Living on Writer's Block

With a roar, Samuel sprang forward with his sword raised against the old man. The skeleton flung up a hand against the attack, but pointlessly; the Swindler’s sword carved through him and dropped the emaciated body to the ground, but not before the old man had flung a poison dart at Samuel, catching him in the center of his chest. The man died with an evil, satisfied smile splitting his face in half, his dead eyes fixed malevolently on Samuel. The captain quickly jerked out the dart, but too late; the fast-working toxins already had time, even in that brief moment of contact, to spread fire across him, racing through his veins and burning him from the inside out. He felt the flames lick along the inside of his arms and burst through, lighting his skin on fire, curling its blackened edges away from his flesh, consuming his bones and crumbling them to ashes. He fell to his knees, curled in on himself, shut his eyes against it and fought it desperately, teeth clenched silently against the pain. But soon a roar of agony rumbled up from his chest and tore out of his throat, and he yelled as he’d never yelled before; only milliseconds later, all the pain vanished, and after a moment of drained and ragged panting, he opened his eyes again wearily, expecting to see hell-fire before him. He saw only the same fetid darkness as before. Ramona still hung before him, bound in place by thick ropes, slumped forward lifelessly. Samuel climbed slowly to his feet, swaying, and raised his sword above her, slashing it down through the ropes. She fell forward, and Samuel watched stupidly as she came towards him in seeming slow motion. He realized a moment too late and she crashed into him, bearing them both to the ground. 

“Ouch,” he groaned, staring up at the black ceiling. Lee stepped to his side and offered a hand. Samuel clasped the man’s wiry arm gratefully and sat up, wary of the girl lying across him. 

Lee spoke up from where he now crouched beside the Swindler. “You’re one hell of a pirate, you are, sir.”

Samuel chuckled drily, drawing a dagger and setting to work cutting through the ropes that circled Ramona’s wrists, knees, and ankles. “What makes you say that, Lee?”

“Well, sir, if I may, sir, you ought to be dead by now. I mean, look at yerself!” Samuel paused, looking down, and his lips tightened in amusement. The lad had a point. “You’re covered in blood, leakin’ more ev’ry minute, and I can see some gashes are down to the bone on yeh, sir. And aside from that — d’yeh know how many men can’t break down that door?”

“No, Lee, tell me,” he said, pausing briefly to look up at his companion.

“’Twas said thirty men wouldn’t be able to break it down.”

“Well obviously, my lad; thirty men wouldn’t even fit in that hall, let alone have the coordination to move,” Samuel said calmly, returning to his work.

“My point is, sir, yeh oughter be dead and yer not. Yeh’re nigh indestructible. Yeh look like something out o’ hell, if you’ll pardon me fer sayen’ so.”

“Perhaps you could say I am from hell, lad — if you believe a demon can bleed.  There’s other options, you know,” he finished, flashing a grin at the man.

“Jokes aside, sir, yeh look terrifyin’,” Lee said, helping to clear away the scraps of rope from Ramona’s arms and legs. 

“I thank you, my good man,” Samuel said mockingly, with a slight bow. “How flattering of you.” He picked up some frayed fibers of rope and held them before Ramona’s face, watching them carefully. They shivered, and he felt her breath faintly on his fingers. He jerked his hand away, grimacing at the strangeness of the feeling. Lee’s eyes followed the motion, and one eyebrow jumped up for a moment, but Samuel didn’t notice. Ramona groaned faintly and shifted slightly, still in her unconscious state, and he grimaced again at the feeling of her on his legs. He swiftly but gently moved her off and stood up above her, picking up his cutlass at the same time. Lee handed him a handful of rope fibers,  and Samuel quickly set about scraping them along the blade of the sword to clean it as well as he could, keeping an eye on the comatose girl at his feet. Ramona stirred suddenly and he crouched beside her again as her eyes opened. She searched the room wearily for a moment before she noticed him beside her, and then she sat up a little in shock. Her eyes widened as she felt her body’s weakness and she fell back onto her elbow, one hand to her head, blinking dizzily.

“You feeling better, Redhawk?” Samuel asked. 

She looked at him. “I don’t — exactly — remember what happened. I remember hearing you crash into the door, and then it cracked open and I saw you… after that it’s all dark.”

“There wasn’t much to see. He killed that ghoul and cut you down, that’s about it,” came a voice from above them.

She looked up at Lee, blinking slowly and shaking her head a little. “I know you. You’re the one who had to tie me up,” she said quietly. Samuel helped her sit up.

Lee rubbed his neck, red-faced. He coughed. “Erm, yeah, about that, cap’n — I didn’t want t’do it at all. I’m awful sorry, Bloodhawk, ma’am.”

She nodded, still slightly dazed. She dropped her head in pain at the memories that surged up, closing her eyes miserably. “It’s alright, Lee. You had to obey the Matron… we all did.” The captain suddenly remembered the other part of his goal. He sprang to his feet and rushed out of the room. Ramona’s eyes fluttered open and she raised her head, looking after him in confusion. “Where’s he going?”

“If’n you please, ma’am, he’s gone to knock off the ol’ lady. He asked me where ‘e could find ‘er as he was coming down ‘ere.”

She started up weakly in alarm. “But — but he’ll be killed!”

Lee put out a consoling hand. “Easy, cap’n; he’s taken care of the whole crew already. The ones what would have hurt you or him an’ his crew were — well, were dealt with, as he put it, by the ones that wanted to leave this blasted ship.”

She stared at him, dazed and disbelieving. “How on earth did he even get up here? The whole bay’s full of her henchmen.”

Lee grinned widely. “Oh, ya shoulda seen him, ma’am! He were leapin’ from boat to boat like it weren’t nothin’ more’n a step, and he swung all about ‘im till the boat were empty o’ livin’ souls. The boats what got to ‘is ship weren’t on it for long before his crew sent ‘em to tea with Davy Jones. Sure, ma’am, an’ the whole bay’s cleared of all of ‘em!”

Ramona’s mouth fell open. “And he did that, just with his little ship?”

“Aye ma’am, that ‘e did.”

Ramona looked out the door, her eyes quickening with faint gold. “I didn’t think he had it in him.”

Lee smiled. “Well, ‘e does, as we’ve all seen t’day.”

With a quiet groan, biting her lip against the intense pain that still raced across her body thanks to the poisons in the old man’s needles, Ramona got up carefully. Lee stood up beside her and offered to help her above-decks. “No, Lee, I’m alright, I can go by myself. You should go up ahead of me, maybe clear the way a bit? I can walk, but I can’t fight.” She smiled, but it was very forced. She didn’t feel at all strong enough even to walk, but she didn’t want help. Lee looked at her dubiously for a second, then he shrugged and left the dark little cell quickly. She took a few unsteady steps, and then stumbled forward, hit the doorway, and leaned against it for a moment, one hand to her forehead, the other tightly gripping the splintered woodwork. Splintered? Why was it splintered? Had Samuel…?  Her eyes widened. But — but thirty men — ! Far off, in the dark of the under-deck, she suddenly heard the Matron’s harsh laugh. Her heart quailed. Surely the old woman wouldn’t laugh unless Samuel had been defeated? Drawing a deep breath, she stumbled forward again as quickly as her weakened body would let her, only to fall heavily against the wall as before. The harsh laugh sounded again, bouncing eerily off the wood walls. Ramona heard distant crashing, and groans. Hearing the groans, her blood froze in her veins, and she instantly became steady, still as a statue inside. Straightening up away from the wall, her eyes set and hard, she strode with a quick step toward the Matron’s quarters. She felt no dagger in her belt but that didn’t matter. If Samuel had risked his crew and his ship to help her, she could risk her life. She hadn’t much of one to risk anyway.

Ahead, a thin line of dim light showed at the foot of the door. Ramona stopped in front of it and took a deep breath, then let it out slowly, one trembling wisp at a time. Then, grasping the knob, she opened the door quickly and stepped inside.