The Pirate's Game (Updating)

The Beach

A beach. What an odd mixture of pleasure and destruction it could offer a stranded victim. Raven had always been made to believe it offered relaxation and joy for vacations, only to now see how much despair it showed to those tired and weary.

If she ever got out of here alive, beaches would be off her outings list forever!

*

The next day's sun was hot and merciless, bearing down on Raven's back cruelly as she trudged along the sandy beach. Her mind had been abuzz all night with many concerns, but now it was numb to all thoughts. She was just too tired to ponder anymore nonsense. Out here she would either die, or she wouldn't. There was no point in worrying over it any longer.

She sighed, picturing Seth's face for the hundredth time. She was so anxious to leave him, the only human presence she could halfway trust. Or perhaps, it was something even more than that. Truth be told, when he wasn't acting like a scoundrel, Raven rather...didn't mind him.

Or maybe she even...liked him? No, no. Seth was just one of the few people who understood her, knew her in a way not even Linda could not. They were cut from the same cloth, and shared the same past. Yet she could not allow herself to mourn this separation. He was a ruthless, shameless man, one who held no real loyalty to her. If he was willing to put his crew above her well bring then she simply could not trust him, or his intentions ever again.

A few tears escaped Raven's eyes again. She was just so tired, so hungry, too hot for comfort, and most certainly frightened. She didn't want to die, she didn't want to get hurt. She didn't want to leave Seth!

Why? Why did he have to be so cruel all the time? Out here on the beach when it had just been the two of them, he seemed so loyal and responsible! So kind and thoughtful even...

Raven was really going to miss him, and the life he had promised. She had honestly been looking forward to raising a family, and living a life free from the pressures of society. Yet now she was on the run for her life, escaping the very man she had been planning to marry! What an odd turn of events indeed...

Though it was not entirely unpredictable. After all, nothing truly went her way in life. Happiness always had a way of evading her. Besides, who could ever truly say it was wise to trust a pirate?

It had been plain foolishness from the beginning...

"RAVEN!" A voice bellowed across the wind.

Raven gasped and suddenly turned back, horrified to see Seth and a large group of men with him. They were all walking towards her, looking at least a few miles behind her on the beach. It probably wouldn't take long for them to catch up, her capture was inevitable.

Nevertheless, Raven turned around and ran. Ran, without a word, without a care, without a hope. Simply trying to escape the fate Seth was so persistently offering: capture.