WARNING: Mention of needles and past self-harm

"Captain! Captain!" Virgil squinted in the sudden bright light as he came up from the lower decks. Who was calling him?

"Captain!" Daniel called again. He sounded urgent and his voice was tinged with... panic?

Virgil looked up. He waved Daniel down from the crow's nest. Daniel scrambled down and jumped to the deck, making it crash on impact.

"Captain, we've got privateers on our tail," he said, slightly out of breath.

Virgil's eyes widened. "What?"

"Privateers," Daniel repeated slowly. "Off the port bow."

Virgil tried not to run as he went to port side. He'd grabbed a telescope on the way over and now he put it to his eye.

Two ships, the blue and yellow bodies marking them clearly as privateers. Virgil swore under his breath and collapsed the telescope again. He threw it at Daniel. Daniel barely caught it.

"One of them's English," he said. "The other one could be Indian or Redian, the flags are too similar to-"

"Nevermind that now, lower the flag!" Virgil interrupted. "Lower the flag!" He repeated, raising his voice so the whole deck heard. "Raise the merchant flag! Privateers on our tail!"

Virgil turned away from Daniel to find Patton on his other side. He nearly jumped out of his skin.

"Gonna try out run them?" Patton asked. He pushed himself up to try and see the two ships.

"We'd be insane to try," Virgil muttered. His mind was whirring, the thought of running had already crossed it. He shook his head. "It wouldn't work. We're Gyrian merchants the moment that flag's up, anyway. Increasing speed would just put their hackles up." He patted Patton on the shoulder absently. "Get Aaron and Janus below deck. Logan, too, the guy could have a track record."

"I doubt it," Patton said. "Doesn't seem like the type."

"The type?" Virgil repeated. "Pat, he's a pirate-"

"And a doctor from America," Patton interrupted. "He wouldn't get into trouble with the navy if it could save his life."

Virgil ran a hand through his hair. "Besides," Patton continued, "Roman and Logan below deck at the same time? Though I guess Roman's asleep, isn't-"

"He's not," Virgil said. He sighed. "I could use his mind, anyway," he muttered to himself. He blinked and looked at Patton again. "Get Aaron and Janus below deck," he repeated, "then get yourself back up here as fast as you can. Need you where I can see you."

Patton nodded and left. Virgil turned back to his crew and ran a hand through his hair again.

Good Lord, this was the last thing they needed.

Janus pulled his ribbon out of his hair, letting it fall around his face. He sighed.

God, he hated this... this waiting. Locked - well, confined - in his room, not allowed to go anywhere for his own safety... it made him antsy.

It was like there were little needles under his skin. They pushed and pushed and itched and itched and he wanted to scratch them all out. But he couldn't. And the more he tried, the more there were.

His hand jumped to a thin scar along his chin to his cheekbone. Yeah, the needles didn't stop. Not until he bled.

Janus bit down on the inside of his cheek, trying not to scream.

He couldn't do this. He never really got what Remus meant when he said he felt like the walls were closing in on him sometimes but... it couldn't be too different to this. The room was dimming, getting danker and past smells were creeping back. Past sounds, too, yells and the clink of chains.

Janus grabbed a book - any book, it didn't fucking matter - and sat down in the furthest corner from the door. The corner squashed him on two sides but he barely felt it. He shook his head and let his hair fall in front of his eyes.

He wouldn't take his gaze from the door. He couldn't.

Janus ran his fingers over the cover of the book in his hands, feeling the bubbles and abrasions in the leather. The slight indent of the title in the cover. He tried to stay where he was, when he was.

"You're not back there..." he thought to himself. "You'll never go back there... You're here, you're here, you're here... You're not alone. Not alone, not alone, not alone, not alone, not alone..."

Sorry I've been dead to the writing world for a week, rehearsals for the school show are ramping up
Bye,
Blaize