Vow Of Silence

CHAPTER FIFTY-FIVE

1st PERSON: Pelomina Lorenzo-Capiz

Chauven galloped away, which is not hard for someone with size and strength. Luckily, I’m paranoid since I grew up in a country where you have to clutch all of your belongings real close whenever you're far away from home, regardless of the place. Now that I think of it, my country’s kind of messed up for arming with such intense trust issues.

I pulled the rolled-up map from the strap of my belt. We’re heading in the right direction. I did show the map to Chauven once, but who’d known she would remember where to go? “Chauven, do you know the way?” I asked, because for now, I'm just clinging onto dear hope that she understands every word I say,

She neighed and nodded, or at least I hoped she did. I was talking big about having trust issues, and here I am, talking with a horse. This and that are completely different, in my defense. It turns out we were just a few hours away from the c***k of dawn because as Chauven ran ahead; we were greeted by the sunrise. It was thrilling, uplifting even, despite running away from that place just when things got dire. Watching the sunrise as I went along my way was a different breath of fresh air.

Naively enough, it made me feel like I was moving onto a better day, perhaps better luck as well… because I was stupid, I believed that until I felt a prickling feeling on my neck, and as my vision got blurry the world spun everything turned to black.

‘AGAIN!’

“... rich… noble…”

“Stupid… remember… pretty…”

Ugh, I felt worse than I’ve ever been; it was like being hungover, but thrice as painful compared to the usual intensity. I don’t know if everything else was hurting or just my head, but it hurts so much that it crept through my whole anatomy, even my bones feel like they were bleeding. I am also, once again, hearing voices… unlike before, however, there were a lot of them…

I fluttered my eyes open to see everything upside down. No, it was me who was tied upside down. Oh, come on… I’m tired. I haven’t eaten breakfast so I could feel my stomach growling. How long was I out? Where's Chauven? Who are these people? Where am I? What the heck is—

“She awake—” I heard one of them take note off in a hushed whisper, “DAMN IT—CAN EVERYONE SHUT UP?! THE LADY’S AWAKE!” the voice yelled in an ear-shattering scream soon after. I winced, opting to try to swing away from the noise, but I didn’t have the core strength to do that.

These people flocked to me after hearing one of their comrades yell, which was hard not to hear given the circumstances. They all looked… What's the word? Bizarre. Just plain… odd. All thirty-plus of them, it’s just… a lot. Makes me wonder what sort of group they are to include a lot of members.

One of them was another redhead but this time, his hair was in the shade of maroon, just deep and dark that it didn’t look natural, yet the color clung to their very roots, I could tell because that man was also staring at me intensely, scrutinizing every detail on my face. Holding his chin in his hand, looking at me with furrowed brows.

“Could this be her?” he asked as he turned to the many others who shrugged at his question.

“I mean… I guess she looks pretty?” one chimed in,

“You guess? She looks like a goddess,” another added,

“Oh please, Deeane’s prettier than her!” another man argued,

“I heard that and I disagree,” argued another,

“A’ight! A’ight! Break it up, I’m not asking for your damn preferences,” the man with the maroon hair yelled—seriously, that outrageous hair color is too distracting. I can’t even figure out what sort of emotion I should feel right now, the most prominent feeling, however, was anger and despair…

He looked at me again up and down, “I don’t know… it looks like it is her, do we get a reward for this—”

I paused. So they are sent here, after me. I’ve heard them ask each other if I was indeed ‘her’. Being pretty being one of the distinctions. I’m not tooting my own horn when I say that Pelomina Vaustero is a beautiful woman, but one thing this tells me is that they were looking for me, matter of fact, they were told to look for me.

I don’t even have to guess. It’s him.

“ENOUGH!” I yelled, groaning with all the pent-up frustration I have mixed with hunger, “Enough!” I yelled the second time, and they backed off by an inch. Even the man took a step back from being right at my face, but I went on,

“I’ve been traveling for roughly two days… hardly two days, but in that time span, I’ve been almost bedded off to a bounty hunter as payment for accommodations. I wasn't because I paid,” I narrated, and I heard one of them whisper ‘oh that’s Jak-Horne’s’ to which I reacted, “Yeah! Jak-Horne’s! Guess what… Jak-Horne’s is probably going to go out of business soon!” I yelled,

Cue some light gasps, “You know why? Because One of those bounty hunter bastards lit our cabin on fire, and by ‘our' I mean the one I shared with Agatha. Now I don’t know if you’re familiar—”

“Agatha? Those are some ballsy men,” a voice chimed, and I nodded in agreement.

“So you know her! She helped me out so I wouldn't get violated by men despite being a paying customer. What's more, that old man locked my horse in a small stable! Speaking of which—where is Chauven?” I said, changing topics as soon as a thought crossed my mind. I hope they didn’t do anything bad to her,

The man with the outrageous hair stepped up, “We tied her along with the other horses, further ways ahead, she’s feisty and we’re not well versed with untrained horses,” he explained.

A very roundabout way to say ‘Your horse is scary and we don’t want to deal with her,’ I hummed, “Is she okay, is she hurt?” I asked,

They shook their heads, “She’s fine, but you should worry about yourself more in this situation,” the man reminded, and at that point I just—

“Oh, really!?” I roared, “You—You want me to tell you something funny?! Huh?!” I growled and again they took a few steps back, “The man who sent you here—the big, scary, man with shiny hair?! That was my husband!” I yelled, followed by another chorus of gasps even from the man. He looked utterly shocked.

“Here’s the best part, though! The reason I ran away was because I found him cheating!” I added, this time the reactions were way louder, and they started talking among themselves. I could see much more reaction from the women in the group because, again, there are a lot of these people,

“Things didn’t go well for me ever since that day! The woman might even be pregnant!” I announced, yelling out the last few woes I’ve bottled in, “So yeah… I am worried about myself, but more than that, I am frustrated and starving!” I finished, gulping because now I could feel the strain of all that shouting did to my throat. I’m rather surprised it’s still intact.

An awkward silence passed among them. They exchanged unsure glances and soon their group formed a huddle, all thirty-plus heads buried deep into a not-so-hushed conversation, before they all nodded to each other and turned to me. The man must’ve been their leader because he’s the one who stepped closer and stretched his left hand out for someone to hand him a bolo.

No, machete… whatever it is, it’s big and sharp. And it looked ominous as she held in his hand as he stared me down.

“What are you planning to do with that…” I croaked, the soreness in my throat starting to take its toll.

“What I should’ve done from the start,” and with that, he swung and I dropped to the ground. Literally. He chopped the rope holding me upside down, and I plopped to the ground, my hands and legs still bound but pretty soon he also cut me free from the binds, “We can’t let that stand, we might be lowlifes, but we’re not scum,” he followed.

I looked up at him as the blood rushed back down my body which is a bit disconcerting but the pain on my shoulder and body as I fell was more distinct, “Who are you guys exactly… you don’t look like knights,” I asked, they shrugged,

“We’re… we’re just thieves, but we can be whatever they pay us to be, as long as it’s within reason,” he explained as he offered his hand to me and pulled me up from the dirt, “My name is Klaus, I’m the head of our group, and believe me, we wouldn’t have taken this job if we knew the situation,” he said like him, the other group members also looked somber with shame.

I dusted myself off and huffed, looking at each and every one of their guilt-ridden faces, “Well… I can’t blame you, he probably clung to every means to find me,” I said, “And soon enough I suppose, people not as kind as you are will catch me and bring me back him,” I finished with a sigh,

If this situation tells me anything, it’s that no matter how far or quickly I run, he’ll catch up to me. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t expect him to find me, but I didn’t think it’d be this soon. Lykus is certainly one driven man to do all of this, but more than that, he's mad if he thinks this is even going to help mend our relationship.

I’m not even that mad at him. I am horribly upset, but not necessarily holding a grudge against him, but now I just might. Even if he does send someone else to successfully catch me, I’d do everything to run away again. I can’t stay in this world forever, and I’ve already experienced way too much thrill in living in this world for months compared to my life back in my own world for years.

“Well… how about sticking with us?” another man suggested. The one who looked the oddest one here, if you ask me.

His whole face was wrapped in bandages down to his neck, leaving his hair out, which was in long twists and braids that seemed to be put up in a bun. You could just barely see the openings for his eyes while his mouth had a small allowance just enough for him to properly speak. And while his whole head was practically covered, his torso wasn’t with a shred of clothing.

This man is walking around half-naked, as far as his upper body is concerned. The only garment there was bandages wrapped around his forearms down to his knuckles, but that's it. He’s just strutting around showing off his dark bronzed complexion and his defined muscles that seemed to have a mind of their own.

The other group members were at a split decision. Some thought it would be okay while others showed their very obvious, and somewhat disheartening, rejection. They were arguing over themselves, but Klaus remained silent as he watched their discourse, seeming to be also deep in thought.

“You know what?... That’s a rather good idea, Seth,” Klaus announced. Seth must be the man with the bandages, and with that, an uproar erupted from the group. Still, Klaus remained calm and composed.

“Think about it, we can’t just let her get caught by a man like that… look at her!” he pushed, gesturing at me with both arms, “Skin and bones… and I’m afraid to say this but she looks ‘sheltered’,” he followed, emphasis on the last word. He said the word ‘sheltered’ but what I heard was ‘dumb’ because that's what it felt like when he said it.

I shook my head, “N-No, Klaus, it’s fine I don—”

“Shut up and trust me,” he whispered back to me through gritted teeth, not even looking at me as he still maintained eye contact with the other members while they contemplate the facts. The facts being I’m a dumb weakling that is hunted by her cheating husband.

I have a feeling I’ll be facing the most challenging obstacle on my path yet.