The Ascension (Book One): Toss the Dice

Chapter Sixteen

I woke up slightly damp. My back and head hurt with an aching pain that went all the way down my spine to my tailbone, which was also sore. I rubbed my head with my hand and felt my long hair no longer braided falling down around my shoulders and across the ground. It hurt to breath in because when I did my chest tightened and my throat hurt. I tried to sit up but my back wouldn't bend properly to let me. So instead of trying again I looked to my right. It was dark enough that I could hardly see farther than five feet in front of me. I waited for my eyes to adjust and slowly I was able to see farther and farther away from the spot that I was sitting.

When I first saw them it was only a foot. It was small, wet and petite. It was shaking slightly as if the person who the foot belonged to was scared. Next I saw two legs, they were pale, just as pale as the foot had been. I kept waiting as my adjusted more and that's when I saw the whole body. It was a young girl, maybe thirteen or fourteen definitely not any older than Carmine was. Next to her, around her, behind her, were dozens of other girls none of them any older than seventeen and none younger than ten. And all of them were naked, not a speck of clothing. I averted my eyes and heard a small cough from the left side of my the place I was laid. I turned, now that I was able to see in the dark to see who was to my left. I expected to find more naked girls but instead I saw boys. All from the ages of fifteen to nineteen also naked. They seemed embarrassed and were trying to avoid looking at the girl opposite them. The girls, on a second glance, were also trying to avoid looking at the naked boys across from them. I snorted and then jolted suddenly wondering if I was naked myself. I tried to look down at myself but when I did I realized that I was still wearing my clothes. I let out a sigh and grimaced as the sigh hurt my chest. I tried to sit up again but I still couldn't. So instead I thought.

I tried to figure out where I was. I assumed that I was in the hold of the slave traders ship. The floor was slightly wet and so was my whole body indicating that this ship really was about half ready to sink just as I had already decided when we had first stepped aboard it. I felt the swaying of the boat underneath me and that's when it hit me. The boat was swaying in the way a boat did only when it was out at sea. I swore. "Rot!" I tried to sit up again but only got a stabbing pain in my back that made me swear again as I fell back against the floor.

"I wouldn't try to sit up." Said one of the boys from the other side of the ship. On closer inspection, ignoring the indecency, I could see they were all chained together by the wrists and then the boys farthest in the back were chained to the hold by their ankles. I glanced over at the girls quickly to affirm that it was the same for them. "I heard them talking when they brought you down." The boy continued. "Something about you falling from the foremast. They think you might have broken your back. Your lying at a weird angle, didn't you notice?" I hadn't, but now that he pointed it out, my back was at a weird angle. "The only reason they didn't throw you overboard then and there was because they think they'll still be able to get a good price for you because of your white hair."
"It's very pretty." Said one of the girl to my right. I turned to look at her. She was more beautiful than I was with dark skin, dark eyes, and dark hair. "How did you get that color? Were you born with it that way or did you use some sort of magical dye?"

"I woke up one mornin' an' i' was whi'e." I said. "I also can' cu' i' any shor'er. Anytime I do i' jus' grows back at da lengf i' was before. And I don' fink i's pre'y," I said matter of factly. "I's way too brigh', long, in me way, and blindin'."

"That's crap." Said one of the boys from the middle of the pack. "Hair doesn't randomly grow quickly like that. And you don't just wake up with your hair color changed."

"Ya'd like ta fink dat woul'n' ya." I said. "I woul'n' 'ave believed it eiver if i 'adn' 'appened righ in front ov me. I' did and it was freaky. Does anyone know how ta get outta 'ere?" I asked, changing the subject quickly.