King Kong: The Faunus and the Beast

Chapter IX

Blake sat down on the dock.

She stared out at the fog, its white still plainly visible underneath the darkness of the night sky, even to those who didn't have night vision. She couldn't hear anything on the island beyond, which she supposed made sense, but it still frightened her.

How had she gotten to this point? She was too afraid of the island to sleep, and too uncomfortable of the White Fang to stand on the same boat as them. Now she sat in an odd middle, on the dock that separated the ship from the shore boat that would take the crew to the island. It wasn't docked here now, which gave her some comfort, although what the boat would do if it were here, she didn't know.

A voice spoke through the darkness, waking Blake from her trance.

"What are you doing here?"

Blake turned to the source of the voice, and felt just a little more tension release when she saw Sun walking down to her.

"Can't sleep," she said.

"Do you want to talk about it?" Sun asked, stopping next to her.

She looked back out to the fog, and shook her head. Sun sat next to her.

"Well," he said, trying to break the ever-so-awkward ice, "if it makes you feel any better, I don't think you have anything to worry about. You've got a whole ship of people who will . . . You've got me."

She chuckled.

"It's probably really freaky for someone to say that right in front of you," Sun said.

Blake shrugged. "Normally, I wouldn't care."

"So what changed?"

Blake winced as she suddenly realized the word she'd used. "Normally". Well, cat's out of the bag now. No point in hiding it.

She sighed. "That island, it does something to me."

"Why's that?" Sun asked. "You been there before?"

She shook her head. "Not until today. But I learned about it when I was young."

"How?"

"I have no idea. I think I might've heard stories from a sailor or something, because I can remember them haunting me while I tried to sleep. I guess some things never change."

"Has that been the problem the last few nights?" Sun asked.

She paused, and then she nodded.

There was silence as Sun processed the new information, piecing everything together in his mind. Blake just continued to stare absently into the fog, her amber eyes softly glowing in the darkness.

"Listen," he said, "I don't really know what you're going through. I don't really know how scared of that place you really are. But I'm here for you, Blake, and I know you don't want to hear this, but I'll do anything to keep you safe. And I know you'll do the same. So, how about we make a deal? Next time we go to that island, we make sure to protect each other. That probably won't do much, but does that at least make you feel a little better."

Blake shrugged. "I guess."

Sun sighed. "Yeah. Figured. We'll get through this Blake."

"Odds aren't in our favor," she said.

"That just gives us the element of surprise," he said, his arms spread out.

Blake laughed. She knew his bravado wasn't genuine, but if he was trying to make her laugh, it was working.

"Thanks, Sun," she said.

He smiled. "What are friends for?"

He stood up, and made his way for the stairs. "I'll be back in a few minutes to check on you. If you want to head back to your cabin, I'll meet you there."

Blake watched him go.

"Sun?"

He turned around to make eye contact with her.

"Thanks," she said. "For following me. I know it's not easy to do anymore, but it means a lot to me that you would do all of this."

He smiled, and nodded. "You're welcome."

He turned around, and made his way up the stairs to the Petrox Explorer.

Blake looked back out to the fog. But, this time, she wasn't thinking about the island. Instead, she was absentmindedly thinking about Sun. She wasn't supposed to trust anyone after what happened in the past. But she did. She trusted Sun with her life. There was no doubt in her mind that he would follow her, and that as long as she was with him, the danger on the island meant nothing.

Lost in her thoughts, her mind didn't piece together the sound of water moving until rough hands grabbed at her arms, and yanked her off the dock. Blake gasped. She grabbed at something, and tugged at it. She looked around frantically. Natives were rowing by the dock on a canoe, and a bunch of them had grabbed her and pulled her onboard. She tried to scream for Sun, but one of them clamped his hand over her mouth and nose. She tried to struggle, but the natives held her arms and legs tight, keeping her from moving. The world was going black around her.

The last thing she saw before she passed out was the Petrox Explorer fading away from the fog.

Sun returned to the dock a few minutes after the abduction. She was gone. He smiled. She must've gone back to her cabin. Maybe his cheesy speech helped her more than he thought. He turned around to head after her, when he barely spotted something in the corner of his eye. He turned back around, staring down at a white object. He knelt down, and picked it up from the ground.

It was a native bracelet . . .