SCATTERED PEARLS ☆ KIMCHAY AU

☠︎︎ 11. His to Kill ☠︎︎

Chay slowly sat down on Kim's bed, "is this like the 18th-century version of 'I'm the only one who can have you' or what?" Okay, Chay had to take a deep breath. Had to calm himself. He was—he was bleeding, but he was still alive. His head was still attached to his neck, and his body was still dry, not lying lifeless at the bottom of the ocean. Instead, he was in the captain's cabin, on his bed, while the captain was out there doing... Chay wasn't even sure if he wanted to know what exactly Kim was doing. Would he kill one of his men for Chay? Did Chay really want him to do that?

There were voices loud and angry coming in from the outside, but Chay couldn't really make out the words. But he knew that it wasn't good. He didn't want to focus on it, so he decided to focus on something else—on the cabin he was in. He had never imagined the captain's cabin being so... big? Spacious? The window on the other side of the cabin was overlooking the ocean. If the moon wasn't hidden behind all those heavy clouds maybe the moonlight would be illuminating the cabin, blending in with the small flickering flames of the candles and lanterns carefully placed around the cabin to illuminate it all equally.

No electricity. Obviously, Chay was aware of that—they were at the beginning of the 18th century, but still, seeing so many lanterns and candles in just two days... so many things he couldn't do—call anyone, take a picture, look up the weather, google how to kill a pirate who is after his neck... Whatever, why was he even focusing on the electricity now?

Chay stood up; there were a lot of things on the captain's desk. He wanted to dance his fingers on the big, old map, but he was afraid to touch it. His hands were covered in blood, and he didn't want to stain anything that wasn't even his. There were numerous X on the map. Chay always thought that a treasure map had only one X—or maybe it wasn't a treasure map at all. Chay had to remember that the Scorpion wasn't Kim's main vessel, but the Reckoning was, so maybe everything here wasn't as important as what Kim had on the Reckoning. This most likely wasn't the treasure map anyway.

Chay wanted if Kim would ever find the treasure he was looking for and if he would be there with Kim. Or maybe he would be the one to help Kim to find it. He wanted to, but all of that was far in the future.

He looked at the compass—it was pointing north. North? Weren't they supposed to go south? Coins—gold and silver lay scattered all over the desk. Bottles of rum—empty and full, sitting at the corner. It all looked exactly how Chay imagined a pirate cabin would. And this one big part of Chay felt drawn to it more than he thought that he ever would.

His body jerked when the noise of a fired pistol came from the outside.

"Kim," Chay breathed out, his body subconsciously moving towards the door. He just had to make sure that Kim was okay. He'll—he'll just open the door, just a bit, just to see what was happening and see if Kim was fine. And then, he would just close the door again quickly and wait for Kim to come to him.

He put a hand on the doorknob, and slowly, very slowly, he opened the door. He was scared, scared that someone else besides Kim would see him, but when he looked through the small crack of the opened door, everyone was looking in the opposite direction from him. It looked like everyone was on the main deck. He tried to look for Kim, and when he found him, his entire body shivered. Kim was already looking at him. Letting out a quiet gasp, Chay closed the door and stepped away.

Well, Kim was fine, so no need for Chay to look out there again.

In the corner of his eye, he caught a glimpse of something glistening in the candlelight. Chay turned in that direction, his legs carried him towards a half-open wooden chest by the food of the bed. There were pieces of silk and satin falling out of it, necklaces of gold and silver, diamonds and pearls shimmering on them...