“When I get out of here I am coming for you! I hope you know that! I will KILL you when I find you!”
I unlocked the door and opened them. I immediately felt the cool sea breeze flow across my skin. It lightened the stuffy air of Jonathan’s chamber. I turned in the door way and looked at the covered up bed. Hearing his cries of anger and his threats of revenge coming from behind the curtains… I couldn’t help but laugh.
“Better call for help.” I said, shutting the doors behind me and stepping out on to the deck.
As I made my way below the deck, the crew was eyeing me awkwardly. I was stopped once or twice, but when I told them that Jonathan had given me permission to walk the ship freely, they left me alone. I needed to hurry if I was going to save Dimitrius and get off of this ship alive. I asked one of the cabin boys where the cells were and he lead me directly to them.
“Thank you.” I said, paying him with whatever money I had left on me.
I didn’t have to search long before I found Dimitrius. He looked in a bad way. He was covered in dry blood from the battle and his clothes were wet from the leaky ship. His long hair was matted and dripping and he barely looked conscious. I opened the cell and rushed inside, cupping his face in my palms.
“Dimitrius? Dimitrius it is me.”
His eyes bobbed in and out of consciousness for a minute but eventually he came back to me.
“Helena?” He asked.
I could see that they had beaten him. His face was swollen. One eye was barely open. I needed to get him out of here. I didn’t know how I was going to do it, but somehow I would. I wouldn’t let the man I loved die in a cell. Not like this. Not while I still had breath in my chest. I threw his arm around my shoulders and heaved him off of the ground. He was able to be conscious enough that I didn’t have to support his whole weight, but I knew this was going to be impossible. There was no way I was going to get him to a lifeboat without being noticed. I put him back on the ground and began looking around the cells for another prisoner. There was only one. He had a long beard and looked as though he had been locked away for quite some time. He watched me silently as I approached. I could smell the stench of mildew and body odor as I approached the cell. I looked at him and then flashed the key.
“Will you help me?” I asked him.
He looked at the key and then me, deciding whether or not he wanted to help. After a moment he nodded his head yes in agreement. I put the key in to the hole and opened his cell. I opened the door and stood in the doorway.
“I need you to take a lifeboat and lower it in to the sea for me? Starboard. Can you do that?”
“What do I get in return?” He grunted.
“Your freedom. You can row with us until we find a suitable place to land. Then you can have the boat and whatever is left on it.”
I could tell the man had his doubts. What would we do about food? Water? How would we survive on the ocean with nothing more than a lifeboat?
“Please! If I don’t get him out of here he will die.”
“We all die anyway.”
He could tell I was disappointed by his response, and I was. I slammed the cell door shut, locked it again and took the key with me.
“Fine.” I spat. “Stay here and rot.”
“Wait.” He said, finally standing. “I will help in whatever way I can.”
I was glad that he had finally come to his senses. Being free with a fear of what may come tomorrow, was better than being trapped inside a cell with fear of what may come tomorrow. I opened the cell once more and the man stepped forward. Come back to me once it is taken care of. The man nodded and made his way above.
I waited with Dimitrius for what seemed like an eternity. The footsteps above made me skittish. I held on to Dimitrius, expecting every footstep to be the footsteps of the men who caught us, but it was never so. The man returned and I couldn’t help but smile and feel a slight relief. He was dressed in a uniform with a blood stain on it. I assumed he had murdered someone for it. He tossed two more uniforms at me and told us to get dressed. I dressed myself and helped Dimitrius in to his uniform. He was barely conscious, so it took longer than I had wanted it to. Once we were all dressed, we began to make our way to the top deck. It amazed me how easy it was to blend in when dressed like everyone else on the ship. My hair was tucked beneath the cap I was wearing, so everybody thought I was a boy. A few people glanced our way, looking awkwardly at Dimitrius, who the jailbird and I were supporting.
“Had a little too much to drink.” He would say. “Move on.”
He was dressed as a lieutenant so the lower soldiers listened to him. By the time we made it to the lifeboat he had supplied, I thought to myself that it was going way too simply. Maybe we would get lucky and make it off of this boat without a scratch. That is exactly what we did. The entire time I believed Jonathan would be freed from his bonds, that his soldiers would find us and shoot us, that something terrible would happen… but nothing ever did. We lowered the lifeboat with Dimitri in it and then climbed over the side and in to it. We sailed off in to the darkness without ever being spotted. How had this happened? It was truly a miracle of God. I kissed Dimitrius lightly on the forehead and listened to the sound of the water as it splashed against the ore. I watched the jailbird as he rowed, staring off aimlessly in to the darkness that surrounded us. I had never been in the ocean at night without there being more than just moonlight to illuminate the world. It was eerily peaceful. I imagined what it would be like to be alone without any moon to light the way and remembered Dimitrius’ story about how he almost died. I felt fear pierce my heart and finally understood what it must have felt like to be alone on the sea. I needed something to distract my brain.
“Thank you for helping us.” I said to the man rowing.
He nodded lightly, but did not say anything in return.
“Do you have a name?” I asked him. “So I may remember it.”
“It is unimportant.” He spoke.
I could tell this man was a terrible conversationalist. I imagined after being locked up for a certain amount of time, the silence becomes comforting. So, I remained quiet and listened to the sounds of the ocean slapping against the ore with each stroke. I held Dimitrius in my arms, happy to be alive. I tended to his wounds as best I could and eventually, while laying my head back against the wood of the lifeboat, fell asleep while staring at the stars praying to God about how grateful I was that he let us both live. I dreamed of all the wonderful times Dimitrius and I had and would have. I even dreamed of our children. Oh, how beautiful they were! Oh, how full my heart was!
That was three years ago today that we escaped Jonathan’s ship. I didn’t know it then, but the jailbird had been my savior just as much as I had been his. He had sailed us to this island, away from the world, and left without a word. I wanted to thank him, but nothing I could have said would have paid the debt that I felt I owed him. Dimitrius and I were alive thanks to him and we had been able to live a happy life thanks to him. It took Dimitrius a few days to recover from his beating, but once he had he was back to his old self. Well, not entirely himself. He was a little different… humbler in a way. His ship had been destroyed, his crew massacred, he had been on the brink of death heading for execution and through it all he learned a lesson that he never believed in before. That lesson was that life is precious, and without the help of others survival is impossible. After hearing from the jailbird how I had saved his life, he looked at me with more love in his eyes than I had ever thought possible from another human being. We made love often, trying to make a child, but for some reason it still hadn’t happened. I prayed over and over again that it would, but to no avail. I always wondered why it was that God wouldn’t grace me with a child; but the day I spotted sails on the horizon was the day I knew why. They hadn’t stopped hunting us. For three years they continued their search and finally they had found us. I was out in the garden tending to the crops when I spotted Jonathan’s ship. It was a familiar sight. Memories
of the first time they caught us popped in to my mind and the same fear I felt that day struck my heart. I rushed inside and began packing our things. Dimitrius was watching me, confused by what I was doing.
“We need to go now!” I said, shoving as many items as I could in to the knapsacks we had.
“What is happening?” He questioned.
“They’ve found us.” I said, still stuffing as much as I could in to the travel bags. “We need to go now or we will not escape.”
Dimitrius stood and walked over to me. He placed his hands gently on my shoulders and shook his head no.
“We are not going anywhere.” He said to me.
“What do you mean?” I asked. “We have to go now! We need to run.”
“I’m tired of running.” He said blatantly, a hint of sadness in his voice. “If we run again, we will be running forever.”
“I don’t care. As long as we can be together, that is all that matters.”
“We will always be together.” He said, taking my face in his palms. “Even in death, we will be together. Our love will outlast this life. If we run now, we will be running away for the rest of our lives. We will never have children that have a home. We will never have a real life together. We will only have a mirage of one.”
“But… if they take us, we will die. They will execute us.”
He knew I was right, but he didn’t seem to care.
“Then we will die by each other and live again in a life that isn’t filled with misery and chaos. I can’t run any longer, Helena. It is time to be brave.”
He extended his hand to me and waited for me to take it. So many things were running through my mind. Was I really going to do this for love? Was I going to turn myself in and go to the gallows? I knew he was right, in a way. If we ran now they would continue hunting us and we would forever be running. I glanced down at his hand, with tears in my eyes and grasped it tightly. I wasn’t ready for this.
“Don’t be afraid.” He said. “We will get through this, just as we have gotten through everything else. Believe in our love.”
We walked out, hand in hand, on to the cliff that overlooked the ocean below our small cottage and watched as the sails grew closer. I prayed, while standing there watching our end draw near, that this would be the last time I would ever have to see sails breaking the horizon.
Chapter 9
They took us, violently. We remained peaceful. They locked us in a cell across from each other so we couldn’t even touch. My heart was breaking every day, as I looked over and saw him on the other side; Unable to feel his warmth, or kiss his lips. They barely fed us. After what felt like forever, we were finally taken to the dungeons of Sunhaven. They dragged Dimitrius away from me, toward the male prison. I fought and clawed and kicked and screamed to no avail. I cried as I watched them drag him away. Why? Why was this happening to me? Why couldn’t the universe just allow me to love?! What had I done so wrong that love had to keep being taken away from me?! I prayed as they threw me in to the cell. I was alone… again; with nothing but my thoughts for company. I cried myself to sleep two nights in a row. On the third night, I heard the Sunhaven bells ringing. They had just announced our death. In Sunhaven, whenever a decision of execution was made, the bells rang out across the land. People would celebrate the death of the so called wicked. Judged by man, and man alone. I became bitter and angry. I cried with rage and screamed as loud as I could. I felt betrayed. By everyone! By my father, by my friend, by my God! Again, after the anger had dispersed, I cried more. It is only when I heard footsteps making their way down the hall that I wiped my eyes and put on a stone face. I wouldn’t let these slaves see my tears; these people that had no idea what it had meant to be free. I had the chance to taste it. To live the life I always wanted. To love the way I always wanted and to have somebody love me the way I always wanted. If death is the price I had to pay for that then so be it. The footsteps stopped and I was staring at my father. His face sagged more than before I left and his hair had greyed. He looked at me for a moment, recognizing me as little as I recognized him, and then he smiled. I did not return the favor.
“Helena. I am so happy you are alive. Your mother and I have missed you.”
“Have you?” I spat. “I heard the bells.”
He looked down at the ground, disappointed at my reaction to seeing him. I guess he had expected it to be all smiles and best wishes, but I had none of those feelings. The man standing before me was just another pawn in the game.
“I’m sorry. I am so sorry.” He was beginning to tear up. “I did everything I could.”
“Did you?!” I screamed, standing up and rushing the bars of the cell.
My father recoiled a little bit. He had become frail in his old age. I had never seen him frightened before, and deep down, I was glad he was afraid of me.
“Helena, please.”
“No, dad! No, please! No I missed you! Why didn’t you come to save me?! Instead you sent that adulterating, friend fucking bastard!”
His eyes widen at the words coming out of my mouth. He had never heard me speak as a woman before.
“What do you mean?”
“You don’t know?! Do you not pay attention to my life at all?! No, you don’t actually! Not until it inconveniences you! What have you even become, father? I don’t even recognize you anymore.”
“I could say the same for you.”
“NO!” I snarled. “You don’t get to criticize me after everything I’ve been through. Most of it was because of you, and you don’t even realize it.”
“Why don’t you fill me in then?” He stated, looking defeated.
“YOU sent Johnathan after me, after he had sex with my best friend! All he ever wanted from me was my virginity. He tried to fuck me on the boat three years ago until I tied him up and escaped with Dimitrius.”
“The pirate.”
“His name is Dimitrius! And he isn’t a pirate anymore. We haven’t been for three years!”
“We? So you are a pirate now too?”
“If that is the label I must wear to be free, then so be it! It is better than being you. Stuck in this town, slowly fading away to a shell of who you once were; brave, kind, compassionate, caring! Now look at you… too afraid and too busy to go and save your own daughter! Well guess what, dad! I didn’t need saving! I didn’t want saving! I was where I was supposed to be all along. Right beside the man I love, living like everybody else! Not like some slave in Jonathan’s bed!”
I could see it in my father’s eyes, he felt guilty. I was glad. Maybe I would get through to him. To make him realize who the real villains were in this scenario. Too make him see that he was sacrificing his daughter’s happiness and chance at love all for one materialistic government position.
“If you have any feeling for me as your daughter left in your decrypt heart, at least look at yourself in the mirror for once and realize you are ruining my chance at true happiness; At true love!”
I couldn’t help but cry as the words escaped my mouth. It had been building this entire time and I could no longer hold it back. My father left without a word. Coward! I had finally lost all respect for my dad, which made me feel even worse. A child is supposed to love their parents, but that wasn’t the case for me any longer. I hated him. I hated him with all of my heart… until he returned and unlocked my cell door.
“Are you coming or not?” He asked.
I hadn’t heard his normal voice in so long… he had become so used to being diplomatic and governing all of the time… it made me smile through my tears. I wrapped my arms around his neck and buried my face in his shoulder. I knew, somewhere deep down, that I was still his baby girl.
“I’m sorry, Helena. I’m sorry that I forgot who you are to me. I’m sorry that I forgot who I was to myself. We are a family and nothing will ever change that. Can you ever forgive me?”
“I love you, dad.” I said, with my head snuggled on his shoulder.
“I love you too, Helena.”
He took me to where Dimitrius was locked away. As soon as he saw me he was on his feet and at the bars. He wrapped his arms around me and I kissed him as much as I could.
“I am unable to free you.” My father said to us. “I wish there was something else I could do.”
He put the key in to the cell door and unlocked it. I grabbed Dimitrius’ hand and tried to pull him forward, motioning to him that we are free to run, but he refused.
“The whole reason we are here is because we are done running.” He said to me.
“Please, Dimitrius! We have to go now! I don’t want to lose you.”
“I’m sorry, Helena. I just… I can’t run anymore. I’m tired of running. I want to be free… for real this time. I don’t want to have to always look over my shoulder and watch my back. I want to live in the world as a free man, and not a criminal.”
“They are going to kill us!”
He pulled me in close and wrapped his arms around me. He squeezed me tighter than he had ever done before.
“Let them kill us. We will go together, and we will meet in the next life and be together forever.”
I thought about this for a moment and realized he was right. Freedom wasn’t free if we were always running away. We needed to stand up and face our fears. My fear, was the fear of death. Of losing the ones I loved; when in the end, I needed to have faith and trust that everything would work out. This all became clear in this one moment. This is why Dimitrius had been brought in to my love. Not just to fill my heart with his love, but to restore my faith and to help me find a courage I would have otherwise never known. I embraced him passionately and my father left us to be alone, locking the cell behind us.
He held me in his arms and I jumped up and wrapped my legs around him. We began to strip off each other’s clothes. First, he lifted my shirt and my breasts fell loose. He began to kiss my chest and play with my nipples. As he did, the familiar goosebumps returned to my skin. I smiled and ran my hands through his hair. I could feel the electricity! This was the last time we would make love together, and we both took advantage of that. He laid me down on the cell floor, the cool cement sending a shiver through my already electrified body. As he went down on me, I could feel his soft lips pressing against my vagina. As his tongue moved, first quickly and then slower and then quick again, the tension in my hips began to build. I couldn’t hold it any longer, I came for the first time. My moans echoed around the cell and out in to the vacant corridor. I grabbed his hair with both of my hands as my legs shook. He slowly brought himself back up to my mouth and began to kiss me. I could taste the sweet taste of myself on his lips. I sat up and forced him on to his back, climbing on top of him. I began to kiss his ear, slowly moving down to his chest. While I kissed him all over, I undid his pants. I could feel his bulge pushing against my naked body. It was already hard and ready to go by the time I pulled it out. I played with him with my hands, feeling his girth grow more and more until I thought he would explode. As soon as I heard the first moan escape his lips, I wrapped mine around the head of his penis. I played with him slowly, running my tongue up and down the length of his shaft. I swallowed as much as I could, gagging myself in the process. The erotic feeling it brought me was one of excitement. I continued to deep throat him as long as I could and eventually he exploded in to my mouth. Feeling the warmth of his cum in my mouth turned me on to a point I didn’t know existed. I felt my vagina pulsing, wanting him to take me. I leaned in to his ear and ran my tongue around it.
Romance: The Campus Player: A College Romance Page 104
