The Siren System Pirate

 Thia watched as the ceiling fan spinning over the bed spun as Rio slept soundly cuddling up next to her. It was a little nerve wracking of a question Evelyn asked for them to join her crew over dinner out of the blue. "Asking me that kind of question made sense since I'm 24-years old but asking Rio? She's only 17 years old." Thia thought. She looked down at Rio and felt her breathing as it was calm on her chest. "I love you so much, little one. I will always protect you." Thia thought with a smile on her face.

 She peers over to the closet where Rio's new sundress hung on a clothes hanger. "You looked so beautiful in that sundress. You were so happy! I think it was a fabulous find you stumbled upon. I'm okay giving up my drinking habit if it's for your benefit."

 Days when Thia stays home are the days when she and Rio are most happy. Sure, Thia likes drinking, but that's it. Her main reason for going home with strangers has always been her best technique she has come up with the steal the most from people. Taking satchels on the street just lets her take what someone has on them. Actually, being in someone's home, she can take so much more.

 In their home, Thia and Rio have a large screen TV, a full and exquisite full dining dish set with big and small plates, bowls, glassware cups, and silverware. A nicely crafted and rare white oak table and chairs, an authentic leather sofa. Thia still is unaware how she had gotten away with the largest items she had stolen from her midnight escapades. She was a one-woman moving crew and had to walk home instead of using her speed to run because she likes to cut corners, but she wasn't trying to break whatever she was stealing.

 Her biggest score was with a man who was clearly a noble but was only on their continent for vacation and knew the blue haired people from connections. He brought her back to the inn he was staying at during his time, but he was always bunking in a 4-bedroom suite with some of his guards. Once everyone was asleep, she was able to sneak into each of their rooms and empty their wallets completely.

 This was also when she decided that when she steals from people for her and her sister's benefit, it's a good idea to stay home and lay low for a while. They had enough money to sustain themselves from the money she took anyway so there's not reason to keep going out when someone she had wrong was hellbent on finding her for the money she took.

 Rio shifted underneath her and turn over on her side facing away from Thia. She lightly brushed Rio's blonde hair and snuck out of bed and into the kitchen. She got out a box of cookies and a glass from a cabinet and then went into the fridge for a carton of milk. She sat and looked out the window in the living room at the night sky. The moon was bright and the city outside was silent. "Although it's quiet, is this all it is going to be? Getting drunk, sleeping with strangers, stealing, and laying low until it's safe to go out again?" She thought. She dunked a cookie in the milk for a few seconds and took a bite. "No. No. It's not a life I want to continue living." She looked in the direction of the hallway where at the end was the room Rio was soundly sleeping in. "It's not the type of life she needs to think she has in her future." She took the last bite of the cookie in her hand and whispered aloud, "We're going to go with her. We need to leave."

 Thia was starting to wake up but just rolled over in bed. She heard the soft tapping of a foot on the floor. At first, she started to think Rio had just woken up and then was walking around until she realized the tapping was remaining in place. She sat up and after rubbing her eyes she turned to look at Rio standing stiff with her arms folded and staring at her with a slightly disgruntled face.

 "Did you sleep nice?" Rio asked sternly.

 "Woah. Attitude much? Is that really how she's greeting me this morning?" Thia thought to herself. "Of course I did!" Thia said cheerfully. "I always sleep great when I get to cuddle my dear little sister all night. I don't care if you're about to be 18. You're still 4'11" and my bundle of cuteness!"

 Rio, now slightly blushing, but still a sense of irritation, said, "I- uhm- "She looked down and shy fully murmured, "Thank you." She postured herself up and then confronted Thia and burst out, "Did you eat all the cookies last night?!"

 "Oh. That's it. Right. Those cookies were her favorite," Thia thought. "Oops," She said. "I'm sorry." She added apologetically. She grabbed Rio by the arm and forced her into the bed and started giving her kisses all over her face.

 "Hey! Hey! Hey! Stop it! Thia!" Rio giggled.

 "Not until my sister forgives me!" Thia laughed.

 "Fine! I forgive you!" Rio laughed.

 "How about I buy two packs next time I'm out and we can eat them together?" Thia said letting go.

 Catching her breath, Rio sighed and with a smile said, "I'd like that."

 Thia looked at her sister with a smile and said, "Would you like to get some ice cream today?"

 "Didn't you just steal something the other day? We don't have to lay low?" Rio asked.

 "Oh that's right," Thia laughed. "Then ice cream in a few days?" Thia asked.

 "Of course!" Rio smiled.

 Thia crawled out of bed and said, "For now I guess we could just watch some T-" A knock on at the door interrupted her.

 "Is it that Evelyn girl from yesterday?" Rio asked.

 "I doubt it. Plus, I'm unsure we'll see her again after she said she was going to visit that dragon," Thia laughed. She quickly threw on a shirt and walked to the door and opened it to see a cheerful old man at the door. "Mr. Robinson! Good morning you old chap! How are you doing?"

 "Oh my goodness! Good morning to you, dear older Riddick child. You girls are always so polite. Such a delight to our neighborhood! Of course, you know why I'm here." The man said with a smile and giving off a cheerful and calm aura.

 "Oh right!" Thia said. She reached over to a woven basket they kept by their door and pulled out a navy-blue pouch and opened it up and pulled out a few coins and handed it to the man. "There you go! This month's rent!"

 "With a smile on his face, he said, "Thank you girls so much! I'll see you again in a month!"

 "Bye Mr. Robinson!" Thia said as she closed the door.

 Ever since Thia had pickpocketed those nobles, she had put so much of the money aside, they could suffice their rent without a problem until Thia turned 30.

 "He's such a sweet old man," Rio said walking into the living room and jumping onto the couch.

 "I know right," Thia said locking the door and joining her.

 "It will be sad to see him go eventually," Rio added.

 Thia looked over at Rio with a gawking expression on her face and said, "Oh my Neptune. He's old but not that old! Don't say that!"

 They heard another knock at the door. "My oh my. Aren't we popular today?" Rio said.

 Thia walked up to the door thinking, "I can only imagine it being Mr. Robinson again but I know for a fact that was the right amount of money for this month. In fact, forever."

 She opened the door to see Mr. Robinson standing there with a sad expression on his face and then said, "Girls! Run! " And then a sword extruded from out his chest splattering blood out nearly hitting Thia in the face. His body dropped to the floor and behind him stood a tall scarred and tatted man in a black jacket with a very familiar insignia across his bare chest. A skull and crossbones that look like rocks. Captain Bardrick's Barbarian Pirates.

 Thia slammed the door shut and said, "I don't care if I stole recently! We're leaving now!" She said as she zipped to the bedroom and back out with her and Rio's shoes. "Also, apparently Mr. Robinson didn't have that much longer to live."

 "Did I jinx him?" Rio said struggling to get her shoes on.

 They heard a crash at the door and looking over saw an axe extruding through it. "OI! I sense two girlies in here! Someone gets me a hamma!" The man's grungy voice sounded from the other side.

 "That's the only exit!" Rio exclaimed to her sister.

 Thia grabbed Rio by the arm and swung her onto her back, "Hold on! I'm making a new one!"

 "Where?" Rio asked.

 Thia didn't pay mind to answering her question as she sprinted out the window of their living room shattering the glass and landing swiftly on the ground of the first story of their apartment common grounds below.

 Around them was a sight they did not expect to see. Pirates and soldiers everywhere are forcing themselves into people's homes and dragging the families out. People in their complex they had known for years. They saw the soldiers' separating kids from their parents as the pirates would then murder the parents if they would not comply. "Consider this a sacrifice for the good of the country!" They would laugh.

 "What the fuck!" Thia couldn't help to say. "I'm getting us out of here!"

 She took one step before a blunt object whizzed past them blowing a whole through the wall next to them. "Do not let anyone escape men! Take every child! It's all we need! Mothers, Fathers, guardians! If you want to live, then just give up your children willingly! I can't promise they'll be well taken care of, but they are for the cause! My cause! My army!" The man was laughing.

 Thia and Rio knew who exactly he is. Everyone knew exactly who he was. Captain Bardrick. The Pirate Captain who overthrew the previous King by raiding the castle at the nation's capital and murdering him, his family, and his guards. Now this Pirate Conqueror stood at the helm of their kingdom.

 "Shit! Was that a cannonball?" Thia gritted through her teeth.

 From the distance they were from the Pirate Captain, they saw him reaching into a nearby crate and Rio instantly said, "Yup. Those are cannonballs."

 Captain Bardrick hadn't noticed Thia and Rio yet. He was only throwing cannonballs through their community at random. Breaking walls and toppling down the taller apartment buildings.

 "Just hold onto me. I'll get us out of here!" Thia said as she whipped into the back alley of one of the apartment buildings and then down the next one nearby at the next clearing.

 After seven buildings, Thia said, "What's going on here. I know this city like the back of my hand but there seems to be no end to these alleyways. She stopped and she and Rio looked in front of them and then behind them. "Something is wrong here. They both look identical."

 "Are you saying we're stuck in an infinite loop? Does that mean they can't get us?" Rio asked.

 "Does it sound quiet to you on the other side of the buildings?" Thia asked rhetorically. "I don't how an infinite loop and can just 'happen' out of nowhere."

 "That would be all me," A man's scraggly voice said from in front of the direction they were running. They turned to see a tall man in a long black trench coat and a long pale face with black eyeglasses and a black top hat. Pointing to the Barbarian Pirates mark on the pocket of his coat, he said, "The name is Usted. Second Mate to the Barbarian Pirates. My dear Captain didn't want anyone escaping so he tasked me with setting up this barrier. See I have the power of physical distortion, so this place here is just an infinite loop. If you go back the way you came, in two buildings you'd be back at the plaza."

 "But we just passed seven buildings," Thia said.

 "You can go ahead and pass 100 and getting back to the plaza will always be two buildings back," Usted chuckled. "If you don't want to go back, I can just capture you now. If you do go back on your own, I can assure you won't be hurt." His eyes fell on Rio and with an eerie smile said, "You don't quite look like you're 18 yet, girl. Unfortunately, you'll have to come with us."

 "The fuck she will," Thia said. "She's just small for her age."

 Usted snapped his fingers, and a clipboard materialized in his hands, and he looked it over. "I imagine you are the only girls in the community with only two occupants. A Thia and Rio Riddick I presume? Thia Riddick, age 22. Rio Riddick, age 15. Move in date, 2 years ago. Now I'm not that good at math but I can at least tell that 15 plus two is 17." He smiled and said, "You won't be needed, Thia."

 "Where the hell did he get that information? Did they raid Mr. Robinson's home and office?" Thia thought. "So, you kill our landlord and take his shit?"

 "Yeah," Usted didn't hesitate to answer the question. "So, can you decide? Am I going to take the girl by force or are to going to go back and peacefully and hand her over nicely? I have other kids to kidnap."

 "Thia," Rio whispered as she held onto Thia tighter.

 "You CANNOT have my sister," Thia said sternly.

 Usted sighed and said, "Fine. I'm growing tired of this. Good luck." Usted took out a slingshot and shot a pink ball in the sky as smoke trailed from it. "Adios," He smiled as he disappeared around one of the repeating corners.

 "He just left?" Rio said with a confused look on her face.

 The walls of a nearby building exploded, and the debris and a cannonball almost struck the girls. "Shit! He sent a signal to the bloody Captain!" Thinking quick she said, "I think our only option is going back to the plaza, but I AM NOT giving you over to them!"

 Thia sprinted back and like Usted said, after two complexes, they were back in the plaza.

 "Oh how nice of you to come join the party! We couldn't have you leave just yet!" The Captain of the Barbarian Pirates Bellowed from his loud deep voice as he walked over to the girls.

 Thia eyed the area from all around them, guards, knights, pirates, all of them smiling and laughing. Parents, guardians, some dead, some alive. Crying, sobbing, holding loved ones caught in the crosshairs. The there were the cages. Children they had seen once playing in the plaza with smiling faces. Enjoying a nice day, rain or shine. Now scared, broken, afraid.

 Studying the plaza itself, it was now almost unrecognizable. Buildings were tumbled over, ransacked. Walls collapsed, doors and windows broken. Lifeless peopled hanging over railings and some even look like they were tortured first.

 "What the fuck do you want with us?" Thia gritted through her teeth. "What the hell did we ever do to you?"

 "Oh, nothing at all," Captain Bardrick smiled casual walking past them. "This isn't punishment or anything." Nearby a man on the ground groaned in pain. Bardrick pulled out his gun, shot the man in the head, and holster it again. "Nothing at all."

 Thia and Rio were just staring at the man who was just killed in front of their eyes.

 "No! NO! MY BABIES! PLEASE DON'T TAKE MY BABIES!" A woman was screaming as she was being dragged clinging onto the leg of pirate who had two girls slung over his shoulders.

 "The more you fight woman, the worse I'm going to kill ya!" The Pirate threatened.

 "Barney, stop," The Captain ordered.

 The pirate named Barney stopped and said, "What is it boss?"

 "Put the girls down and let them face their mother," Bardrick said. "And woman," he walked up to her and put a gun in her hand. "How about this. We'll only take one of your girls. The one we don't take; you have to shoot."

 The guards and pirates all around began to chuckle as the bystanders still alive stared in disarray. "I- I can't do that." The woman sobbed. "These are my babies!"

 "How old are you girls?"

 "14," One of the girls answered the Captain without hesitation.

 "I see," he smiled. Addressing the weeping mother again, he said, "14 years old. I think you've raised them long enough. I say, even long enough to choose who you love more."

 "I love them equally," the mother exclaimed.

 "Oh fucking please! Save me the theatrics you blubber sappy little wench!" The Captain groaned in a mocking tone. "You really expect me, or anyone else here that you don't have a favorite child? Now point the gun and shoot!"

 "I won't," cried the mother.

 "Do it!" Bardrick demanded.

 "I won't," She sobbed again.

 "Do. It."

 "I WON'T!" She was now screaming.

 DO IT!"

 "NO!" She screamed as she pulled the trigger at one of the girls with her eyes closed.

 "Ha," the captain let out a chuckle. "You did it!" He took the gun from the woman and spun it in his hands. He looked over at the two girls, fully alive, and said, "Can you both believe that? Your mother was actually going to shoot one of you. You, specifically," he said signaling to the child on the right. He looks over at the woman and asked, "Did she piss you off recently or something?"

 "It was empty?" The woman cried in disbelief. "My babies are, okay? They're free?"

 "Oh dear me. Don't get the wrong idea. I didn't want my property damaged so I clearly wouldn't let you hurt either of them. And realistically, the right choice would have been to turn the gun on yourself instead of one the kids. "So now you have to endure this," He pulled a bullet from a pouch on his person, loaded the single bullet, and handed it toward the kids. "Shoot you mother."

 Thia and the rest of the townspeople's eyes widened at the situation unfolding.

 "What?" The woman said. "They won't do that. They love me!"

 Giving a side eye look to the woman, Bardrick said, "You just tried shooting one of them. If I had to guess, she's the one you like less. And the one you like more- "

 The Captains words were cut off as a hole appeared in her head and her lifeless body fell to the ground. The Captain looked over to the girls and the gun missing from his hand. The girl whom he did not expect. "Was that what you wanted?" The girl on the left asked.

 "Deedee! How could you!" The other girl said to her sister.

 The girl holding the gun named Deedee, said, "She was going to shoot you Mimi! I can't stand for that!"

 "She was our mother!" Mimi cried out.

 Deedee handed the gun back to the Captain and said, "Not anymore."

 The Captain was smiling as he took the gun back and said, "I think I have something special just for you girls when we get back to the castle."

 "Thia," Rio finally said. "Let me go."

 Shocked, Thia said, "Are you out of your mind? No."

 "Let me go Thia," Rio said. "I'm not going to sit and watch you die this way or worse than this. Let me go."

 "I'm not losing you," Thia said.

 "And I'm not going to let you die for me!" Rio barked as she climbed off Thia's back.

 "Are you ready to come with us peacefully?" Captain Bardrick asked. "Or will your sister have to die?" He smiled facing them.

 "I'll come with you," Rio said. "Please leave my sister alone."

 "Rio, no wait," Thia said reaching out to her.

 "Stop!" Rio said. "Just stop. I love you, but I have to go." She kept her eyes locked on Thia's as she walked to the Pirate Captain. Turned to him and said, "I'll come with you. Please leave my sister alone."

 The Captain looked over at Thia and then with smile looked back at Rio and said, "Since you're being so peaceful and non-combative about it, I guess I can show some mercy and grant you that wish. I'm not completely evil."

 "You really confess that you're evil?" Rio asked.

 With a disgruntled look on his face, Captain Bardrick asked, "Are you going have a smart mouth the whole time you are with us?"

 "I'll do my best to be better but it's part of my personality," Rio said.

 The Captain looked back at Thia and said, "If you want to live, you'll stay where you are." And he and Rio turned their backs to her as the guards, knights, and soldiers began to head out.

 Thia dropped to her hands and knees and began to cry with tears rolling down her eyes. "Why? Why is she doing this? For me? Giving herself up, for me? I can take care of myself! But I'm supposed to take care of you! Ever since mom and dad died, it's been me and you!" She thought as her vison became hazy from the tears in her eyes.

 She looked up and could see there was still several guards and knights filing out at the end of the army the Captain had brought with him. She couldn't control herself at this point. The mark on her leg began to glow brightly as she breathed from behind her gritted teeth as her eyes started to glow and an aura began to radiate around her, "You're all going to die!"