Faux Realm Ch. 07

Several men entered and smiled as their 'captain' was busy squirming on top of his victim. She cried. She begged for forgiveness. Lucian had to close his eyes. His anger rose and he was unable to look at this torturous sight.

"ENOUGH!" Lucian screamed and the picture vanished leaving him retching in the middle of the ramp.

It was not a nice experience getting moved in and out of your body and then there were those vivid pictures. They weren't that bad, well the rape was horrific, but his helplessness to take action made him feel even worse.

"Fuck them!" He almost lost few teeth as he clenched his jaw tightly.

He hated seeing that kind of thing, being unable to do anything to help these people as they suffered so badly by the hands of the people that were stronger. He did not remember eating anything yet there was enough in his stomach for him to push out. The sight of these people that knew better, that were in a position to help them. And yet they exploited them, used them for their own wretched needs.

"Why would you show me that?" Lucian asked as if hoping someone would answer him.

He asked before he could think. To whom did that question go to, who would answer it?

Lucian asked the question waiting for an answer. From where he did not know. He was apprehensive, knowing that any offered answer would not explain or even justify the wretch raping a woman in front of her lover.

His hands were sweaty, his legs wobbly. But still he went down the ramp, further to his end goal. Now he needed to hold Liza.

He saw more rooms and more people walking around. Though these folks were wearing fresh bandages on different areas on their body.

They looked at him wiping his mouth after his bout with vomit. They looked apprehensive at first, probably heard him doing his business so openly, screaming his lungs out, who knew what they thought. He tried to apologize to these scared people, but some of them were too scared to approach him, even the sight of his moving shadow made some flinch in terror as he passed over them. Lucian thought what they could go through to warrant that amount of fear even from him, not thinking how menacing he looked to these poor souls.

A hooded woman with a bucket rushed past him and climbed onto the ramp. She begun wiping the floor with just a damp rag. Lucian saw this and rushed to her side.

She was the only one that looked dressed, but still her clothes were in abysmal state. The attire on her body was in splotches, mostly torn apart but still covering tightly her breasts and private area. Still she had one big aspect that covered her entire body. Her hooded dark grey cloak. It was fairly large on her body, she still wore it with grace covering her exposed flesh whenever it would move.

She winced. Thinking something was wrong, thinking she forgot to do something before him. Thinking she forgot some procedure to greet their host; the state of fear in the woman was almost palpable and like a ripple the entire hallway erupted in nervousness. Almost crying out in fear as she was gently coaxed to stand up and relinquish the rag that she was busy moping the bile from the floor.

"Please miss, let me." He said smiling gently.

Lucian knelt down beside the vomit his stomach ejected just few minutes ago. Taking the rag and first pooling the bile in a neat mass before him, as he started to properly rectify this problem. But the woman was restless. "It's okay miss. This is dirty and I should mop it up."

His words had a profound effect on the troubled woman, she started sobbing and making strange sounds. She did try to calm down, Lucian did notice, but all this did was make the sad woman get incoherent and unable to speak. He smiled as he saw this poor soul try to form coherent words without much success.

While he was busy rinsing the rang in the metal bucket, the very smell of the retched stuff before him made him gag and almost lose it several times during his cleaning process. Once done Lucian took the bucket and asked the young woman, "Where should I take this?"

Her hand was small as it gently extended and pointed towards a closed door. Lucian nodded and smiled taking his time to walk towards the pointed door. The woman was right behind him. Like a lost puppy she followed in his shadow.

Lucian opened the door and noticed he was about to enter someone's room, noticing that this room was a lot bigger than the ones upstairs he wondered what this was used for, a large bed was in the middle of the room, a white closet right behind it, Lucian noticed another door and walking to it he saw that it was a nice sized bathroom.

Equipped with a toilet and a shower, he was really surprised, *every time a new thing.* he thought as he moved towards the toilet and releasing the buckets contents. He was surprised how this ship looked so small at first but slowly revealed its charming secrets to his prying eyes.

With the bucket emptied and his hands washed to perfection, he left the bedroom and stood in the hallway, again, trying to figure out why this woman was walking behind him.

She never once left his side for a moment. Inspecting every one of his actions with enthusiastic stare, again like a lost puppy that found his forever home. He started walking, she followed closely behind. Still the adoring look poking a hole in the back of his head.

He wanted to yell and run away, but was afraid what that would do to the poor woman. Lucian really did not want to add more to her already full plate of troubles.

Finally at the end of the hallway he heard her gentle and reassuring voice. Days when he was busy growing back his body he remembered what that did to him, how it moved his heart on her path.

Lucian smiled.

The door unexpectedly opened and two people stood in the doorway. A man and a woman. Both in a state of distress. Their expressions showed fear, confusion, as they wanted to move further his body was blocking their path. "Hello. What's the matter?"

The woman finally broke down and fell into the man's arms. He tried to calm her but she was inconsolable.

Gently moving out of the way Lucian was patiently waiting for them to move on, but their bodies were riveted on one spot and trying to console each other. Unable to understand what the problem was, Liza finally appeared and helped the poor people to reenter the room they were about to exit from, leaving Lucian to enter behind them. Again the woman was following Lucian's shadow.

Liza started patiently working and offering calm words to both people, "Everything is going to be okay. This is not the end of the world."

Lucian weighted his options, on one hand he wanted to know their plight, but on the other he did not want to seem like he was poking his nose into their business. After a quiet monolog with himself he decided to ask Liza, "What happened here?"

She smiled at him, her kind smile did wonders to his soul. After taking few short breaths she explained, "Well she was badly beaten, and lost the child she was carrying."

"Oh no. Are you sure?" Lucian asked. Grim mask on his face.

"On board medical system is quite good. I checked several times." Liza explained.

Lucian moved towards the couple, but two different hands stopped him from moving further. Gentle shake of Liza's head said he should not attempt to do anything. He finally understood. There are some things that are just not fixable. What could he even say to these poor people?

Rightly deciding to leave the devastated couple to calm down on their own, he wondered what he would do if he was in similar situation? How would he feel?

Liza noticed his minds meanderings, and silently came into his chest breaking his train of thought. Gently hugging her Lucian took few silent moments to relax and enjoy her closeness, He did not notice the second set of arms coming around them, but finally feeling them he remembered who else was there. Lucian felt her arms softly hug both him and Liza. He heard her giggle.

At first he thought she was using some sort of magic, just to make her arms detach and move behind him, he knew that was a silly thought, but still he had it for a second. Then he remembered the hooded woman walking behind him, following him wherever his shadow went.

He decided to ignore the woman's hug, "So, what are you up to? I haven't seen you most of the day."

She laughed at his gentle attempt to ignore the woman attached to his back, "Well, Lucian, I've been helping these people."

"Yeah, I can see that." Lucian smiled.

She started sniffing his clothes, Lucian started to sweat just a little bit, the awkwardness of the situation was not lost to him "Most of these people look terrible. God knows what they went through."

Liza nodded, "Well to be short and to avoid any gory details, people went through every kind of abuse that the pirates could throw at them."

"Well I'm glad the pirate captain suffered the way he did, I just wished I had more time with him." The sniffing had stopped, Lucian took a giant sigh of relief.

The woman finally released his back and went out the door, her hood still on her head, Lucian thought he did not even know how this lady looked like yet she inhaled his scent like it was a delicious meal. They both giggled and suddenly Liza took a giant yawn, being on her feet the entire day and taking care of droves of people was not an easy task and Lucian could understand her plight. Taking her hand he led her out the door and back to their bedroom.

Dark color of the corridors as they walked back did something to their mind as it calmed them down further calming them. Final corridor was washed in low light, making already dark colors of the walls seem almost invisible. Lucian led Liza by her hand and right next to the wide arch of the bridge entrance was another door.

"I know this was a pirate's ship and a lot of bad things happened. But for now let's sleep." He somehow knew that there was a room behind that door that led into captain's room.

As they went in a horrible stink met their noses. They immediately covered their noses and stared at utter devastation.

First thing that they saw when entering this room was an enormous black desk. On it were piles and piles of garbage thrown or placed there by its previous owner. Lucian's face grimaced as he saw what lied on the floor. Several piles of rancid meat spread across different spots. In their hurry, whoever was in here had thrown several rancid sacks of meat across the room.

They left the room gasping for air. Almost vomiting all over the floor as they hobbled over to the bridge. Pale and unsteady on their legs, both Ericha and Lindsay left their posts to tend to their needs.

"Disgusting!" Lucian exclaimed.

"Yeah, that was disturbing." Liza managed to say.

Lucian thought about the scores of limbs on the floor, "What was done to those poor creatures?"

Lindsay knew what he was talking but Ericha stared in confusion. She raised up to their feet and went over to examine the meat grinder. She returned shortly running, pale as a ghost.

"What kind of debauchery went on this ship?" Lucian asked.

Lindsay knew that her brother wanted that question to go unanswered, but nevertheless she replied, "You do not want to know."

He approached her and kneeled taking her hand in his, "Baby sister I am sorry I was-"

She gently shook her head silencing him, after which she said, "It is all right Lucian. I know. I think it's better if I talk about it."

"Are you ready for it?" concerned Lucian asked his sister.

"Right now? No. I do not think I'll ever be ready." She answered with a sad expression in her eyes.

"It's ok." He whispered.

Caressing her hand in his he said, "We'll fight it together."

He then turned to Liza and Ericha and both of them gently smiled and nodded, "If you do not mind let's sleep in here, I do not want to commandeer anyone's room at this time." Lucian said.

Everyone came in a giant hug around him. They agreed taking their clothes and bringing the stuff they needed to sleep in, gently arranging and lying one by one. Ericha and Lindsay took some time to set few alarms and check the Star map for any dangers. As they did so Lucian and Liza were already in land of dreams.

Sleep took them one by one. There were not going to be attempts at making love, too many sad faces in all of their minds to do the deed. They were thinking about their future together.

Surely they had tomorrow.