Begin Again

Two

Scrunching his eyebrows from the deep and pounding feeling in his head, Rowan pressed his free hand on his forehead. Hissing at the pain, Rowan realized he had bumped his head with great force since it was hurting this much.

The lights were swaying overhead, gently but they were. He couldn't be in a building since the last thing he remembered was being at the docks. He know knew he was on a boat, taken by those men.

"Great," he huffed, looking around the cargo hold filled with cars. Focusing, he saw no one else here until the clanking of a dog's tail made him turn. A border collie stood not far from him, tail hitting the steel wall with every wag. Behind the dog was a girl who was fast asleep in a very odd position.

What if she was one of the ones who snuck up behind him? He could not take his chances, so slowly he got out of the cot, making his way back to the stairs. He managed to make it to the door and the second he opened it, he saw the same three men scouting the area.

To the sound of it, it was kept within those three men the sudden disappearance of the young writer, since Rowan observed how other sailors were still walking about in their regular posts. Shutting the door, he went back down into the cargo hold, trying to find where to hide.

Trying to squeeze into a car window, he heard a loud clearing of a throat. Turning slowly, he saw the same girl standing not far from him, arms crossed with the same confused expression as her dog.

"What are you doing?"

"Nothing," he threw the door open, hitting her square on her thighs. Moaning, Blake grabbed her leg, watching the kid run through the cars, back for the stairs. Duke was already ahead of him, growling at him from the stairs.

Taking several steps back, Rowan felt her hand on his arm. With no mercy, he whipped her onto her back with a single twirl of an arm. With Blake on her back, she threw her two legs up, knocking him square on his back.

Both of them laid there, groaning and moaning out loud from the loud crashed on the hard steel flooring. Blake sat up, staring at him straight in the eye. Everything she saw about him, reminded her of that note she had read.

Man, 23 years of age, dangerous, travel with caution. Brown hair, green eyes, 5' 7", Englishman. Firebrand.

"You're Firebrand," Blake pointed.

"What," the Englishman asked.

"You're-," Blake shook her head. "I-."

"You," the American man called out. Blake pushed Rowan behind a car as she stood up. "You seen a kid, brown haired? Not that tall, green eyed?"

"Nah lad, I haven't seen nothing," Blake shrugged as the man shut the door again. Rowan looked up at her, surprised at what she had done for him.

"Why - Why did you do that?"

"Well, for starters, you don't get caught by people like this everyday. I have a question, where does this boat go?"

"We on the Orion?"

"Yeah."

"I really would love to know as well," he looked around. "I better get going."

"Where?!"

"If they catch me here, I'm dead. I need to keep moving. Find a way off this boat."

"Alone? Look bud, these tankers easily take on like one hundred people. You expecting me to believe that you can manage that alone?"

"Yeah."

"How?"

"I've been doing this longer than you, no need to get more involved in this," Rowan ran up the stairs. "I'll see you around."

"Okay," she scoffed. Duke gave her a yearning look, as if he were pleading her to go. "Oh, I'm not going to help him."

"Okay fine," she complained, angrily marching out, heading down the corridor, hoping it was the same way that guy had gone.

Rowan came around a corner to come head to head with that Irish man. The man yelled angrily, trying to grab him but before he could even more, his eyebrows shot up, falling right over Rowan. Staring in disbelief at what had happened, Rowan saw the redhead girl standing behind him.

"Okay bub, if I saved you before, why don't you just let me help you," she expressed concern in an annoyed tone. "I did it for a reason, you understand that?"

"Get down," he jerked her down, seeing two other sailors walking past the open door into the mess hall. "This is your idea of saving me?"

"Shut up! I did it, didn't I," Blake spat, pushing herself up on her feet, waiting for the man to follow her. "We need to get down below. It is the only safe place to be right now."

Realizing the man wasn't following her, Blake swirled back quickly hearing the rapid footsteps of men coming down the corridor. This was no time to be doubtful or thoughtful and this was all that kid could possibly be doing right now. With a final sign of frustration, Blake shoved the kid into the storage room, closing it in front of his face.

"He-," Rowan called out but no one could hear him. Peeking out the small circle window, he saw about five men surrounding the redhead, asking her if she had seen the man they were looking for again.

"I've told you once," the american pointed. "Where is the kid?"

"Does it look like I know," Blake spat.

"MEN," Captain Carter yelled, as he was followed by two armed officials. "We need to talk to this woman."

Craning her neck, she saw the men holding her backpack as if it were some sort of evidence. The way the men were watching her gave her a chilling feeling about it as well. When they pulled out a small bag that containing sheets of paper. Not sure what they meant, Blake raised a single eyebrow when the Captain read the bundle of papers. Surprised with its contents, the Captain gave a single nod.

"Spy! These documents state a list of stolen items to be sold to Acar Barak, a wanted man in Turkey," the official raised the sheets of paper. How could this have happened?! Not sure why this had happened, Blake began exclaiming her innocence but that meant nothing to them. Blake was lead down the corridor against her will. Rowan, seeing everything, could only think in how this stranger did all this for him, and now she was being lead away. Her dog was chasing after them but with a single swift of their foot, the dog was pushed back, locked in the corridor.