With the Seas ~ A Hetalia Fan Fiction

Chapter 28 ~ Rain

Everything is dark. It feels as if I’m moving. I try to open my eyes, but I can’t. Soon I stop moving. Then I hear low voices. I hear tones of smugness, fear, satisfaction, fury, desperation, despair.

What’s happening?

The voices that I hear blend together, making everything incomprehensible. But one voice makes its way to my ears.

“Miss Vincent!”

“Arthur…?” I murmur.

My mind fades again.

***

The soft pattering of rain stirs me from unconsciousness. This time, I’m able to open my eyes. It’s nighttime; there is a dull light coming from a shrouded moon. I try to sit up, but my whole body hurts.

“Miss Vincent?”

I look up to where the voice, breathless with relief, is coming from and see Arthur’s face above mine. It seems that my head is resting on his lap.

“Arthur, what happened? Where are we?”

“We’re on a tiny boat in the middle of the ocean. My remaining crew was captured by the frog, and my ship was burned and sank.”

His voice is flat but edged with bitterness.

“But before it sank, some of the Spanish bastard’s men brought you over, and I saw that you had been –” Arthur stops abruptly and lets out a deep breath.

“I was poisoned. And they told you there was no hope of saving me. Those bastards…”

I feel Arthur tense up then start to shake in anger.

“That bloody bastard! He made that poison, and only he knew the antidote. Damn him! I hope he rots in hell!”

He stops shaking, and his voice becomes soft.

“If I knew what was used in the poison, I might have been able to do something with my magic. I’m willing to bet anything that Spain planned all of this.”

“I agree. He probably knew that you would ask me to stay away from a battle with a country and that I would naturally go after the captain. In that case, we both fell for his trap. So, neither one of us is at fault.”

Wincing at the pain, I manage to find one of his hands and intertwine my fingers with his. My eyelids feel heavy again, so I close my eyes.

“Miss Vincent?” Arthur calls my name in a panicked voice.

“It’s all right. I’m just resting my eyes. By the way, it’s raining, isn’t it? How are we not soaked to the bone?”

“Magic. And you were right it did end up raining today. It started up about an hour ago.”

“That reminds me – the reason why I knew that it would rain today is because I saw that it would. The very last thing I saw in the Eye of the Storm was a rainy day. The Eye shows us our days at sea. Therefore, the last thing I saw would be my last day at sea. I suppose I subconsciously sensed that today would be the day.”

“I don’t remember seeing a ‘last’ scene when I looked into the Eye,” Arthur says perplexed.

“I suppose that you wouldn’t. Since you can live forever, you could spend as much time as you want sailing. There’s no fixed day for you to stop.”

I think for a moment.

“Maybe I could have avoided this if I had realized sooner…”

“No. ‘Last day at sea’ does not necessarily mean ‘last day on earth.’ There is no way you could have known.”

We are silent for several moments.

The rain continues to pour, and the waves rock us as gently as a mother rocking her baby to sleep. I open my eyes halfway and see that the clouds have moved a bit to allow for more moonlight. I close my eyes again and breathe deeply, in and out, in and out.

My body is too weak and in too much pain to move very much, and I can barely open my eyes. I can feel all the energy slowly seeping out of me.

I need to do this now.