Colby and Sage carried her quickly but carefully, trying not to cause Taylor any more pain. The path was uneven and full of obstacles that the storm had washed ashore. Taylor gritted her teeth, trying to endure the pain, and held on to Colby.

"Hang in there, Tay-Tay," Colby whispered, stressed but determined. "We’ve got this." Then he looked at the other person carrying her through the storm. "Where are we going anyway?!"

Sage glanced briefly at Colby before answering. "We’re heading to my boat. It’s hidden in a cave near the beach. I’ve got everything we need there, and now stop asking questions."

The storm raged around them, and the wind tugged at their clothes while the rain poured down incessantly. Each step was a tremendous challenge, but Colby and Sage pressed on relentlessly.

Finally, they reached a rocky section of the beach, and Sage led them behind a barrier to a hidden opening between the rocks. The cave provided shelter from the storm, and the thunderous noise of the wind was noticeably muffled.

Inside, it was dark and cool, but Sage's old cutter, anchored in the middle of the cave, provided some light. The boat looked like it had weathered many storms, and Colby wasn’t sure how it was still afloat.

"Vic! Vic! Can you hear me?! Damn it! Vic! Get the antidote for the stonefish poisoning!" Sage shouted toward the cutter.

Colby’s eyes widened. Lilo emerged from a door on the cutter, looking confused at Sage. The same Lilo who had tried to steal Taylor's suitcase and threatened her with a knife at the start of their vacation. The Lilo who could also see him. Seeing them side by side, Colby noticed they really did look alike, with nearly identical noses and scars all over their skin, though Sage had covered his with incredibly cool tattoos. Yeah, Colby had to give him that. Those tattoos were wicked awesome.

"Oh, fuck! No! No! No! No! Why did you bring them here, damn it?! Of all people, these two assholes?!" she yelled, frustrated and angry, throwing the knife in her hand at the door she had just come through.

"She stepped on a stonefish. Get the antidote!"

"Alright, alright! Damn it, you always get me into the worst shit ever!" She slammed the door, pulled the knife back out, and went back into the cabin.

"Colby, help me get her onto the boat."

"You know my name?" the Ghost Boy asked, confused.

"I said no questions."

Colby shook his head but helped Sage carefully get Taylor onto the cutter. The cave was a bizarre mix of wildness and secrecy, and he could feel his curiosity growing despite the serious situation. They gently laid Taylor on one of the benches as Lilo returned with a small metal box.

"Found it," Lilo said, still with a grim expression, but the edge in her voice had softened a bit. She knelt beside Taylor and opened the box to take out the antidote. Sage leaned over Taylor and held her hand.

"This will hurt, but only for a moment," he explained calmly and gently. "But then you'll feel better."

Colby aggressively slapped Sage’s hand away from his girl. "Don’t touch her," he growled.

Only then did Lilo see the wounded foot and cursed again. "Damn it, assholes! There are still spikes in there!" Without warning Taylor, she began to forcefully pull them out.

"Can you be a bit gentler and more careful, Vic?" Sage shouted. Vic. He had already yelled that name. So that was her real name.

"Do you want my help or not?!" she shouted back twice as loud.

Taylor screamed in pain, tears streaming down her face again. Colby knelt beside her, holding her hand tightly and whispering soothing words. Vic was ruthless, pulling out one spike after another, her movements quick and efficient.

"You're a fucking sadist, Vic," Sage muttered, also trying to calm Taylor. But he wasn’t as successful as Colby, after all, he wasn’t him.

"If I don’t do this, she’ll die, you idiot," she snapped back.

After removing the last spike, she took the syringe and injected the antidote into Taylor’s foot. Taylor screamed again, then collapsed back, her breathing heavy and irregular.

"It will get better soon," the woman said, her voice now a bit softer. "The antidote works quickly. She’ll be out of pain in a few minutes."

Sage breathed a sigh of relief and placed a hand on Colby’s shoulder. "We need to stay here until the storm subsides. It's safer this way."

But Colby slapped Sage's hand away this time too. "You tried to rob us, you bitch." His angry gaze was fixed on Vic.

"And I said it wasn’t personal."

"And you? Are you a thief too?" Colby now looked at Sage. "I knew it all along."

"Pirate," Sage corrected calmly.

"Pirate," Colby repeated incredulously. "But you do realize we’re in the 21st century, right? You really call yourself a pirate?"

Sage shrugged and grinned slightly. "You’re the damn ghost here. And yeah, in the 21st century. But the seas still have their own laws, and Vic and I found our own way to live by them."

Colby snorted, but before he could say more, Taylor interrupted him with a weak voice. "Colby, stop," she whispered. "This isn’t the right time." Then she looked at Sage. "Thank you." Then at Vic, albeit much more skeptically. "You too."

"Hmph," Vic grunted.

"I’d still like some answers," Colby continued, much calmer now. "What were you doing out there in the storm?"

Sage reached into his jacket pocket, pulled out a cigarette from his pack, and lit it. Then he handed it to Vic and lit one for himself.

"I was looking for interesting stuff," Sage began calmly. "Things that sometimes get washed ashore in these storms. And I can check it out undisturbed because no one else dares to go out. But I do."

Colby frowned. "What exactly are you looking for?"

"When you live like us, you turn everything into money. But it’s more about finding parts for our Dorothea."

"Shut up, Sage," came from Vic.

"They already know about our home," he countered. "Sorry, but that’s just how my sister is."

"Sister," came from Taylor and Colby simultaneously.

"My dear prickly twin sister, and I’m lucky she didn’t eat me in our mother’s womb," he explained quietly with a grin to lighten the mood.

"If I could have thought back then, I would have done it. That should tell you something." She looked at their guests. "Vic, not Lilo, Anna, Bernice, or Sandra, I don’t know what name I used with you." She picked up the metal box.

If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

"Short for Victoria?" Taylor asked weakly.

"Victorine. But you’d better call me Vic. If I catch your plumped lips saying anything that even sounds like Victorine, I’ll rip them off your face, capiche?" Taylor nodded, and the pirate went back below deck.

"And who is Dorothea?" Colby wanted to know.

Sage jumped up playfully and pointed to the cutter’s deck. "You’re on her. Our home." He sat on the cutter’s railing and took a deep drag from his cigarette. The glow of the ember reflected in his eyes as he continued. "Dorothea has brought us through many storms. She’s old but reliable. Just not seaworthy anymore."

Colby looked around more closely. The cutter was clearly aged, with peeling paint and numerous patches, but it was solid. You could almost hear the stories it had to tell.

"A bit run-down for a home, don’t you think?" the ghost remarked skeptically.

Sage grinned. "Maybe. But a home isn’t the building, it’s the people in it. We don’t have much, but we have each other. And that’s more than many others have."

Taylor also looked around, her eyes darting over the various parts of the cutter. "So you really live here?"

"Got a problem with that, Missy?" Vic snapped from below deck. She could hear everything.

"Okay, but how the fuck can you see me? And why do you know my name?" Colby continued.

"You’re Colby Vance. You’re famous. I always wanted to know what happened to you."

"That still doesn’t explain how you can see him," Taylor countered. She really didn’t know what to make of this whole situation. Her surf instructor… was a pirate. A pirate. And the twin brother of the woman who tried to rob her.

"Near-death experience, both of us." Sage crossed his arms. "When we were kids. The ship caught fire, we lost our parents, Vic and I jumped into the water and..." He pointed to some of his scars. "A damn lifeboat didn’t see us and ran right over us. Anyone else would have died, but not us."

Taylor and Colby were speechless. "I-I'm sorry," Taylor murmured.

"No need, we're not dead. Our parents were assholes who beat us, and our scars only make us stronger." He winked. "And hotter."

Colby rolled his eyes. Only he was allowed to be conceited here, right?! "And how do two orphan kids who can see ghosts become pirates?"

Sage took another deep drag from his cigarette, letting the smoke out slowly before answering. "It wasn’t an easy path, you can believe that. After we survived the accident, we had to fend for ourselves. There was no one who cared about two scarred kids lurking on the streets of Oahu."

Vic came back on deck, shaking her head, then started to coil some of the ropes on deck. "We learned to survive by taking what we needed," she added. "If you don’t like it, tough."

Taylor nodded slowly as she listened to Vic and Sage. The image she had of the two began to change. The tough exterior they both displayed seemed more like a necessary defense mechanism in a hostile world.

Colby, however, was still not entirely convinced. "And why pirates, of all things? Surely there are easier ways to get by."

Sage shrugged. "Maybe. But it’s the life we know. It gives us freedom, in a way. We’re not bound by rules others want to impose on us."

Vic nodded in agreement while rummaging through a toolbox. "And it gives us the chance to take care of ourselves. No one comes to rescue you. The world is shit. You have to learn to save yourself."

Taylor, gradually recovering, tried to process the flood of information. "What exactly do you do, besides... well, robbing people? I mean, that can’t be all there is to your life."

Sage grinned. "I’m the one who makes a bit of honest money. Surf training. Vic is the one who sneaks into hotels and robs tourists."

"Thanks a lot, by the way, for giving your damn receptionist a description of me," Vic began. "Every hotel here is now on the lookout for a scarred girl."

So Alan had done something after all.

"What were we supposed to do?" Colby countered. "You tried to rob my girl."

"Your girl. Do you always talk about her like she’s your property?"

"What’s it to you?" The frat boy was slowly getting really annoyed with this pirate woman. Even though she had saved Taylor’s life, what gave her the right?

Taylor gently squeezed his hand and gave him a calming look. "Let it go, Colby." She turned to Vic. "Thanks for your concern, but actually, I like it. I get to call him Col-Col for that."

"Disgusting," she muttered, and Sage just grinned again.

"We should focus on making sure Taylor is safe now," he suggested.

Taylor nodded in agreement and leaned against Colby, feeling the exhaustion after all the adrenaline. "So, what do we do now?"

Sage took another drag from his cigarette and then flicked it into the water. "Like I said, we wait until the storm lets up. I can handle this weather, but you’re just tourists and don’t know anything."

"And then you piss off," added Vic. "And if you tell anyone where we live, I’ll find you and kill you."

"Don’t worry, we won’t tell anyone. As a thank you for saving me." Taylor glanced at Colby briefly, and he nodded. "But one last question... Sage, you knew your sister was going to rob us... and you still gave me lessons?"

"You paid. That was reason enough for me."

"And you really plan to do this for the rest of your life?" Colby took over again. "Steal, kill, lie on the beach, and live in this cave?"

"Hey, we never killed anyone who didn’t deserve it," Vic growled, and Taylor swallowed hard. Makes sense, they are pirates after all. "And what would you do in our situation, huh? Go to jail?"

Taylor pondered for a long time what to say to that. Finally, she decided to answer with another question. "Are you wanted in the sense that... every cop knows your face... or more in the sense that... you’re a local myth and you could easily start a new life in another part of the world because no one knows you there?"

"Are you kidding? Of course no one knows us, we’re no amateurs. Sage would never find work and no one reported me before you. But we have no money to run away."

"But you would like to?" Colby pressed on.

Sage looked out at the sea while he pondered the question. By now, it was only drizzling lightly. His features showed a mix of longing and resignation. "Of course we would," he finally replied. "A new life, in another place where no one is looking for us, sounds tempting. But it’s not as easy as it sounds."

Vic scoffed. "We’re not dreamers like you. We can’t just run away and start over somewhere new."

Colby didn’t relent. "But if you had the chance, would you take it?"

Sage hesitated for a moment before answering. "Maybe. Maybe not. We’re used to this life. It might be tough, but it’s also our freedom."

Colby opened his mouth to respond when suddenly the dull blare of police sirens could be heard. Everyone froze. They grew louder and stopped in front of the cave.

"Maybe she’s here and sought refuge. She just ran out of the resort, right in the middle of the storm," Alan’s voice could be heard.

"Shit, fuck, I hate you, I hate you," Vic whispered frantically to herself and held the cabin door open. "Everyone below deck. Now."

Sage and Colby helped Taylor hobble onto the cutter, and they could hear the muffled voices of the police as they entered the cave.

"I could turn myself in. They’re just looking for me because they’re worried," Taylor suggested softly.

"This is a stolen boat. They’d arrest you, you fucking moron," Vic whispered back.

Taylor had another idea and looked at her Ghost Boy. "What if you jump into their heads?"

Colby, however, was unusually nervous. "I couldn’t even teleport earlier. It’s too risky right now." He teleported briefly outside and then back, which startled Sage and Vic. "Okay, now it works again, but mind manipulation is much harder. And the police have discovered the cutter."

"Mind manipulation? What the fuck are you talking about?" Sage whispered angrily.

"But," Colby looked at Taylor, knowing she wouldn’t like this. "I think I can teleport us away."

"You can do that?!" Vic was visibly relieved, but her face hardened again when she saw Taylor shaking her head.

"Never. You promised me you’d never teleport living beings. What if we end up inside a wall? Or skewered on a fence like a shish kebab?"

"Taylor, I teleport myself and a ton of stuff around all the time. Trust me."

"Just now, you said you didn’t trust yourself to jump into their heads, but you want to teleport three people, including yourself, out of a cave? Are you insane?" Taylor hyperventilated.

There was a rattling at the cabin door. "Hello?! Miss Lautner? Are you in there?" a police officer called out.

"This is the MS Dorothea," another police officer whispered. "It was stolen almost 10 years ago. I never thought it would be found."

Colby ignored the agitated voices outside and turned to Taylor, trying to remain calm. Time was running out, and he needed to convince her.

"Taylor, I know it’s risky," Colby began softly. "But we don’t have another choice. If we stay here, they’ll find us. I can get us all to safety. Do you trust me?"

Taylor looked at him skeptically, but the urgency in Colby’s eyes was undeniable. She knew he was right. If they stayed, they’d be arrested, or worse. And it was Colby fucking Vance. "Okay. I trust you."

"Sage, Vic, what do you think?" the ghost asked quickly.

Sage sighed and looked at Vic, who thought for a moment. Finally, she nodded curtly. "Do it. But I swear, if we end up like shish kebab, then..."

"Then you’ll personally strangle me," Colby finished the sentence and grinned slightly despite the tension. "Hold hands." Quickly, they all took each other’s hands, and Colby closed his eyes in concentration.

"I hear voices!" the police officer shouted and threw himself against the door several times, the ancient hinges soon giving way.

"Damn it, Preppy, now or never!" urged Vic.

Colby opened his eyes. In a moment, the surroundings blurred around them. The ground disappeared from under their feet, they felt weightless, and then they stood in Taylor’s apartment.

Harper and Charlie, who were still going through the leak, jumped up in shock when suddenly four people stood in the living room.

"You actually did it," Sage murmured, impressed, watching Taylor fall into Harper’s arms. "But where are we?"

"Taylor’s and my apartment. For safety, I chose a place I know inside and out. Proxley, California."

Vic glared at him angrily. "You teleported us over the damn Pacific?!"

"Yeah. You know. So you wouldn’t end up skewered. Like shish kebab."