Otherworldly || One Piece Fanfiction

I | Kidnapped

"When you experience loss, people say you'll move through the five stages of grief: Denial, anger, bargaining, depression, acceptance. What they don't tell you is that you'll cycle through them everyday,"

_-_-_

Aella woke up to the sun beaming down at her through the white curtains of her room and the chirping of the birds outside. She was covered in cold sweat and panting heavily. She propped herself up on her elbows, taking deep breaths to even out her breathing and slow down her racing heart.

"Just another nightmare," The girl muttered, rubbing her face. She got out of her bed, stretching, and went to her closet, taking out underwear and a bra along with black jeans and a light pink, tight fitting turtleneck. She entered the bathroom and opened the faucet of the showerhead, stripping then waiting for the water to warm up.

As soon as it did, Aella stepped under the water and let it wash away the sweat, sighing in satisfaction, then applied some shampoo, thoroughly rubbing it in her silky silver hair. She soon washed off the shampoo then put some conditioner in her palm and spread it on her hair. 

When she was done, she filled the bath tub with hot water and took out a bath bomb from her stash. She lowered the scented sphere into the water and watched as it fizzed and dissolved, letting herself relax in the bubble bath she prepared.

After the murder of her family two years ago, she frequently had nightmares about it. The culprit was never found, and the police closed the case because there were no more leads for them to pursue. She had been living with her uncle and his wife ever since, and even though he was the one to help her through the ordeal, she sometimes felt... weird around him--especially when he would subtly ask about her mother's last message sometimes, about what it meant. She supposed he was trying to avoid reopening the wounds (that had never quite healed) but was still curious as to what his elder sister's last message was.

'Protect the crystal'

That was exactly what she had been doing these last couple years. Whenever he asked what crystal she meant, or if it was a metaphor, she would answer with, "I don't know," which was a lie. She knew exactly what her mother had meant, and she didn't trust anyone with that secret, and she would die to protect it; she was the one entrusted with the task.

Aella's mind wandered back to sometime during the last year, when an incident had occurred. 

She was walking out of the kenjutsu club, drenched in sweat, with the early winter wind blowing against her, her silver locks whipping across her face. She pulled her hood further down to shield herself from the chilly winds and adjusted the duffel bag on her shoulder, sipping from a chocolate Frappuccino she had just gotten from Starbucks. 

She headed down the empty streets, putting in her earphones and turning on the song 'No Time to Die' by Billie Eilish. Just as Aella was rounding a corner, a hand covered her mouth from behind with a cloth, and she foolishly inhaled. 

The teen thrust her elbow back into her assaulter's face, twisting her body to use the momentum as extra strength. The man who attacked her was then kneed where no man would ever want to be hit. Hard. Before she could do anything else, however, Aella felt drowsiness take over and she fell unconscious.

When she opened her eyes again, she found her wrists were tightly tied to the arms of a wooden chair with ropes and her torso was tied to the back while her legs were secured to the legs of the chair. Her eyes widened in panic as she processed her situation but forced her mind to remain calm; after all, panicking wouldn't help with anything. Even though she would never show it or admit it out loud, she was scared; Aella was only human, after all.