Searching for Pirates

Chapter 14: My Secret

"What?" I asked. "Maybe he's back at the temple?"

Beckett turned around, I followed closely at his heel. We trekked the short distance back to where we had just come from the temple. At the time we reached the clearing that harbored it, we realized that the temple was also gone.

"You can't be serious." I commented in awe. "There's no way it just disappeared."

Bex's expression was shocked, yet he laughed through it. "We just went into a temple that was said to be a myth because no one could locate it, and now you're asking questions?"

I guess he was right. Now Lindsay, Kai, and the temple were all missing. This was already shaping up to be a bad day, and the sun had just barely risen.

"What do we do?" I ask Bex. Bex himself looked around at where we stood, taking in the view. "Now is not the time to go sightseeing." I said angrily.

"Calm down, Akin. Appreciate life." Beckett said wisely. "Plus, I'm not sightseeing, I'm trying to think."

"Think about what? We need to move!"

"Move? Where?" He obviously knew the answer to that question. We had no idea where to go.

"I don't know, but we need to move somewhere."

"Again, where?"

"Stop saying that! Back up the mountain?" I proceeded toward the mountain. Beckett was still being really difficult.

Bex caught up to me and we started our ascent of the mountain. We wove our way through the trees and bushes while struggling to climb uphill. After a while I knew I needed to make amends with my only ally at the time.

"Hey Bex, I'm really sorry for the things I said back there," I started out by saying. "I was just a little upset."

"Akin, it's cool, but I don't think I'm the one you should be apologizing to."

Kai. Of course, but would he even forgive me for being a jerk?

"A little hint of advice, Kai's been a jerk for a while too." Bex said, apparently hearing me. What was it with all of us saying what we were thinking out loud? "He'll forgive you."

That was reassuring. I was glad that I didn't have to worry about more than one person for apologies. The person I had to worry the most about was Lindsay. We always have had our ups and downs, but she knew how to hold a grudge.

"If we ever find Kai," I mumble under my breath.

"We will, I know where he's going," Bex replied as we continued to climb the mountain. The mountain was large, but not large enough that we needed equipment to get to the top.

"Where? Wasn't he taken?"

"Nope, he went to find someone," was Beckett's reply. "Sorry about all this drama, none of us intended for this to happen. I personally didn't see that plot twist coming." Bex said as he motioned at me.

"Yeah, well neither did I when I was six." I wasn't entirely sure what to say after that.

"Do you really care about her?"

"Yes, I do." I stated a matter of factly.

"Then fight for her. Don't let her go this easily."

"I wasn't going to let her go, how could I? She's my sister, even if we weren't born of the same parents, but she's also mad at me."

Bex sighed, "Just give her some time to cool off, she'll be fine after a while."

I paused, letting this sink in. "How do you know so much about females?"

He appeared happy as he talked, "My wife and daughter." His smile was infectious.

"Wow, really? That's awesome. How old is your daughter?"

"Thirty-two."

I gasped, "You are not old enough to have a thirty-two year old daughter."

"You're right," he chuckled at his own joke. "My daughter is four. I'm twenty-four."

"What? How old is Kai?"

"Twenty." Around Lindsay's age. What a coincidence.

"You guys look so much alike though, it's almost as if you're twins" I panted from the uphill hike.

"Thanks," Bex laughed. "I just want to get home to my family."

"Why did you come here in the first place?" I asked, wanting to know the answer to this question, but knew he probably wouldn't answer.

"It's complicated," was all he said.

I wanted to reach out and put my hand on his shoulder or something like that, but decided against it. We weren't really friends right now, but we weren't necessarily enemies.

I could see the look of sadness in Bex's eyes. His face had changed, he wanted to get home badly.

"We'll get you back to your family." My attempts at comforting him didn't seem to work. "You'll see them again." But even I couldn't promise that.