Mark My Words (A Carlos DeVil Fanfiction)

Chapter 8

Petra's POV

Before I could even think about fighting, I knew I had to reunite myself with Carlos. I landed at his side and put a hand on his shoulder, unintentionally startling him. "You sneaky genius, I can't believe you actually got away with that!" I said, playfully punching his shoulder. Carlos glanced behind me at the pirates approaching us. "We haven't gotten away with anything yet." He said, grabbing a sword from the barrel behind us and handing it to me. "You know how to use this thing, right?" At this I raised an eyebrow and snatched the sword from his hand, throwing it up in the air and catching it. "Is that even a question?" I said with a smirk. Before he could answer, I flew over the docks and towards the ship.
Flying is an experience of it's own, but flying with a sword in hand and fighting pirates all at the same time is by far the most exhilarating thing I've ever experienced in my life. I began to get pretty creative, at one point I pulled one pirate's bandanna over her eyes and let her stumble around until she fell overboard. Then I used one of the nets holding the mast's in place as a slingshot (with Tay's help pulling me back) and threw myself at the group, causing them all to fall in the water. But no matter how many pirates we beat they kept on coming back, they all could swim apparently. Whatever the next phase of Mal's plan was, she better hurry up and put it in motion.
          Out of the corner of my eye I spotted Carlos fighting off a buccaneer on the docks. He was doing great, he was on the fencing team after all. But creeping up behind him was Harry with his hook in the air and fire in his eyes. I abandoned the pirate I was currently fighting and shot through the air and in between Harry and Carlos. Just as Harry brought his hook down I blocked it with my sword. "Hey, you aren't playing fair!" I said with a smirk. I heard Carlos say something behind me, but I couldn't hear it with all the noise already surrounding me. By now Tay had returned to my side and hovered over my shoulder. "I'm not playing fair?" Harry said, putting pressure on his hook so I had to push harder against him with my sword. "I haven't seen you play fair once! You're just flitting around like a little cowardly sparrow."
          I knew I shouldn't have let him get to me. I'd learned my lesson about pride the hard way. But maybe it was the smug look on Harry's face or that he was trying to make me look weak in front of Carlos, or maybe it was the fact that I had been training with a sword for years and when I finally got the chance to use my skills he was ridiculing me. But I had let Harry push me around ever since I got to this god forsaken Isle, and I had just about enough of it. "A cowardly sparrow?" I retaliated, pushing harder on my sword against the hook. "We'll see about that." I quickly removed my sword and jumped out of the way as Harry stumbled forward, not expecting me to move and therefore have all his pressure on nothing. I pointed my sword at his back. "I'll fight you man to man. With one hand behind my back!" I shouted.
          Tay cleared her throat and whispered in my ear "Don't you mean 'woman to man'?". I shushed her and replied with "You're ruining the moment!". From across the deck I heard Gil gasp in excitement. "Just like in the story!" He squealed. Carlos on the other hand, wasn't as excited. "Petra, don't!" He said, but it was too late. "Is that so?" Harry said with a smirk. "Then let's get on with it!" Just as he finished speaking, Harry took a swipe at me with his sword to which I quickly ducked out of the way. I told Tay to leave so I could keep my word of fighting alone. I returned Harry's attack by taking a jab at his legs, but he jumped to avoid it.
           We moved all across the ship and the docks, but we were too caught up in our battle to care. We were so focused on trying to find each other's tactics that we didn't pay anyone else mind. I'm sure I knocked at least five pirates into the water trying to get a hit on Harry. The problem was that we were both evenly matched, yet we were both too stubborn to admit it. My feet hadn't left the ground and my hand hadn't moved from behind my back as promised. I knew I had to come up with something no one had ever seen before to throw Harry off, only then would there be a true winner here.
          Suddenly, on my right I saw a flurry of green smoke that was so thick you couldn't see what was on the other side. All it took was a quick glance to see that it was Jay who was responsible, it was a smoke bomb of some kind. I smirked. "Jay! Throw me a red one of those!" I yelled, turning back to Harry. "That is your favorite color, right?" Harry furrowed his eyebrows in confusion for a moment, then Jay threw the smoke bomb my way. I took my sword in both hands and swung at the smoke bomb like I was a batter at a baseball game.
          Red smoke filled the air, so I followed the sound of Harry's coughs to find the one-handed wannabe. So when the smoke began to clear, I was already ten steps ahead of him. Before he could orient himself I kicked the hand his sword was in so that he dropped it and used my own blade to remove the hook Harry held in his other hand. Then I pointed my sword at him. "You're mine, Hook!" I shouted in triumph.
          I heard Gil cheer for me, but Harry was quick to shut him up with a cold glare in his direction. Harry put his hands in the air and took his hat off his head, putting it over his heart. "Alright, Ms. Pan. You win." He said, eyeing the hook that hung at the end of my sword. Did this thing mean that much to him? I decided to test that theory by holding my sword and the hook over the water. Harry panicked. "Wait, give it back! I surrendered!" He stuttered out. This was the first time since I met him that he was the one at a loss for words. I decided to take advantage of this moment. "I'll give it back, on one condition." I said, toying with my sword and watching the hook wriggle at the end of it. "You have to apologize to Ben and I."
          Harry didn't look too happy about this, but once I let the hook slide closer to the end of the blade he obliged. "I'm sorry." He whispered. I shook my head. "I can't hear you!" I said.
          "I'm sorry!"
           "For what?"
          "For kidnapping you."
          "And?"
          "Knocking you out and cutting your cheek."
          "And?"
          "Tying you up?"
          "And?"
          "And what?"
          I shrugged. "I don't know, just wanted to see how far you'd go." I said. I began to reach for the hook, I never intended on throwing it in the water in the first place. I just wanted to mess with the pirate a bit. But just as I was about to close my hand around the hook, I felt someone shove me from behind. I stumbled forward and the hook fell into the waters below. I turned to see the culprit who pushed me. "Carlos!" I yelled. He had his eyebrows furrowed together and his hands were clenched in fists at his sides. "What? He deserves it for what he did!" He argued. I shook my head profusely. "He apologized!" I replied. "But he clearly wasn't sincere!" Carlos said.
          Just as I was about to argue with him further, we heard a splash behind us. I turned to look at Harry, but found he was gone. He wouldn't. But turning towards the water again and seeing a red blob under the sea I saw it was true. Harry jumped in after his hook. "Is that Harry?" I glanced behind me and saw Gil. "Why would he do that? He knows he can't swim."
          My eyes nearly popped out of my head. "He can't swim?" I repeated. Gil shook his head. "Nope! Can't even doggy paddle." But he didn't even have to finish for me to begin slipping off my shoes and throwing my sword to the side. Carlos saw what I was doing. "Hey, stop!" He said, grabbing my arm. "This is what he deserves!" I looked up in shock and connected eyes with Carlos. His blue orbs weren't the playful, happy shade they usually were. They were dark and guarded. This wasn't Carlos, not my Carlos. "If we sit here and let him die, that makes us worse then him!" I said. "I know it runs in your blood, but I'm not about to become a villain today."
          Carlos' eyes shifted in an instant, but time was running out. I slipped my other shoe off and dove into the water, and the last thing I heard was "Petra, I'm sorry! I love you!"