Crazy In Love | Buggy

s e v e n t y

Me and Buggy had made it back to the spot where we were supposed to meet Dilly. I had gotten some of my strength back. Enough to walk on my own.

We were early: she wasn't there yet. Buggy sat me down on a large rock, but stayed standing himself.

I could see in his posture that he was on edge. He was tensed up, alert and looking around. We were surrounded by trees, it was as if he was making sure nobody was hiding in them.

"Are you alright?" I asked softly.

Buggy seemed to snap out of a trance. He looked down at me, his ocean eyes wide. "Yeah... I'm... "

"You're nervous. I can see it. What are you thinking?"

He sighed. "That we should have killed Dilly."

I bite my lip. I knew what he was implying in what he said. He didn't trust Dilly - he was worried about her betraying us. After all, she had already done it once so far, how hard would it be for her to do it again?

My only thought was that she hated Bozo and his crew more than she hated us. Although, they had more to offer than us. If she helped us, she'd be on her own. She'd have to go find a new crew.

My nerves began to build. "You think she'll betray us."

I was stating the obvious.

"If she does, she'll be the first person I'll kill."

Buggy had the upper hand with his devil powers, however, all his pirates could still have a chance at taking him down. Especially with me here. He'd have to defend me. That made him weaker. I was suddenly guilty that I had pushed him to bring me.

Suddenly, we heard rustling from the trees. Buggy tensed up once again, his eyes studying the trees around us, trying to locate the source of the noise.

Then, Dilly came walking out, dragging along a crate and a little cart to carry it. Her eyebrows furrowed when she saw me.

"You brought her?"

Buggy relaxed as he noticed it was just her, although he was still clutching his weapon. "She deserves to see the crew die."

Dilly rolled her eyes. "She'll probably end up throwing up from the blood."

"She's actually getting quite good with blood. She hardly reacted to me chopping off Bozo's head."

I met Dilly's eyes. They were full of shock. "Really? God, you're changing Betty."

She was right: I was. This entire journey had changed me much more than I had ever thought possible. I wondered what my family would think when I got home.

Going home wasn't something I thought about anymore. It felt like the rest of my life should be spent with Buggy, on the sea. Yet I knew I would go home eventually, and Buggy would stay on the ocean. The thought of that caused a lump to form in my throat.

I pushed that all aside. "For the better."

She grinned. "We'll see. Anyway, the crew thinks Bozo is still alive. That's good for us. They're all drunk as hell, and in the bar. My new idea is that we poison all the alcohol before it's served."

My food poison idea had been topped. Dilly's was better. The alcohol would be easier to circulate. Plus, when people died, others might be too drunk to realise. Or they'd assume people were just passing out from the alcohol.

Buggy looked to the crate. "What's that for?"

"Well, I thought you'd stand out if you just walked into town. People are drunk in the streets so it'd be hard to just sneak past. Even with your powers. My plan was to shove you in the crate, lie and say it's more alcohol I found, then bring you into the bar storage room."