(For this chapter I will be using the song above. Try to imagine it in a women's voice. I'm not tryna take Tae's music. This is a beautiful song and the lyrics are really deep which is why I'm using the song. The link above is so that people who haven't heard it could find out the rhythm. :))
I opened my eyes to a bright light followed by the soft voice of a woman singing into my ear. Her harmonious voice filled the air around me making everything sway with her tone. It was beautiful. Passionate.
On my pillow
Can't get me tired
Sharing my fragile truth
That I still hope the door is open
'Cause the window
Opened one time with me and you
Now my forever's falling down
Wondering if you'd want me now
How could I know
One day, I'd wake up feeling more
But I had already reached the shore
Guess we were ships in the night, night, night
We were ships in the night, night, night
The words she spoke came out in beautiful melodies. They seem so familiar, yet so distant. It was almost like she was speaking in a different tongue that I had forgotten but still had the vague memory of in the back of my head. I was a bit disappointed when she stopped singing but she stopped singing only to whisper something to me. When I looked at her face it was blurred. She seemed young and almost ethereal but I couldn't quite capture her image. Her voice was rich and pleasing. It was like ear candy.
"Y***e ** gr**t*s* t***s***. *o** f***** t*a*," she whispered. I would call out to her to repeat what she said but her image would only glow brighter and brighter until she glowed no more. And I was left in total darkness once again. I was left with remorse. The feeling of beauty had left. I felt barren, empty. I felt like trash.
~
The ship lurched to the side and I banged my head on one of the barrels set next to me. To anyone, the rocking of the ship against the waves would've been calming, therapeutic almost, but to me, it felt like getting off of the horse the first time you ride it. Sickening and nauseating. I sat up feeling weak and drained from the events of the night before. I look around to see where Taehyung was when I remembered... He's gone.
My throat felt dry and I figured I'd find some water stored here, but these men only had rum and whiskey. I used most of my water yesterday to clean my wound and didn't remember to save any. Great! I clean up the mess I had left the night before since I fell asleep. Using the little amount of bandages I have left, I wrap up my thigh. It still feels sore and it's bruised but it's way better than yesterday. As I clean up what remains of last night I hear the door at the top of the staircase leading into the cargo hold being unlocked. I hurriedly stuff everything into my bag and run to hide behind the large crates to my left. I duck behind them as the door creaks open to reveal two men standing at the top. The one that leads the way in has curly brown hair meanwhile the one behind him has raven black hair with red streaks dyed into it.
"Captain wants me to check on the supplies to see what we will need before we arrive at the next port. Then I have to report it to Mingi." A smooth sounding voice speaks up from the two men, it's the brunette. His voice doesn't sound like either of the two men I heard last night. It's slightly deeper. I peek through the spaces between the large crates and see the two of them standing near some barrels across from me, which I'm guessing are filled with rum.
"Are you kidding? These fatties ate most of the fruit! They'll be going for our stash of rum next." a lighter voice responds, coming from the red-and-black-haired man. The brunette seems to be taller out of the two.
"San, you do remember that you and Wooyoung challenged Jongho to a fruit smashing contest. Plus, you steal like almost everyone's food, so quit calling others fat." The brunette reasons, earning an indignant gasp from the shorter man.
"How could you accuse me of such atrocities! You wound me Yunho. " The man, who I'm guessing is San, covers his heart with his hand in an overly dramatic way.
"Yeah ok, how about you make use of yourself and move those boxes over there, hm?" The brunette points over to where I'm crouched behind the boxes. I tense up as San turns around and looks over in my direction. He begins to walk over to me when something else catches his attention.
"Hey, Yunho, what's that?" San asks walking over and crouching down to pick up a shiny object that seems to be a necklace. The brunette looks over his shoulder to see what he's holding.
"I wonder whose that is," He comments walking over to San's side to study the object in his friend's hand. I crane my neck to see the object when I realize... WAIT... I shove my hands in my satchel trying to make as little noise as possible. I feel around for a couple of seconds when I notice that something crucial is missing.
Taehyung's necklace.
How did they... How did I... When did it fall out of my bag?! I have to get it back, it's the only thing I have left of him. But how? I study the room around me when I notice that both men are standing in front of the large craters I'm hiding behind. It's risky but I take my chances using all the strength I have to push the large craters forward. Slowly and quietly the boxes began to fall on them, that when they notice, it was too late.
"What the--" One by one the men get trapped under the fallen boxes groaning under their weight. I take this as my chance and pounce on the confused brunette as he tries to recover from the incident. I swing my cloak in front of his face to partially blind him as I spin around, hook kicking him in the face which sends him flying to the ground. Before he fully recovers I sit on top of him unsheathing my knife and holding it against his throat. He seems to recover keeping tense under me as I straddle his hips.
"You move and you're dead" I threaten. My voice comes out hoarse and raspy from crying last night. I don't sound like myself, I sound like a guy almost.
"Wait, wait, we can talk this out," he suggests lifting his hands up as if in surrender. He strains his eyes to get a good look at my face but the hood of my cloak is still covering most of it.
"Well start talking then," I command.
"W-What do you want to know?" he stutters.
"Which of you two has the necklace?" I ask.
"He does," The brunette motion over to where his friend is trapped under the heavy crates.
"Where am I?" I asked turning back to him.
"On a boat?" he responds with a bit of laughter creeping in at the edge of his voice. I mentally roll my eyes, pressing the knife harder against his neck. He squirms under me trying to avoid getting cut.
"Okokokokok, You're on the A--" He pauses mid-sentence as he stares at something behind me.
"Answer my--" I don't finish the sentence as I feel someone cock a gun from behind me.
"Get. off. him." the man behind me growls. I hesitate for a moment thinking of how I can get out of this but there's no escaping this. I climb off of the brunette and stand up as he also stands up. I turn around slowly to face the man.
"You ok?" the man with the gun asks the brunette. In return, the brunette rubs his neck making sure he didn't get cut.
"Yeah, I'm fine," he responds.
"Slide your weapon to him and put your hands where I can see them. NOW!" I crouch down and slide the knife to the brunette who stops it with his boot. I slowly stand up, bringing my hands up in surrender. The shorter man nods at the brunette, who then proceeds to bind my hands together with a piece of rope they found in the cargo hold.
"Walk and no funny business. If you try anything my friend won't hesitate to blow your head off." The brunette commands motioning over to his friend. I look at his friend who smiles at me coldly, never taking his gun off of me. I walk upstairs, lead by the mysterious brunette and his friend behind me until I get to the main deck. I hadn't noticed but I seemed to have reinjured my thigh when I attacked them because I felt something warm and liquidy running down my thigh from my cut (and I'm sure I didn't pee myself, or at least not yet). It pulses with newfound pain but I try my best to conceal my discomfort. I can't show weakness right now. When we reach the main deck the brunette ushers me roughly to doors of the Captain's Cabin.
Other crew members on the main deck stare at the commotion. They look at me curiously as the brunette's friend slides open the cabin's door. The people inside seemed to have been in mid-conversation when we barged in.
"We can't afford another-- Hey, Yunho, we were just about to call you when... Wait, who's that?" A deep voice speaks up as soon as we enter. This man's voice is deeper than the brunette's and Yeosang's.
"Sorry to interrupt but San and I... found something in the cargo hold." The brunette says looking over his shoulder at me then back at his crewmate.
"Well bring it in," The deeper voice speaks up and the man behind me pushes me into the center of the room roughly with the barrel of his gun. I stumble a bit but I gain my balance when I come face to face with three men. The first one I noticed was a tall, lean man with ruby red hair sitting with one leg on the desk in the room and the other leg was helping to keep him from falling over. With almond-shaped eyes and furrowed brows, he looked rather intimidating. The second man, I instantly recognized from his blonde hair and regal look. It was Yeosang. He didn't look up to see me as instantly as the other two because he had his nose stuck in a book, but when he did his eyes were filled with curiosity.
The last man held a more powerful aura than the first two, or maybe out of all the men I've met so far. He must be the captain, I thought. His aura was both dangerous but calming at the same time. He had wavy caramel-colored hair trimmed neatly at the front with a slight mullet growing in the back. A black eye-patch covered his right eye making him look even more dangerous. His one green eye held a powerful glare that would make any man cower. He was sitting back on a chair behind the desk the red-head was sitting on. Sir eye-patch had his feet propped up on the desk and had seemed to have been staring tediously around the room until his gaze fixed on me. When I fully walked up to them, Eye-patch cleared his throat and met my gaze almost instantly even though my hood covered my features.
"Who's this?" he asks the brunette that brought me here in a curious tone.
"A stowaway." The brunette replies, "He attacked us in the cargo hold when we least expected it. Tricky bastard. 'Sa good thing San was with me at the time." Eye-patch turns back to me with even more curiosity shining brightly in his left eye.
"Take off your cloak." He commands whilst sitting up in his chair and bringing his feet down. I hesitate to move which gets me a shove in my lower back from the barrel of a gun.
"He said to take it off," The man holding the gun growls once again. I take a deep breath and lift my bound up hands and undo the button at the collar of my cloak. As if the world slows down around me, the cloak falls to the ground at my feet and all of the men's jaws hang on their faces. I shake my trimmed hair (thanks to Mark) and my waves fall neatly around my face. The only one who kept composure was Eye-patch. His curiosity only increases if that's even possible.
"A woman? I thought you said it was a he?" The red-head questions his fellow crew members.
"Well, I thought it was. I hadn't seen hi--her face and her voice isn't exactly a woman's." the brunette answers still confused as to what he's seeing.
"That's the least of our matters. She's one of them." The man with the gun points out from behind me. Their attention seems to focus on the royal seal stitched into the royal blue coat I'm wearing. I still never figured out who Ten and Irene stole this from.
"But she's a woman. Is it possible for a wo--"
"It's not. Women aren't allowed into their ranks." Yeosang speaks up interrupting the brunette and studying my face. Then he seems to realize something. As he does it dawns on me that he'll blow my cover. "You're the Pri--"
"The princess's lady companion," I cut him off with my hoarse voice which seems to startle all the men.
"Hongjoong, she sounds manlier than you!" The red-head snickers at Eye-patch who keeps up a serious facade. It receives snickers from all the members but Eye-patch. Then maybe he's not the captain.
"But you came to Ten to ask for help and fainted because of your--"
"Corset, because of my corset." I interrupt Yeosang a second time. He seems to notice what I'm doing and he backs off. I nod eyeing them suspiciously.
"What's your purpose here, Love?" Eyepatch speaks up.
"I-I'm running away." I stutter. So much for sounding brave. I can't show weakness but my thigh and my head is pounding making it super hard.
"Why?" I stop and make eye contact with Yeosang who's eyeing me curiously.
"The Queen wants me dead."
"Why would the queen want you dead?" The red head asks.
"I– They are blaming me for someone's death," I answer. Eye-patch nods studying me closer. His single emerald green eye scans me as if looking for something misplaced.
"Then if you were a lady companion, Why are you wearing a Royal Navy coat?" Eyepatch continues to press further.
"I had to wear comfortable clothes to escape. These were the only clothes I could get my hands on."
"What's in the bag?" The question catches me off guard so I don't respond. Eye-patch seems to get impatient with me so he stands up and walks over until he's only mere inches away from my face. He keeps eye-contact with me for a few seconds but then reaches down and rips the bag away from me. He spills the contents on the floor and it all falls down. When the gun and gunpowder clatter onto the floor he looks up at me cocking his head to the side.
"Seems like we weren't being honest." He taunts stepping in closer to me. I try to look away but he presses a switchblade against my throat to face him forcefully. "Uh-uh-uh, Look at me. I'm going to ask you this one more time and you are going to answer honestly. If not I'll have my fun with you and I swear I will skin you with my bare hands." he smirks sinisterly, his voice dropping into a whisper as he threatens. His green eye is blazing with ferocity. I challenge his stare with one of my own, not backing down. "What is your business here?"
"I am running away." I grit between my teeth. We continue in this staring contest for what seems like an eternity when he finally drops it.
"Alright," he sighs, "Lock her up. We'll probably get good money from her." He turns to walk away and I begin to get hysterical. Sell me? As in... No, not again. I just escaped that not again! I panic and when the man behind me places his hand on my shoulder, I break.
"NO! PLEASE DON'T! I'LL DO ANYTHING PLEASE!" I beg, getting onto my knees as I cry. Considering how much I cried yesterday I'm surprised I still have tears left. I feel the hot tears burn against my tender cheeks.
"Hongjoong, Let her go. I'll take care of her. If anything happens it will be my fault." Yeosang's deep voice resonates in the air. I look up at him through my tears to see him looking at me with pity and empathy. Their captain seems to have a small debate with himself but I guess the gods were on my side.
"If we get into trouble because of her I won't hesitate to end her." Eye-patch responds, "Now leave my room." he orders
"But, Captain, we don't even know who she--"
"I said leave!" the Captain responds interrupting the red-head. They all exit the room except for me and Yeosang. Yeosang walks over to me, helping me collect all of my belonging his captain spilled on the floor. When he finishes helping me he tries to lay a hand on mine but I pull my hand back. He seems to notice the small action.
"It's all right, I won't hurt you. No ones gonna hurt you anymore." He reassures me. He slowly attempts to grab my hands again and I tense up under his soft hands. "See, you're ok." He helps me up and passes me my bag. "Captain, pass me your blade." In a swift and graceful movement, Yeosang catches the blade with one hand and quickly cuts off the rope binding my hands together.
"She will sleep in the extra cabin we have. If anyone lays a hand on her improperly they will face serious punishment. Only you and Seonghwa will have access to her room and if I decide to leave her at our next stop, you will not put up a protest. Is that clear, Yeosang?"
"Aye, Captain," and with that, he leads me out and walks me to my destination.