Skull and Dagger

“Is that everyone?” Gerard gasped, out of breath, when the deck was finally cleared of the enemy.

Frank let out a deep breath of relief. “Seemed like there were more of them…” he commented, leaning back against the rail to catch his breath…

And then, in the quiet, they finally heard the sounds of fierce battle below.

“They’re below deck!” Gerard leapt to his feet in alarm. “Elizabeth's down there!”

A quick echo of ‘Annabelle!’ fluttered through Frank's mind as well before he raced down the stairs after Gerard, a half dozen of his best fighters at his heels…

And stopped in shock.

The majority of the enemy had gone below deck after the first attack, and Frank and his crew quickly found themselves fighting just as fierce a battle as they had above.

Up ahead, Frank saw the door to his own room busted inwards, and at that moment, pure panic overcame him. In a fit of rage, he crashed his way through his foes, not even feeling the slight stings where blades knicked him. His attack had roughly the same affect as a bull charging, and even men much larger than he was fell under his fury.

“Annabelle!” he gasped hoarsely, practically diving into his rooms. He found the outer room empty and the inner door…also bashed in.
In that one moment, his world fell out from under him. Annabelle would’ve put up a struggle, of course, but in the end, she wasn’t a skilled cutthroat, and…

“Oh god!” he gasped out, hesitantly approaching the open doorway, terrified of what he would find within.

Memories flashed through his mind of the infuriating little girl turning her chin up at him in her haughty manner, throwing any projectiles she could find at him, tackling him to the ground and trying to up him in fighting stakes and… Well, he’d always had a rather strange definition of romantic.

He leaned his forehead against the doorframe, eyes shut tight. He couldn’t bear it - couldn’t bear to see the warm, soft, beautiful body that had mercilessly captured him less than an hour before, now still and lifeless and cold and…

He opened his eyes.

She wasn’t there.

He breathed a deep sigh of relief. At least until his mind provided him with thousands of other horrible images of what could have happened to her…