Past Pirate Ship

Chapter 25

Theodore's P.O.V.

I wasn't sure how to react. Should I... I had no idea. All I knew was that my interpretation on who R.C. was, was wrong, so so wrong.

"Ariela?" I finally breathed; shattering the silence like thin ice.

"So you know who I am. It doesn't make any difference in the situation." She said nonchalantly, shrugging her shoulders while dropping the low tone she had been mimicking to disguise herself as a man.

"'Doesn't make a difference?' it makes a difference!" my volume grew, "We grew up together! You're like a sister to me! You used to be so close to me and told me everything! I knew you better than I knew myself! Now I find that you were the one threatening your own mother and Danny? Why would you do that? Why would you become this, this..." I fumbled for the right word, looking at her in disgust, "person!?"

Ariela chuckled darkly, "You think just because you grew up with me, you know everything about me? You think my life was all dandies and sunshine. That my life was a blessing? Well, I'd like you to know that it wasn't! I don't care that I threatened to kill Dariela because she doesn't matter to me! She isn't even my real mother!" She snarled angrily.

"What are you talking about?"

"Dariela isn't my mother, she only claimed the title because she found me as a babe abounded on her doorstep. She didn't want to 'hurt my feelings', so she only told me when my actual father came on day and demanded I live with him." She hissed with displeasure.

"You never left Dariela, you've always been living with her." I stated.

"You left when you were a mere adolescent. Of course you wouldn't know if I had left or not. I was with that man for four years before I came back and in those four years he showed me how the world really was. He taught me how to be real." I couldn't believe what she was saying.

"You think this," I pointed in disgust at her, "is real? It isn't. Being a heartless person isn't being real, it's being a coward." I spit at her.

"Being a coward? No, being a coward is like the people who whimper and shake when I even think about looking in their direction. The people who hide away in their little homes when I walk down the street. That's being a coward." She spoke, levelling her gaze at me sharply.

"No being a coward is hiding who you truly are." I said, keeping my gaze on her unwaveringly.

"I've had enough of this conversation. Sam, take Danny over here to a cell," she said with a tinge of frustration in her voice, "and make sure no one comes near her."

"No! Leave her out of this! She had nothing to do with this!" I shouted angrily and hurried towards her.

Ariela stopped me abruptly by pushing her arm out and blocking my way. She then fiercely said, "She's the whole reason why I wanted the scroll."

"Impossible! You didn't even know she existed before you met her a few weeks back."

Ariela bent down and retrieved the scroll from the deck. She gave me a sinister smile before showing me what was on it.

"How?" I whispered, my eyes running over the portrait restlessly.

"About two years ago, a woman appeared at my doorstep, claiming she was a widow because of me, and declared she knew who I was. She threatened my demise, because according to her, my death would not be a good enough retribution. I obviously didn't take the woman seriously, but she kept on with her threats. But the funny thing is, she said that it wouldn't be her who did it. No, she said the person who would, wouldn't be of this time. I brushed the woman's threats off and after she left, I never saw her again, but then a few weeks later, I had stumbled upon something. The woman didn't seem as crazy after that.