Angel At Sea

Prisoner

Chapter Three: Prisoner

~~ I laid against the side of the boat, feeling the waves lap against the side; the men had stopped their catcalling, finally. A door was thrown open and light came gushing in torrents down to us; I whimpered in pain and turned away. I didn't know how long we had been down there, but, it had been more than a day; at least. I had been served four meals; all of which were bland, had these pirates heard of a thing called salt?

Anyways, a few pirates came forwards; one was swinging a set of keys around his index finger and whistling a jovial tune; completely opposite of what I felt inside. In stead of coming to my cell the pirates went to the cell before mine and yanked out the male pirate from inside there; he screamed and fought against the pirates, but, one of the pirates retrieved a large whip with nine ends to it, he called it a 'nine tail'. He raised the whip behind him and brought it down with such force I would've mistaken it for a lightening crack! The man screamed, but the pirates only whipped him harder; I turned away and whimpered, cringing every time I heard the whip slap against his flesh. All of a sudden, the whipping stopped and another door opened; a door close to me, my door.

I looked up to find the pirate with the whip standing before me, Satan laughing in his eyes. The pirate grasped me by my hair and threw me out of my cell, onto the floor; as I attempted to scurry away two other pirates grasped my arms and held me down, moving my hair out of the way so the whip would have full contact. Then, I felt the most indescribable, excruciating pain I would ever feel for the rest of my life. It was more unendurable than one thousand bee stings whilst being cut at with a rapier and hammered in the head with a canon ball; and I let out a scream that directly showed that, and, I figured I broke a few glasses in the kitchen! The pirate growled, but, lashed me with the whip thrice more, until a few other men came running down the stairs; they gasped in horror when they saw me.

"Marty! You weren't supposed to hurt her! Oh, Cap'n will have your head for this!" The man cried; grasping the man holding the nine tale and shaking him violently; this man wore an all white jacket and a small, white hat, I figured he was the cook. I breathed heavily and allowed myself to fall to the floor; even though I hadn't done much, from the whip, I was so physically exhausted, I couldn't move.

All of a sudden, there were long, clunking footsteps; footsteps that demanded not only respect, but authority.

It was him.

The Captain.

The man that held eye contact with me during the fight; the man who I fell before his feet. The man who ordered the death of my parents and nanny of so many years. There was a long silence for a moment, and, hesitantly, I turned as best I could to see his yellow eyes shining like beacons out of the stiff darkness; they were glaring at the man that held the nine tale. "You defied my orders" the captain growled; his voice was deep, but not so much as to sound...imbecilic. It was...to a point...heavenly; it entrapped me in its melody, even when he only spoke! 

"Yes, s-sir, I-I'm--"

"Sorry doesn't work on this boat; you rat." The Captain hissed "if I tell you to do something, you do it. If I tell you not to do something, you don't do it. I will not stand for this ignorance of orders on my ship" the Captain finished; he turned to a pirate standing to his left and nodded. The pirate that whipped me began stuttering his begs and pleads, but they were lost somewhere in the clatter of both feet and rapiers upon the stairs; in the next moment a gunshot was heard and then a large thud.

The pirate that whipped me, was dead.

My mind reeled; why did the captain kill a man just for whipping me? Why did the captain keep me alive at all? I turned back to the captain to see that he was staring dead at me; I paused everything and found myself lost in his eyes. They colour was so entrancing, it was something I'd never seen before!

It wasn't wonderful, but, nor was it terrible.

"Help her up" the captain said softly to one of his crewman; and, gently, two of them hauled me up from the ground and faced me towards the captain. The captain stood straight and took off his hat; revealing a crop of slicked back, jet black hair. "I am not quite ready for you yet, madam, a half an hour more and we will speak, in my quarters." He stated, turning away and returning the hat to his head.

"Wait" I said in a meek voice, moving forwards a bit and feeling my legs give out beneath me; the two pirates caught me. The captain turned back and stared at me expectantly, awaiting a question. "Why am I here?" I asked softly; the captain smiled.

"Those are the type of questions I will address in thirty moments more" he replied, turning around again and walking back to the surface. The two pirates took me back to my cell and placed me down gently; leaving quickly and immersing us all in darkness again.

~~ Something broke inside me and the realization that I was alone hit me full force; and, I couldn't hold it back. I sobbed. It came to the point where the man to the cell of my left reached through the bars and patted my shoulder comfortingly; he asked what happened and I explained everything. "Everyone's gone....everyone! I have no family member's any longer; well, none that I consider living, anyways." I explained, wiping my eyes and nose. By now all of the men in the prison cells were fully enthralled in my tale and listened carefully.

"Ah, it'll be alright, darlin'. He won't kill you; by the way he's treated you, I don't believe he will. Hell, he took his hat off for ya!" A man from across the aisle said, this was followed by a chorus of the word 'yes' said many times over.

"Yeah...now that I think of it...he did, didn't he? But...why? Why would he keep me alive if he killed the rest of my family?" I asked, the man to my left sighed.

"That's a question for him, honey. Even then, I doubt you'll get a clear answer; men are very protective of their feelings...that is...if they have any" he answered; I sighed, I yearned to go home, I wanted my mother's arms around me again, I wanted to eat Sophie's famous chocolate pies again, I wanted to laugh and play the violin with my father again, oh! Why did they have to die?

Just as I was wondering this, the door was flung open again and a pirate came straight to my cell. "He's ready for ya, miss" said the pirate; yet, he was young, I guessed around twelve years of age.

A cabin boy.

I nodded and slowly walked out, clutching onto the bars for support; the young man held my hand as we walked out of the cool darkness of the prison deck.

~~ The bright sunlight stung my eyes and I was forced to squint as the cabin boy led me out onto the surface deck, through the bustling deck filled with cleaning and prepping pirates, and up a set of stairs; he stopped at the second set of stairs and sighed. He turned to me and glanced me over, I had not the slightest idea of why; if he was making sure I was presentable, he could forget about it! He took up my hand again and led me up the final set of stairs; quietly grasping the golden doorknob to the oaken door which, on a small plaque read 'Captain's Quarters'. He peeked his head inside and whispered "she's fine; no new marks or scars"; there was a grunt and the cabin boy returned and smiled to me. "He's ready for you, now, ma'am".

In my stomach, butterflies flown freely as I grasped the warm knob, I sighed and closed my eyes. Oh, god, what would happen? Would this man hurt me? Or worse...would he...ya know...do what pirates do to women....to me? I bit my lip and built up what little tatters of courage I had left; turning the knob and stepping into the room.