Chapter #10
A bright, obnoxious glow appeared through their bedroom window in the broken, half sunken ship. Jack sat up, and stretched his bones, making it a point not to crack so as Sally could stay asleep. He got up, and peeked out the window. The lime-light shown bright, and the darkness around the cave was prominent. He groaned, and scratched his skull.
"It's too early for this..." He mumbled. He walked over to the bedside, and took his cloths off the floor. "Better go change." He stumbled behind a dressing fold, and starting undressing. Sally sat up, and quietly watched his shadow behind the maroon curtain. She smiled to herself. As he finished putting on his suit, he came out to see Sally smiling at him on the edge of the bed. He smiled back sheepishly. "Big day..."
"I know." Was all she could muster. The day was going to be rough. The slime on the side of the ship gave off the heat again as the sun rose above ground. Jack suddenly remembered his little portrait friend. The Blade Wolf. He wondered what he was doing right now... Hopefully Seralicore had spared his life. Besides, Wolf no longer told him anything about his future. He basically knew it was supposed to be bad. That's all he needed to know. Sally went over to Jack, and put a hand on his shoulder. She looked troubled. "I don't want you to go..."
"I know... But I really have no choice." She looked him in the eye sockets, the blackness swirling her into the depth of his soul.
"I... I had a nightmare last night... And it wasn't anything you gave to me..." She put her head in her hands, and tried to compose herself. But she couldn't hold onto her tears anymore. "I saw you... standing at the bow of the ship... It looked as though you were going to kill us all..." She completely lost it, and cried into her cloth hands. They soaked the tears she knew he would have wiped away, if he hadn't seen the vision himself.
"The day will come, my angel, when this will all end, and we will be back where we belong." He quietly pulled her into his arms. "Everything will be okay..." Another image came to Jack from his past experience. Angel. The word hit him when he called Sally by that nickname. He wondered where she was... The poor girl. Seralicore must have done something awful to her. The elf needed to die. And Jack was plenty good at that.
In their sorrow, Jack was forced to carry her back to the bed. "You need rest." She refused to lie down, and instead, flipped so Jack was underneath her.
"I'm not letting you go. This is for your own good." She cuffed him to the bed posts. "If I have to, I'm going to hold you prisoner here forever." Jack laughed. He tried to pull his hands free of the metal chains, and nothing moved. These were real cuffs, they weren't trick rigged. He pulled again, and threw Sally a strange look. "I mean it Jack. This is not your battle. There is a reason I am here, in this history they call the archives. I'm in this story too, and I'm going to make sure you don't go anywhere except my own arms." She kissed him, heatedly, as Jack lie cuffed to the post unable to move away.
"Sally!" He finally breathed. She let go, and stood up. Something about her eyes told Jack something was terribly wrong. And it had nothing to do with what Seralicore was planning to do. Her mind was set on something. From the shadows came a mocking laughter. A laughter that Jack knew had to be the elf. He growled from his prison. "Sally!" He yelled.
She turned her head away, and a single tear ran down her face. "I'm sorry..." She took a step back, and vanished into the darkness. The laughter rang louder in Jack's skull. It echoed off the walls, and sunk deep into his bones. He watched her disappear with a deep sinking feeling. The elf emerged from the shadow like a storm cloud descending over the sun, her ugly fangs bared in the hysterics of her glee.
"Do you really think I would handle you with a partner Jack? I know what you're capable of. That's why I had her cuff you down. She was perfectly cooperative when I threatened to kill you, however, she did make one mistake. She came here. The Wolf himself told you she wasn't dead, and he meant it, she isn't. However, the surprise you were supposed to feel wasn't near what I had expected. Therefore, the Wolf has upset the order. The only punishment, is death. I will go and find your painted friend, and when I do, he will have more than just a terrible rip go through his home, and his painted face." She snarled, laughing, mocking, destroying every ounce of Jack's pride, and dignity. He turned to Sally, sorrow in his eyes.
"How could you..." He murmured, and turned his face away. Tears streamed down his bony cheeks, as he finally let the stress out, and drain away his fear. No more would he be anything but a decoy, a toy, a plan to take over the world. Jack's future had finally come, and he would be able to defend Sally no more. She had given up faith in him. She didn't trust the fact that maybe he would have escaped and gotten away. And now, the Wolf was in danger also. What had she done? Why had she given up her faith? Her love?
Jack lay back, squirmed, and let out a piercing wail that shook the glass. Sally plugged her ears. He moved his legs as best he could considering his cuffed trap. He pulled hard at the cuffs around his wrists, and nothing cracked, nor broke. He let out another wail, as Sally was forced to retreat, fear glinting in her eyes. Jack roared, pain seared through his bones, and his chest cracked. Something was happening. From under the bed, there came a black, sticky liquid that looked as though it were tar. The liquid continued to move and squish until it materialized, and formed the body of the Girl-In-Black. Her gothic form, that of which looked like a demon, floated up to him from the bottom of the bed. Angel...
He stared in stricken horror. Again he reared in pain. Angel came to his bedside. She laid a hand on his bony forehead. "Shh..." Her eyes turned a sour green. She laid one finger over his mouth, he reared, trying to keep his mouth shut so as not to bite her. She put a hand to his chest, and leaned down as though to hear a heartbeat. She stood back up, and turned to see Sally cringing against the wall. She had a crucifix clutched in her hand. Angel walked over, and took the cross from the rag doll's fingers. Sally froze. She walked back over to Jack.
"In the name of God, all holy souls will be avenged, and the dead shall be commenced. Amen." She laid the crucifix across his chest, and watched it burn. Jack roared and wailed in his pain. Angel suffused back into blackness with a whisper. "This'll help you..." She was gone.
