Her words rang in my head for the rest of the stitches. They continued into when she was finished, and was just washing the blood off of me.

'he told me that he would kill me and everyone I loved if I didn't save your life,' kept repeating over and over again.

It made me nauseous. How could he be so sweet and caring, and yet so cruel and heartless all at the same time? I tried to convince myself it was just because he was scared. Because he wanted to save me.

But I knew deep down that he had been serious. If she had refused his command, she could very well be dead right now.

"You're done," she told me, suddenly.

I looked down at my chest. It was a mess but the cut didn't go as far down as I had originally thought. It started just above one of my breasts, and then all along my  chest, going up slightly towards my collar bone.

It was deep, though. I hoped the stitches would hold.

My leather suit had also been removed, I noticed. I was in nothing but my bra and underwear.

My face flushed at that. "What happened to my suit?"

"I couldn't do the stitches with it on so the clown used a knife and cut it off."

She gestured to the bin, where I could see the scraps of red and black leather. That made me embarrassed to think, him cutting my clothing off.

But I knew he had to do it. He saved my life. So had this doctor. I needed to repay her, make sure her Father was okay.

"Do you have any spare clothes?" I asked as I slowly sat up.

Panic spread across the woman's face. "Hey, you shouldn't do that -"

"I need to go back into town. Get me clothes, please."

She laughed, as if what I was saying was ridiculous. It was. But I still had to do it.

"That obviously cannot happen. You need rest. You won't even be able to walk -"

"You said that man was your Father, right?"

She was silent for a moment. "Yes."

"I need to make sure he's alright - that everyone is alright. Buggy will listen to me. He'll stop what his men are doing."

She scoffed at that, rolling her eyes too. "He's just as bad as the rest."

"He's..." I didn't know what to say. He definitely wasn't as bad as the rest, but he wasn't good either. Not by a long shot. "I'm not as bad as those people. You saved my life, I'm trying to repay you."

Our eyes met and I saw her consider. I'm sure her training as a doctor screamed for her to keep me here. But her worry for her Father, her town, won in the end.

She dug out clothes for me, helping me step into them. They were just simple baby blue scrubs, a nurses outfit by the look of it. That was good enough. She didn't have any spare shoes, so I walked barefoot.

She helped me walk, wrapping an arm around my waist and letting me lean my weight against her. It took us a while, but we ended up back in town.

From the distance, I saw Buggy standing, talking with his clowns. I could also hear the yelling, the arguing.

"You could have killed her!" He was screaming at the purple haired clown, the one who had slashed me.

"Who cares?"

Buggy's face flushed with anger, I could see it even from this distance. "I care! I do! She's..." He seemed to compose himself. "She's our map. Did you forget that?"

"No. But she's the one who jumped in front of my sword -"

"Yes, because you were about to kill a defenceless old man. Did he even do anything?"

"He called me an idiot," the purple haired clown muttered.

Buggy got up close to him, his eyes glowing with hatred. "You are an idiot."

"Betty!" I heard Dilly call out.

Without hesitation, she ran to me. When she hugged me, it caused explosions of pain to shoot throughout my body.

"Hey, careful," my doctor urged.

Dilly shoved her away, allowing my weight to fall against her. "You be careful, or I might just have to kill you, too."

"Dilly!"

Dilly gave me a look of confusion. It was as if the things these clowns said didn't even register in their heads.

"Nice group of friends you have," the doctor told me, giving Dilly the side eye.

I noticed that Buggy was standing in front of us now, looking at me in horror. "What the hell are you doing out here?" He turned to my doctor, all types of fury being present in his voice as he spoke. "How stupid are you dragging her here?"

"It was my idea. I wanted to make sure nobody else would get hurt."

"I already told you I'd take care of that."

I didn't know how to tell him that I simply didn't trust him to do that. What he had said to the doctor was stuck in my head. However, Buggy had saved my life. I didn't want to be needlessly mean to him.

"I know... I just wanted to make sure."

He seemed satisfied with that. He gestured for Dilly to hand me over, which she did. It was a relief, having him support my weight. Dilly was much smaller than me, I could tell she had been struggling to keep me up.

Buggy walked me in front of his clowns. I saw a lot of different emotions on people's faces.

Some looked worried for me, some looked down right angry, and some looked like they wanted to kill me.

"As I was saying, we're leaving this town right now. No more pillaging, no more murder."

"But Captain, they've got a big vault in their bank. It's definitely got something good in it. Can't we get that first?"

I held my breath, waiting for Buggy's answer. "No," He stated firmly. "We've done enough."

The clowns all began to complain amongst themselves. This was bad. They really weren't happy about this.

"This isn't fair," the purple haired clown suddenly said. "We deserve to get the last of their gold."

"You deserve nothing except death," Buggy spat at the clown. It seemed to shock everyone. It shocked me. "I might have to execute you for what you did to Betty."

Now, his clowns were even more unhappy. It was palpable in the air.

"She's just a map. You say it yourself. Why should I be executed for injuring a map?"

"You almost killed her."

"But I didn't. Are you just upset that I scarred up your pretty little fuck toy?" The clown sneered.

That felt like a slap in the face. It was so vulgar, so horrible. Was that what they thought of me?

I looked up into Buggy's face, the look of fury was indescribable. He went to move, attack the clown when I spoke.

"Buggy, I need you to support me," I reminded him, as he almost let go of me.

He looked guilty. "I'm sorry."

"It's fine. Why don't we just deal with this all later?" I asked not just him, but everyone. "Feelings are too fresh right now. You're all too angry. This will just end in a bloodbath if we keep going like this."

Despite the hatred that had grown in the air, people seemed to agree with my thoughts.

"She's right," Dilly suddenly pitched in. "Plus, I'm exhausted. Can you all even be bothered trying to break the vault?"

A lot of people seemed to agree with the exhausting thing. I realised that they had probably been up all night trashing the town. That was horrifying.

"Fine," the purple clown said, shrugging, and heading back towards the ship.

All the other clowns followed. When the close was clear, I almost fell to my knees. Even with Buggy's support, I couldn't stand.

"Hey, careful," He urged, pulling me up off the ground and into his arms, bridal style.

I looked around and saw what I was looking for. The doctor was hugging her Father, who looked unharmed. When she was me looking at her, she smiled.

"You ready to go?" Buggy asked, softly. "If we wait, they might end up sailing off without us."

I didn't speak, just nodded. As he walked, I fell asleep I'm her arms, feeling safe again finally. That feeling wouldn't last long.

🤡

the chapters in this book are slowly getting longer and longer lol! im really getting into writing this which is why!

published 8th October 2023