After sleeping as long as he could, Elwin awoke at some random time, suddenly terrorized by the thought that they were trapped in a small room with nowhere to escape to. The two of them, plus one very dead body.

And the miasma in the air, the smell of metal and death, made it difficult to even breath in this windowless dark coffin.

Elwin was as wide awake as he had ever been in his life, and stone sober.

He rolled over to face the prince, carefully this time so that he wouldn’t accidentally toss him out of the narrow bed.

There was not the slightest crust of light coming from underneath or above the thick wooden door, as there usually was when they woke up. So it was clearly still the middle of the night? Or very early anyway, before daybreak.

He pulled the thin blanket over his nose and mouth and tried to take a deep breath, but it was barely any help. Elwin hugged his prince gently to him, grateful for at least the grounding effect of touching him, having him near.

Prin was warm and limp, sleeping soundly. Elwin could feel his breathing nice and even, and tried hard to match it.

“Prin. Prin.” He whispered. He wasn’t sure which one he would be getting. The young man he loved, or the stalking bloody dream creature he couldn’t actually hate. And may have been a hallucination on his part. But real or not, SOMEONE killed a man in here. That fact was not up for debate. “Prin?” He tried again.

“I’m gonna peel so-oo many potatoes tomorrow.” Prin mumbled, laughing softly, still dreaming.

Elwin hated to wake him, but there was no way he could deal with this on his own. Could he? He quickly dismissed the idea. As much as he would like to be the man who could handle everything, no problem, any man would have his limit with this situation.

“Prin, we need to –” Elwin cut himself off. First order of business was to get some light going in here. Even though he already knew he wouldn’t like what there was to see. Or what he might step on with his socked feet.

Nevertheless, he sat up and climbed over the prince and out of the cot, stepping gingerly the few feet to the far wall where the built in table held candles and matches. He sent out a grateful prayer to whatever random gods and goddesses that may happen to be passing by, that he didn’t step on anything that went squish on the way there.

Elwin felt along the table, quickly locating the candles and the little silver match safe. He lit two candles, a justifiable extravagance, under the circumstances.

The dim glow of the twin flames lit the small cabin, revealing that the mess was not as bad as he had feared. A large tarp was crumpled around and over the body, which seemed to have captured most of the gore, leaving the rest of the room relatively clean.

If you looked close, you could see some splatters on the walls.

Prin was still unclothed and sleeping deeply. Unbothered by the lights and Elwin’s moving about the cabin. His clothes were folded in a neat stack in the corner of the room beside their luggage.

Elwin picked up the stack and brought it over to the bed. He touched Prin’s shoulder, then shock it gently. “Prin, wake up. We have to figure out what to do. I need help.”

At that last word, the grave admission of need, Prin rolled onto his back and opened his eyes. The blazing blue of them almost distracting from the huge bruise that took up most of the left side of Prin’s face. It looked painful.

“What did he do to you!?” Elwin asked. He hadn’t noticed it last night, of course, there had been a lot of blood in the way . . .

“Who?” Prin asked sleepily. “What d’you mean?”

Elwin poked the edge of the bruise lightly, flinching as he did so, regretting it instantly. “Does that hurt?”

“A little.” Prin said. He reached up himself and touched his face. “What happened?”

“That’s what I just asked you.” Elwin pointed out.

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“Oh. It’ll come to me.” Prin said. He rolled back over onto his side and nuzzled into the pillow.

“Wait, wait. I know you’re tired. But we have to . . . we have to get rid of this body and I don’t think I can do it alone. I’m sorry.” Elwin said.

“Body!?” Prin rolled back over and sat up so suddenly, he almost head-butted Elwin. His face contorted with shock before you could see the realization dawn across his features. “Oh . . . right. THAT guy."

“I think it was self defense . . . wasn’t it.” Elwin fretted. Lied.

Prin slowly nodded. “Okay.” As though to say, if that’s what we’re going with.

“What should we do with it.” Elwin asked. His voice unconsciously dipping into a conspiratorial whisper.

The prince rubbed his eyes with the heel of his hand and yawned. “Ugh, I’ve got the awfullest taste in my mouth. And I’m so thirsty.”

Elwin hurried and got him a mug of water, poured from the pitcher that hooked to the wall so that it wouldn’t slide off the table in the event of rough waves.

Prin drank it down quickly. “Thank you, El. I didn’t mean you had to get it for me, but thank you.” He looked thoughtfully into the mug.

Elwin sat down beside him. He scraped his hair back out of his face with a none too clean hand, of course, what did it even matter at this point. “I don’t know how you can even breath in here.” He mumbled.

The prince wrinkled his nose. “Now that you mention it . . .”

“You wish I hadn’t?” Elwin felt a small smile tickling the corner of his lips. He was glad enough to have his Prin back, that nothing seemed quite as bad as it had a few minutes ago.

Prin smiled too. “You just had to draw my attention to it, now didn’t you?” He teased.

The prince sighed and leaned against Elwin. “There is nothing all around us but water. There is nothingness all around us. Water.”

Elwin nodded, knowing him, knowing what he meant. He put his arm around Prin’s thin bare shoulders. “Yeah, it’s the only thing to be done really. And hopefully if they find some of him, in the water or washed up somewhere, they will think the fish and sharks got to him.”

*

Elwin helped the prince to quickly get dressed, and they both put their boots back on. Armoring up for the task ahead. They had agreed that the best thing to do was simply get it over with. There was no way to hide what they were doing, however, moving along briskly and with all due authority, to throw some rotten meat over the side of the boat by orders of the chef in charge of the galley?

It was as close to an idea as they had, and it just might work.

Of course, even better then that half assed excuse was to not be asked at all. Or noticed even.

They rolled the body tightly in the tarp and Elwin took the heavier top end, leaving the feet end for Prin to carry.

“Do you have it?” Elwin whispered, as they navigated out through the door of their cabin with the oversized long bundle. Even with most of the meat stripped away, Mac was of course heavier than the slight chamber maid had been.

“I-I think so. Yes, I have it.” Prin tripped on the door frame and righted himself quickly, shifting the burden more securely in his arms.

“Careful.” Elwin warned. At this point you could tell when the prince was himself again, just by the way he moved if nothing else. No matter what he tried, his sense of balance and coordination was off. This being yet early days coming away from his invalid status, it really wasn’t all that strange, just strange to think that the “other” Prin had no trouble. The contrast was remarkable.

“I am.” Prin hissed back. “I’m sorry.”

Elwin walked backward through the narrow hall, quickly, but not so quickly that the prince would fall trying to keep up with him. He walked to the stars that led to above decks and traveled backwards slowly up them. “You okay?” He asked. “Got it?”

“Yeah, yes.” Prin said, not sounding entirely sure. “Slow down.”

And so they went along like this, much slower then Elwin would have liked, a bit unsteady on their feet, until they reached the deck. Elwin guided them to the nearest edge, eager to foist their burden into the waiting arms of the sea.

There were a couple of men on deck, watching out, keeping the ship going along as it should be.

Prin put down his end of the body and wiped his forehead with his sleeve. He smiled wanly at Elwin. “I’m just so tired, other than that I don’t feel too bad. I’m sorry for making this so hard.”

Elwin felt his heart break just a little, as it always did when Prin acted so self-depreciating. He wanted to put down his end and go to him. No one seemed to be paying any attention to what they were doing out here, so Elwin lowered the top half of the body and leaned it against the railing of the ship.

He went quickly to the prince and hugged him. “Stop that. You’re doing fine!”

“No I’m not, I feel like my body is as heavy as a sack of bricks.” Prin rested his head on Elwin’s shoulder. “If you threw me overboard right now I would sink to the bottom immediately.”

“What a thing to say.” Elwin said. “You’ve been through a lot, it’s no wonder you’re tired.” He took Prin’s shoulders and held him back slightly so that they could look into each other’s faces, eye to eye. “He didn’t really do anything to you, did he? He didn’t touch you? You would tell me, right? I’m just sorry I let him even get close!”

Prin tilted his head to the side. “What could you have done any different?” He pulled Elwin close again and nuzzled their cheeks together. “I think . . . you can see now I’m perfectly capable of taking care of myself.”

Before Elwin could answer this, a big man with an outsized belly came hurrying up to them. “Hey, hey! What are you two doing with that? What is that?” He pointed at the wrapped body at their feet.

“It’s uhh . . . I mean we were just . . .” Elwin’s mind blanked, as all previous thoughts and plans for what to say flew out of his head like a flock of birds. He exchanged a look with Prin.

This guy was definitely too big for them to toss overboard, although Elwin would be lying if he said the thought didn’t cross his newly emptied mind.

And there was nowhere to run. So there went both fight and flight.