Pirates' Destiny: In Hazardous Pursuit

Chapter 18: A Lost Light (Lucy)

Evie was alright! And Benjamin, too! I leaned on a mast, though I wasn't sure which one. Sailing was still new to me.

Only one of us and the ship hadn't survived, but I couldn't bear to think of it at the moment. I was exhausted both mentally and physically and had no desire to dwell on things I couldn't change. Don't misunderstand, I was definitely saddened by what had occurred, but I had no mental capacity to think on it right then even if I had wanted to.

"Lucy!" A voice called for me and I was brought back to reality.

"Ben?" I turned my head, searching for the source of the voice. I caught sight of him near the rail, waving me over.

"You're feeling better?" he asked when I had made my way to him. He looked a bit bruised, but otherwise in good health.

"A bit. Evie seems to get along with the 'captain' rather well." I replied, putting special emphasis on "captain." That fiend was no more a captain to me than I was a chair. "What a scoundrel. A murderous thief of a man, he is." I paused, noticing the circles under Ben's eyes for the first time. "How are you holding up?"

He patted the rail beside him and I leaned on it next to him, awaiting a response.

"I don't remember what happened," he admitted quietly.

"You... don't remember?" Startled, I stared into his blue-green eyes. "The storm?"

"No. None of it. I remember Evie - Captain Hawthorne mentioning the clouds on the horizon. The sky was dark and..." He shook his head.

"I'm sorry. That must be infuriating." Being unable to recall the event that had claimed the life of one of our crew? It would frustrate me beyond belief. He must be hurting.

"I just... I don't remember everything being this hopeless before." Something dripped on the rail. To the ship, just another salty bit of water, but to me it was a sign that something inside Benjamin had just broken.

I hugged him fiercely - scandalous, I know. An unmarried woman hugging a man that wasn't family? But it was exactly what he needed. Though he stiffened at first, he melted into my arms and returned the embrace just as fiercely as I held him, sobs shaking him as the storm had shaken our ship.

"I understand. You don't need to say any more." And I did. While I might not feel his pain for myself, I knew how it felt to be grieving and thrust into a world you didn't see before. He and Markus had come to know each other very well, and the skilled old sailor had been both his and my mentor in learning the workings of a ship. He'd become something like a father to Ben.

When we lost my mother, my world changed drastically. My father and I both lost our light. She was kind and gentle and, to the little girl I was, represented all that was good in the world. With her gone, it was as if I had been thrust into another world that was exactly the same, only darker. And I was lost. My light had been snuffed out, and with no candle to show the way, how does one navigate a dark hallway? I imagined that this was how he felt.

I held him, his chin hooked over my shoulder, and glared at any pirates that dared look too long. No one would make a smartass comment to him about this, not on my watch.

When the sobs had receded, I gently pulled away. "If you need anything, and I mean anything, come to me." I felt my face redden as I realized that he could take that in a way I didn't mean, but it went over the poor boy's head.

"I - thank you, Lucy. Truly." He looked as his feet shyly.

"Of course." I nodded. "Y-"

THUMP. Something hit the top deck, and hard. Following the thud, I heard alarmed shouts calling a name. It sounded suspiciously like -

"Evie!" I glanced at Ben and he looked just as alarmed as I was. She had passed out right there on deck!