The Brimstone Doctrine Chapter 3: Regent "There she is! After her!" I run and run, dodging trees and weaving through the thick foliage and underbrush to get as much distance between me and Radar as possible. He and his tribe were fast, I give them that, butwith their smallest member outweighing me by close to a hundred pounds, they'd never catch me. "Regent, don't you dare go any further!" It was Radar's voice. After a few more seconds, I make myself stop and turn around to face him, hooking my thumbs into the belt loops of my pants. I scuff my boot in the dirt until he finally catches up, doubling over in front of me panting and bracing his hands on his knees. I smirk. He was so certain I was afraid of him it was laughable. "First demon I've ever seen get winded." I say. He looks up at me through slitted red eyes, his mouth curling into one of his crooked grins. "Have I told you recently that I absolutely just can't wait to marry you?" He growls. If it was possible, his eyes narrow even more, and he drops his tone by several octaves. "We'll have so much fun together, you and me." I do my best to hide the presence of the chill creeping up my spine, folding my hands in front of me to control their shaking. I had to admit, there were occasions where he was terrifying, but I would never let him know. Instead I smile at him too, and mimic his attitude. "You've mentioned it a time or two," I reply. "But let me remind you, I told you no each time you asked to share blood." "Oh, and you think you have a choice?" He asks. "Oh, I know I do." I retort. "And just how do you figure that? You need me." I smile wider, backing up a few feet, locking eyes with him one last time. "I don't need anyone," I reply. "Especially not you." Before he can react, I turn and dive into a small opening in the thicket, and take off as quickly as I can, leaping over sticks, weaving past vines, and avoiding puddles of quicksand and mud. I hear Radar curse loudly in demon and I smile again. "Go in! All of you! Get her!" He screams. My heart was beating out of my chest, so much so I could hear it and feel it in my throat. After a few minutes of running, I instead begin to hear the water. Relief washes over me. I was close, so close to being free, but I wasn't in the clear yet. I keep running and running, thanking God that Radar's men hadn't caught up. I was considerably lighter than they were and a lot smaller, and the combination made me faster than them too. It was working very much to my advantage thus far. With growls of frustration coming from behind me, I knew they were having trouble getting through the brush. I look over my shoulder quickly and see one of the biggest of them with his foot stuck in some thick brambles. Two of the smaller ones were gathered around him trying to help, and they were only succeeding in making it worse. I laugh and focus on covering the last few yards to the beach as quickly as possible. After what seems like an eternity, I reach sand. There were hundreds of others too, bolting out of the woods and straight into the water, desperately trying to reach the ship, just like me. I speed to the sea's edge, and inadvertently, I freeze. Every hair on my body was standing on end and screaming for me not to go in. No. There was no time to hesitate. It was the only shot I had. I charge into the ocean without a second thought. The water is chest level in less than ten steps, and all the pressure it put on my chest made me struggle to breathe. I couldn't panic. I COULDN'T panic. I had to press on. I ignore the feeling and after taking in a hulking breath of air, I dive in, propelling myself forward into water well over my head. It didn't matter how much I tried not to think about what I was doing and no matter how hard I kicked my legs and flailed my arms, I couldn't make myself swim forward. Now I had no bottom to push off with, and the shore was too far to retreat to. The panic quickly sets in full force. I pant, flailing and fighting to keep my head above water. It doesn't work and when a strong wave passes through, I go under completely. I struggle to resurface, but again, nothing works. It was futile. I wasn't built to swim. It was a simple fact I hated to admit. Fuzziness creeps into my eyes right before a pair of arms wrap around my torso and pull me back to the surface. I gasp and take in hulking gulps of air to recover, coughing up mouthfuls of water in between. Once my lungs are clear and my breathing evens out, I look beside me to see my rescuer, hoping it's anyone but Radar or one of his men that somehow braved the water to get to me. What was I thinking? They would have yanked me back to the shore right away, or not bothered with that at all and just let me drown. It's a girl with long blonde hair and ice blue eyes, a water type for sure. She gives me a big, friendly smile. "You okay?" She asks. I nod. "I think so. Thank you." I pant. Another big smile is her response. "Just get behind me and hold on to my shoulders. The ship's not that much further. Hold on tight." "Alright." I reply, still dazed. I do as she says and instantly she goes under the water. She tears through it with ease, gliding through the current like it was nothing. It frightens me, but I'm able to hold onto her and still keep my head above water as she pulls me along. At one point I look back over my shoulder and see Radar and his tribe on the shore, watching. They wouldn't come into the water, I knew that. They could swim about as well as I could, and with their armored battle suits it'd be impossible. I was safe, at least for now. The girl doesn't come up for air until we're at the side of the ship where the entrance ladder is. Once it's our turn to board, she pushes me in front of her and I grab onto the first step. "You can climb, right?" She asks, giving me another grin. I shoot her a glare. "Yes." I reply, hauling myself up to the third step straight from the water. I look back at her again and give her another look, this one of triumph, and she nods her head in assent with raised eyebrows. I scale the rest of the stairs quickly and when I'm at the top, I collapse onto the deck of the ship and try to process the past five minutes. The girl tumbles onto the deck seconds later and takes a big breath. She looks over at me. "My name's Kell. Nice to meet ya." She tells me. "Nice to meet you too. Thanks for, uh, saving my #life back there." I don't tell her my name. It was too much of a risk. "All in a day's work!" She exclaims with gusto, pulling herself up to sit with her legs stretched out in front of her. "Now where's the food on this beast?" A boy with short, sandy brown hair and equally brown eyes who had just hauled himself onto the ship's deck as well stands up with a groan. He shoots an angry look in Kell's direction. "We all just took the biggest risk of our lives and barely made it here in one piece. There are bodies floating down there. Shouldn't we be in some state of mourning for them? Not everyone was as lucky as we were to get here alive." Kell stands up and faces the boy with her entire body. She was really quite tall now that I saw her out of the water. I look over the ship's edge and sure enough, body upon body rocks with the tide below, stretching all the way from the shore. A good amount of blood rocks with them. I'd been so focused on making it to the ship that even when I was rescued, I hadn't noticed. "I think that means we get all the more right to celebrate, bub," Kell spits, pulling her long ponytail over her shoulder and wringing the water out of it. "The weaklings shouldn't have tried to make the swim if they were just going to drown." Weaklings like me? I'd be one of the floating bodies too if it hadn't been for Kell. "I'm sure they didn't intend to drown," The boy retorts. "They intended to try." "Whatever," Kell chirps, tossing her ponytail back behind her. "We're alive and they aren't, so you see how far trying got them." "You saved her," He snaps, pointing a finger at me. Before The boy can say anymore, Kell turns to me excitedly and reaches for my arm. "Come on, Regent! Let's go find some food." She quickly pulls me to my feet. "Regent?" The boy repeats, scanning me up and down knowingly with a pensive look on his flushed face. His eyes then grow wide in alarm. "Let's go." Kell repeats, turning and walking briskly to the other side of the ship, pulling me along beside her. When we reach the other end of the deck, Kell sits down against the rail bordering the ship's edge. I sit beside her. "How do you know my name?" I ask quietly. She chuckles like a child keeping a secret from her parents and looks over at me, her eyes live with amusement. "You seriously don't know?" She asks, smirking. "Uh, not really..." I say. I did know, but i couldn't reveal it. Maybe her parents knew mine, or by some government system or log she knew my name and my face. She looked to be older than me by a couple years, so it was possible. "Correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm almost sure it was your face in the number one spot on the world's most wanted criminal list last week," She continues. "Regent Sarvinand. Daughter of top government agents Syndy and Lyle Sarvinand. One-hundred-two years old. Human equivalent: fourteen. Brown hair. Brown eyes. Olive skin. Wanted for brutal murder of two government agents. Will be taken dead or alive, preferred dead. Really sucks at swimming." I shoot her a pointed glare, and she bursts out laughing. "Kidding! Kidding!" She says, throwing her hands up in front of her chest defensively. "But not really." "I didn't kill them," I growl. "They broke into my house in the middle of the night and tried to shoot my parents and one of them-" Kell cuts me of by clapping a hand over my shoulder that rattles my entire body. She smiles warmly at me. "It's okay," She tells me. "You don't have to explain. The government is full of slimy liars that don't care about anyone besides themselves. We all know you're innocent. Well, that's not true, you're still a fugitive, and that guy back there-oh, nevermind. What I'm trying to say is you don't strike me as the murdering type." I nod my head in affirmation of her statement. "We're all running from something," She goes on. "That's why we're here. Whoever didn't make it wasn't meant to leave in the first place, or at least not fit to." "Why did you save me when there were so many others?" I ask her. "Once I knew you were a government case and I saw what you'd been charged with, I knew you were innocent. I know murderers, and you're not one. So when I saw you in the water I recognized you and I thought you deserved a chance to be free. And, well, you were also the first person I saw drowning, so I helped you, and just you. I had a debt of one #life to pay anyway." I look at her questioningly, and she waves her hand in dismissal of the statement. "Oh, I actually killed a guy once. Long story. His fault. I figured if I saved someone else later on it'd cancel it out. You're welcome." She explains. "Thank you." I say, and I leave it at that. "So where exactly are you planning to go when we land?" She asks. "I don't know." I answer. I do know, but I wasn't in the market to share my trust yet. "I guess none of us really do," Kell replies, "But we'll figure it out." I nod again. After a few more uneventful moments, I look over my shoulder and into the water. A little girl in a pink dress and boots was floating face down beside the ship's propeller, the curls of her hair billowing out in a shroud all around her tiny body. My throat begins to get tight. Suddenly a bell tolls three consecutive times and from somewhere close a man yells: "Lift anchor!" Kell touches my shoulder again, and this time it's much gentler. "No looking back." She says simply. I nod to her, turning forward to face the deck again, taking in a deep breath. I was meant to live. I was meant to have a new beginning. I was meant to make it into Narath and become what I always dreamed I'd be. I close my eyes, leaning back against the rail, and I hear the loud firing of the ship's engine, the whir of the propellor below following quickly afterward. Soon we're moving, and with the victorious smell of the sea in my nose I drift off underneath the freshly forming stars, leaving everything up until this moment behind me. I was ready. I was born ready. No looking back.