ANNABEL FLEMING
It does not take long to get to the pub that Harry said was called "The Fisherman's Pub." On the way here, we passed a few people, the girls with their usual weird hairstyles and the men in their fishermen clothes. But they all had frowns, which did not surprise me. It did still creep me out how they all wore a frown rather than smiling. It did make me feel even more unsafe than I already know I am here.
Harry opens the giant door to the building that I assume is the pub because he has not told me otherwise. We walk in and my eyes have to adjust to how dark it is in here. It isn't exactly sunny outside on the island, but it was darker inside of this pub. When my eyes adjust, I see a lot of people sitting all around. There are some scary-looking men with beards sitting at the bar. They all have different types of drinks in their hands. I look to my right and see a table of girls with alcohol-filled glasses and to my left is another table filled with guys that look around my age. I am surrounded by drunk people and mostly scare men. I do not like the vibe of this pub at all.
Harry grabs my wrist and drags me with force over to an empty table in the corner away from everyone. I don't know if I should be relieved or scared that we are alone and not where everyone can see us.
"I am going to order me a beer, what do you want?" My mind immediately goes to food and I have no idea what the menu looks like here. Surely they have hamburgers right? I mean almost every place with food has hamburgers.
"I will have a burger and fries with water please," I tell him. Harry nods and stands up, walking over to the bar. I look around, paranoid now because I am sitting all alone at this table. I don't think anyone will come over here, but I am still scared. It is really loud in here, the music is almost as loud as you would imagine it to be in a club and the people are talking so loud that it seems they are shouting at one another. A few moments go by and harry comes back with my food and his drink. He hands me the food and a glass of water. I am really thirsty, but as he sits the drink down, I can't help but remember what happened the last time I took a drink out of Harry's hands. "Can I trust that you didn't spike this drink as well?" I ask him with a small smirk. He doesn't smile back, not that I would ever expect him to smile. He just glares at me before talking.
"I have no reason to spike your drink anymore," He simply says. I roll my eyes, but for some reason, I know that he is telling the truth. I take a sip of my water and it feels like I am taking a breath of fresh air. I don't think I have ever gone this long without water before and it tastes amazing. I immediately dig into my burger and I feel like a dog eating like this, but I honestly don't care. I haven't eaten in who knows how long. I feel Harry's eyes on me and I pause before looking up with a mouth full of french fries.
"What?" My voice comes out muffled from the food that is inside. He shakes his head from side to side. "Do you want some?" I offer him some of my hamburger, but he immediately makes a squeamish face.
"No, absolutely not," He says with a disgusted look. I crinkle my eyebrows at his reaction. What is his problem?
"What's with the face?"
"I just don't like hamburgers," He tells me, avoiding eye contact.
"Whatever," I say in disbelief. "Everyone likes hamburgers."
"Not true."
"Yes, it is. Here just take a bite," I say holding it out for him to take.
"No get it away from me," He starts to back up as I put the burger closer to his face. "Anna get the fuck out of my face," He growls. My heart drops a bit at the nickname that he calls me. He has never called me anything other than sunflower. Anna is what my friends used to call me, I miss them.
"Why are you scared of the hamburger Harry?" I laugh, pulling it back to my mouth.
"I am not scared of the hamburger, I just... I-" He looks like he is embarrassed about something. "I just don't eat meat," He tells me and my jaw drops to the floor. People who usually don't eat meat are usually kind and gentle, but Harry is the exact opposite of that. He is cruel and rough, I am baffled by this new sliver of information. "Don't look so surprised," He says.
"I'm sorry. It's just a bit of a shock to me, that's all." I notice him roll his eyes before looking away at something that is going on in the distance. I follow his gaze to see the group of guys that are around my age. One of them with dark hair starts to yell at the blonde one. They stand up and start to yell even louder, I am not sure what they are arguing about, but I can tell that something bad is about to go down. "What is going on?" I ask Harry who is still watching them carefully.
"Shh." He shushes me without moving his eyes from the two guys. I look back at them and see them start to punch each other.
"You know the rules you fucking idiot!" The dark-haired one yells at the blonde as he punches him once again in the jaw. Two of the giant bearded men from the bar walk over to the fight calmly and chillingly. They do not seem surprised by what is happening, they look as if they have seen this happen a million times before.
"Shit," Harry curses under his breath. I look at him and he looks almost...nervous. I sit across from him having absolutely no clue what the hell is happening. I shift in my seat, uncomfortably and watch as the two bearded men pick up the blonde by his arms without struggling at all.
"This is bullshit!" The blonde yells as he tries to escape their grip. "It is just a word, this is absolutely ridiculous! I will go up to Pig himself and confront him if he has a problem!" With this, the bearded men do not hesitate to loosen their grip on his arms. They are both towering over the average height of the blonde guy and the look of regret fills his eyes. "I'm sorry, I was only joking," he pleads before the bearded man on the right of him smashes his abnormally large fist straight into the blonde boy's nose. I let out a gasp and immediately feel a hand go over my mouth. I am about to scream until I look over to see that the hand belongs to Harry. He is looking at me with warning eyes and a finger over his lips telling me to keep quiet. I breathe hard through my nose but stay quiet. Harry doesn't remove his hand from my mouth as we both watch the men continue to strike the blonde boy with their ring-covered fists over and over again. I force myself to close my eyes from watching the pain that the blonde guy is going through. I am confused about what is happening. Why are they beating him up? What did he do wrong?
After the boy can not take any more, the tall bearded men drag him out of the pub, his face covered in bruises and blood. Harry finally takes his hand off of my face and I want to burst into tears after what I just witnessed.
"Harry, what the he-"
"Shut up," he hisses through clenched teeth as he looks around in a paranoid way.
"But that poor guy, they jus-"
"If you know what is best for you, then you would shut your fucking mouth," He is growling in a whisper now. I do not feel safe in here at all now. Harry is still looking around the pub. He takes a sharp intake of breath before grabbing my wrist and pulling me out from my seat. I let out a small noise from being startled and he glares at me as if telling me to shut up again. He pulls me through the pub in long strides, as I follow closely behind him. We finally reach the door and he slams it open. My eyes need to adjust to the light as we leave the dark pub. It doesn't take long due to the cloudy weather of the island. "Not a word until we get to the cabin," He says under his breath. He is walking way faster than he normally does and it is getting hard for my short legs to keep up.
We arrive at his cabin and as usual, we walk in through the back entrance. He unlocks it with his golden key and slams the door behind him with a breath of relief as we get inside. I have tears in my eyes still because I am confused, scared, and a bit traumatized by what I witnessed at the pub. My breaths are deep and fast as I try to wrap my head around everything that just happened.
"Harry, please! What is going on? Why did they do that to that boy?" I feel like I may have a panic attack. I need to calm down my breathing. I have never been so out of breath from something that wasn't physical before.
"Alright. Just calm down for a minute," Harry says in a softer voice than usual. "Follow me," he tells me as he makes his way into the kitchen. He walks to the sink and fills a glass up with water. I sit in a tall stool chair at the bar, waiting and trying to slow down my breaths. He hands me the glass and stands across from me on the other side of the bar, his eyes studying me carefully. I take small sips of the water and my breath slowly starts to return to its normal pace. I look up and see him still watching me. His eyes still hold an anxious look in them and I am not sure why. "Are you done panicking now?" He asks, now in his normal tone again. I don't say anything, I just nod my head. "C'mon." He walks out of the kitchen and I follow him into the living room. He gestures for me to sit on the leather couch while he pulls a chair in front of it and sits down across from me.
"Are you going to tell me what happened back there or are we in here so that you can yell at me for something that I did wrong?" He doesn't reply and I look up to see him taken back a little from my question. He clears his throat before speaking.
"I am going to tell you and you are going to listen," He says in a stern voice. I nod and keep quiet as I wait for his explanation. "But Sunflower?" He asks and I hum in response. It is odd how I have so quickly become used to that nickname. "You have to promise me that none of the information that I am about to give you leaves this cabin."
"Who am I going to tell, the dead grass or the sailboats?" I laugh at the thought. He doesn't even let me speak when we leave this cabin, so how would I tell anyone anything? I look back at him and he does not look amused. His face is stern and serious. I clear my throat before speaking. "I promise," I tell him with a soft voice. He nods and looks down at his hands, playing with his rings that cover his fingers before he speaks.
"As you already know, Eroda is not like any other island. It is abnormal...peculiar even. You have to understand that there are certain rules and superstitions that the people here are required to follow. Do you remember that day that I rushed us back here after eating the pizza?" He asks and I nod my head. I remember him almost running home after seeing that man who was dressed a bit differently than everyone else here. "That was because if you see a minister in the morning, it means you have to go home immediately." I crinkle my eyebrows in confusion. I am not sure why seeing a minister is a bad thing. I do not interrupt him though, I just nod and let him continue. "Never whistle into the wind because if you do, it will cause a terrible storm. Trust me, just don't try it. Some fishermen believe that it is good luck to wear one single gold earring, so that may explain any confusion you might have had on that." I think back to the first time we went into the small town on the island. I remember the man with one gold earring who was wearing fisherman's clothes. "It is to pay to have your body buried if you die in a strange port, Women are required to have their hair a certain way and if not, they must wear a hat. Everyone must wear Erodian clothes or they will be thrown in the island jail." I am sure my face looks just as shocked as I feel at the moment. Some of these rules are so cruel. "And if you ever leave Eroda, you must avoid doing so on odd-numbered days..." My heart drops at this rule.
"That's why the sail caught on fire," I mutter more to myself than to him. It all makes so much more sense now. I had no idea where that fire came from and I am still confused as to how it just appeared out of nowhere.
"It isn't always fire though," Harry says. "No one ever knows what the consequence of leaving the island on an odd-numbered day will be, but we all know it will be a bad one. I sit there. with wide eyes, trying to take in all of this information at once. "And last, but definitely not least...It is terribly bad luck to mention a pig in the pub." My shocked face looks up to his stern one in realization.
"So that is what happened to that boy today? He mentioned a pig in the pub?" Harry nods at my question. "B-But what is so wrong about saying pig? I don't understand. These rules all just sound like a little kid made them up."
"It isn't the word that is bad, it is the person."
"You mean pig is a person?" I ask kind of catching on to what he means. He nods slowly.
"Not just any person, he is the worst kind of person there is. He has done terrible things and people believe that mentioning his name is bad luck because of the things he has done." I get goosebumps as I think about how truly evil this pig guy can be if even Harry is scared of him. Harry was the man that all of Eroda, from what I have seen, feared. I mean they don't even look at him when we pass them on the streets. How can this situation get any worse? I have been kidnapped to a place where if I make one wrong move I could be punished.
I hear a faint knock coming from the back window. My blood freezes and my heart drops. Who could that be? Harry gets up and I follow right behind him. I am too afraid to be left alone right now. No one else has ever come to this cabin since I have been here. It has always just been me and Harry. My mind is clouded with the terrifying thoughts of who could be standing outside. What if it is Pig? What if he saw knows we were at the pub? Or worse what if he knows that I am not an Erodian? I don't know what kind of terrible things this Pigman has done, but from the way Harry talked about him, they were awful.
"Harry," My voice comes out timid. He immediately turns around and places his finger to his lips signifying that I needed to be quiet. I nod and stare at his deep green eyes. If I am not mistaken, he looks as if he is just as fearful as I am of who is standing out there. Once we reach the door, he slowly turns the knob. When it opens, a guy around Harry's age with dirty blonde hair stands there with a worried-looking expression on his face. I can tell that whoever this is, he is definitely not Pig.
"We have a fucking problem," The guy says to Harry.
~A/N~ Thank you guys so much for 1k reads. We hope you enjoy this chapter. Things are starting to heat up. What do you think pig has done? Keep reading and voting. This chapter was written by M with small bits of A. TPWK
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