A Pirate's Life For Me

Motive, Part Two

"Now, let's be serious."

Heaving breath after breath in, hoping oxygen will blank away the pain, I force my head to rise, holding back the whimpers from the last beating across my back. "L-let's."

"I want to know about the treasure on Stimm Island. You know about the treasure on Stimm Island. Seems like a perfect match, doesn't it?"

His hiss screams through my skull, fingers catching on the grime stuck to my face, sending spikes of pain through my chin and into my brain. I can't help but groan.

Yes, I know about the "treasure" on Stimm Island. Everyone does. Anyone with half a brain has heard it before. Supposedly there's this big chest buried on the west side of the island, filled with gold and jewels and yada yada yada. Most "treasure" myths are just legends. Who would go bury riches if they found it? Especially a pirate? Doesn't make much sense. The chest is only there because some bloke from England made a scavenger hunt, but seemed to forget that Stimm is the murderer hide out of the world and never made it back to his kids.

"Yeah, I know about it," I say slowly, evenly, watching the doctor as he paces in front of me, watching his body language. No way I'm straight out making him mad again. "What about it do you want to know?"

He spins suddenly, hands on his knees, forehead slamming into mine and I flinch back, the drug blowing his face out of proportion. "Everything."

I swallow, close my eyes to focus. "W-Well, it was buried by some guy from England, but he got into some bar fight and died before he could go tell his friends. I-It's supposed to have gold and jewels and things in it. O-On the west side of the island, is where it's buried. By the beach, in the tree line, forty paces from the big oak tree, 'you should just look out for that shipwreck, just dig around there and you'll find it all...'"

I open my eyes to find Doc standing again, looking down at me with a light in his eyes. "Awfully specific instructions, aren't they?"

Swallowing hard, I attempt to shrug, but wince instead as my shoulders scream their pain back at me. "E-everyone's gone looking for it. People make a lot of money, giving bogus instructions to finders."

"So those were bogus instructions?"

A chill goes down my spine. "N-No, on the west side of the island, by the beach, in the tree line, forty paces from the big oak tree, under a decrepit plank of wood from a shipwreck. That's where the chest is."

"So it's a chest."

I stop. Didn't he know that already? Did they ever say that it was a chest? "Yes, it's a chest."

"And somehow you happen to know exactly where this chest is, even though there are people out there making a lot of money, giving bogus instructions."

My fingers throb, reminding me of what happens for fun around here, not to mention when I lie. Somehow he can tell when I lie. "There are, um, consistencies between them all."

He stares at me.

I know he knows.

Shit.

"So you've gone to all of these people who give bogus instructions and seen the consistencies between them all, to the beach itself and you know exactly where this treasure is, as well as what container it resides in."

Shit shit shit.

"Would I be correct to assume that you've already found it?"

Fuck me in the eye socket with a cactus.

"That w-would...not...be...i-incorrect."

His hand crashes into my face.

My neck throbbing, head snapped to the side, I blink up at the doctor, sucking on the blood slowly filling my mouth from the split in my tongue, feeling the razor sharp edges of my teeth.

"And, knowing that you have already found the treasure," he growls, through gritted teeth, eyes closed as his jaw twitches. Goosebumps shower across my skin. I have yet to see him this angry, and a sinking fear drops like a stone into my large intestine. "Would it also be safe to assume that the treasure is not longer there?"

My throat closes in fear.

"I-I-I'm...n-not entirely s-sure."