Crazy In Love | Buggy

s e v e n t y - s e v e n

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The first thing I wanted to do now that I was alone was get out of this dress - no, I wanted to burn this dress. I knew logically that the dress was not the cause of all of this, and that no matter what I had worn Jacques still would have went after me. Yet, I still resented the dress, as if it had been the one to assault me.

All of my clothes were back in the hotel room. I didn't want to wait for Buggy to return to change my clothes. Especially if there was a chance that people from the town might come for me. I didn't want to be restricted in a tight, short and revealing dress.

I dug through Buggy's large chest which was full of an assortment of clothes. A lot of them were ridiculous clown clothes. Finally, I settled on a buttoned up white shirt and some grey shorts.

I stepped out of the dress, immediately kicking it under the bed and out of sight. If I couldn't destroy it, I at least didn't want to see it. I slipped on Buggy's clothes, buttoning up the shirt all the way to the top.

When it was on, I lifted the collar to my nose and tried to smell Buggy on them. It smelled just like him. It only made me miss him more than I already did.

Next, I climbed into bed. I didn't want to sleep, I knew I would be safer awake rather than asleep. Yet I knew I had no choice. If I didn't, I would pass out again. I couldn't risk that. Plus, with the chair in front of the door, I felt a little safer.

Buggy wouldn't be long - and it was already approaching morning. I could see the sky lightening in colour as we approached the boat. I would sleep for an hour or two, it would be fully morning, and Buggy would be back.

Or, at least, that is what I told myself. I pulled the covers tightly around my body, closed my eyes and immediately fell asleep.

When I awoke, I knew that I hadn't slept for an hour or two. I felt far too well rested for that. Had Buggy returned? I wondered. When I looked towards the bedroom door, I found that the chair was still lodged under the handle, unmoved.

Fear spiked up inside of me at the sudden realisation that Buggy hadn't returned. I considered two possibilities: either I hadn't slept for as long as I thought I had, or he had returned to the ship, but just not to our bedroom. He might have not wanted to wake me up. That was very like Buggy.

That thought sobered me slightly. I grabbed the knife from the night table, seeing that the blood had dried and mostly flaked off, slipping it into the waist band of the shorts that I was wearing. I just had to be careful that I didn't cut myself.

I moved over to the door, pulling the chair out from under the handle, and made my way out onto the deck.

The sun was high up in the sky, which was blue and clear, beautiful, really. I had slept for how long I had thought I had. If Buggy wasn't back on the ship, then he surely had to be in danger. The gorgeous weather didn't match my suddenly anxious mood.

I spent the next ten minutes searching the ship for Buggy. I looked first at the most obvious spots where he would be, but found them vacant of him. I even began to search the places that he would never be. It was silly, but I was praying that I would find him hiding somewhere.

Despite the size of the ship, at this point I knew it like the back of my hand. Buggy was nowhere to be seen.

Worry continued to spike inside of me. Had something horrible happened to him? It shouldn't have taken him this long to gather our stuff and get back to the ship.

I paced up and down the ship for what felt like hours. In reality, it was probably only another ten minutes or so. I couldn't quite decide on what my next move should be. Leaving the ship felt like a foolish idea. It was safer here.

But what about his safety? If they had done something to him... could they do anything to him? Buggy wasn't just strong. He had devil fruit powers. He was practically invincible, and normal humans could do nothing to him.

Yet, I couldn't stop worrying. It had been too long. Something must have gone wrong. But if I left, what could I even do to help him? I was only human, and they were an entire town of people.

Finally, I decided that I had to do something. If the roles were reversed, Buggy wouldn't hesitate to help me.

I went back into the bedroom. I threw off the shorts and put on some full length trousers. They were slightly clown-ish, but they would do. I could move freely. I made sure to slip the knife back into my waist band.

Before I left, I caught my reflection in the mirror. I looked a total mess. My make-up was smeared around my face, my mascara smudged around my eyes like a panda, and my outfit was just ridiculous. It didn't matter. It could wait until later to fix.

I left the boat, heading straight for the hotel where Buggy and I had stayed. It was a decent walk, and the longer I spent walking, the higher my anxiety spiked. My mind filled with awful scenarios, each worse than the last. I tried to convince myself that there was no way that they could have hurt me. He was just too strong.

The town was back to normal. It was as if last night had not happened at all. People were shopping, at bars, enjoying the good weather. As I walked past them, they stopped to look at me, gawking. So much for last night not happening. They clearly remembered it.

Luckily, nobody approached me nor did anybody say anything directly to me. They simply whispered almost themselves. They could stare all they liked - I didn't care. I was just focused on finding Buggy and getting the hell out of here.

To get to the hotel, it was quicker to take the short cuts - walk through little alleyways in-between buildings. I was so desperate to get to Buggy that I hadn't thought it through - I wanted to get to him as quickly as I could.

As I walked down one of the alleyways, I heard an odd sound - the sound of someone running. Before I even got a chance to turn around, to figure out who was running behind me, I felt a pair of strong arms wrap themselves around my body, pinning my arms to my side.

For a moment, my brain thought of Buggy. Was this him? All thoughts of this being him were thrown out of the window when suddenly, the arms lifted me off the ground, and I was slammed into the concrete wall of the alley. Definitely not Buggy.

The world around me seemed to spin for a moment. It only focused back when I heard a familiar voice.

"You're going to pay for what your boyfriend did to me, Princess."

Jacques.