There is nothing worse for a pirate than dying on dry land. Except, maybe, swinging two feet above it.
When their captain is imprisoned, facing the gallows, the men and women of the Lady Lesya's crew will try everything to break him out--even if it...
While O'Ma and Stalker tried to persuade the poor clerk to lead them to Cap's cell, Tiago explored the rest of the Watch headquarters. Even if his mates' proven little routine was quite impressive to witness—O'Ma acting calm, giving reasonable arguments, talking causes and consequences; Stalker showing teeth and rabid slobber, making threats, slamming fists on furniture—Tiago was accustomed. He knew that it was only a matter of time before the lad would do anything O'Ma asked, as long as the horrivel, lunatic Pierrot would stay the fuck away.
Humming a lively, joyful tune, Tiago jigged his way between desks and cupboards, tapping his feet on the dark red tiles, opening a drawer here, taking a peek at an awful painting there... He had just found a shiny golden medal—probably very official, but certainly to his liking—when he heard a sigh. A very long, exaggeratedly loud sigh. Tiago turned around to see a little man, huddled in a chair in the corner of the room. Cowering in his dusty clothes, he looked sad as a day without laughter and dancing.
"Saudações camarada!" exclaimed Tiago.
The grey man flinched and threw up an arm to protect his face from a blow that would never come. Tiago cocked his head and raised a brow. He sat on a desk and started to play with the medal, rolling it from one finger to another.
"You're a jumpy one... Waiting for someone?"
"Y-Yes!" stammered the cringing man. "I'm w-waiting... for someone t-to... to arrest me."
Tiago burst into laughter, causing the self-convicted criminal to shrink even more. "That's not common. And pretty dumb!"
From off in the distance, someone squeaked.
"That's my cue!" said Tiago, walking to the door. "Good luck with your plan, companheiro!"
"Wait!" cried the little man. A sudden draft blew the office door shut with a bang. Tiago froze. Behind him, the distressed man had leapt from his seat. "You don't understand. You're the first one to even notice me. I don't know what to do. I killed this man. It was so wrong. I... I made his head spin 'til it tore apart from his body!"
When Tiago turned his head back toward the dogged mourner, his smile had vanished, his brows were frowning, and his eyes could have thrown daggers.
"Did you know that man?" he asked, his voice cold as the North Sea.
"Did I...? Did... I..." The man's eyes grew wide. "I did! Yes! He... killed me... He was the one to kill me!"
The man fell on his knees, as if struck by epiphany. Taking his own death in, his eyes grew wider and his mouth fell open. Along with his last bonds to the world, the spirit started to lose consistency. The temperature of the room seemed to drop a few degrees.
Tiago took a cautious step back. "There you go. He killed you, you got revenge. End of story. You can move on now."
The avenged soul raised his head. A thin red line appeared across his jugular and turned into a gaping, bleeding wound, painful to look at. The smile on his face was even more so.
"I see... The bastard had it coming! May he rot in hell! I'm about to meet God Almighty! I can feel it! It was His plan, you know, for me to save the pretty girl!"
From skull to guts, revulsion shook Tiago's body. "What girl?"
Before the delusional fanatic could answer, he crumbled in on himself. His blissful smile never flickered as he shriveled into a distorted sphere of translucent flesh. Tiago backed away, hitting the door. His hand grabbed the knob as what remained of the spirit imploded on a barely audible pop.
Tiago shivered, holding a frightened groan back behind clenched teeth. He turned around, slammed the door open and fled, all too lucky not to have been sucked up as well. It had been close this time, too close.
He had seen the other side and would never go back there. There was no God. No music. No dance. Only darkness.
____________________
* The kind of sigh people generally used to express that they spent the last four days thinking about the meaning of life, God's will, their own purpose in the big scheme of things, the place of men in the universe and taxes. The kind of sigh that people generally used to express that their only answer to all that was meh!
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
