Jenny Smith-Holmes

Chapter 20: We're Back!

Jessica's P.O.V.

I laid painfully on a pile of straw holding my arm. My greasy hair clung to my translucent skin due to the hot and humid sea air. It had been about a month since Jack and I had gotten caught by the pirates and I haven't left the hold since. They had taken almost all of our stuff, including Jack's time vortex manipulator, which was how we got there and I didn't have enough energy to get us out of there. Jack had been put to work on the deck since we were kidnapped. They made him mop the deck, move crates around, help with the sails, and some other stuff, then they would bring him back to the hold with me when he was done with his 'chores'. While Jack was up on deck, Captain Joan comes down to "talk" to me, well that's what she would say every time she came down to greet me. I heard her footsteps before she spoke.

"Avast, thar, wee Jessie. be ye ready fer our wee speak this day?" She opened the little cage that we were being held in and knelt down in front of me. I was curled up in a fetal position trying to protect my stomach and chest.

"Oh, girlie, don't act that way. I be only tryin' to make ye stronger 'n tougher so ye can survive out in th' scurvy pirate seven seas. th' same thin' happen to me, 'n look whar I be now. I be just give a go' in'to help ye lass."

"Yes, I know, you've told me before as you were sticking your knife through my thigh,and my other leg, and my arms, and my torso. Really, is there any place you haven't hurt me?" I carefully sat up letting the blood slowly drip from the gash on my chest that she had left from the day before. "I want you to know that all of this is not going to work. I will die before I would be a dirty pirate like you. I have standards that you will never lower and I refuse to give into anything less then them." I used all strength to not pass out.

"Aye, keep tellin' yourself that." Joan got closer to me even though she was already was close enough for me. She pulled out the all too familiar dager. It had been polished since the day before.

"Well then, Miss. Dawkins-"

"CAPTAIN Dawkins, Lassie." She glared at me as she griped her dagger.

"Whatever, it's only a matter of time before we get back to land, I mean you can't survive very long on the sea with the size of your crew. I estimate that we'll have to dock within a few days, or your crew will starve, and we wouldn't want that now will we?" I was stalling for time, because the more she tortures me, the weaker I become. My energy gets absorbed trying to heal myself, and I all I can get if I want to get me and Jack out of here.

Captain Joan was looking angry and about to say something when a loud crash came from the deck. Then suddenly the hold was flooded with sunlight from above and Jack came running in.

"Come on Jessica!" He ran over to Joan and pulled her away from me and helped me up.

"Can you walk?" He asked looking over his shoulder where the shouts of the pirates were growing louder.

"Yeah, I think so." He nodded his head as he looped his left arm around my back and under my arms. "Jack, do you have a plan?"

"Of course, run." He smiled down at me before we started moving out of little cage we were in. My legs ached, this was the first time I had walked in a month.

"I'm not sure that's really a plan."

"Well, it works for your dad and you."

"Not really." And sure enough, before I was even done saying that there were pirates in front of us. Then a voice came from behind us.

"What were ye pair tryin' to do, we be in th' middle 'o th' sea? Ye be knowin', I was tryin' to help ye, wee Jessie, 'n 'tis be how ye repay me? Ye pair be nothin' but trouble, I reckon it be the hour to put a end to that." There was a chorus of 'ay's and 'yarr's from the surrounding crewmates. "To th' plank!" Four of the men came forward and grabbed us. Three of them took Jack as he tried to fight back up the stairs to the outside. Only one of them needed to bring me up there, I yelped in pain as he basically picked me up and dragged me up. The sun burned as it hit my skin. It was a lot brighter than I thought it would be, I had to shield my eyes. I could hear Jack yelling and kicking up ahead of me but I couldn't see him, I could barely stand upright at this point.