"Tessa!"
Her name could be heard echoing off the halls of the ship as she tried to escape her pursuers. With every turn she made the sounds of footsteps only seemed to get closer. She knew she only had another minute or two before they caught up.
Making her way around another corner she was greeted with a dead end, one of the airlocks had been closed remotely, likely due to a hull breach from the attack.
Tessa looked over her shoulder, her emerald eyes narrowing as she looked for a solution. She had just escaped, there was no way she was going to get caught now.
She quickly noticed a sign on one of the walls, causing a wry smile to appear on her face. She moved to open one of the nearby doors before entering the room, the door silently shutting behind her.
…
Three men soon made their way around a corner before arriving in the same hall Tessa had been in moments before. Noticing the airlock, the largest of the three smiled before giving some orders to the other two.
"She's bound to be in one of the rooms, go check the rooms! I'll wait out here in case she tries to run for it."
The other two men gave a quick nod before beginning their search. After a couple rooms they came across a strange scene.
The second they entered the room they realized that the temperature seemed to have dropped noticeably. But more importantly, in the center of the room was a young boy, no older then 16, covered in a layer of frost and lying in a frozen pool of his own blood.
"Paul check out the kid while I look around the room" one of the two men spoke before making his way to a nearby wardrobe.
Paul, rolled his eyes before making his way to the boy, the temperature getting colder and colder the nearer he got. Just as he was about to protest to his friend, he noticed the boy's breath condensing in the cold air.
"Rick…" Paul paused for a moment, astounded that someone had survived so long in this condition. "The kids alive"
"Check if he's got any ID on him, if he's someone important we can take him with us too" Rick looked over from the other side of the room and gave a grimy smile, before pinching his fingers to his thumb and rubbing them together.
Paul nodded before rushing over to the kid's side and kneeling next to him. Getting a closer look, he could now see what looked like a stab wound in the middle of the kid's chest. The boy's eyes were open wide and staring unshakingly at the ceiling.
Paul couldn't help but feel uncomfortable seeing the kid's expression and began searching the kid's pockets, only to find nothing. He then noticed the boy gripping something tightly in his left hand.
Reaching across the boy's body he tried to pry the kids had open, yet whether it was from the cold or something else the boy would not open his hand at all. Noticing Paul's struggle, Rick quickly spoke up laughing.
"Uh oh, is the big bad Paul losing to a half dead kid?"
Paul ignored the other man as he continued to gaze at the boy. Even without circulating his spirit energy his grip could crush a brick easily, let alone pry open some kid's hand.
Gritting his teeth, a warm energy moved throughout his body, forcing the cold out while filling him with strength. He then reached to the boy's hand again.
"Shit!" Paul cursed under his breath as pain quickly shot up his arms before he quickly recoiled his hands.
Looking down at his arms, the skin had been covered with a layer of frost reaching his elbows. On top of that, the tips of his fingers had turned black from frostbite.
Paul frowned as he looked down at his hands. Gazing angrily back at the boy, he raised his fists in preparation of slamming down, his energy circulating rapidly. But before Paul could put the boy out of his misery a shout could be heard from the hallway.
"Pirates! Get your asses out here boys!" The larger man from before could be heard shouting from the hall. Rick quickly responded, "What about the girl?"
"Forget the girl, I'm not gonna die trying to find her! Now get out here and help me fight!" After he finished a series of bangs could be heard from the hallway before a pirate's corpse landed just outside the doorway.
Paul and Rick looked at each other for a moment before rushing out of the room to help their friend.
A few moments later Tessa Landed on the ground, breathing heavily, her red hair covering her face. She quickly made her way over to the boy in the middle of the room trying to get a better look at his face.
"William…" She thought back to the couple times she had talked to the boy on the ship. He was timid, more of a bookworm then anything, completely different than most people their age.
She couldn't imagine what had happened to him to end up in this state. She knelt next to him, moving her hand over his eyes in an attempt to close them.
"No need to fight an-"but before she could finish speaking William's right hand gripped her wrist tightly, not letting go.
She tried to pull away, yet the more she struggled the tighter the grip became and the colder her arm began to feel. Just as she was about to circulate spirit energy his weak voice entered her ears.
"Please don't leave me."
She sat in silence for a few moments before looking back through the door, the sound of fighting getting more intense by the second. If she didn't make a break for it now, there's no telling if she'd get another chance.
She looked back down at William one more time, thinking back to their few interactions.
"Ok" she said softly, a hint of uncertainty in her voice. His grip releasing almost immediately, the cold feeling in her arm disappearing with it. She then picked him up and slung him over her back. "But if you survive, you owe me big time."