A Life Stolen 7

Dominick sat crouched down on the mast waiting, two cutlasses and a multi-barrel pistol tucked safely in his sash, Avery stood just behind the wheel, while the crew was divided between those who were manning the cannons and those who were ready to rush the alien ship.

There was a moment of silence when the two ships slowly pulled next to each other. The ship before them had a pirates flag raised at half-mast, a sigh of friendship, or being as it was a tell tale sign that there was an ambush ready for them. The decks of the ship were empty, not even a soul lingered on their polished wood.

The Captain was nowhere in sight, the youth scoffed at this, he was probably in his quarters taking his sweet time getting ready.

‘Despicable’ Dominick thought as he brushed his silver-blond hair out of his eyes.

The second the ships lined up the cannons began, however, the enemy ship did not return fire right away, several pirate swung on ropes to the opposite ship, just as the door to the hold swung open and the ships occupants charged into battle, seemingly weaponless.

Dominick hung back slightly looking for the Captain, but as the last of the occupants drain from the hold, the black-eyed youth was sure that he remained inside his quarters. Disregarding his sore body completely, the silver-haired youth ran along the yard and jumped into the air, grabbing a rope during his decent and swinging onto the nameless mast.

Drawing a sharp cutlass, the boy began his attack. The noise of battle was deafening in the air, cannons- now coming from both ships- gunshots and screams echoed in Dominick's ears. The smoke from the cannons covered the two ships in a white fog so that all a man could see was the area in front of them.

The black-eyed pirate ran up to a man who must have been at least 6'4", avoided his attack, before plunging his cutlass into the mans gut. With a groan of pain the man fell and Dominick moved on. He didn’t feel the slightly bit of remorse for what he had done.

The young pirate made it to the main deck, his cutlass blindly finding its mark and covering the silver haired youth with blood, soon all Dominick could see was red; the simple lust for blood and death. The youth's attacks became more fluid and fierce, not discerning from friend and foe.

Dominick was mere feet away from the Captain’s quarter now, he was determined to hunt him out like a rat and slaughter him like the coward he was.

A young pirate charged at Dominick, his cutlass raised high above his head and his mouth opened wide yelling his battle cry, Dominick almost felt sorry as he threw his cutlass at the boy, aimed for his heart.

The pirate stopped in his tracks with a gasp of pain before falling to the ground with a loud ‘thunk’, Dominick merely let a vindictive smirk cover his face as he walked over the young boy to retrieve the cutlass as the battle continued around him.

"Bastard," the youth heard from behind, the voice held a high key of malice and hate, Dominick’s smirk dropped from his lips like water spilling from a bowl as the boy decided right then that he hated that voice. Without a second thought, Dominick drew his multi-barrel pistol from his sash, spun on the ball of his foot and shot. Only one thought filled his head, as he starred in horror at the man, ‘the voice will die’.

The man staggered slightly, looking at Dominick with a betrayed expression, it only took a second after that for the youth to remember who the man was, Domovoi, first mate of Captain Oliver. The mans light brown hair fell over his honey eyes as he took in a pained breath. "DOMOVOI!" a scream came from the cabin followed quickly by footsteps as the man Dominick once considered to be a brother fell the ground, his blood-stained hand over his heart as his last breaths left his lips. And as if the world had stopped just to stare on at the sight playing out before them, time slowed, and Dominick’s heart tightened in his chest.

What had he just done? The question rang through his ears, deafening what thought still remained.

Captain Oliver appeared seconds later, his red hair disheveled, falling messily over his pale complexion and green eyes. The Captain was not wearing a shirt; instead, bandages were wrapped tightly around his torso, the man collapsed over Domovoi with tears leaking down his face as a sob left his lips. "No," Oliver whispered in horror almost as if expecting him to come back.

Dominick dropped to his knees, his eyes widen with disbelief a part of him wanted to calk the days events up to a nightmare, however as the youths heart tore open and tears clouded his vision, Dominick knew that this was real.

Oliver pressed his lips firmly against Domovoi's, savoring the last kiss he would ever give his lover, before turning a gaze filled with hatred towards the young pirate. A tear slipped from Dominick's eye as the two pirates met each other’s eyes, Oliver slowly covered his mouth with his hand, shaking his head. It was his turn to doubt reality.

"Dom," the man said in a hoarse trembling voice, his hand dropping like a lead wieght, "you killed him… you killed him. Dominick... how could you," Oliver slowly got up, his hands clutching Domovoi's fallen sword. "HOW COULD YOU," and without a second thought the Captain rushed towards Dominick with the cutlass raised, determination in his eyes.

The silver-haired youth didn't move, he just bowed his head, waiting for death to come, hoping that it wouldn't be as painful as people said it was... however, the blow never came, Dominick looked up slowly, his gaze empty of life.

Avery had blocked Oliver's attack.

"Avery," Dominick said in a small defeated voice, "step aside," the black-haired man looked back slightly surprised at the youths words, his teeth grinding together as he struggled under Oliver’s attack.

"Dimitri," Captain Avery started his eyes widening slightly, his first thought were linked to last night and he couldn’t help but blame himself for Dominick’s words, "I'm not going to stand by and watch this man kill you."

Oliver backed up a step, dropping the hand that held Domovoi's cutlass, Avery to backed up, however keeping his cutlass at ready. Oliver looked at Dominick with disgust, "Dimitri?" his words sounded painful. "So that's it now?" Oliver growled out, "DIMITRI!," the Captain laughed painfully, "I never thought I would see the day when YOU, OF ALL PEOPLE, concealed your identity," the man was yelling now, "YOUR MOTHER MUST BE-," the Captain started, however he was shot down quickly by Dominick who looked up at him with a pained look.

"MY MOTHER IS DEAD," Dominick screamed as a few more tears slipped from his eyes, Oliver looked back at him with a sneer; Avery on the other hand listened into the conversation with confusion.

"Don't lie to me," Oliver whispered in a deadly voice, his bright red hair falling slightly over his green eyes. Dominick merely shook his head as if indicating that he wasn't lying.

For a second, the decks almost seemed quiet as Oliver processed this information, the sounds of battle faded to nothing, while the man looked horrified towards Dominick, whose black eyes seemed to be glowing with tears.

"Avery," Dominick started in a small voice as he dropped his head once again, "go back to your ship."

"No-," Avery began, but before he could blink Dominick disappeared from where he knelt and without a moments notice, a cold blade was pressed against the Captain's throat.

"Avery," the boy repeated, "go back to your ship or die," tears were now pouring from the youths black eyes. Avery, looked at Dominick with horror-filled blue orbs, but said nothing more as he turned on his heal, disappearing into the battle that was still ripe.

Dominick waited a moment to make sure the man left before he turned on the ball of his foot, and walked slowly towards Oliver, whose head was bent. "I'm sorry," the youth whispered as tears came from his own eyes, "I'm so sorry," Dominick dropped to his knees in front of Oliver, awaiting his judgment.

The young pirate looked into Oliver's bright green eyes one more time, Dominick’s tears had stopped falling now.

"Dominick, stand up," the red head commanded, the youth obeyed, at full height he was at least two inches taller than Oliver, "turn around," the black-eyed pirate looked questionably at the Captain but obeyed nonetheless.

As soon as he did, he could feel Oliver's small hand on his left shoulder, and before he knew it, a white hot pain traveled from Oliver’s hand to Dominick’s lower right back, the youth let out a hiss of pain as he arched his back away from the man slightly.

The Captain slowly walked around Dominick until they were staring at each other in the eyes. "A scar to haunt you," Oliver said in a far off voice his eyes narrowed with a cold hollow gleam in them similar to Captain SheVal’s, "stop being so pathetic and get off my ship," Dominick closed his eyes, the guilt was unbearable, however, deep down, Dominick knew Oliver was right, "I never want to see you again.”

The silver-haired youth stood there in a slight stupor in front of Captain Oliver for a second, the word ‘pathetic’ whispering repeatedly in his head downing out the sound around him. Dominick only stood there for a few moments more before he opened his eyes, that were iced over.

“You’re right Oliver,” Dominick’s voice was cold, “I am being pathetic.” Dominick slowly reached out his hand grabbing Oliver’s thin white fingers that did not carry a cutlass and slowly pressed his lips to them. The red head jerked his hand away but Dominick did not let go of that seemingly fragile hand.

“I have wronged you two times now and I am even more undeserving of your friendship now then I was before,” Dominick dropped Oliver’s hand as their cold eyes meet once more. “However, I will not stand by and simply watch as battle continues around us.

“I ask you now to call back your crew and leave or die trying to defend your ship,” with that Dominick turned on the ball of his foot and marched back into the battle that waged around them, slowly making his way to Avery’s ship where the Captain fought audaciously.

The young pirate marched up to him and with two simple slashes of his sword; the two men who fought against Avery fell to the ground in lifeless heaps.

“Call back your crew, you have nothing to gain from destroying that ship,” Dominick said in a cold voice as he quickly climbed to the topmast, standing atop the yard. From there he sought out Oliver who like Dominick told him stood atop the deck, shooting three loud gunshots into the air, one after the other before calling out to his crew, his voice traveling over both ships easily. However, Dominick didn’t listen to the words the slipped from Oliver’s mouth, instead he focused on the horizon, a point that he would never be able to reach,

Captain Oliver’s crew hastily moved back to their own ship, careful not to fall into a conflict on their way. Below Dominick, Avery did the same thing, and soon both ships, now broken and tattered, sailed away almost as if nothing had happened.

There was another moment of silence, this one suspended longer than the last, as the crew mourned their lost crewmates, the bodies would undoubtedly be separated into friend and foe, and then cast into Poseidon’s great depths with prayers for safe traveling for the wondering spirits.

Dominick remained on the topmast through out this time, his eyes fixed on Avery as he tried to figure out what he really felt for the man, not once during the battle had Dominick even thought about to worry about him. Before, he was even ready to kill the man if he had gotten in the way again.

You don’t do that to someone you like or love, Dominick knew this, so he could only come to the conclusion that he had merely lusted after the man, after all, Dominick thought bitterly, how could he even begin to like someone who had gone so far as to rape him.

Even if the silver-haired youth chose not to stop Avery, the simple fact that Avery didn’t stop by himself was enough to make Dominick not like him.

The young pirate watched as Avery just finished paying the injury compensations to those who had lost limbs in the battle, with a finale sigh Avery but away his sack of gold in his quarters before he returned once more to the deck moving just below the foremast.

“Come down here,” Avery said in a quiet voice, he deliberately left off the name Dimitri when he addressed Dominick, who sighed knowing that he would have to tell the truth. Not because he was caught in his lie, no, he had to tell the truth so he could prove to him self that he was not pathetic as Oliver claimed.

With no need for further convincing, Dominick sung down from the mast on a rope, landing at Avery’s feet, who quickly turned, marching back to his quarters, Dominick followed.

Once Dominick was inside, Avery shut the door behind him with a loud snap.

“Who are you?” Avery demanded, wasting no time over formalities, Dominick almost smiled at this, as he moved further into the room that was dimmed with shadows, once at the middle, Dominick turned towards Avery.

The young pirates eyes were narrowed, all that remained were black pits, and his slivery blond hair fell over his eyes, making him seemed ethereal, God-like even. “My name is Dominick SheVal.” The words spoken were soft and eerie; Avery took a step back so he was only a few inches from the door.

A thick silence pregnant with anticipation fell over the two, each waiting for the other next move.

“…You lie,” Avery accused, a smirk fell over Dominick’s face as he took a menacing step forwards, his body moving gracefully with each gentle rock of the ship beneath.

“Believe what you want to believe,” Dominick shot back, his eyes never leaving Avery’s, “Just know that at the next stop, I’m getting off this god forsaken ship and never looking back.”

With that Dominick pushed Avery aside and pulled the door open, letting the salty air run over him like a warm blanket. The sun was low in the sky now, it almost seemed like it was painting the ocean a rich orange, the crew had lazily drifted towards the hold, leaving only a handful of pirates aboard scanning the horizon.

Just like before, time went on, it seemed like time should have frozen the moment Dominick killed Domovoi, but it didn’t, it instead haunted the silver haired boy, each hour tearing a small part of his heart away until it disappeared altogether. Hours turned into days and days, weeks.

This story is still on hold, this is just an old chapter that I forgot to post