Take me into your heart. Accept me as your savior. Nail me to the fucking cross and let me be REBORN!
-Vaas
Chapter 2: Boat ride to Neverland
When the evening was beginning to settle, Myra's friends were starting to pressure her into taking that boat and riding off to Rook Island. She folded at once and accepted to go, thinking that would shut them up.
Jake paid the guy at the port to rent the boat for the night. Ella and Myra were already inside the small engine boat. Jake hopped in and started the boat, having had experience with them since he was a kid. They started off in the night sky, the roar of their engine muffling Ella's laughter.
They rode and rode, finding nothing, and after an hour of searching for that island, Myra cut the engine off. "Hey!" Jake yelled.
"It's not here, let's go back," Myra said, looking him straight in the eyes. They heard a stumbling and turned around. Ella was positioning a small radio which she had found in the boat, and was placing her phone on it. She giggled and turned around to face her friends.
"Why not have a little fun while we're here?" she asked, giggling like a child. Myra turned to look at Jake, who just shrugged and nodded at Ella. She turned around and pressed a button.
Pour Some Sugar on Me blasted through the speakers and overwhelmed the night air. Myra jumped at the sudden loud music, but Jake chuckled and watched Ella mouth the lyrics. "Love is like bomb," she mouthed at Myra and motioned for her to come over.
Myra rolled her eyes, joining Ella and Jake at the back of the boat. The beat started and they started dancing in the boat. Myra found it silly, but whatever, right? Who could hear them so far out in the water. They twirled and bobbed their heads, laughing and smiling. Jake got on the side of the boat and belowed the chorus. "POUR SOME SUGAR ME! IN THE NAME OF LOVE!" Ella and Myra laughed.
They joined him on the egde of the boat, screaming at the top of their lungs the lyrics, completely unaware of the approaching boat. Myra laughed when Jake started immitating a singer with a microphone while Ella immitated drums. "Sometime anytime, sugar me sweet!" they sang. They continued to sing and dance, yelling the lyrics to the song until their voices were raw. Ella sat at the edge, her feet in the water and her face went slack.
She got up and pressed a button to turn the music off. "Hey!" Jake said with a laugh. Myra turned to Ella, smile on her face, while Jake came to stand beside her.
Ella's face was beyond scared. Her features were torn with fear as she looked at a point in the water. Myra turned her head and immidately spotted it.
A boat had came to plant itself beside their's. During the loud music, they didn't hear the loud engine, and certainly not the guys in it. They wore red tank tops, army trousers a bit like the ones Myra wore, and they had red scarves to cover their faces. Their skins were dark, their hair dark and short, and they had huge guns slung over their shoulders.
Myra stared in horror at the guns and weapons the men held. Her eyes scanned the small crowd until her eyes lay upon a man, standing like a captain at the end of the boat, a broad smile on his face. His skin was tanned and oily, his muscled arms sticking out of a red tank top. He wore the same trousers as the others, and Myra saw the mohawk on his head and the scar running up the left side of his skull. She stared in horror as he moved to the edge of his boat, taking out a small handgun.
Jake, Ella, and Myra were frozen with fear as the man, probably in his twenties, stood before them, chuckling. "Hi there," he said with a spanish accent and a chuckle. "You guys played that music way too fucking loud."
"We didn't mean to disturb you," Jake said, his voice shaky when the man turned his gaze to him. Myra couldn't see the colour of his eyes through the darkness, but she was sure they were a crazy shade.
"It's ok, hermano, it's ok," the man answered, looking back at his men with a smile. "I understand you kids want to have some fun, I get that," his voice was a bit roach, and that was a wee bit attractive to Myra, who stood there watching him.
"Yeah," Jake answered. The man laughed again.
"Well, now it's our turn to have some fun, no, don't you think?" he said. With one quick gesture of his hand, the men boarded the trio's boat. Myra's heart squeezed with fear as one man grabbed Ella by the hair. She screamed and thrashed around. She yelped for help as they dragged her onto the other boat.
Jake was being held back by two men, who were beating him down to the ground. Another man punched him square in the face as Myra backed away towards the boat wheel. "Fuck," she mumbled under her breath as she twist around for the wheel.
"Get away Myra!" Jake yelled as she heard Ella scream again. Fear was making Myra tremble as she stumbled onto her knees. A hand clamped around her wrists before she could get up.
"Going anywhere?" the voice above her asked. She looked up franctically, and saw the man with the mohawk looming over her, a smile on his face. She whimpered and stumbled back again, twisting her body around to get up. His arms wrapped themselves around her waist and brought her close to him. "Ah, ah, hermana, no need to be scared," he said and chuckled.
Myra heard another scream, and this time she yanked her head back with all the courage she could muster and slammed the back of her head on the forehead of her assailant. "Motherfucker!" this one screamed. She freed herself from his grip and ran to the front of the boat. She saw all the other men just standing there watching as their leader got up, wiping blood from his forehead.
One hopped down into the boat, dangerously close to Myra. "No!" his leader belowed from behind. "I'll get her. She can't get any fucking further than this." And in a beat, he sprinted across the boat to a breathless and terrorised Myra. He took out his gun, and with the butt of his weapon, smacked it on Myra's skull.
"MYRA!" Jake yelled. Myra's limp body fell to the floor of the boat. Her eyes drooped and dizziness clouded her thoughts. She watched through half closed lids as her assailant picked her up like a potato sack and brought her to his boat.
The last thing she remebered is the man yelling, "let's go, you fucks, we don't have all fucking day!" before she fell unconsious.
****
Myra woke up to a huge headache and an aching body. Her mind was swimming in and out of consiousness. Sometimes she could here the waves of the ocean and she thought she was back in the hotel, but the memories of what had happen came rushing back.
With the same rush that pushed her to her feet, Myra ran. She ran into a deep jungle, trees so thick and green it hurt her eyes. She didn't know why she was running, but she was. Her eyes barely open and her legs wobbly, she ran and ran. After awhile, she fell to her knees and crawled. The dirt got under her nails and she whimpered, cried, and sobbed to herself, praying to see her friends. Her clothes were ripped after crawling for what seemed like hours. Her breath was slow and dangerously fading in her lungs. The air around her was heavy, heavy with something only she knew due to her darkness. Death.
Myra fell to the ground, her head wobbling to the side. The rain started soon after and she looked up through the web of leaves at the sky. It was grey, the clouds crowding it and rain falling. She gulped down the water, soothing her raw throat that she hadn't realized needed hydration.
Her weak body trembled as the rain soaked her ripped clothing. She closed her eyes shut, crumpling herself in a small ball on the jungle floor, wishing this was all a nightmare. She lulled herself a song her mother used to sing. She rocked her body until the rain stopped, but still, she was too weak, hungry, and thirsty to move.
Then, she heard it, the man's voice, "You fucks!" he yelled. Myra's head snapped up. "She can't have gone that fucking far!" It roared through the jungle but Myra decided it was over for her. She lay her head on the ground again, listening to the soft pounding of boots on the jungle floor. She closed her eyes, giving in to the temptation of sleep just as a pair of muscular arms wrapped around her waist. "There you are, princesa." She heard the voice she dreaded most.
She didn't care. She let him pick her up in his arms, and lay her head on his chest. She couldn't open her eyes to look up, so she just drifted off to sleep.
****
"Myra!Myra!" the soft voice of Jake woke her up. She looked around. She was sitting with her legs outstretched. Her wrists were tied behind her back to a bamboo post. She realized she was in a bamboo cage with Jake and Ella. The latter was on the ground, wrist bound behind her back, and she was sleeping. Jake was free to move, only had his hands tied behind his back also.
Myra looked around beyond the cage. Small huts littered the dirt ground around them. A wooden stage sat in the middle of the small circle of huts and beyond that was a trail leading into the jungle. Myra's eyes widen when she took this all in. "What happend?" she demanded. Jake looked away.
"They brought us here after the boat," he started. "They started tying us when you bolted in the jungle. You don't remember?" Myra shook her head. "We've been here couple of hours. No one has come, even though they're all in those huts."
"Who are they?" Myra asked, looking at the huts made of weird wood she couldn't name.
"I don't know, but they're trouble," he answered. Myra got a good look at him for once. His hair was wet with sweat and plastered to his forehead. His eyes were too dark, scared, and hungry. His face was pale despite his tan and his lips were parched.
"Can we get out?" she asked. Jake shook his head.
"They've got guns, Myra, big ones," he said, looking at her with fear. "We try to escape, they shoot us down. Ella screamed all the time she was here. To shut her up they hit her with a pan. They laughed at that, Myra. They're insane!" His whispers were becoming louder. Myra feared the worst.
"Well, hello there, amigos!" a voice boomed beside them. Myra knew it and she cringed in her spot, bending her knees to bring them up to her chest. "How are you today?"
His face appeared beside Myra. He moved around their cage, circling his prey like a hungry predator. Myra looked at him. It was the man from the boat, the red tank top, army trousers, and mohawk. She frowned upon seeing the light green of his eyes, not matching at all to his Hispanic appearance. He looked at her then and saw the fury in her eyes. "What is it, hermana?" he said, crouching down beside her and passing his face through the bamboo. "Hmm, what is it?" She didn't answer, but kept looking at the light green of his eyes. They were so intriguing.
He got up suddenly, and moved around the cage again, taking something out of his pocket. Their IDs. He flipped through the three and laughed. "Jake Asher, twenty-one," he stated. Jake cringed away when the man kicked dirt at him. "Ella turner, nineteen," he said again.
Finally, he got beside Myra and crouched down again, making his pistole viewable through its holster. "And, finally, Myra Banks, twenty." Myra shot him a look of loathing, but it was also a look of questions.
"And you are?" she spat. The man was taken aback by her sudden tone and feigned sadness.
"I'm Vaas, princesa," he answered with a broad smile while he continued to look at their IDs. His fingers had small white tissues around them where he got hurt, his right hand was encircled by one too, and he had a black one on his right bicep. Myra noticed the small beard he wore, fashionable, around his mouth. She snorted, not knowing why and with what courage.
"Well, I just hope you peices of fucks, are worth some money, or else, boom," he immitate a gun with his hand. "I'll put a bullet in your skulls."
"Fuck you," Myra said, impressed by her own courage. Vaas turned to her, eyes wide with sudden rage.
"What did you say, hermana?" he asked, taking his gun out of his holster. Myra eyed it, like if she was looking death straight in the face, and she was. Realizing there was no point in fearing death, because with a gun it comes quick and easy, Myra smiled.
"Did I not speak loud enough?" she said sarcastically. "I don't think I did, so I'll repeat myself. Fuck.You!" Vaas kicked dirt in her face, making her cough, and bent down to grab a fist full of her hair through the bamboo caging.
"Don't you fucking play badass with me, hermana!" he yelled, pulling her hair so hard he got a whimper out of her. "I'm the one with the fucking gun here, you, you're just plain shit to me!" He released her hair and kicked the cage. He put his hands up and seemed to relax. "I'm gonna chill... Ok, I get it you want to be brave for your final moments," he said, his voice calmer as he made his way to the front of the cage. "I get that, no, I respect that. Just know, hermana, that if you try anything again... I won't hesitate to shoot you this time. You escaped my bullet once before because of your pretty face, but, hermana, not anymore." To that he left them just as suddenly as he had appeared to them.