The Night I Found Home (The Forever Pirates) #1

020

Seonghwa

Everything was so loud, but the opposite was true in my mind.

It was too quiet. Nobody had talked to me in days. Their own terror had completely kept them preoccupied, and I couldn't help but slip into a state I fought so hard to get out of. 

I was slipping more and more, even as rain flooded the decks, and the strain of the storm kept attacking us without pause.

I was slipping. 

Everything had changed, and even though it wasn't a fast change, it didn't feel slow. It felt like things got bad, to worse, and now there was no end in sight. I didn't understand why this was so important.

Especially as the storm became so brutal that pirates started praying to a god they didn't know.

The only one sure of this journey was Hongjoong, and he was too busy getting there to really see the effect it had on any of us. Mingi said to trust San's instinct, that his gut would lead us right, but it seemed to me that his gut was ruining him and making it impossible for him to even wake up in the morning.

I didn't need his instincts to feel my fear or know how truly fucked we were.

As we passed the storm, everyone tired from the strain, I saw an island in the distance, with a set of caves off to the side. Far enough disconnected that it could be seen as two different places entirely if we had not gone so long without any town in sight.

Hongjoong smiled brightly as he took on the sight of the caves, but the rest of us, soaked in water and broken down to our souls, stared at it, feeling more dread.

And I dreaded it most of all. Because as I stared at the man I cared for, I saw that it was true that he cared for something more. And it was whatever was in that cave.

Fear was alive in my core, and I couldn't shake it, not after letting it fester so long with nothing to comfort or distract the cruel thoughts.

I looked over the edge of the boat, thinking death would be kinder, and I still had no clue what was to come in the first place. For the first time in days, I heard my name called twice by two different men.

San and Hongjoong.

San looked sick to his stomach, looking so unwell. I thought he'd croak right there and then. I wasn't sure what he thought he could tell me, and I wasn't sure he knew either.

His "bad feelings" turned into physical illness that he had no hold on, and he could not tell me why he felt the way he did or what I could do instead.

This was what we traveled all the way for. This was my purpose to them in the first place. I'd never be free with this looming over my head. My purpose was this, and if I did not complete it, did I truly matter?

Hongjoong said he'd keep me safe, and despite all the turmoil we all experienced, I still trusted his belief that he would. But as I solemnly turned my back on San to go towards Hongjoong, I prepared for my sacrifice.

***

"We're here." He said with so much relief, like he could barely believe this. His hand went to mine, squeezing painfully tight as if this was one of the best days of his life. "I made it."