The Obsidian Key ✔️

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

Anne was in unbearable pain as she was on the ship, but she had given birth to a baby girl. The baby looked smaller than I would have thought, but considering the conditions that she was in during the nine months in the cell.

If only Mary had survived.

Mary was buried at the St. Catherine's church in Jamaica. We made sure that her body was taken care of and not thrown overboard like a worthless corpse. She wasn't worthless... she was more than I would have ever wanted in a friend in this world.

Now she was gone.

Now I had to face this world without her.

The thought brought tears.

Days later, Bonny and I talked for the first time after being on the ship together. Our conversation was as gloomy as the disappearance of Mary's fun and sarcastic presence, and it wasn't about good things...

"I am not safe on the waters," Bonny said as she held the child on her arms. "I am going to go to South Carolina, change my name... it will be safer for both of us. If you want, Ria..." Her eyes lifted from her child to me. "Caspian and you can come with me. It isn't safe for the two of you to be in the waters. What if you get caught again? This time you will surely get killed. There will be escaping then..."

"It's a nice offer, Anne..." I sighed, placing my hand on my stomach sadly. "But I have things that must be taken care of."

"Then... this is the last we will see each other, isn't it?"

I slowly nodded, "Yes. I'm afraid so..."

Silence hung between us.

"Have a nice life, Ria," her voice became even softer than I imagine, swallowing. "I need to go now, it was fun while it lasted..." She turned and walked into the fog across the beach. I knew as she walked away that that would be the last time I would see her... Anne Bonny, who in the book was went missing after she was in jail, had turned and was heading to America where she would lay low and live the rest of her life in peace.

I turned and walked back to the small ship when Amul and Caspian were. They were watching me from the ship as I approached closer to it, when I boarded it Caspian helped me by holding his hand out for me to grab it for support. I turned my head to see that Darnel was sitting somewhere remaining quiet, watching everyone that went down.

"I do not think it is a good idea that a child is on this ship," Amul crossed his arms tightly over his chest. "Is that not the Scarlatti boy?"

"It's a long story how he got here..." I sighed. "We're going to have to go back to Kingston and drop him off."

"No!" The boy slid off the barrel and stood on his feet. "Don't take me back to my father!"

Both Caspian and Amul looked at each other with confusion, I spoke to the boy, "We can't keep you, Darnel. We have our own problems, we have to many things on our plate to have you here."

"My father wants to send me to Italy the same he done Victoria! I do not want to go there, he wanted to send me after he took you to this Mordecai and got the money. My sister Victoria is a snob and my mother only cares for money, and my father is the same! I do not want to turn out like those people," He fumbled through his pockets and pulled out a paper. "Um, I actually took a piece of paper out of my father's desk that tells about everything you done for the past three years. I-I meant to give it to you on the ship but you... kind of jumped off... the words on the paper is a bit smudged... from the water."

I slowly walked up to the paper and grabbed it from him. when I looked at it I saw it was actually a letter, "Wait... it's a letter?"

"He was sending letters back and forth from Mordecai. He would pay my father for information about your whereabouts. He told him everything he learns from spies. Like your whereabouts and even when he heard you went to prison."