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Salty sea spray misted your face and the wind drew out your hair like wicked curlicues. Toes dipped into the wet sand, water pooling between them, the ebbing water’s edge dampening your hem. The gray sky mirrored the dull ache in your chest. The roaring of the waves allowed a small reprieve from the cacophony of voices swirling around your mind.
The man in black robes clung to your mind like seaweed wrapped around the driftwood on the shore. It was a mess. Impossible to distinguish where it all began and how to remove it without making a bigger mess in the act. Was the wood better or worse off with the seaweed? The seaweed would be fine either way. The seaweed gave no care in the world if the driftwood was there or not. It could find something else to cling to or float in the water on its own.
A speeder rumbled in the distance. The intensity of the moment grew as the buzzing of the speeder drew nearer and nearer. The beating of your heart thumped into your ears overtaking any and all other sounds. The thundering roar of the speeder was no match for your wicked heart. Even the ocean’s violent waves turned into background static.
You didn’t have to turn to feel his glowing amber eyes boring into you, into your soul. The sand cemented your feet into place, there was nowhere left to run. You turned to glimpse him, only a bit of his face shone under the dark robes now rustling in the sea breeze. Your stomach knotted and your breath hitched. His alluring mystery was more than you could stand.
For a moment, you imagined walking out into the sea. Letting the water have its way with you and disposing of you as it pleased. Ridding you of the utter madness of these thoughts, and these nightmares.
You’d followed him for weeks, studying his movements. Trying to make sense of someone whose sole life purpose was to take another’s life away. It was what you craved, after all though. It didn’t take long for him to catch you following him. The cat and mouse dance between you two was coming to a climax. Your guts, now replaced with bricks of uncertainty and eager anticipation of what was to come.
Duty called, revenge was so close you could taste it. You pushed the chaos out of your mind for the time being as you knelt down to pick up your side bag and shoes.
Revenge is all I need. Revenge is all I shall focus on from here on out.
He nodded his head, it was enough to know what he wanted.
You climbed atop the speeder and wrapped your arms around the man in black robes. You couldn’t ignore the warmth seeping into your hands from underneath his robes as you squeezed his middle for stability. You breathed in the smell of his musk; spicy, primal, and metallic. His recent kill still fresh on his skin and robes.
He was an assassin. Exactly the kind you imagined had killed your entire family and enslaved the rest of your clan. Pure dumb luck spared you. A tiny thing you were back then. The spaces between the walls were your playground. Hiding and scheming, dreaming up ridiculous pranks to play on your siblings. You’d barely made it out of the house on time when it went up in flames. Your body still holding the scars and disfigurement as proof.
For so long you had been alone on this dirtball. Alone with your thoughts of loss, sorrow, loneliness, and the ache of retribution that seemed so far fetched, yet was all that kept you clinging on to life. The others around you would never understand the ache in your belly. The ache that felt worse than any hunger pangs you’d experienced. Worse than the burns that never quite healed right across much of your skin.
“Stay away from the man in black robes.”
“He carries dark chaotic energy. A pure monster.”
“Cares nothing, but to kill.”
Whispers on the wind about the mysterious man who clung to the shadows and wielded power like none you’d seen before. You had to know more. This could not be a coincidence. Either he’d come back for you, to finish what he’d left all those years ago. Or he could lead you to who did.
You gripped him tighter still as he rounded a corner narrowly avoiding the cliffs on either side of you. He was firm and unmoving no matter how hard you squeezed it seemed. Not something you wanted to test exactly. You were only clinging to him for survival, of course. You would never choose to be so physically close with someone so...so evil. Yet you breathed him in, melting a bit into his back.
The speeder bike slowed and stopped with a soft clatter. You were slow to unhook your arms from him. Somehow the comfort of the moment had clouded your mind, but he stood and shook you off of him. Reality pooled back into your thoughts as you made your own way off the speeder.
He had taken you far away from anything and anyone. No one could hear you scream out here. There were cliffs flanking either side of you and the wind whistled through the crevasse, prickling your skin with the chill it carried.
He advanced with a smirk on his face. He was enjoying that he frightened you. This is the kind of thing that got him off, you supposed. What else would get an evil person so delighted.
“You may think I am evil. I am not. I am efficient.” He snarled out past grime-covered teeth.
“I...I don’t...I don’t think-”
“Why are you following me? Are you working for the Jedi?”
“A Jedi?! No, no I don’t know any Jedi. Why are you here? Who have you been killing?”
The words tumbled out of you in a rush. You looked down at the dried blood on his robes and back up to his glowing eyes. Instincts had you back away from him in fear. Afraid of what his answer would be. Afraid of his reaction.
He stepped towards you with a slow conviction, never breaking eye contact, until he was less than an arm’s length away. He grabbed your chin with a gloved hand and pulled your face up close to his. The leather of his gloves smelled new and it was soft and cool against your skin. His hold was firm, but not painful. A grimace overtook your features and you imagined spitting into his face, but held back out of fear.
“Now, you will quit following me and go back to doing whatever it is you do here.” He pushed you back with such force you half tumbled onto the rocky ground. He turned with a growl and started to mount his speeder.
“Wait.” you croaked out. “Wait, 18 years ago. Were you here 18 years ago?”
He paused atop the speeder and half turned towards you.
“Why?” he snarled.
“My family… someone, someone like you killed my entire family 18 years ago. That’s why I’ve been watching you.” It was a bold move. Laying all your cards on the table for him, but you had nothing left to lose. If he left you out here, defenseless as you were, you could die just as easily as by his hand. And if he’d wanted to kill you, he could have done it by now.
He remained in his half-turned seated position to respond, “No. No, I have never been here. And 18 years ago I was a small boy. I did not kill your family.”
He turned back to stare ahead of him and to turn the speeder on.
“Wait!”
You rushed to him, feet scrambling on the uneven terrain as you grabbed his arm.
“Please can you help me find who did?” His eyes grew big as he stared down at your hand clutching onto his arm through several layers of fabric. Stars, did he wear a lot of layers!
“I don’t have time for your problems. Hop on and I’ll take you back to where I found you.” He shook his arm free from your clutches and you climbed back on the speeder and held him close to you. He hesitated before taking off.
“But then you will leave me alone.”
You made no response and he took off.
The day was growing old and the night was settling in. Darkness crept all around, you could barely see where he was going, but trusted that he must. The warmth radiating off him took away the bite of the chill air whipping around you. You hugged him from behind, pressing your entire body and face against his back. Your eyelids weighed down and you blinked slow, each time harder to open them back up. It had been such a long day on the run and you were so tired if only to rest your eyes for a moment….
*******
You awoke alone. Cold and dark on a metal bed with a thin sad excuse for a mattress and no blanket. Your body ached and convulsed with shivers. You sat up on the bed and looked around to get your bearings. It appeared you were on someone’s ship. How could that be? The last thing you remembered was, oh him. What had you gotten yourself into now?
Footsteps approached clanging on the metal floor plates. You looked down at the black leather boots now standing right next to you. Your eyes traveled up his black robes to his crimson face with intimidating black tattoos. You studied the designs for a moment, noting how they accentuated his already frightening and handsome features. You’d not seen him without his hood obscuring his face. You’d not seen the horns on his head that formed a perfect crown. He looked like a king. Your stomach turned upside down and your cheeks grew hot despite the cold air.
“You fell asleep on my speeder.”
His arms crossed at his chest and his permanent scowl stared down at you.
“I am terribly sorry. I um…” your teeth chattered from the cold and you hunched over trying to warm your bare arms.
“You should leave when the sun rises.”
“Do you have any blankets?”
He rolled his eyes and took off his cloak with finesse none like you’d seen anyone quite do when undressing before. Not even the dancers at the local saloon could pretend to carry themselves with such a flair for drama. He threw the cloak at you and you wrapped it around yourself. It was still warm and, stars, it smelled like him. You tried not to let on the pure rush of serotonin this maneuver had garnered by flashing a half-smile.
He started to walk away and you got up to follow him.
“What’s your name?”
He stopped and turned to face you. His grimy teeth bared in a grimace and he hissed in a breath of air.
“Maul.” He spat the name out at you and turned away, but you kept at him, following every footstep.
“Do you think you can help me, Maul? Help me find who killed my family?”
“I told you I don’t have time for that. I know nothing of what happened to your family and even if I did, I wouldn’t waste my time telling you about it or helping you in any way.”
“Right, you’re busy. Maybe, maybe you could…” you stared at your feet, only your toes peeking out under his robes.
“Whatever it is you’re trying to spit out. No, No I can’t.”
You sighed. You were despondent. This was futile. He wouldn’t help you. Why would he? You were nothing from nowhere.
His comlink beeped and he rushed away to the cockpit of the ship. The door hissed shut behind him. You had until dawn to convince him otherwise. You mulled over the conversations of the day with him, as little as they were. There had to be something you could use to prove your worthiness. The door hissed open and it came to you at once.
“The Jedi.”
“What?!”
“The Jedi, you, you were asking if I was with the Jedi.”
“Yes, and?”
“I know where they are hiding on this planet. I can help you find them, if you help me.”
He pressed into you now with his entire body and you backed up until there was only the hallway wall and he didn’t let up. You were now overheated and unable to move.
“Tell me, why I shouldn’t torture and kill you for the information now?” His hot breath on your face drove you mad and your ears filled up with the thrumming of your heartbeat again.
“Because,” you squeaked out, “because you’ll need me to get into these places, they won’t suspect a local.”
He backed away a bit and put his hands against the wall at either side of your face, trapping you still. Your breath ran ragged and you didn’t hide it.
“Very well. When the sun comes up we shall test this theory of yours.” He let down his arms and backed away from you. Your body was rigid and felt like it would never relax even without his dominating form pressed into you. He studied you for a moment, giving you a once over with his eyes.
“You should get some sleep.”
“What about you? I mean, where do you sleep?”
“I don’t sleep. So whatever bantha fodder plan you’re thinking of, don’t.”
“No, I wouldn’t...I” you shook your head.
“Well, what then?”
“I wondered if you had a more comfortable bed?”
His scoff was answer enough. It was a stupid question. You’d never been on a starship before. You’d always imagined it being so much more luxurious.
You climbed back into the small dark bunk. At least you had his robe to keep you warm. You hoped his scent never wore off.