Phantomverse Stories

Captain Phantom Part 2

To call how I felt betrayal was an understatement. The very livelihood of these men: the merchant lifestyle, honoring the best way they knew how the privacies of the passengers and their belongings, the loyalty to their captain and to one another, was cast aside like sea-scum. One by one, loyal sailors transferred their alliances to Mad Maddison and her lot.

True, they could hardly be blamed for wanting to save their own skin, yet I always believed that their devotion to La Carta Nueva would prevail beyond the notion of keeping your life.
I know my loyalty was like so. With each sickening sway of the Banshee, my Uncle Nat and I remained confined to the shadowy barracks below-decks that served as our prison. It was no longer crowded, since many of the seamen had left, but a few loyal sailors and the bewildered and shell shocked passengers accompanied us.

However, though I saw with me men I'd grown to look up to-Uncle Nat, Lucas, Gabriel-I never saw Captain Masters. Not once.

Miserable, all the trapped huddled together for warmth and comfort, shivering as cold drafts of the ocean breeze seeped in through cracks in the floorboards. It had been weeks, and we were all suffering: from lack of movement, nutrition, and joy.

An elderly passenger, Miss Martinez, clutched the faded folds of her dress, face scrunched in pain. I let her lean on my shoulder, and worryingly, she barely weighed anything at all. Older people don't really have appetites, but hardtack isn't something someone Miss Martinez's age could choke down. She was starving, and her arthritic joints were taking the brunt of lying on the stiff wooden floor.

Wheezing, her sour breath plagued my nostrils, and it took all my training in politeness not to gag. Miss Martinez was dying. We'd all die, if we didn't get out of here soon. I tilted my face away from the smell, up toward the porthole, the only one down here. Gray light filtered through.

If only I could stand up, I wished, then I could see if we are close to land.

Maybe on land, we could escape. Find one of the colonies. Or conquistadores. They could help us. I sighed derisively. It was stupid how much my dreams had changed, from wanting to stay on La Carta Nueva forever as a cabin boy to longing for an escape on land.

All of us prisoners snapped to attention when thumping came from the boards beside the door. Despite her weakened state, Miss Martinez wrapped her arm protectively around me, the youngest person in the room.

Mad Maddison came barging through the doorway, infuriated, her eyes almost red, teeth gritted, nostrils flaring. All of us froze.

In her anger she almost looked a little comical, so I stifled a laugh with a hand. Her hat's blue feather drifted right in front of her nose, and with each angry huff of breath it wiggled like a little dancing bird. By this time, the mad woman noticed my small laugh, and fixed her evil eyes upon me. Immediately I stopped laughing. Then, she smiled, sending chills up my spine.

"Why, dear, why don't you come up out of this desolate place up on deck with me?" She cooed, gesturing for me to stand. My eyes wide and frightened, I returned her stare, but I didn't stand.

I'm not listening to that witch.

I wanted to be defiant, fighting her tyranny with my last breath. All the adults in the room held their breath, waiting for Mad Maddison's response. Her insane grin grew wider, and she shook with mirth.

"That wasn't a request," she murmured in a low tone. She lunged forward, and Uncle Nat let out a yell as she forcibly grabbed my wrist, blue painted nails digging into my skin. He made a move to stop her, until a knife was being held inches from his neck, in the pirate's other free hand. I struggled feebly, then quickly gave up. To my dismay, Uncle Nat saw this, and the fight left his eyes, and he backed off.

No, I silently protested. Don't give up too.

Mad Maddison gave him a winning smile, then removed the knife from his neck. In a quick motion, she stabbed the knife down, right through my uncle's thigh.

Everyone screamed.

I was screaming, clawing furiously now, at that demon, that villain, the most evil human to crawl on the earth, to fill the seas with her stench. Why? Why didn't she just leave him alone? He let her take me. Wasn't that enough?

As blood pooled onto his leg, his paled face turned toward me, my Uncle Nat didn't moan in pain. He only looked at me, with the deepest sadness. Snot and tears were streaming down my face, and I was dragged away from all the people I had come to love. My heart was shattered.

And Mad Maddison laughed.

----------------------------------------------

Unceremoniously, I was dropped onto the deck, and I let out another sob, more from emotional rather than physical pain. Mad Maddison maliciously gave me a kick to the side with a heeled boot.

I don't know why I heard it out of all the commotion around me on the deck: a quiet gasp. Yet it held a magnitude of emotion. I weakly looked up.

Captain Gideon Masters stood there, at the edge of the deck, where presumably he'd been staring out to sea. Now he'd turned and faced me, his gray eyes wide with horror.

"Is this enough for you, Gideon?" Mad Maddison sneered. She placed a boot on my back, and the Captain winced. I felt betrayed and bewildered.

Why wasn't he doing anything to stop her?

With a shuddering sigh, Captain Gideon closed his eyes, then he looked up, his gaze level.

"Fine. I will do as you wish." His speech was slow and direct, as if he'd been pondering this moment for a long time.

I wanted so desperately for the Captain to give some sort of sign; that he even cared. But he only gave me a pained glance, as he followed Mad Maddison's lead across deck to the ship's wheel. I was roughly pulled into a sitting position by two pirates, then they tied me to the mast with a thick rope that cut into my arms, it was so tight.

Other former sailors I recognized guiltily avoided looking in my direction, others actually looked at me in pity, as if a look could suffice for what they did. I refused to look at anyone; I hated them all. But my eyes betrayed me: they still followed Captain Masters. He and Mad Maddison stood at the wheel, and Gideon, mustering all his strength, turned the wheel hard to the right, and the ship tilted with the turn.

Where were we going?

----------------------------------------------

Apologies for the infrequent updates! School, am I right? Well, I think at least AP Lit is helping me write a little better... anyway, thanks for reading! I think there's a part 3 to this...