je t'aime Means I Love You

Chapter 3- Breathing Water

Ch.3- Breathing Water

                Shock jolted me into motion at the sight of a strangely familiar face. I yanked and struggled to get away and run to where ever was far away from him. It was so bizarre, to see him like this; however he held me in place and didn’t let my panicked mind rip away from him. Finally he just pulled me to him in a hug, and I cried. Huge embarrassing sobs escaped my throat, and tears tumbled and rolled down my face in uncontrollable streams.

                “Avalon. Stop it, and look at me.” His deep voice felt like thunder in his chest, but I did not move, only slow my heaving sobs and stop my eyes from tearing. “Look at me.” His voice was pained this time, and I couldn’t resist but to do what he asked me to. I looked up into the now tan and mature looking face that used to be Christian.

                “Who are you?” I asked him unsure of what my eyes told was unmistakably Christian, even though he looked to be about sixteen instead of four.  It was impossible to say the least, but his eyes were so warm and still so childlike that I knew who it was. I guess my eyes betrayed me showing him that I knew who he was, so he didn’t answer; he only smiled at me knowingly.

                "Do you ever dream about the ocean, and the wind, and the sun?" He asked me smiling even wider.  I stared up at him just so shocked, Time flies, but not that fast.

                “How did you…?” I asked pausing unsure of how to word my question exactly. Christian sighed and looked down at my chest. Slowly I pulled out of his embrace and reached my hand up to grip the necklace that he had given me, and it was still hanging around my neck. I looked down at it, and then frowned up at Christian still utterly confused.

                “I am whatever age you need me to be, because of that Gem.” He said looking down at it, knowing my question without me having to even ask it, which I thought was odd.

 "That's crazy. That's Impossible. I don't know who you are or what kind of sick game you are trying to play with me, but it isn't funny." I said angry and frustrated that I had fallen for a trick. He shook his head desperately probably going to try to convince me that he really was Christian. Well, Ha-ha I wasn't going to fall for it.

Slowly I pulled away from him and stood up off of the crates that we had been sitting on. He did not stand up to recapture me, he watched me with despair in his eyes. I looked around the room satisfied he wasn't going to attack me or anything. I found that it was actually quite difficult to stand, and I swayed as I tried to stand still, my white dress making it even harder still with the increased danger of tripping on the long tendrils of airy fabric that fell in longer floor dragging lengths.

I was in a room with this person who was pretending to be Christian, and a bunch of heavy crates, there was a port hole window that was just big enough so I could get out of it if I wanted to, there was a huge oak table in the middle of the room with a bottle of whine on it, and a fork. I stared at it intrigued, and then stumbled slightly over to it. Why on earth could I not stand upright without falling everywhere?

I'm on a ship!  It suddenly dawned on me. That might be why; the rocking of the ship on the water was keeping me from walking. Once I knew that however I corrected my stance for walking on a ship, and was fine. I picked up the fork and studied it. Oddly plain it was pure silver, and curved gently into the small toothed ends. It was the plainest piece of silverware I had ever encountered.

Christian or… whoever it was laughed his deep throaty laugh again. I heard him stand up, and his boots clicked slightly as he walked across the room towards me, he placed his hands lightly on my shoulders, and I spun around and pressed the fork into his throat not piercing his skin, but close enough that it was rather uncomfortable.  He raised an eyebrow, and I felt a slight pressure on my waist just below my rib cage. I knew he had a knife, but I could kill him faster, if I could bring my self to kill anyone. I looked directly up into his eyes, but they were so much like Christians that I couldn’t bring myself to hurt him, so I dropped the fork to the floor.

He smiled at me even wider than before seeing that I was aware of his identity, and he walked away from me, over to the small window. While he had his back turned to me I glanced over at the door, and attempted to walk over to it without him noticing me moving. I crept ever so slowly over to it as he began to speak to me. "You were out for a whole day. Captain has come in several times to check on you, and he tried to dump water on you to wake you up, but I told him no, that it would ruin your dress, and if there was one fast way to make you mad it would be to ruin your dress."

I paused in my stride and turned to look at him puzzled. What does he care if my dress is ruined? How would he know that it would bother me so much? I didn't ask either of these questions however, I merely asked, "Who is the captain?" Christian laughed, but continued to stare out of the window, and I continued to creep towards the door.

"That is a question you will have to answer on your own Mi reina." I reached the door just as he turned around to look at me, and in a panicked rush I twisted the knob and ran. I gathered my long skirt so I would not trip, and I could hear Christian racing after me down the messy tangle of hallways. Over the pounding of my heart, and my feet I could hear shouting, and the crashing of waves. The wooden floors were rough and my feet stuck without slipping. I rounded a corner, and found a frying skillet lying on a barrel in the hallway, and just in time I grabbed it and swung it around to collide with Christians head. He crumpled to the floor in a heap.

I dropped the skillet, and continued to run up the hallways, until I reached a door, and I burst out of it onto the deck of the ship.

 The sun blinded me, and I raised my hand to cover my eyes so as to recover even an ounce of my sight, but as I did I really wish I hadn't.  I stood there, stunned and afraid. On the deck was a mass of about twenty men, all of whom were now staring at me, the same men I realized that had stormed the castle, and killed Archer. I opened my mouth as if to say something, then ran for the edge of the ship intending to jump off the ship, but just as I reached the edge I was grabbed around the waist, and hoisted into the air by a huge strong pair of arms.

I kicked and flailed straining my arms to get away and to jump off of this ship. I felt a deep rumbling under my hands and realized that he was laughing at me. I screamed and kicked even harder, however this only made him laugh even harder.

Eventually when he realised that I was not going to stop kicking and screaming he held my arms down with one of his hands while the other covered my mouth, but he was exceedingly gentle. Red hot fear was gripping me, and I lashed out and bit his hand, drawing blood. He swore and ripped his hand away. He spun around with me, and dumped me into a heap on the deck of the ship.

I scrambled like I was going to run, but the rest of the crew was in a mean, dirty circle around me, all of them daring me with their eyes to run, so I dejected myself to sit in the middle of the circle, and try to think of how to get away. I didn't have long to sit and think in this uncomfortable little circular prison however because Christian burst through and looked at me concern written all over his face.

"What happened to her mouth? If any of you worthless pieces of sea scum hurt her I will personally see to it that you are-" He looked up at the man standing behind me with the dripping hand, and after a moments pause he began to laugh. "Come on Avalon, Let's get your mouth cleaned up." He reached down to help me up off the floor, but when he touched me I swung my hand and smacked him across the face.

"Don't you touch me! Don't touch me! I want off this ship, I want to go home!" Christian looked like his feelings were hurt that I had hit him, but I didn't care. Who am I kidding I did care.

"What is this I smell, do I see men not working on my ship!?" An angry deep voice roared from some unseen place on board the ship. All the men save Christian scuttled away, leaving to space suddenly vast and empty.  I looked around for a second, then scrambled to my feet and attempted to jump off the ship again, but I was griped by my waist and flung through the air, until I was in the arms of a man that horrified me even more that seeing an adult Christian. It was the man from the picture.

"Quite the entrance there Beloved, but you were always really good at that." He kissed me briefly pulling away as I tried to slap him. Remembering that he had thrown me off a balcony and then battled my father.... my father; I would hate him if he had hurt him.

"Who are you!" I asked outraged and a little scared of the answer.

"The missing half of your memory. That's who I am." He replied sadly.