The Clockmaker and the Pirate - EVERMORE BOOK 1

Chapter 14 -- The Lair, 28 July 1650

A/N: Two things -- One, I entered TCATP in for NaNoWriMo and "won" because I hit 50k words!! I got an official looking certificate and everything. I originally started writing this story for NaNo, but it's so amazing that you guys are enjoying it! Thanks for helping me hit my goal of 50k, and don't worry, the story's going to keep going for a little while. :)

Two, I just published a preview of a new fic that I'm considering writing, so if you could go check that out it would mean the world to me. Thank you so much!
Austin

She didn't exactly treat us well while we were on her ship. The waves were choppy, and we were still tied up in ropes. We bounced around with every little bit of turbulance, and I could tell that Mitch was getting a little seasick. Ironic.

Her ship was big -- much bigger than La Rosa Morti. Her crew is a lot larger than ours, too. When we were thrown haphazardly on the deck, Kirstin followed us giddily, gasped, and then ran into the arms of the handsome man who had been sailing the ship for her. She planted a sloppy kiss on his mouth, and I couldn't help but grimace in disgust.

We weren't treated much better when we arrived at her lair, either. We were thrown into a cage -- a literal cage, as if we were animals in a zoo, and she was the annoying kid who kept sticking her hand in the cage trying to pet us or watch us run around. The cage is in the middle of a dimly lit room with no windows and only a locked door on one wall. At least she was kind enough to take the ropes off of our bruised bodies.

I would be talking to Mitch right now, but he's in the opposite corner of the cage, as far away from me as he could be. He's sitting with his arms resting on his knees, crying into his hands, and not acknowledging me whatsoever.

He's been doing this for hours; the last time he talked to me was last night, when Kirstin had first thrown us in here. And even then, all he'd offered me was a weak 'goodnight'. Here's the thing -- I thrive off human interaction. That's just who I am, and the fact that he refuses to touch me or even speak to me hurts a little. I want to start conversation, but I don't know where to begin.

I want to hold his hand, to cuddle him, to talk about the weather, do something, but he's just curled up into a ball, crying, not unlike his fake self had in the hallucination cave.

"I..." he begins meekly. It's so quiet that it's barely audible, but since I'm basically hanging onto his every move, it doesn't go over my head.

"What?" I ask, eager to make some sort of conversation.

"I'm sorry," he says sorrowfully, looking up slightly and meeting my eyes.

"Sorry for what?"

Mitch scoffs. "This. All of this shit. I never wanted this to happen. I'm the one who brought you along, I'm the one who trusted Kirstin, I'm the one who wouldn't let you leave when you wanted, all because I was so...blinded. And now you're trapped in a cage and it's all my fault."

I open my mouth to reply, but he doesn't let me. "The last thing I wanted is to put you in danger," he continues, "yet that's exactly what I did. And I know that you're never going to be able to forgive me for something like this, and that's okay. I just want you to know that I'm so, so sorry." The last part of his sentence is muffled as he buries his face in his arms again and cries.

Once again, I feel as though my heart is being ripped right out of my already heavy chest as I see him crumble into a broken, grief-stricken mess of a human. I crawl on my hands and knees until I reach him, and when I do, I wrap my arms around him and rub my hand up and down his back. He leans into me, and I can feel him trembling as he weeps.

"This," I say, keeping my voice low in an attempt to be comforting, "is just as much my fault as it is yours."

"How so?" Mitch asks, wiping his tears on his sleeve.