[Vereena]
"Oh God, this tastes awful!" I gagged, tossing the ladle back into the soot-covered pot while rubbing my tongue out to dispose of the taste that clings to it.
Good heavens! This tastes like sand and grime overflowed with seawater and spoiled seaweeds! Is this what they eat here? How could they fathom this kind of food?
I don't mean to disrespect that cranky old guy Eulisses for cooking this abhorrent kind of food, but I just cannot stomach the taste of it. I'd rather be starving than actually eat this stuff. It's horrid. I glared at the steaming pot with my face contorted into a grimace and sighed out in frustration.
The more I stared at the pot, the more I thought of home came to mind, and for the first time since I've been stowed away, I cried. Tears sprang from the corner of my eyes, and they raced down my cheeks. My knees weakened, and as the ship tipped to the side, I finally lost my balance and collapsed on the floor, weeping.
"I want to go home," I sobbed, curling myself right next to the bed. I cried for I don't know how long until I fell asleep with an empty stomach.
The world around me faded into darkness, my body swayed along with the rocking motion of the ship along with the waves, and my soul drifted into a dream. That I am back in Pearlshire Harbor, inside my bed-chamber with Mrs. Charlotte attending with my dress as I am about to leave with Prince Tarquin for our wedding at the palace in Ebondale.
I wore my long yellow dress with my skirt flaring from my waist and down to my feet. Its long ruffles billowing right behind me. It was beautiful, and I looked like a real princess. However, that dream faded into a nightmare. My sunny dress was suddenly drenched with blood. Chaos was everywhere, shouting and fighting. Men armed with swords and newly invented ammunitions that fire like cannons.
I was in the middle of it all, witnessing cold-blooded murder. Decapitated head rolling on the lake of blood, mutilated body sprawled all about the place.
And in the midst of all the terror was a familiar face.
He stood there, staring at me with his sharp eye, half-naked. His body was also covered with blood, but I know for one thing that he wasn't wounded, and in his right hand held a long blade dripping with thick crimson.
"No," I breathe out, my heart roaring fiercely against my chest with sheer terror, taking tentative steps backward as he started to prowl forwards. Stalking me like I am his prey. A sinister grin appeared on his face, menacing as though he had just found his next victim.
"No!" I screamed at the top of my lungs, turned around so quickly, and ran.
Run for my life.
I don't know if this was still a dream or a nightmare, but it feels so real. I could feel the warm thickness of the blood splashing around my feet as I pushed myself to run. The pungent smell permeating my nostrils and the cacophony of blood-curling screams all around me, deafening my hearing.
What is this place? Why am I here?
Too many questions ran into my mind, and my chest constricted as my lungs depleted with air.
I keep on running, dragging my feet until they hurt. However, I came to a grinding halt. My feet skidded on the slippery path when the man I was trying to escape stood right in my way.
"You can run, lassie, however you can never get away," he snarled, mocking me with his smile.
I couldn't breathe.
My airways constricted with fear as he came closer. I couldn't move either. It feels like my feet slowly sinking into the pool of blood underneath me.
"Vereena."
My name rolled on his tongue softly, contrasting his countenance. His bloodied hand lifted and touched my face, prompting me to stagger backward, but he caught my waist, preventing me from moving any further. The smell of rotten flesh wafted into my nostrils, curling my stomach with disgust, upheaving all the contents of my gut up to my throat.
"Let me go! Monster!" I sneered, squirming against his grasp.
"Vereena," he uttered my name again as though he didn't hear me scream. However, this time, he said it more delicately. I glared at him in befuddlement, staring directly at his patched eye.
Why is he doing this?
Fear already consumed me, my entire body trembling in repulsion, and my vision blurred as I whispered in lamentations, "I want to go home."
"Vereena," he murmured again, the back of his hand drifting on my cheeks and wiping the tears, all at the same time smearing the blood on my face. "I'll come back for you."
No… I will not let him get me next time.
Mustering the little courage left in my body, I pushed him with all my might, screaming at the very top of my lungs that my throat hurt.
"LEAVE ME ALONE!"
The horrendous world around me suddenly sifted, warping into a swirl, taking me with it. My body floated, the man disappeared, and the next thing I knew, I was falling.
A pair of hands gripped my shoulders, jolting my eyes wide open and the first that greeted my vision was the exact same man who existed in my nightmare.
Startled by his face, I instantly thwarted his grip on my shoulders and scampered as far as I could away from him, snarling. "Get away from me!"
He was surprised by my sudden panic and held his hands up as though he was trying to ease my sudden outburst of hysterics.
"It's just a nightmare," he slowly crooned, hesitantly inching closer.
I roamed my eyes around me, taking in the familiar surroundings, a little bit of relief that there wasn't any sight of blood. I am still panting hard as though I have run the hills up and down for hundreds of laps. Fat beads of sweat roll down at the side of my face while my eyes are wide in frantic.
Nightmare.
It was all just a nightmare.
Just then, I began to feel at ease upon the realization that it wasn't real.
However, I still couldn't get Captain Steele's face out of my mind. His monstrous appearance and the smell of blood that lingers on my head.
"It's okay, caileag."
I took a gander at him curiously, not understanding the last part that he said. "What?"
Captain Steele just sighed sharply and moved closer until he was right in front of me and was about to reach his hand into my arms, "No, don't you dare touch me!" But I immediately recoiled from him, too scared of what my dream had been and how he looked like a demon.
"Fine," he groused, tossing his hands in the air, conceding as he took a step back, giving me space as I recollected my wits and stood on my feet.
I was dusting myself, fixing the creases on my shirt, when I felt a heavy stare in my direction. I peered through my lashes and saw the captain's gaze riveted on my shirt.
"What in the flaming hell you are looking at?" I sneered, immediately got conscious of my baggy appearance, and crossed my arms around my chest, slightly offended by his stare. Though something flashes across his eye. It was too quick, yet I think it was a sort of despondency, I'm not sure.
"Where did you get that clothes?" he asks, shifting his gaze to my face, his head cocked to the side skeptically.
Oh, heavens! I forgot that I literally rummaged through his things without permission. I was about to say an apology, but then I realized that he didn't ask my permission as well when he stripped me naked while I was unconscious.
Now, we're even.
"I didn't know where you put my dress. So I use what I found inside one of those chests," I contemplated out unhesitatingly, jutting my chin towards the chest that was still open where I found the shirt.
Captain Steele just narrowed his glare on me as he went over the chest, checked the rest of its contents to see if anything was missing, and closed it when he found none besides the clothes. He turned around again and steered his gaze around his quarter, and his sight landed on the soot-covered pot perched on top of his table.
"You didn't eat." He stated blankly, shifting his attention to me as he took the ladle I carelessly tossed inside the pot.
Is he seriously thinking I will eat that rubbish?
"That wasn't food!" I bleated loudly, heaving with disdain as I gazed at the green concoction that looked like poison.
Captain Steele closes his eye, appearing as though he was trying to calm himself before spurting a response. "It was all that we have, lass. Not 'till we docked the next port and restock our supplies."
Next port? That immediately caught my attention. I would see the land again, and that only means one thing.
That might be my only chance of escaping.
"When will that be?" I inquired curiously as the ideas started turning like cogwheels inside my head, laying out my plan of escape.
"Uh-ah, that will never going to happen," Captain Steele shakes his head, squinting his dubious gaze on my face as though he knows exactly what was running in my head.
A scowl immediately formed into my countenance as I pressed my lips tight contemptuously. Was I that obvious?
"I will not eat 'till then," I folded my arms against my chest and stomped my feet in protests, lifting my chin in defiance.
"Fine, starve yourself," he retorted jeeringly, picking up the pot off the table and turning away from me.
"I will!" I stubbornly countered, glaring at him pointedly.
Captain Steele only shakes his head satirically, muttering something under his breath before he exits the quarter. "Dùr."
Leaving me in puzzlement.