Over the next couple of hours, I slipped in and out of consciousness. Whenever I did manage to peel my eyes open, my vision was nothing but an unclear blur. I tried to focus my sight with absolutely no luck.

The more I tried, the more pain that would radiate.  My head was pounding. It felt as if I could still feel the bat being smacked against my head. I couldn't move, no matter how desperately hard I tried to.

I would try to start off with small movements, just my fingers or my toes, but it was as if I wasn't really in my body. I couldn't feel anything except from pain.

Then, I'd slip back into sleep - if you could call it sleep. It was more like a nightmare. In my dreams, I saw horrible visions of Buggy being killed, thrown overboard into the sea to drown. It felt like I was drowning in my fears.

The next time that I managed to open my eyes, I could feel my body. In fact, I could feel my body being lifted up from the ground. I was in someone's arms.

My heart raced as I imagined it as Buggy. This entire fantasy of him fighting his crew, winning, and then carrying me to safety played in my head.

I knew it wasn't real. Whoever was carrying me, was being rough. It was only the top half of me being held, my legs were sliding across the ground as I was pulled to wherever I was being taken to.

I looked up. Still, my vision was a blur. I could see black hair - not Buggy. Although I already knew that, it still hurt my heart.

"Is she awake?" A voice asked.

My hearing was weird. It was as if whoever said it was speaking from the end of a hallway, their voice echoing in my head as if it were bouncing off the walls.

I squeezed my eyes closed, hoping they would think that I was unconscious again. My concern was that if they knew I was awake, they would hit me with the bat again, to knock me out. That was the last thing I wanted. My head was already pounding from the last beating that I took.

"She doesn't look awake to me."

"Her eyes were open - I swear they were."

"I hit her pretty hard. She won't be awake for hours, at least."

That voice was Dilly's. I was still so confused about her. I had really thought we had made amends, became friends once again.

So, why did she do this to me? I wondered if she felt bad about it, even just a little bit. Was it a difficult decision, or was I fooling myself into believing she ever cared about me?

That last option seemed the most likely. She, like the rest of these clowns, was heartless. She didn't care about anybody but herself.

And yet, a small part of me wanted desperately to believe I was wrong, that she was my friend and, perhaps, that she might change her mind and help me.

"Yes, but she's your friend, so how much can we trust your word on this?"

Although the voices were echoing and distorted, I immediately recognised that as Bozo. The clown who hated me.

This entire situation was probably his idea. He had made his hatred of both me and Buggy apparent. What was his plan, to become the new Captain?

"Hey, she's not my fucking friend!" Dilly snapped. That hurt, and I felt stupid for being hurt by it. "It was your idea for me to get close to her again."

"Well, you were pretty convincing."

"I'm the one who knocked her out. How can you seriously still think she's my friend?"

It felt as if she were talking to me. Calling me stupid for believing that she could be my friend after what she had done to me.

I had no allies. That thought was terrifying.

"You can tie her up then, and make sure you do it tightly."

I felt myself being put into a sitting position, with my back against a wooden pillar. I let my head and body slump forward a bit, to make it seem as if I was still knocked out.

"Hold her up properly."

My back and head were pushed against the pillar, held their by strong hands. Then, I felt roped being wrapped around my body. It was a long rope, I was tied tightly. Too tightly to wiggle out or escape.

Damn, what am I going to do? I was screwed. Absolutely screwed.

"When do you think she'll wake up?" An unfamiliar voice asked, sounding impatient. "We can't move until she does."

"We better hope she does, with how hard Dilly hit her!" Arlene exclaimed through cackling. She clearly thought it was hilarious.

"We have to just be patient."

"We should start our party now, it'll make the time go faster."

"I second that. It's been so long since we've had a big party!"

With that, I heard people leaving the room, until I was left in silence. I wasn't sure if every single person was gone, or if some remained to keep guard.

I wanted to open my eyes, father my surroundings, figure out a plan. But, if I opened my eyes and anyone was here, who knows what would happen to me.

My mind had imagined what sort of things they can in store for me. They all hated me, they had for so long. All that anger, they were ready to take out on me. I wasn't looking forward to it.

I sat in silence for about two minutes, debating whether or not it would be safe to open my eyes, when I heard a voice. Dilly's voice.

"I hit you pretty hard, didn't I?" She whispered.

She was close to me, I could hear that. The way she was speaking made me believe nobody else was here. She was being too soft. These clowns didn't like to act soft around one another.

"I am sorry about that. It wasn't meant to happen like that. You were just supposed to eat the soup I brought you, pass out peacefully."

That gave me a glimmer of hope. My worry was that Buggy had been fully poisoned, that he was dead - he had just been knocked out. That is, if they hadn't killed him after knocking him out.

I wasn't sure what to do. I was absolutely petrified of Dilly right now, but she was being so soft right now. Plus, when else would it just be us two? I needed to speak to her one-on-one, see if I could convince her to help me.

When I opened my eyes, Dilly's face twisted in shock, then horror, then it settled into emotionless.

"You're awake. How long have you been awake for?"

I didn't want to annoy her, have her think I was just listening to everything she had just said.

"I... I just woke..." the words slurred out. I had felt so conscious, but speaking was super difficult. It was as if my mouth was heavy, hard to open, and move. "Up."

"I hope I didn't give you brain damage," Dilly joked, laughing to herself.

She was back to being cruel. I didn't like that. I really didn't.

"I don't... und... understand. W-...why?"

She sighed. "You should understand. You turned our captain soft. Pirates can't be soft."

I had already begun to realise that on my own. There had been a silly part of me that had wanted to change Buggy, make him a good person.

That was ridiculous. He was a pirate. If I changed him that much, he wouldn't even be the same person anymore. I wanted him. Him in all his selfish, cruel, mean and evil fullness.

Right now, I wanted nothing more than his scary self to burst through the door and save me. Was he going to save me? Would he care enough to come and rescue me? That is, if he was still alive.

I decided to test that.

"So... you killed him."

She laughed, like that was ridiculous. "He isn't dead. We still have enough respect for him to leave him alive."

"You have him?"

"I probably shouldn't tell you so much." My heart sunk. "But, what the hell? There's nothing you can do to us, anyway. We stole a smaller boat from that last town we were in. We dumped Buggy on it, and sailed away."

I could have cried from pure relief. Buggy was definitely alive. He was safe, on a boat. Boats were his specialty.

"Let me guess, you think he'll come and save you?"

Yes. Or, I pray he will. I kept my mouth firmly shut. I didn't want to tell Dilly any of my thoughts.

"Did you suddenly take a vow of silence?" I hated her for being funny. "You know, you're not as special as you think you are. Buggy likes women. You're not the first hostage we've had that he's fucked."

I couldn't help but meet her eyes. "We never fucked."

That was technically true. We almost did, but they had to ruin it. God, what I'd give to be back in bed with him, safe.

"Sure you didn't."

I couldn't help myself. "He's... been in relationships with others? Hostages, I mean."

She smirked at me. "Jealous? You should be. Also, you two aren't in a relationship, let's start with that. He might have lied to you, made you feel special, but he doesn't do relationships, or love, or any of that shit."

"How do you know?"

"Because the other women he's been with also thought he loved them."

Was she lying? I couldn't tell. If she was lying, she was a good liar. My head felt like it was spinning. I felt like I might throw up.

I wasn't stupid - or naive. I knew the idea of Buggy really caring about me seemed silly, especially to her who hadn't seen his soft side, but to me it was real. He couldn't have faked all that emotion.

Or could he have? Had he just been using me? Lying to me?

"I don't believe you."

"Believe what you want, it's the truth. He'd have his fun with them, use them up, then dump them back on their islands. Usually they'd be sobbing, asking when he was coming back for them. He'd lie, say soon, then he never would. Half the time, he'd forget their names within a week."

It felt like the world was crashing down on me, crushing me. My heart hurt, physically hurt.

This wasn't the first time that I had my heart broken, but it was the first time that it hurt this bad. It was indescribable. I couldn't help but cry. I tried to suppress it, but the tears just started streaming out of my eyes.

Dilly seemed shocked. "Betty? Fuck, don't cry."

"Don't tell me what to do. Obviously I'm going to cry after what you just said to me," I told her, defensively.

I almost flinched when Dilly delicately wiped the tears from my cheeks. "You needed to hear it. You're being super delusional."

Was I? I had been so sure of myself, and now I felt so confused. "What's going to happen to me?"

"We still need you. You're our map. You'll be harmed, definitely, but not killed."

"But what about after you find the treasure? You'll all have no use for me. Will I be killed?"

She shrugged. "Let's cross that bridge when we get to it. For now, pretend to be passed out for a bit longer."

Before I could say anything else, she was up and leaving. She turned before she walked out the door, looked at me with an expression that I couldn't read, then left.

Then, I was alone. I allowed myself to sob like a baby, and imagined the horror that would be my life from now on.

My hope of Buggy saving me seemed so distant, so impossible. I was screwed.

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hello! im really happy with how this chapter turned out - what is everyone thinking? Has Buggy been misleading Betty? Or is Dilly lying? Please comment and let me know!

Published on 13th of March 2024
Reads: 159k