with my blood stained ropes.

     Tarru  cradles my head in his hands, and yells for Torro to get towels and bandages. They wrap my hands, and I manage to barely gasp out " My Back!" through clentched teeth. Torro mumbles an apology before ripping part of my shirt off and flipping me over.

      He hisses in shock, "Get Orion in here now!" Tarru runs to get get him, and I wonder why until he arrives. He takes one look at the puncture near my spine, the places his hand on my head, and all pain vanishes. His Acclimation , which I now realize is an Anesthetic, really comes in handy right now. My cuts, all except for on my back, have stiched shut. I raise my hands up to see the pattern of a roughly drawn star etched into my palms, irony at its finest.

      Fela has arrived, probably rounded up by Tarru while he was out, and she begins to immediatly panic,flitting around like a spazzy bird. She wipes up the black blood staining the floor, and brings me a change of clothes. Torro has finished treating my wound, and has Tarru hold me up so he can encircle me with bandages.

      Fela helps me in the bathroom to change, and I exit to tell my story. All are in shock that she is so murderous, and demand she be taken care of this time. I ask to know where my brother is, and they go to bring him to me. He stumbles in, still groggy from drinking, and looks confused. "What the hell is the matter with you all... It's early.''

     This is when the twins spring onto him like fricken spidermonkeys, telling him what a drunken ass he is, how he should be glad they found me when they did, that I almost died, and he blanches. "Wait, what!! Who did this to my sister

     He looks around with blood shot eyes, until Fela touches his arm and he crumples to the ground. "It was for his own health." she chirps, and she looks to Cilla, who has remained silent this whole time,hunched over in a corner with her white hair shrouding her, the black blood shading parts of it grey.sHe hasnt moved, hasn't twitched, just sits there, smiling.

      Fela approaches her, stroking a hand through her matted, bloody hair.  "You shall be terminated  for attempted murder, and for mental instability." Fela, who is usually so bright and cheerful, has turned stoic and cold.

     The twins agree to watch over me, while Jan comes to collect Cilla and Fela draggs Sage off to his room. Ivan barges in with tears in his soft black eyes. He sobs with his head down on the bed, and his hand in mine. He tells me,  near incoherently, that he shouldn't have left me alone, that this is his fault. Tarru and Torro warily pat his back, telling him that his crazy sister is the only one to blame, he helped me out enough. Torro, having been strong thorough all yesterday and until now, finally cracks and begins to weep uncontrollably, and Ivan  gains control of himself.  He shushed Torro, and tells Tarru to tend to his twin, he will stay with me for a while.

    Tarru scoops Torro up in his arms and carries him to Ava's big bed, and lays him down before crawling in next to him. He strokes his hair and just lets Torro cry it out, the only thing he can do. Ivan pulls me to him, cradling me like an infant. He brushes my hair back from my face, and just holds me for a moment.

      " Cassi.... I promise that I will see to it you recover and this never happens....Cilla will be terminated, and I will watch her die without pity, for such an act is comitted by one who is inhumane, and mad animals are killed without second thought."

    He looks sad but determined, and a hard glint shows in his eyes. "I still have yet to find Leo, to give him a proper instruction on how to treat women." he places me gently back in my bed, and strides off with a purpose in his step. Tarru carefully extricates himself from his twin's now sleeping arms and walks over to me. He sits beside me, and his head hangs low. " How did none of us realize you were in trouble? We never should have brought alcohol...we never realized that it didn't exist outside of Tortuga except for in black markets. We should have been more careful, we gave Cilla all she needed to plan this out."

     Tears shine in his eyes, and I sit up despite the pain in my near healed back. I wrap my arms around his neck and soothe him, murmuring that nobody knew she was that crazy, that she would go this far. He sniffles, and wipes away his tears, and smiles. Just at this moment, Leo bursts in the door, grinning at me. " Hey Cassi, what goes.......What's going on here!" He is enraged at me being held by Tarru. He ripps me away, and a slash of pain ripps through my back.  I cry out, and remember this happening last night. I push him away,

    " No Leo, no jealousy. You called off the Pair last night, and I honor your decision. Goodbye." I look at Tarru, and Leo is shoved out the door, and finds it slammed in his face.