The Violet Rose

Chapter 49- Regret

(This chapter is from Blaze's point of view)

     I'm such an idiot. It's been a year and a half since I've seen her, but I can't stop thinking about her. I know I messed up, but now she's gone, and I have no idea where she is. Everything seems more boring, sad, and annoying now. The entire crew had been in a gloomy mood since she's been gone. But still, I'm their captain, and I have work to do.

     Right now, I was sitting in my quarters, and just thinking. My hat sat in my desk near me, so I ran a hand through my messy hair. When I looked around the room, everything was a mess. The sheets of the bed were sprawled out from my many sleepless nights, and items were thrown on the floor all around the room. Most of them were intentionally thrown on the floor.

     I stood up, and decided to make sure everyone was doing their work. I walked out the door of my quarters, and looked around the main deck. Almost no one was up here.

     Perhaps they're all hanging out in the bunks. They shouldn't be. They should all be working right now, so I walked down the stairs, and into the bunks.

     Sure enough, a bunch of crew members were sitting around in here and just chatting. They straightened up when they saw me, and stood up to face me.

     I growled, "What the hell are all you doing in here? You all should be working and not sitting around!"

     One of them squeaked, "But Captain, we just wanted a break from work."

     "I don't care! I never told any of you that you could take a break! Now get back to work before I kill one of you!"

     A different crew member spoke up, "Phillip told us that we could take a break."

     "You shouldn't be taking orders from him! You take orders from your captain and that's it!"

     They scrambled out of the room, and went throughout the ship. I marched out, and went to the storage area to find Phillip. When i got down there, he was just moving a bunch of crates around. Jewel was sitting on a crate near him, and watching.

     I stormed up to Phillip, "What makes you think you can give my crew a break?"

     He set down the crate he was holding, and responded, "I'm the First Mate. I'm able to give them breaks and orders when you're not around."

     "I'm still around! They already had their orders, and didn't need a break!"

     Phillip sighed, "They were working themselves to the point where they were going to pass out. They clearly needed the break. Blaze, you're not in the right mental state to be giving orders. It's been a year and a half. You need to get over your feelings for Violet, or find her. You're worse than you were before you met her."

     My fists balled, "You don't know anything about it! It doesn't matter how I'm doing right now! I'm still the captain, and I'm in charge!"

     "The entire crew is starting to resent you. You're being more aggressive, violent, and deadly. You're a danger to everyone on board. You need to do something about your obsession with Violet."

     "Shut it!"

     Then, I punched Phillip in the face, but refrained from using all my strength. He fell to the ground, and Jewel rushed to his side. She helped him get back up, and checked out his face.

     Then, she turned towards me, "This is exactly why she left. You get people close to you, and then your aggression and violence pushes them away. Do you really think she'd want to come back if she heard how violent you are right there now?"