Post by 𝕊’𝕞𝕠𝕣𝕖 on Jan 11, 2018 13:24:51 GMT -5
OOC
I was hit with inspiration, so I wrote a short story about one of my characters from the roleplay: Land of the Lost
IC
Pain Dulls
Pain dulls. That was something Hal had realized lately. It was still there of course, the pain, but it dulled down, stilled to the point where instead of intense, fierce pain which rose up in flaming waves before fading again; the pain dulled, it became a constant, always there, itching just underneath the skin. It was easier to ignore, but it’s ever bearing presence did enjoy reminding you that it was there.
Tug.
Hal glanced up at his fishing rod as he felt something tug on the other end. He blinked. Right, he had almost forgotten what he was doing. So, Hal got up off the barrel and reeled the string in. With any luck, he would’ve actually caught a fish.
As he reeled it in and the hook from the string was pulled from the water, Hal leaned forward to peer off the side of the ship, hoping to see a wriggling fish flopping about on the other side.
It was a shoe.
Hal frowned, setting the fishing rod down as he detached the shoe. An old, soggy, worn down brown boot. He grumbled, giving the shoe a quick sniff before instantly deciding that that had been a bad idea and tossing the shoe back overboard. ”Whose ever shoe that was, is lucky to get rid of it,” He thought, sending a look into the water as the boot floated for a little longer, and then dipped down into the deep. “It smells worse than Schmee’s socks.”
All at once, Hal froze at the thought of his friend.
He closed his eyes, falling back down onto the barrel, arms resting on the top of the deck as he slouched forward. If he was trying, he could almost hear him. “Oh now, come on Halley, you can’t go moping about all day. You’re better than that.” He would’ve scolded, getting Hal up to his feet. If Samuel Schmee was still here, Hal would not have been able to get away with how distant he’d been lately.
But Schmee wasn’t here.
Because Schmee was dead.
And that meant, there was no one to pull Hal out of this, and he didn’t intend on doing that himself.
Then, something hit the back of his head, instantly pulling him out of his own thoughts.
“Owe,” he muttered under his breath, turning around to pick up a wooden spoon. Then, he looked up to see his father, Captain Hook, glowering at him from a few feet away. “What was that for?” He questioned, getting up to his feet as he waved the spoon around.
Hook pointed his hook at him. “Listen here boy, I don’t need you sulking around my ship again today, if you’re not going to school, you should go put yourself to use somewhere else, but get off my ship,” he ordered.
Hal glared at him for a second, before letting it go, exhaling. There was no point in arguing with him, he’d just take his anger out on him later. So, with one last glare, he threw the spoon on the ground, collected his coat and his hat, and walked past the old pirate. “Fine, I’m leaving,” he retorted as he walked off the deck.
Once he had gotten off the ship, he slung his coat over his shoulders, slipping his arms through the sleeves as he worked on buttoning it up. Once he was sure that his coat looked right, he slipped on his hat, reaching up to grab the large feather on top and run his hand over it, adjusting it so that it was just right as well.
Then, he continued on. Not sure where he should go, considering it was a Saturday, which meant school was out. Shame, he would have liked to use it as an excuse to do nothing. But, if school wasn’t an option, and there was no way he was going to find the crew, he would have to find something else to do.
Hal still didn’t know where he was going, but for now, it seemed like a good idea to roam Wharf Town.
So, for the next hour or so, he made a few stops, such as the chip shop for something to eat, Goblin Wharf to snag a few items from the new shipment from Auradon, and a small store which sold small Knick knacks. He looked around for a bit, aware of the watchful eye of the store owner. He didn’t trust him not to steal something.
Smart man.
Hal swerved around to face the store clerk, nodding his head in the direction of a small, glass, dolphin figurine. “So, how much are you selling it for?” He asked, and the hefty store clerk frowned, folding his arms.
“Listen ‘ere pirate boy, nothin’ in ma shop is gettin’ nagged by the likes o’ you,” he told him, looking him over with an icy glare. “You’ve taken enough from this place, an’ I know it’s you, boy. Whenever you come ‘n here, somethin’ goes missing, but not this time. I’m watching you, Hook,” the store clerk warned, as if asking for Hal to try something.
Hal put his hands up in a mock surrender. “I’m not taking anything, I just wanted to have a look around, maybe actually pay you for the dolphin over there. How much is it?” He asked, pointing back to the dolphin.
The shop owner sent him one last suspicious look before he walked over to check the price range. The second he had looked away, Hal reached over to the small table beside him, picked up a wooden lion statue, and slipped it into his pocket before the store clerk even got a chance to see.
Then, right as he was reciting the price range off to Hal, the teenage pirate was already slipping quietly out of the store.
Hal walked slowly at first, waiting until he heard the owner yell out for him, clearly angry, before he took off. Apparently, it hadn’t taken him long to notice the absence of the wooden figurine. Hal booked it for the first minute or so, and then came to a halt once he had neared the docks, letting out a chuckle. Perhaps it was a good thing that he had gotten out today, he was beginning to feel a bit more like himself.
He shook his head, reaching into his pocket to grab the lion, examining it closely. “Well Schmee, I’d say that was a success,” he said out loud, only seeming to realize what was wrong with that sentence after he had already said it.
His laughter quickly died down, eyes locked on the lion in his hand as he rubbed his thumb along the markings. Of course he would have nagged the lion. Hal had just been looking to mess around for a bit, grab any sort of token, but of course it had to be a lion.
Because, what else would it be? The universe was a cruel and unforgiving wasteland. There was nothing else he could have snagged but the lion. His gaze hardened as he gripped the wooden animal. “I guess...you wouldn’t know if it had been successful, Schmee, how could you? You’re dead!” At the end there, he tossed the wooden lion as far as he could. It soared through the air for a few moment before it crashed into the waves of the sea.
He had almost forgotten he was at the docks now.
Hal glared at the water as it lapped up on the shores, his eyes darkening the longer he watched the lion drift off, further and further away. Some of the goblins were looking at him strange, but he really couldn’t care less about goblins right now.
Hal didn’t look away or relax until the lion had floated out of sight, and only then did he feel like he could relax, letting his hands uncoil from their previously clenched position.
”Oh, now Halley. That wasn’t very mature, now was it?”
Hal closed his eyes, that voice much more present now than it had been earlier. His head turning down and away from the water, though he said nothing.
”Are you just going to ignore me, Halley? Sometimes you have to hear things you don’t want to hear.”
Hal exhaled. “You’re not real. You’re just in my head.”
Silence, and then. ”Maybe so, but we both know that’s no excuse to act so childish.”
Hal opened his eyes, turning around so fast he should’ve gotten whiplash. “You’re not real, you’re not here, stop scolding me,” he ordered, glaring at nothing. However, if he tried hard enough, he could imagine that Sammie was there, in front of him. “Besides, what does it matter? You’re dead,” he chocked out, looking away.
He turned back to the docks, eyes trained on the water as he waited for some sort of response. But none came.
Because Samuel Schmee was very much dead, and this, was all in his head.
—
The next day, Hal was back on the Jolly Roger, perched up on the side as he watched the water. Every now and then, a dark figure would appear underneath, likely a fish. But it always disappeared before long. Hook was gone, though Hal didn’t know where, but he didn’t plan on complaining. Because at least for now, the old ship was his.
”Quite the sight, now isn’t it, Halley?”
Hal let out a sigh, closing his eyes. “Why can’t you just leave me alone? It’s hard enough as it is.” There was silence, and then, “Schmee” continued.
”You know why.”
Hal grimaced, looking away, even though there was no one to look at. He wasn’t wrong. Hal did know why. He couldn’t let him go. Even now, Hal clung so tightly to the memory of his friend that he was mentally incapable of letting him rest in peace.
At least, not in his head.
“This wasn’t how it was supposed to be,” Hal said, eyes once again locking back onto the water. It was perhaps the only thing, that kept him at all grounded. “None of this, none of it was supposed to happen. You weren’t supposed to die,” Hal’s voice broke. He rubbed his forehead, taking off his hat.
”We don’t control the universe. Something like this was bound to happen. Sanura-“
Hal glared. “Don’t talk to me about Sanura,” he demanded darkly. “She sent you to your grave. The de Vil’s simply pulled the trigger,” Hal snarled out, voice low and eerily quiet as he gripped the sides of the deck, hat thrown onto the ground.
”Don’t forget the bear trap.” “Sammie” supplied, which in turn, made Hal let out a bitter laugh. Oh, yes, the bear trap. He would never be able to forget about that. It was forever imprinted into his brain.
Suddenly, his mind flashed with memories of that day. Sammie hadn’t come back from last night. They went out to find him. Hal hadn’t been the one to find the body, but he had been told, and had stormed over to see it.
To this day, he still wished he hadn’t.
It was a good thing that Hal hadn’t had any real interaction with either of the De Vil girls since, or else he might have just retuned the favor for Schmee’s death. It was also probably a good thing he hadn’t done anything to either Collie or Claude, or even Sanura yet. Distancing himself had done good on keeping him away from those girls.
“I don’t think I could ever forget the bear trap, Schmee,” Hal told him quietly, the fire having burned out by now. “I don’t think I’ll ever be able to forget any of it. You leaving, me complaining that it wasn’t fair that you had to go, finding you the next day,” he closed his eyes again, inhaling sharply. “I wish I could forget all of it, but I can’t.” How could he, when he kept thinking back to it? When such bitterness took the place of his old sadness, forcing him to remember.
Hal let out a sigh, leaning back. “Sometimes I wonder if any of this is worth it,” he confessed, eyes slowly making their way to the plank. “How bad would it be, if I decided that it wasn’t worth it...” he slightly adjusted his position, now on the edge of the sides, dangerously close to falling off the ship.
Then his gaze hardened, and he jumped back onto the deck, standing up. “Then I remember what those girls did to you. And it’s all a lot more worth it now,” he explained, picking his hat back up off the ground. “I swear to you, Schmee, I will make all three of them pay for your death,” he promised, dusting off his hat.
”Now Halley-“
Hal swerved to glare in the direction of Wharf Town. “Don’t you ‘now Halley’ me, Schmee. This was not supposed to happen. You were not supposed to die. We were supposed to get off this rock together, sail the seas here, on the Jolly Roger,” his voice began to break. “I was supposed to be Captain. You were going to be my first mate-“ Hal blinked his eyes closed, trying to stop as tears began to well up in the corners of his eyes. “You weren’t supposed to die.”
He collapsed onto the floor, hunched on the ground as he brought his knees up, hugging them close to his chest as he let go of his hat. “You weren’t supposed to die...” by now his voice was a blubbery whisper. Eyes shut tight as tears rolled down his face. He hadn’t broken down in awhile now. This was a step back. He was supposed to be doing better.
But, as they closed in on that year mark, which wasn’t very far away now, all Hal could think about was his friend, dead down at the docks with a hole in his chest and mangled with a bear trap. How Sanura had sent him after the de Vils, and how she must’ve known what they would do. How one of those wretched girls shot him right in the chest.
However, then he was brought out of his misery at the sound of a ship.
A ship? That didn’t make much sense. Hal got up, wiping away the tears from his eyes as he walked over to the other side of the ship to see what it was.
A ship from Auradon by the looks of it. Though definitely not a cargo ship. Which seemed odd, Auradon only ever sent supplies over here. So why was this ship approaching. A part of him wanted to go find out, but at the same time, he knew it could wait. Now that he had forced himself to stop crying, he had other matters to worry about.
So, he made no move to check the Auradon ship out. Instead, he simply watched from where he was, a curious look covering his face. Well, whatever it was, he was certain he’d hear about it soon enough. As for right now, Hal had bigger things to deal with than Auradon.
So, he shook his head, walking back to his hat as he picked it up and dusted it off, making his way to the captain’s quarters. Hook hardly used this place anymore. Hal often found himself hiding away in it.
He dropped his hat on a hat rack and moved to a small desk, opening up one of the drawers as he pulled out a red and white striped beanie, placing it on the desk. He pulled some books over, as well as some paper. They were school books. It was true that Hal hardly went to school any more, at this point. But there was one class that he needed to go to if he wanted to get revenge.
Murder 101.
