Take Me Forever (18 page)

Oranges,
she
thought.
 
Her mouth began to water as she
thought about juicy sweet oranges.
 
She
looked around until she saw a small orange tree and ran to it.
 
She gathered several oranges and went back to
her shelter to eat and prepare for the night.
 
She built a fire and crawled into her shelter to sleep.
 
She kept the dagger close.
 
Even though there may not be people on this
island, there could still be wild animals or snakes that could harm her.

After another week of grieving, Cain decided that he had to
get over Mercy.
 
He had to accept the
fact that she was dead.
 
He had to move
on with his life.
 
Late one night, Cain
went into the newly built village to the tavern.
 
He sat alone at a table and drank himself
into a stupor.
 
A woman approached him
and sat down beside him.

“Cain, I hate to see you like this.
 
Let me help you home,” the woman said.

“Rita,” Cain slurred.

“That’s right baby.
 
Rita is here now to take care of you,” she answered as she looped her
arms through his.

The last time Cain saw Rita was when he brought Mercy to the
island.
 
Rita considered herself to be
his woman.
 
She was furious when he
brought home his new bride.
 
In the past,
whenever Cain felt the urge to relieve his manly urges, she was always more
than eager to comply.
 
Once they were
safely at Cain’s house, Rita escorted him to his bedroom.
 
She took off his clothes and helped him into
bed.
 
Then, she removed her clothing and
joined him.

“What the hell are you doing?”
 
Cain asked as he became aware of what she was
doing.

“Cain, I need you and you need me.”

“The hell I do.
 
I
need Mercy,” Cain said as his temper began to boil.

“She is dead.
 
You
need to let her go.”

“No!”
 
Cain yelled.

“Calm down,” Rita remarked as she stroked his chest to try
to get him to calm down.

“Get out of my bed and put your clothes on,” Cain ordered as
she practically threw her out of his bed.

“Fine!
 
You had your
chance to be with a real woman,” Rita snarled as she began putting on her
clothes.

“You bitch!
 
How dare
you insult my dead wife.
 
Mercy was a
saint,” Cain angrily replied as he moved toward her.

Cain picked her up, threw her over his shoulder, gathered up
her remaining clothes, and headed straight to the front door with her.
 
He opened the door and tossed her to the
ground before saying, “Never cross my path again or it will be the last thing
you ever do.”

He went back to his room and put on his clothes and
boots.
 
He decided to take a walk to calm
down.
 
He went to the beach and stared at
his ship in the water.
 
He climbed the
gangplank and boarded his only other love.
 
He locked his cabin door behind him and sat at the table with a bottle
of tequila.
 
He took a few swigs before
something on the table caught his eye.

Slowly, he focused his eyes until he could read the piece of
paper.
 
It was the other item that Samson
had given him from the
Satan’s Curse.
 
It appeared to be a treasure map.
 
Cain smiled as he looked at it.
 
A treasure hunt could help him keep his mind
off of his misery.
 
It was about time he
got back to living up to his reputation as a pirate.
 
At first light, Cain summoned his crew.
 
Samson was the first to arrive.

“Captain, where are we headed?”

“Samson, we are going in search of treasure.
 
Seems Hawkins left us a treasure map.
 
Instruct the crew to stock the ship and
prepare for a voyage.
 
We will leave on
the morrow.
 

At dawn the following morning the crew was aboard and making
preparations to set sail.
 
Cain plotted
the course and they set sail.
 
This was
going to be the journey that brought Cain out of his grievous state of
mind.
 
For weeks, they sailed, south.
 
They stopped at a few ports and raided a few
ships along their journey.

Cain was acting like his old self as they pillaged a ship
carrying gold.
 
They acquired enough loot
that they could return home and forget about finding a treasure that may or may
not exist.
 
Cain wouldn’t hear of it and
they continued roaming the sea.

Late one afternoon, Mercy began to feel a strong breeze
mixed with rain.
 
The clouds darkened the
sky with their low lying black formations.
 
The wind showed its magnificent force as tree limbs began to fall around
her.
 
Thunder and lightning erupted in a
frenzied music and light show.
 
The air
felt ominous, and Mercy began to get frightened.

Suddenly, the storm raged out of control as the wind gusts
nearly blew Mercy off of her feet.
 
In seconds,
she was entirely drenched from the torrential rain.
 
She was afraid of the fast striking
lightning.

Mercy frantically searched for shelter on the island that
was quickly turning itself inside out.
 
She fell over a fallen tree and overturned her ankle.
 
She screamed out in pain as she stood and put
pressure on her sprained ankle.
 
She got
up and began hobbling toward anything that could protect her.
 

While she sought refuge, the thunderous sky turned
deadly.
 
Trees were falling all around
her.
 
It was raining so hard that she
could barely see a foot in front of her.
 
She had to fight for each step as the wind kept blowing her
backwards.
 
She knew she had mere moments
before the deadliest part of the storm hit and completely destroy this tiny
island.

Just as Mercy was about to give up hope finding shelter, she
fell into a pit.
 
She fell fifteen feet
down before landing on the muddy bottom.
 
She lay there for a second catching her breath from the sudden fall.
 
She assessed her injuries and found nothing
except new except for the pain from her overturned ankle.
 
She may be trapped inside some sort of pit,
but at least it had would protect her from the wind and rain.
 

It seemed like hours passed and the water in the pit had
risen to her knees.
 
She was in fear of
drowning if the storm didn’t cease before long.
 
Once the water level approached her breasts, Mercy feared that this was
going to be her demise.
 
As Mercy looked
to the sky, she could see nothing but black.
 
She was helpless and wished for a miracle.
 
She prayed to Cain’s spirit to help her in
her time of need.

As soon as those thoughts left her lips, the earth behind
her moved.
 
Suddenly, the ground beneath
her gave way.
 
The water that was
trapping her descended its depth as she clung to the vines to hold her
position.
 
The current was too strong and
swept her along a path underneath the ground.
 
She seemed to be in some sort of cave when the water finally washed her
aside.
 
She was more lost than ever as
she spit out the water she had consumed.
 

She was in total darkness and could hear water running past
her.
 
She knew that if the water could
flow, there had to be a way out.
 
Exhausted, Mercy curled up in a ball and cried.
 
Millions of thoughts ran across her mind as
she closed her eyes.
 
She was hungry,
lost, hurt, and alone.
 
Things couldn’t
get any worse.
 
Sleep finally overtook
her as that last thought dissipated.

Hours later, an extremely sore Mercy awoke.
 
A large stick had washed up beside her
sometime during the night.
 
She picked it
up and used it to help her walk on her blackened ankle.
 
She also used it for a guide to make sure she
didn’t fall into another pit and to see where she was stepping.

Slowly, she followed the path of flowing water.
 
She placed her hand in the water and made
sure that she was traveling with the current.
 
The sounds of the rushing water grew louder and the air became less
dense.
 
As she was about to take another
step, her walking stick didn’t hit bottom.
 
She paused as she kept moving the stick in front of her trying to find
ground.
 
There was nothing there but a
strong current.

“Now what?”
 
Mercy
whispered aloud.

For a few minutes, she contemplated her next move.
 
The way she saw it, she had two choices.
 
One was to go forward and hope she didn’t
die.
 
The other choice was to give up and
die in her dark surroundings.

Cain’s spirit had helped her once.
 
She hoped it would work again.
 
As she stepped out into the water, Cain’s
name left her lips as the current swept her over a waterfall.
 
She closed her eyes, held her breath, and
hoped that it would be over soon.

Once the water ride was over, Mercy took a breath.
 
She was floating in a pool of water that was
only three feet deep.
 
She opened her
eyes expecting to find darkness.
 
To her
surprise, she found a glimmer of light.
 
It wasn’t coming from the sun though.
 
Something else was illuminating the cave.
 

She climbed out of the water and began to walk along the
edge of the cavern floor to the source of the light.
 
The path winded and twisted as she dodged
overhanging boulders.
 
The air began to
get warmer the closer she got to the light.
 
Strange ashes filled the air as she realized where she was.
 
She was inside a volcano!

She confirmed her suspicions as she saw a pool of hot,
molten, lava flowing on the other side of the cave.
 
Hoping that the volcano wasn’t about to
erupt, Mercy headed straight for the heart of the volcano.
 
The closer she came, the hotter it became and
she began to sweat excessively.
 
It was
becoming harder to breathe.

Finally, Mercy cleared the worst of it.
 
The air began to cool down, and the flow of
the lava started to subside.
 
A few
hundred yards later, Mercy found a flowing stream of water.
 
She wasn’t sure if the water pure enough to
drink this close to the center of the volcano.
 

She couldn’t stand the thirst any longer and cupped her
hands into the stream.
 
She drank quickly
until she couldn’t drink anymore.
 
She
was going to die of thirst if she didn’t drink it, so she decided to take her
chances with the possibly contaminated water.

She sat beside the stream for a while to rest her aching
feet and injured ankle.
 
Hours later,
Mercy was standing at the foot of the volcano breathing fresh air.
 
She basked in the sun’s rays and was
overwhelmed by its beauty.
 
She had been
inside the darkened cavern so long, that the sunlight hurt her eyes.

The rumbling of her stomach grabbed her attention.
 
Mercy turned to the matter at hand.
 
She had to find something to eat.
 
She searched the area and found the island to
be mostly demolished.
 
There were fallen
trees everywhere.
 
She found dozens of berry
bushes.
 
She was thankful Cain had taught
her which ones were poisonous and which ones weren’t.
 

Her next task was to find shelter for the night.
 
She decided that it would be best to camp
inside the cavern.
 
She gathered up all
of the dry wood and straw she could find.
 
She found a smooth place just inside the cave and built a fire.
 

Once the fire was ablaze, Mercy noticed an opening in the
side of the wall.
 
She saw that someone
had left a torch attached to the wall filled with some type of oil.
 
She lit it, and examined the area.
 
The gaping hole opened up into a larger room.

“I wonder what’s in here,” she whispered as she stepped
through the hole in the wall.

She took a few paces and then she saw what the room was
hiding.
 
There was a mountain of treasure
in the corner ranging from three feet to five feet in width.
 
Mercy was overwhelmed as she rushed to the
gold and jewels.
 
Never before had she
witnessed such beauty.
 
Tears filled her
eyes as she remembered the time that she found a treasure chest with Cain.
 
If only
he could see this,
she thought as she wiped away her tears.