Fog of Shadows

Part 23

Back in the prison on the Eldorado, Thomas had worked all day on a small replica key out of wood. He knew what the key looked like and worked on it by memory; he hid it whenever one of the crewmembers would come to check on them and bring them meals and water. He finished it by the time most of the others had gone to bed. "You are only going to get us in more trouble." Grumbled Zorion, who had to listen to Thomas's angry rants and escape plans all day, which can get old and annoying after a while.

"We will only get in trouble if we get caught." Replied the young pirate

"We, what do you mean we?" Asked Rolfo waking from an uneasy sleep.

"Well we are all going to escape, aren't we?"

"You are on your own this time" replied Rolfo, now fully awake, "We have gotten into enough trouble as it is since we started listening to you."

"So you two are willing to just sit here and wait?"

"It is better than running away to an unknown island. Besides, we might still be able to get out of a really bad punishment, if we comply," said Zorion, leaning back to relax and get some sleep.

"Fine, then stay in here and rot, but I am leaving." proclaimed Thomas and opened the cage; before he left, he turned back one more time. "Last chance, I am leaving and when I do I will close the cage." when his two comrades failed to reply, he closed the cage door behind him and left.

On deck, he was again met with the thick fog that he had been met with earlier, only this time, he could tell it was night. Slowly and carefully, he made his way to where he knew the lifeboats were kept and tried to avoid any of the ropes and barrels that sat around on deck. Sadly, he was no alone; Donnie, who had trouble sleeping and had therefore been wandering around on deck, waiting for her friends to return. The small lantern she carried hardly illuminated her surrounding as the fog seemed to press itself against the light, wanting to extinguish it. The air felt cold to her and she had covered herself with her blanket, yet it did little to warm her; she both respected her friend's devotion to saving a little girl they hardly knew and hated them for dragging her into the cold. She nearly jumped out of her skin when she heard something thudding on deck. She did not know that it was the escaped Thomas, who had tripped over a line of rope. Carefully, with a semi-shaking voice, she called out, "Is someone out there, are you alright?" When no answer came, for Thomas tried to disappear into the surrounding fog, she decided to make her way in the direction of the sound. When Thomas knew that escaping without being seen was impossible at this point and decided to make the best of it; she might make for great leverage against her friends. When she had gotten close enough for him to see her and she see him, she was already too close to escape him; at lightning speed, he wrapped one arm around her waist to pull her closer and the other went up to cover her mouth. She was helplessly captured and the lantern fell from her hand and went out with a pop when it hit the deck.

"Keep quiet unless you want me to cut out your tongue." He hissed as she fought against his grip. "I am leaving this ship and am taking you with me. I think you know why." Donnie slowly nodded her head sand kept quiet as he released his hand from her mouth. "You do not have to do this; if you take me, they will surely come after you. I am not good leverage material."

"They won't dare come after me, if they knew I could hurt you if they did."

"Your logic is flawed."

"Shut up and get going." He pushed her towards the lifeboats. Despite what he had hoped, Donnie was not going to go with him without a fight. Before even reaching the rallying, Donnie swung around and punched Thomas on the side of his head, all the while screaming bloody murder. Thomas swayed a little, but caught himself and grabbed hold of the hair of a fleeing Donnie; with a quick swing, he threw her in the deck's hardwood. Donnie was knocked out cold. He could hear the crew below deck waking up and rushing to help their friend; without thinking, he picked up Donnie's limp body and tossed her into one of the lifeboats before hopping in himself and just as Donnie's brother, Lola, rushed out on deck he cut the rope. The boat only took a few seconds to hit the uneasy water below and Thomas could hear a distraught Lola cursing at him, but Thomas was already rowing away.

"We have to go after them!" cried Lola as she tried to make her way to another lifeboat, "We have to save Donnie."

"Lola stop!" Pablo grabbed hold of the young seahorse and held her tight, "It will be a miracle if they make it to shore, if you go out after them right not, you could die!"

"And we are just going to let him take her?" Lola croaked as tears began to well-up in her eyes.

"No, we will get him for this once we get Willow to help us get to shore. There is not anywhere he can go."

"What if he kills her?"

"He is not that crazy. He knows that if he hurts her, he is as good as dead."