Ben had been less than enthused about being left alone with a witch.
Despite his unsatisfactory parentage growing up, he'd still heard the bedtime stories. The ones that warned of strange, eccentric women (and sometimes men) were always right at the forefront of those cautionary tales.
In those stories, children were often lucky to be eaten, because the alternative was far worse.
The moment he was well and truly alone with Dalma Tia, she gave him this odd look and a smile that sent a chill down his spine. She knew the stories too, he realized, and perhaps she had even been in some of them.
"Would you like to play a game while we wait?" Tia asked him.
"No," Ben answered firmly, using just the one word response in an effort not to offend her, but belatedly understanding that being overly curt could easily offend her as well. "I'm a man now. I don't play games anymore."
Ben was full of shit. She knew it, he knew that she knew it, and she knew that he knew it. It was kind of hard to claim he was a grown man when the top of his head barely reached her chest and his jaw was as bare as could be.
Still, he had to hold his ground here. No good ever came of children playing games with witches, and he was a child, as much as that fact irked him at times.
"I see," Tia showed her teeth in a smile that felt more like a snarl. "If you won't play, then I suppose I'll count it as a forfeit and take my prize-"
"I'll play," Ben interrupted, his tone unnaturally casual.
"Wonderful," Tia chuckled. "We'll play my favorite game, then. Hide and seek."
Ben blinked and she was gone.
"Bloody hell…" The only thing worse than a witch was a witch you couldn't see.
He glanced around, then stepped over to where she had been standing, waving his arms about as he went. Just to make sure she hadn't become invisible or something.
Ben paused to think about whether he should play seriously or just stall for time. Both were dangerous in their own ways, he reckoned. The former because winning might not actually be a good thing for him, and the latter because the witch might suspect what he was up to and call him a cheat.
Ben looked at the door that led below deck in his musings.
*creeeaaak*
The door cracked open of its own accord. Ben knew for a fact that Franky oiled the hinges frequently, and thus should squeak at all.
"I'll check the crow's nest first," Ben decided and started making his way up the main mast.
The climb was much shorter than he hoped it would be. Damn it, why did he have to practice so much over the years…
He opened the hatch into Mr. Roronoa's gym and took his sweet time scanning around the interior for Tia.
No such luck, or perhaps all the luck.
Ben didn't complain either way, shutting the hatch and making his way back down.
The door below deck was wide open now. No light trespassed beyond its threshold, looking like a black pit into hell.
Ben had no choice but to enter.
"If the door slams shut behind me, I swear I'm done playing," he warned as he stepped towards it.
Blessedly, it did not slam shut behind him. He sighed in relief as he grabbed a lantern from the wall and lit it so he could actually see where he was going.
The Thousand Sunny had been the brightest ship that Ben ever sailed on. Even at night, he never felt alone as he had on other vessels. Now, he was literally alone, all the warmth of the ship gone from the world.
Ben let out a breath and started at the mist that left his lips. The glass of his lantern had frost crystalizing at the edges.This wasn't normal, he discerned; this was the witch's doing.
He steeled his nerves. She was trying to frighten him, so he had to resist. She couldn't be permitted to take what she wanted from him.
He pressed forward, down the darkened steps and into the empty halls below.
He didn't know where the witch would hide down here. Perhaps even she didn't know; after all, this should be the first time she ever has been down here.
That was to Ben's advantage. He could not say he knew the ship by heart, but he had had plenty of time to explore.
Ben asked himself where the best place to hide would be.
In a barrel, probably, but he didn't think Tia would hide in a barrel.
Ben heard something skitter across the floor behind him and whirled around to see-!
A rat.
Ben snorted and chastised himself. He ought to know the sound of rat nails on wood by now.
He turned to continue his search-
"Squeak?!"
Ben whipped around so fast that he almost made himself dizzy. Nothing remained of the rat but a few drops of blood.
Would the witch have set another of her monstrosities loose on the ship?
Ben wouldn't put it past her. This suddenly seemed to become a great deal more dangerous. As much as he wished it weren't so, he found himself growing more frightened by the second.
Ben paused. Was that the point? If all of this was meant to scare him, then…
Where is the scariest place that the witch could hide?
The bilge. The furthest place from safety.
He groaned. The Sunny wasn't a huge ship, but it would still take a minute to reach the top deck from the very bottom. Time he may not have if he had to run for it.
It wasn't too late to turn back…
Ben did just that. The witch could stay in her hidey hole until the others came back.
It took him not but twenty seconds at a brisk walk to make his way to and back up the stairs-
*Slam!*
And the door slammed shut in his face. He dropped the lantern and grabbed at the handle, yanking with all his might to no avail. It was well and truly stuck.
"Porthole," Ben whispered and made for the nearest window, back down the steps.
The porthole was not stuck shut! More importantly, it wasn't too small for him to squeeze out of! He swung it open-
*Hisssssss!*
-and swung it shut again as a fish thing tried to lunge at him through it.
Well… that confirmed whether she made more of those monsters or not with a resounding "Yes, she did!"
"Shite," Ben cursed. He was actually going to have to play by her rules, wasn't he?
Ben marched back up the stairs and grabbed his lantern. Then, with all the grump of a grounded preteen, he tromped back down.
If he had to play, then he was going to be as much of a kill joy about it as possible, damn it!
…
Tia suppressed a giggle as she watched the child act so childishly.
He was terrified, sure, but in spite of that he seemed determined to rob her of any satisfaction in it. The joke was on him, though; she was having a grand old time.