Unmasked

5. AKA Crucified Captain

Breakfast was cut short by what I assumed to be our ship's Captain. He stood in front of us with a black eye. I was still stuffing my face with food so I barely noticed him, but Kilgrave was aware of his approach. I saw him stiffen his posture in the corner of my eye. As I took a sip of orange Juice I glanced over Kilgrave's shoulder at him and noticed him wearing a naval suit infused with blood. Obviously Killgrave had him engaging in some deadly activity to distract himself from the fact that I was so close to killing him. That much was to be expected, but what surprised me was that I hadn't been punished too. Here I was being treated to breakfast though I'm obviously the one that angered him. He'd take pleasure out of punishing me usually; making me jump for hours as high as I could. I decided to try and get the truth out of him; I need to know what kind of sick twisted game Kilgrave was playing. I make an obvious glance between Kilgrave and the captain and then look right at Kilgrave until he's forced to explain why this man had just approached us. He looks at me confused for a while then cracks a smile and introduces us. "Jessica this is our Captain, Craig. Captain this is my darling Jessica, the woman I've been telling you about - ravishing isn't she?" The captain doesn't make any kind of response and just stares blankly at the food laid out on the table. I could sense the switch in Kilgraves temper as he says again "Ravishing isn't she?!''. Still no reply from the captain. Suddenly his patience wears thin and Kilgrave bounds to his feet. 'You will answer me when I speak to you." The captain jumped back, startled. Kilgrave continued a little calmer but insistent, "Isn't she beautiful?' I blush but find myself needing to intervene. This is just unnecessary.

"Hey stop it!" I demand and Kilgrave exchanges a quick glance with me, horrified. Eventually, the captain just looks at me with empty green eyes and agrees.

"Good," Kilgrave instantly sounded relaxed again. "Now apologise to the lady, that was very rude of you." The captain bowed his head a little and apologised, still seeming numb. I felt so humiliated. "You will do as Jessica says, but you will check with me before acting on her wishes - understand? She is your mistress as much as I am your master, but I wouldn't want her abusing that power by making you help her escape from me." I scoff at him, he seems to notice. I'm going to need more than the help of a yot captain to help me get out of this one. If I'm honest I couldn't think of anyone who could save me now.

A few hours pass after breakfast and I find myself wandering around the lower deck, I can see that we are approaching a city. I've barely had a second to myself today. When Kilgrave hasn't been by my side breathing down my neck he has been peering over me from the upper deck. I'm lucky to find time to sneak myself away into the shadows below deck. There's something about this boat that's not quite right, but I'm failing to understand what that is. I remember the captain's Naval uniform. Besides the blood, they were kept in pristine condition, far too formal to be used in operating a leisure Yot like this one that Kilgrave hijacked. Why the hell would the captain be wearing one? I continue down the short corridor and stop at the first door I see, only to find it bolted. The room inside can't be very big, it was probably just a broom cupboard but I couldn't help acting on my growing suspicion. Kilgrave wouldn't have had this locked without a reason. I concluded that he must be hiding something, and the smallest bit of hope started burning within me that whatever it was, it could aid my escape. I tugged on the door handle and easily enough the locks broke. I tugged on a light switch thread that was hanging from the ceiling, a small pool of orange-tinted light illuminated what seemed to be a chalkboard covered by a white sheet. It seemed so out of place next to all the old rusty fishing and cleaning equipment that lay in the nooks of the room. This meant the board and the sheet were placed there recently. Reaching out, I threw the sheet away and what I saw before me made the bile in my stomach burn through me. My face, almost a hundred times over. Covering the board was pictures of me out on the street, in the background (and sometimes foreground) of news reports and media articles. The images were tacked up pins, blue tack, fish hooks - everything. It looked like a five-year-old had scrambled it together for a school project; except the project topic was me. A strange sense of Deja Vu swept over me, this had happened before. But where? When had I seen this before?