“Kid”

“What?”  I responded my voice thick with confusion.

A light struck my face, quick and painful, attached to an arm

“Kid, OH THANK GOD HIS EYES ARE RESPONDING” The voice gasped.

My eyes steadied, and as my vision recovered, a figure leaned in. A girl, her eyes puffy like she'd been crying. She looked relieved, almost as if she’d been holding her breath waiting for me to wake.

“The smell... what is that smell?” I blinked, my senses still foggy. The air was thick, something sharp and antiseptic mixed with something else—something faintly metallic. It made my stomach turn.

“rotting fish and flesh—after all, we are on a pirate ship.” 

“What?”

‘A ship, Ethan...were on a ship” 

Who’s Ethan? Where am I? My body—everything hurts. My eyes... they burn. What the fuck is going on?

I turned my head, eyes falling to the floor, and a reflection appeared—a young boy with long hair, draped in a cloak.  

Slowly, i stood, taking in my surroundings. Wooden beams lined the walls, the air felt damp,heavy. we were underground, tucked away in a small room. In the center of the space, a desk was nailed to the floor, its surface worn and scratched from years of use. 

The space was cramped, the walls doubling as shelves lined with bottles of alcohol, their labels etched with unfamiliar names—Vignoble du Crépuscule, Argent Mortel.

The only light came from a lone lantern on the desk, its flickering glow casting restless shadows across the room. 

“Ethan”

I forgot about her the girl has she been watching me this whole time 

Everything went wrong. The plan… Weasel betrayed us. We need a plan, Ethan.”

What the fuck is she talking about?

“Wait, wait—who are you?”

She frowned, her relief fading into frustration. “Stop joking, Ethan. You know who I am.”

I didn’t.

My head pounded, the edges of my vision blurring, my thoughts sluggish like I was swimming through fog. I tried to focus, to recall something—anything—but my mind was a blank slate.

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“And who is that?” I asked, my voice hoarse.

Her expression darkened. “Don’t do this right now.” She stepped closer, her gaze sharp, searching my face like she was looking for a sign—some kind of recognition. “You’re just in shock. We need to move.”

Shock? Maybe. But that didn’t explain the weight in my chest, the gnawing dread that I was missing something important.

The ship rocked beneath us. Distant shouting echoed through the wooden walls, followed by the clang of metal.

She grabbed my arm. “Ethan. We don’t have time for this. Weasel sold us out—the whole crew. We have to go. Now.”

Crew? Weasel? Nothing made sense. But one thing was clear—whoever she was, she thought she knew me.

And I had no idea who I was.

tried to stand, my legs unsteady like I was walking for the first time. The air felt heavy, thick with salt and something else—fear, maybe. The distant sounds of chaos outside the room echoed louder, but I couldn’t tear my focus away from the girl’s hand still gripping my arm.

“Ethan,” she said again, her voice quieter now, more insistent. “We don’t have time. Please, just… remember.”

Remember. That word—like a jolt to the chest—stirred something in me. A sliver of something familiar, but it was gone before I could grasp it. My mind screamed to make sense of it, but the harder I tried, the more the pieces slipped through my fingers.

“Who the hell are you?” I asked again, more forcefully this time, shaking off her touch, stepping back. “I don’t know you.”

Her eyes flickered with something between anger and pain, but she didn’t let go of me. “You really don’t remember, do you?” She shook her head, almost pitying me. “I—I thought you’d snap out of it. We were supposed to… We were supposed to get out of here together. Now, it’s all falling apart.” She turned, looking out the narrow window to the chaos outside, her shoulders tense. “Weasel’s betrayed us. The crew’s turning on each other. We can’t trust anyone.”

I struggled to process her words, but nothing added up. Betrayed us? Crew? Weasel?

I staggered toward the window, my body aching with every movement, but I had to see for myself. A pirate ship. Dark sails, creaking wood, the distant cries of battle, and… bodies? Bodies in the water, floating by in the waves. What the hell had I gotten myself into?

“Ethan, you’ve got to focus!” She spun back toward me. “We don’t have much time before they realize you’re awake.”

I froze. “They?”

She paled slightly, her lips pressed into a thin line. “I… I thought you would know. They’re not just pirates, Ethan. They’re something else. Weasel’s working with them.”

I was struggling to keep up with the whirlwind of words. A part of me wanted to shout, to demand she explain every damn thing, but something stopped me. A deeper feeling, maybe even an instinct, told me I had to listen. She was right. Whatever was happening, I had to understand it. And I had to understand who I was.

“Who am I?” I whispered, the words tasting bitter, as if saying it out loud might make everything worse.

She blinked at me, her voice softening. “You’re Ethan, my partner, my… my friend,” she hesitated, her eyes flickering. “But you were more than that. You were supposed to be my anchor.”

“Anchor?” The word rattled around in my head, but it didn’t make sense.

“Everything’s falling apart, and you don’t even remember. We need you.” Her grip on my arm tightened again, a plea in her eyes. “Please, Ethan. You have to remember.”

I stared at her, searching for any clue, any thread of recognition, but it was as if I were looking at a stranger. There was a hollowness in my chest, and no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t fill it.

I pulled away, pacing the small, dimly lit room. “I don’t know who I am. I don’t know you. I don’t know anything except that I’m supposed to be somewhere else.”

The girl stood there, silent, her jaw clenched, frustration and worry battling behind her eyes. “You’ll remember,” she whispered, almost to herself. “I know you will.”

Something about that—about her belief in me—struck me hard. She was certain. She believed in me. But why?

The sound of footsteps echoed outside the door, followed by hushed voices. My heart kicked into overdrive. Whatever was happening, it was escalating.

“Ethan, we don’t have time for this. We need to go, now.”

My mind screamed at me to think, to move, to fight, but I couldn’t make sense of any of it. All I could do was follow her, wherever the hell she was leading me.