Part One
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Castian's own floor sucker punched him in the gut, and he let out a sharp breath. He heard Vellis slam into the wood next to him. The boy moaned, rolling away from Castian.
He sat. The room spun tight circles around him like an angry ballet dancer. With a sound almost as pathetic as Vellis' he put his head in his hands. Splitting pain radiated from it, probably the reason for the spinning. He swallowed back a rising nausea. A moment later it returned, surging inside him. I am not going to be sick. At least not in front of Vellis. Please... He ran his fingers through his messy hair, just to check for an actual wound. There wasn't one, and he couldn't decide if that was good or bad. It definitely meant he didn't know how to get the pain to leave. Aspirin. He needed an aspirin, or, more accurately, an entire bottle of them.
Vellis made another sound from the floor next to him. It wasn't a good one. Then he was scrambling up. His boot clipped Castian in the arm, but he was too tired to curse at him, and Vellis didn't seem to notice. He shot into the bathroom, door banging against the bedroom wall with a loud thud. Castian curled inward, clutching at his head. The sound echoed within his skull, bouncing off the sides of his brain. I will not be sick.
Vellis vomited in the other room. Castian shut his eyes, breathing in slowly. Another heave and he felt his stomach turn over violently. Out of everything that had happened in the last half hour, puking on his floor was going to be the most humiliating. It's going to happen, he thought, hands going from his head to the floor. It rocked under him as if it was the deck of a stormtossed ship. Not exactly helpful when nauseous. At all. It pitched again, and he squeezed his eyes even tighter shut. He must have hit his head.
There was a muffled noise from Vellis that sounded almost like a whimper. Castian curled in on himself till his head touched his knees. This time it felt like the entire room was rising. A sharp crack filled the air, rolling off into the distant and light flashed against his eyelids. What the hel--
Something slammed into him and he was thrown up against a wooden railing. Water filled his mouth and lungs and he coughed, clinging to the railing like a half drown cat.
He coughed again, spluttering for air. Water left his lungs, coming up his throat and making him gag. The ground pitched wildly, almost throwing him over the railing and into...
Into the sea.
Castian heaved over the side, another drop in the ship's deck slammed his stomach hard into the railing and everything he'd eaten in the last week shot up from it, because that was way too much to just be breakfast. He heaved again. Something clutched at his arm, and he looked over to see Vellis clinging to him. His hair was plastered to his head, dangling down past his chin and clinging around his neck like it was intent on strangling him.
A wave slammed over them.
"What happened?!" Vellis' words were snatched away by the storm, but Castian could read his lips even in the low lighting.
Yelling filled the ship, and Castian was sure at least a little of it was directed at them. His nailed buried themselves in the wood of the railing.
"I don't know!" he yelled back. The adrenaline coursing down his veins made it hard to think. His own heartbeat drown out the hurricane.
Vellis crouched down by the railing and hooked and arm and a leg around it, hauling Castian down next to him.
His knees crumpled and he dropped to the desk, clutching at the railing. Someone ran by, shouting something in their direction. It wasn't English though, and over the storm Castian couldn't make it out well enough to know the meaning or language. He held tighter to the rail, eyes squeezed shut. A wave pummeled into them, and Castian gagged on the salt water. It slid into his nose. He snorted to clear it. Next to him, Vellis panted through clenched teeth. The water made him look like a half drown kitten, clothes and hair flattened, eyes wild with the need to escape. Castian wondered if he looked the same. Probably, but he'd never admit it to a single soul. His heart slammed against his ribs on every beat, trying to escape.
Another wave sloshed over them. It broke against the ship. People screamed. A man crashed into the railing next to Castian. He sprang up a moment later, running back across the slanted deck. Shouted orders filled the air, blow in every direction by the screaming wind.
"We need to get somewhere safer!" Vellis yelled over the storm. Castian didn't move though, holding firmly to the railing. If he let go, he was certain the next wave would throw him over into the sea. And then he would drown, because there was no way in hell someone could swim in that. There just wasn't. A wave from the other side of the ship broke against them and Castian gasped in pain, getting a mouthful of water. He spat it out, choking on the flavors of fish and salt. Vellis stared at him for a moment, then out over the ship. Castian didn't know how he could see anything through the spray and darkness, but he lifted a hand to point towards the middle of the ship.
"There! I saw someone go down a hatch there!"
Vellis leapt up as the ship tilted again, half running, half sliding down the deck towards the spot. Castian grit his teeth, then hurtled after him, almost falling over the body of a man on the deck. Vellis vanished in the dark.
Castian's foot slid on the water coating the deck as he moved, stumbling along. A wave slammed him and he fell. And fell.
When the floor connected with his chest it was a harder fall than it should have been. Castain struggled up. He was in ankle deep water, surrounded by darkness too deep to see through. His back bumped into something. A moment's groping in the dark told his fingers it was a ladder. He'd fallen through the hatch and into the hold below.
A small sliver of light came in from above, barely illuminating the top rungs. Someone blotted it out and Castian ducked back, banging against a barrel. The man slammed the hatch shut behind him. Had it been dark before? Not like this. Castian pushed himself farther back till he was sure he wasn't in the man's path. The ship rocked and bucked under him. The hold stank, and the water sloshed around his feet, sinking into his boots from the top. He couldn't make out the splashing of the man's steps from the rest.
A square of light flashed above and a wave rushed in before someone slipped out and slammed the hatch closed again. There was no way to tell if it had been the same man in the darkness or not.
"Vellis," he hissed. No one replied.
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Well that went crazy fast; again. Will Castian ever just get a nap? Noooope. Well, maybe, someday XD. You know, when he dies.
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An Assassin In Time
Science Fiction(ON HOLD) If time couldn't hold you, what would you do? Castian was born inside a Field, outside of time. He has no timeline. He belongs nowhere, and anywhere. The Field he was in was destroyed when he was young, and he and four other children...
