Taylor made her way carefully back to where she had first seen Benny. There, she found her own footsteps, but none of the other man. He seemed to know how to hide his presence, even when moving with an aggressive stance.

If the crew spotted her, then she had not a single doubt that they would try and hunt her down. She had to hope that most were distracted by tearing apart the fort - and finding evidence of their old crewmate, still living.

Seeing Dance had raised her spirits. The man was tough and just, but he was resourceful. He wouldn’t turn his back on Vernon, and the two of them together might just be enough to keep two greedy crews in one piece.

However, for him to arrive just a day behind her, screamed that he had left only a day or less behind her. His story about hearing of the pirate and then following, just didn’t add up. It suggested that his captain had waited, knowing that she and hers were on board with pirates.

Livesay and Trelawney were dead, and they didn’t care.

The goal, as it ever was, shone with a metallic sheen. Her safety did not mean a single thing to any of them. Vernon might have some affection for her, but he’d gladly drown her if it meant the gold.

Gold should be stained red, by the lives it ended.

Her father was gone, and now the other two. It didn’t just weigh on her heart, it crushed her beneath the heel of the universe’s boot. If there was a God out there, then the divine had a true hatred of her. Forcing her to live nothing but pain, from the very day that she was born.

It was hardly a shock that so many people believed treasure’s such as Flint’s to be cursed. Everything about immense wealth led towards men and women abandoning the very rules that they had spent their entire lives by. They didn’t hesitate to commit the very worst of sins, because they could simply buy forgiveness.

The church and their indulgences was nothing but a symptom of the evil that a soul was capable of, when they saw a paradise upon the horizon. They would take everything that she had, and burn it right down to the ground.

There was no one on her side, not this time.

Vernon, Dance, Gunn. All of the men in her life were going to crumble one by one, because each of them was trying to ride right into the sun, like it was the day of their kingdom come. They saw themselves as gods, playing upon fate like a fiddle, whilst their wings melted away.

With little to no hints to go on, Taylor picked a direction and began moving across the island. Checking mud and trees, just hoping to see any sign of the man who had already seen the world trying to devour him, for the curse of the gold.

She could not hope to get home alone. A ship took a crew. At least ten of them for the Coronet. The crews, though, were united by the hungry frenzy of discovering a tiny piece of metal, that might make them able to escape their current lives.

All of the horizons of her life closing in made Taylor feel a new determination. She would take each and every one of those souls that were trying to choke her out, and bury them deep. She would ruin them in ways that they couldn’t possibly imagine.

There was only one asset she had in all of this.

She didn’t know how to be terrified.

She knew how to be angry.

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As the young and angry woman explored the landscape, trying to follow hints of a trail without any much confidence that she was upon one, she slowly began to feel the hair on the back of her neck stand up.

A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

It wasn’t as if there was any great signal that told her to fear. The birds grew quiet at her own approach. She was noticed by them and the animals. Yet, they seemed to stay quiet too long. Her passage struck a shadow that didn’t quite feel as if it should be.

She moved to the water, to hide her footprints, and Taylor could swear the water behind her was moving more than it ought - though she saw nothing at all.

Craning her neck showed nothing but her own shadow, and the flitting of the birds among the trees.

She moved from the water back to the land. She was too slow in water, if her oversensitivities were based in any truth. Instead she tried to bring her mind all to bear on the trail she ought to be following.

No man, no matter how close to bear he might be, could leave no trail at all. She circled back on her own path, trying to stumble on his again. Half of hunting is a willingness to retrace your steps, or so she’d heard.

Taylor ducked down, as she heard voices. They didn’t seem to have heard her, the tones were all laughter and merriment. Probably a couple of fools who had snuck off to get drunk.

She stepped carefully through the bushes, eyeing not just their direction, but all around. Every chance she could see Benny among the trees, again.

Circling about for a better view, she soon spied two brutes in a small clearing. One was short and stout, a sword buckled to his belt, but his holster lay open for he was waving the pistol about. The other’s belt wasn’t in sight, for his pants were upon the forest floor.

Taylor found herself carefully and quietly stepping into the clearing. She only became aware of it, as she bent down to retrieve her knife. She had no idea why she was risking it all, risking so very much, but that didn’t stop her carefully toeing through the grasses.

There was a third figure, tussling on the grass. The pirate without pants was laughing as he held her down, leaning over her to place his rather misplaced parts.

The other was laughing as well, too much to see her approaching from behind.

Taylor shoved the knife forward as hard as she could. She hissed between her teeth as her hand slipped and sliced her fingers open. The man in front of her seemed to hesitate for a moment, before letting out an airy hiss and dropping to the ground.

As he thudded down, the other pirate looked over in surprise, “What ya messin’…”

He trailed off as he saw her, and Taylor dived forward to press the advantage. The man was completely caught unawares, but she barely managed to make him take a single step backwards.

The woman on the ground, however, didn’t hesitate. Her bare heel struck into the side of his leg, and with a crunch to it, the man collapsed to the ground screaming.

Taylor pressed her advantage, falling onto him and trying for the throat. He beat at her face with a fist, pushing the knife to the side. The two tussled back and forth, before suddenly Taylor was reeling backwards.

Horror hit her as the spraying wound painted her face, and she fell to the side and wretched into the ground.

It took more than a moment for the man to pass.

Long enough that Taylor was only shaking as she wiped her knife off in the grass and slipped it back into it’s sheathe. Then she saw about retrieving the guns and ammunition of both men, the heavy weights giving her some reassurance.

Her stomach was still turning as she realised that the other woman was gone. Not so much as a thankyou or by your leave. She’d disappeared whilst Taylor was still fighting for her life. No help beyond that one kick to escape.

She couldn’t blame her, she’d probably do the same.

Useful items on her person, Taylor retreated back to the stream, where she promptly emptied her stomach a second time, before scrubbing her skin until it was roar in the waters.

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Taylor dropped onto the grass and stared at the sky when she left the water. She didn’t know how long she lay there. Long enough that the dreary grey clouds became somewhat tinged with yellow, from a sun considering setting.

Nothing mattered in those thoughtless moments. The woman in her bones had left, unable to cope with reality.

However, as she returned, she found a man sitting close by. He eyed her with a grizzled… Something. It wasn’t so much as approval, but neither was it without a strong consideration. She had improved herself in his eyes, but at some great cost.

She leaned up on her elbows, “Are you to take off and leave me to my own, again?”

“No.” Benny shook his head slowly, “No. This time… I cannot play the coward. This time, I cannot mislead. Come with me. It is time we go below.”

Taylor righted herself, and began to follow the man flitting from tree to tree. She didn’t dare to speak. If he was taking precautions, then the others were probably nearby.

Close enough they might soon discover her work, and set about hunting her down.

The two moved around the broken little fortress to the far side, before following the river along the edge of one of the hills. Suddenly Ben took a deep breath and dove into the thing.

Taylor stared for a moment, expecting him to strike his face and hurt himself in the shallowness, it was barely knee-deep, and yet instead he altogether vanished.

She winced, took the deepest breath she could summon and stepped forward.