Skyrun

Chapter 4; The pirate ship.

Liam was not sure how long he sat there, shaking.

Long enough for his friends' blood to be mopped off the floors, for their bodies to be left in the docks for someone else to find. Long enough, to realize that he couldn't escape.

His mind was a blur, racing with thoughts that seldom made sense. His palms were slick with a thin layer of sweat, his whole body shook with the horror, the memory, of what he had just seen. Malcom was dead. Gone in an instant, sent to the afterlife with a confident stroke of the pirate captain's sword, as if the boy was nothing. Just a nuisance. Expendable. 

This chain of dark thoughts was immediately followed by the realization that Liam could be next.

Forcing himself to stay calm, he tried to think of something, anything, that could possibly get him out of this mess. Unfortunately, all he could think of was the fact that Phillip never would have been in this situation. HE would have been smart and not gotten on the ship in the first place. He—

Liam suddenly stopped, sucking in a breath, his blood running cold.

From behind his sanctuary of boxes, he could hear footsteps echoing on the metal floors of the ship, slowly coming toward his hiding place, step by agonizing step. 

No, Liam thought, No, please...

The footsteps inched closer, growing louder in the boy's ears until they rang in his head like explosions. In the dim light, he saw a shadow loom over him and he fought the urge to whimper.

Then the figure looked over the boxes and spotted him.

Liam's eyes locked with the mismatched ones of the silver-haired pirate, and for what felt like an eternity, neither of them moved. Body tense, Liam waited for the young man to sound the warning and let the others know, or to end his life here and now.

But the warning never came.

Instead, the young man took one glance at Liam's terrified face, smirked and said, "Well, look what we have here." 

His voice was rich and smooth, with a frostiness to it that reminded Liam of the harsh gales of winter. Narrowing his eyes, the man continued, "I believe we have a stowaway. Do you know what we do to stowaways, lad?"

Liam swallowed, and when he spoke he forced his voice to be brave. It never wavered, "I can imagine."

The pirate chuckled and Liam thought he saw a slight smile flicker across his lips. "You know, most people that I find spying on this ship start blubbering like babes at the mere sight of me. Take that group before you, for instance."

Forgetting his fear for a brief second, the boy bristled with anger, his eyes narrowing to slits. "Those were my friends."

"Ah." the pirate's expression grew cold once more, "Unfortunate luck for you, I suppose. Still, you can always make other friends. I'm sure there's someone in the realms of Maufaria who'd want to be friends with the likes of you."

"That's not the point!" he roared, forgetting where he was in the heat of the moment. "You can't just disregard the fact that they were human. They were lives!." He shook his head in disgust, "I guess I wouldn't expect someone like YOU to understand something like that."

But just as it looked like the pirate was about to reply, the rest of the crew suddenly came bursting through into the ship, followed by a pretty woman dressed head to toe in scarlet. 

Immediately, she began barking out orders to the crew and, with a sickening feeling growing in his gut, Liam watched as a group of men closed the door to the airship's hull. With a final click, it locked into place, shutting out any last hope he had of escape.