'Where am I?' Arthur thought as he looked at the pitch blackness surrounding him. This place gave him an uneasy feeling. One filled with emptiness. That is, until he heard a familiar giggle echo in the blackness. Arthur turned his head in the direction of the noise.
"(Name)?" Arthur asked, hoping to find you. But he found nothing when he turned around except more black nothingness. But then he heard it again, closer this time. Like a knife cutting through the silence of this place.
"(Name)?" Arthur asked again, looking around in every direction. "(Name) is that you?"
"Arthur" your voice said, though it was soft and sounded more like a whisper. It sent a slight shiver down Arthur's spine. Gulping, he decided to ask again.
"(N-Name)? Are you there, love?"  he asked, feeling slightly disturbed by the situation of knowing you where there somewhere but couldn't see you.
"Arthur?" he heard you ask, and this time it sounded like it was coming from right behind him. Quickly, he turned around…and there you were. Dressed in a pure white Victorian dress with your hair up. Ribbon and lace adorning you. You looked absolutely radiant to Arthur.
"(Name)…." Arthur couldn't even finish his sentence. He was too taken back. And then you smiled. Oh how his heart melted.
"I missed you my darling." you said in your sweet soft voice that could make any man fall to his knees with weakness. And Arthur was no different. It took everything in him not to fall down then and there. You giggled at the expression on his face and started running toward him.
"Arthur!" you called out. Arthur was taken by surprise, almost not believing his luck at the moment.
"(Name)" he said, holding his arms out for you to run into. You looked so happy and blissful. Arthur never wanted that happiness to leave your face. You were nearly in Arthur's reach.
"Arth-" you began to say, but cut yourself off with a sharp gasp, falling into Arthur's chest, gripping his shoulders as if you were in pain.
"(Name)?" he asked in a worried tone as he held you close to him. You took in a shaky breath and slowly looked up into Arthur's eyes, your face twisted in pain and tears prickling at your eyes.
"A…..A…." you couldn't even speak at this point, rather short strangled noises were the only thing that left your lips. Arthur furrowed his brows in confusion.
"(Name)? Love, what is the matter-" he began to ask but stopped abruptly when he looked down at the growing crimson stain on your dress. Your abdomen was bleeding profusely. But what shocked him even more was the fact that he could see the tip of a sword poking out of your stomach.
"(NAME)!" He shouted as he felt your body go limp in his arms. He held on tighter, shaking you a bit.
"(NAME)! No, no, no, no, NO!" he shouted. Then a dark laughter pierced the darkness as he felt your body shift backwards, as if something was being pulled out of you. He pulled his eyes away from you to the looming figure behind you. There stood Cruz, laughing maniacally with a blood stained cutlass. Your blood.
"Time's up Arthur." he said before he was swallowed up into the shadowy darkness that surrounded Arthur and you. His laughter echoing in the pitch blackness.
"No…." Arthur breathed out, looking back to you, watching the crimson color grow and stain your beautifully pure white dress, slowly taking your life away from you. And him.
"(Name)….no…no, no, no, no." he said over and over again. His voice in agonizing pain as tears spilled from his dull green eyes.
"No!" he yelled, clutching your limp body closer to him as he fell to his knees. Burying his face into your still chest.
"NO!!!!" he shouted in an animalistic voice, gripping your body with all his might as he watched your cold (e/c) eyes glaze over in a lifeless manner.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Arthur woke up yelling as he sat up straight in bed, breathing heavily with hair sticking to his sweat drenched face and body. His emerald eyes were wide and wild. It took him a few moments to realize that he was now awake. His breathing slowed down as he clutched his hand to his heart in an attempt to calm it down. He took in a deep breath and looked around the dark room he was in. He calmed down a bit as he saw the familiarities of his cabin quarters.
"It….it was just a dream…." he said quietly, rubbing his face with one of his hands as he exhaled. He slowly brought his hand away from his face and glanced at the empty couch that you use to sleep on. His face fell a bit, realizing that you were not there.
"(Name)…" he said to himself, wishing that you would somehow walk into the room and tease him about being such a worry wart. He missed your snark. True it frustrated him at times, especially when you were so stubborn to obey orders. But right now he missed that. He missed you and he had no idea why it hurt so much. The tightness in his chest from the mere thought of you being in any kind of danger. Or being anywhere but with him. How? How did this happen? When did this happen? When had he become so soft? When had he become so obsessive? And how? How could it be that you invaded his every waking thought? And as if that weren't bad enough now you were invading his dreams too? Arthur knew why and he knew how. But it was something that he could never admit. Not to anyone. Not even himself. He was afraid to even think of it. Arthur took in a deep breath and sighed heavily.
"What is wrong with me?" he said quietly as he laid back down on his bed, shaking his head slightly.
"Get it together old boy. Focus….focus." he said, yawning a bit as he rolled over on his side, smashing his face into the pillow. But that's when he realized something. That pillow. It had your sent on it. As much as Arthur didn't want to, he grabbed the pillow and buried his face into it even more, breathing in deeply as his arms clutched around the soft, silk pillow. Soft and silky. Just like your hair.
Arthur groaned when he though of your hair, oh how he wanted to clear all thought of you from his head so he could get some sleep! And to relieve the pain in his chest. Not like clutching a (name) scented pillow was helping.
"What is the matter with me?" he said in a muffled voice through said pillow.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Dawn had just broken. Not like you could have guessed. No windows in the brig, remember? Anyway, after a successful night of scaring the pants off of the crew and managing to get a few winks of sleep you were positive that you were getting off this crap hole today. Though last night did drain almost all of your phone's power. You had maybe enough power for an hour or so. So you shut it off a long time ago. At the moment you were in a pleasant slumber. Well, about as pleasant as you could be leaning against a damp wall that smelled of…questionable things. You really hadn't slept much over the night. Your sleep was broken up. So by now you were very tired and trying to get a few more hours of sleep. As you slept, you failed to hear the sound of a large door being opened. You also failed to hear the sound of foot steps approaching. And you also failed to hear the sound of your cell door being opened and someone approach you. You DID however feel a hand on your shoulder and someone shaking you. You scrunched your eyelids tighter in annoyance.
'Its too early for Cruz and his crap.' you thought to yourself as you forced your heavy eyelids open to see who had woken you up. Your vision was blurry but you managed to make out the silhouette of someone. Someone smaller then your average pirate. It wasn't any of Cruz's men and it certainly wasn't Cruz himself. That's when you noticed an odd strand of hair sticking out of this person's head.
"(N-Name)? A-Are you aw-wake?" this voice said. No, it was more of a soft whisper. Your vision finally started to clear better, though you couldn't perfectly see the person crouching down in front of you, you recognized that voice.
"Mathieu?" you asked in a tired, cracked voice. Yawning a bit from lack of sleep. He nodded his head.
"Oui. But we must hurry." he said, looking around "Cruz will be awake soon."
You blinked a bit in confusion. Wait a minute…
"How did you get here? Cruz told me you were chained up." you said, yawning again at the end of your sentence. Mathieu chuckled softly, something you hadn't heard since you had gotten here.
"Having an older brother who is also a pirate has its benefits. I picked the lock." he said, taking your arm and gently helping you up.
"Wait. Then why didn't you escape before?" you asked, even more confused now. And tired.
"Well…I was going to. But I needed to wait until I knew I was near my brother. Otherwise I would be lost and end up getting caught again." he said as he led you out of your cell. You rubbed your eyes and groaned a bit from your sore back. And then it hit you.
"Wait…were free…lets get going-!" you began to say, probably a little louder then you should have. Mathieu clamped his hand over your mouth and looked around in a panic.
"Please mademoiselle. We must be quiet and swift with this." he said. You nodded and quietly closed the cell door behind you. 'I'll let their imaginations go wild.' you thought as Mathieu quietly opened the door a crack and peered out.
"The coast is clear." he said softly. You opened the door wider and began to quietly sneak your way out of the room. Mathieu followed closely behind, quietly closing the door behind him. He became skittish all of a sudden and grabbed your hand tightly. You looked behind you and saw the scared look on his face. He had probably registered what he had just done and was now regretting it. You gave him a reassuring smile.
"Thank you Mathieu. What you did was very brave." you said, giving his hand a gently squeeze and a quick peck on the cheek. His face went five shades of red but he seemed to be filled with a little more confidence. Which was evident when he stood up a little bit straighter. You giggled softly and continued on your way. You both came to a stair case and looked at each other.
"These stairs are pretty squeaky. I had trouble coming down them myself." Mathieu said softly. You nodded and furrowed your brows.
"How are we gong to do this…" you said. You decided to test it out. You placed your right foot on the first step and placed your weight on it. Sure enough it squeaked. You raised your shoulders and squinted your eyes at the noise. You looked over your shoulder at Mathieu who was watching and waiting for your next move. You nodded and looked back to the board you were standing on.
'Well….the whole board cant be squeaky.' you thought, sidestepping to the left. And what do you know, no squeaking sound! You face lit up a bit and you decided to test out the left side of the next step. You stepped on it. No sound. You looked back to Mathieu and gave him a thumbs up.
"Its okay. Just walk on the left side." you whispered to him. He nodded to you. You turned your attention back to the stairs and continued walking up the left side, Mathieu right behind you. Soon you made it to the cargo haul. It was packed with men. Sleeping men. Mathieu looked over at you and placed a finger to his lips while pointing to the door with his other hand. You nodded and ushered for him to lead the way. The two of you tiptoed past hammocks of sleeping pirates. You almost burst into laughter when you saw a slew of them clutching their crucifix's.
'Looks like my plan really did work.' Your breath hitched in your throat and you came to  a sudden stop when you felt something clamp onto your ankle. You slowly looked down to see someone's hand around your ankle. Thankfully the person was asleep. On the floor?
'Must have fallen out while he was sleeping.' you thought. Mathieu soon realized that you weren't right behind him and looked to see you in a binding situation. He covered his mouth as you placed a finger to your lips and looked around for something.
'Lets see. Think fast. Think fast!' you thought to yourself, looking around for anything that could be of use to help you out of your binding situation. You spotted a bottle close by. Probably a rum bottle. Or a Tequila bottle. It didn't really matter because you were using it. You ever so carefully reached down and grabbed said bottle, slowly so as not to awaken the man who was holding you put at the moment. Then you maneuvered over to his hand, gently prying his fingers away from your ankle and slipping the ankle sized bottle into his hand instead. Thankfully he accepted the bottle with a loud snore and began to snuggle it. You shuttered to think of him doing that to your ankle. Once you were in the clear you high tailed it out of that room. Not wanting to waste anymore time then had already been wasted. Mathieu followed close behind, looking behind him to make sure no one had spotted the two of you. And then the first rays of dawn hit your face with a gentle glow. It almost made you stop for a moment to admire it. But the prodding of Mathieu made you keep going.
"C-Come on!" he said in a whisper. But you couldn't leave yet. Biting your lip, you turned around and started walking in the opposite direction.
"Miss! Where are you going?" Mathieu asked as he watched you going in the opposite direction of where you should be going. Towards Cruz's quarters.
"I have to get something back first." you said as you quietly neared the cabin door. Mathieu hurried over to you and grabbed your arm.
"No! Its too dangerous!" he said quietly. You pulled your arm out of his grip and continued on your way.
"You don't understand." you said as you placed a hand on the door handle.
"I cant go home unless I get something back." you said. Mathieu opened his mouth to say something but clamped his hand over his mouth when you opened the door to Cruz's cabin.
Truth be told, you really didn't want to be in his cabin again. But being that he still had your ticket home. You really had no choice. You popped your head in a bit and looked around carefully. Analyzing everything you saw.
'Wall…bookshelf…this guy reads?…desk…heh, he shot it good…..treasure chest-whoa! That's a lot of treasure….aha….there he is." You spotted him. In his bed, sleeping like a lil baby. A very big, hairy…alcoholic baby. You scrunched your nose a bit when you saw him but you quietly entered his room regardless. You quietly tip toed over to his bullet riddled desk. You figured that would be the first place he would hide it. You quietly walked around it and reached for the drawer that wasn't blown up. Carefully, you opened it ever so slowly. If you woke Cruz up you'd be screwed. Big time. You peered into the drawer. But it was a tad dark in the room so you had to squint to see. You had a heart attack when you heard a creak of a floor board. You gasped and put a hand to your heart as you looked up. It was only Mathieu coming in after you. He was stopped dead in his tracks when he stepped on a creaky floor board. You furrowed your brows and placed a finger to your lips, initiating him to keep quiet. He nodded and stood in that spot while you rummaged through Cruz's belongings. But your bracelet was not in that drawer. Furrowing your brows you looked up, trying to figure out where he would have put it. You tip toed away from his desk and over to the book shelf.
'Maybe its on one of these shelves.' you thought as you scoured the shelved with your eyes for any hint of what you were looking for. Mathieu eyed you and Cruz at the same time. You mentally cursed when you found nothing but books. The fact that he had books was shocking enough, but you had to stay focused.
'Where are you?' you thought, turning around and looking around the room some more.
'Come on, come on. Where are you?'
You tiptoed past Mathieu and decided to look in that big ol' pile of treasure. You could now definitely confirm that pirated loved treasure. Almost as much as they liked their booze and women. You stood in front of the over flowing treasure chest and looked through it carefully.
'What are the odds of it being in here?' you thought to yourself as you carefully picked up a small gold cup.
Suddenly Cruz stirred in his sleep, causing you and Mathieu to freeze in place, adrenaline pumping and the sweat machines kicking in. Both yours and Mathieu's eyes glued on Cruz, waiting to see what would happen. All he did was roll onto his back. You both let out a quiet sigh. You looked over at Mathieu and gave him a smile. He smiled back and ushered you to continue your search. And you did. You decided that your bracelet wouldn't be in the chest. If it was, it would have been on the top half. Which it wasn't.
'Think, think, think…' you thought to yourself. And then you saw it. On a night stand…right…next…to…Cruz…
"Oh you've got to be kidding me!' you mentally yelled. 'Of all the places to hide it he puts it there?!'
Annoyed and a little nervous, you quietly tip toed over to the sleeping giant. Which was not pleasant by any means. Not only had this guy threatened you but…he didn't appear to have bathed in a while.
Resisting the urge to turn back, you pressed on. Your prize in view.
'Almost there.' you thought as you reached forward, grasping the silver gadget bracelet in your hand. Wait…just like that? Yeah. Just like that. Too easy you might ask? Meh, sometimes things work out that way. And you should just roll with it. Especially when its in a situation like this one.
You looked over at Cruz's sleeping form. You noticed how peaceful he looked when he was sleeping. Completely the opposite of himself when he's awake. And because his hat was off you finally got a good look at his face for once. You know, if he hadn't threatened you on multiple occasions you would have admitted that he was actually pretty handsome…























And then Cruz opened his eyes. You yelled when you saw he was awake and, reacting on instinct and just plain adrenaline, you did the unthinkable. You punched him. In the face. Square in the face! And hard I might add. He yelled too, but in pain as he grabbed his nose. Poor guy had just woken up to a sock in the face. And now he was rolling around on his bed in pain. Well. You had what you were looking for. You had your bracelet and you needed to get out of there a.s.a.p. You bolted for the door, leaving Cruz behind to writhe in pain as you grabbed hold of a shocked looking Mathieu. You two busted through that cabin door so fast you'd think it would go flying off its hinges.
"D-Did you just-!?" Mathieu whimpered in a shrieked voice. You knew what he was going to say.
"-Yes I did now come on!" you yelled, pulling the young boy with you as you bolted toward the side of the ship, frantically thinking of a way to get off the ship. And wouldn't you know it? Cruz decided to drop anchor about 50 feet away from any piece of land. Yeah, that's right. That yahoo made it impossible to get off his ship without a rowboat. Either that or you swam to shore. Thanks, thanks a lot Cruz.
The roar of Cruz shouting for his men only made you think more frantically.
"L-Look Miss. I-I'll stay beh-hind…y-you go ahead." Mathieu said, dropping his head and fiddling with his hands. You stopped what you were doing and looked at him.
"Are you crazy?! Do you know what will happen to you if you stay-" you began to say, but he cut you off. Something that was unusual for him.
"Oui…I-I k-know." he said. His actions were very…heroic. It reminded you of Alfred. You would have smiled at him for his offer but instead shook your head vigorously and grabbed his wrist tightly.
"Not a chance! I made a promise to your brother and I intend on keeping it….even if he is a dirty pervert." you said, mumbling the last bit to yourself.
"Huh? What was that?" Mathieu asked. You turned your head around only to see Cruz stumbling out of his cabin room and looking for you.
"Hope you can swim!" you said just before you did a run and jump over the side of the ship, landing in the icy waters below. Oh, and Mathieu was dragged down with you as well. As soon as you hit the water you immediately wished you had looked a little harder for a rowboat. The water was freezing! Making every muscle in your body contract in all different directions in an attempt to keep in the precious heat you once had. Soon, though, your lungs needed air. So you were forced to swim up to the surface. When you reached the surface of the water you took in a giant gasp of air, allowing your lungs to fill up with that precious life oxygen. You looked around for Mathieu.
"M-Mathieu?" you whispered softly, not wanting to alert anyone. You felt a pull on your arm, pulling you back to the ship. You would have screamed but a small trembling hand covered your mouth. You whipped your head around to see it was only Mathieu. He placed a finger to his trembling lips and motioned for you to swim closer to the front of the ship. You did as he suggested, and just in time too. As soon as the two of you were under the bow of the ship Cruz and most of his crew were looking over the side of the ship. Probably looking for you. You couldn't really understand what was being said, as Cruz was yelling in Spanish. You did suspect a few profanities were being exchanged between Cruz and his crew by the tone of his voice. But you and Mathieu stayed huddled where you were, even though the both of you were trembling. Part from the cold and part from fear. You both were soaked but you both managed to make it off of Cruz' ship without being caught. Yet.