While I kicked and screamed, the other pirates pinched and squeezed at me. One of them even reached up my dress and slapped my backside. Mortified by thoughts of what they had planned for me, I hoped that someone on deck would stop them, but when we reached the bright light of day, all I saw was the men of our crew standing stiff in surrender. Not a one of them moved as the evil demon carried me across the boarding plank to his ship.
Screaming and fighting like a wildcat, I did everything I could to break loose, but there was no hope. The nasty man who hauled me here threw me down on the deck. The other ungodly vultures from his crew laughed and grabbed and pinched at me as I tried to run.
He kicked me. “Stay there!”
Falling back from the horrendous blow, I realized that I had never known physical pain before. With the ringing whir blurring my mortified thoughts, a hairy, shirtless man grabbed me by the hair and pulled me towards him.
As I fought to get away, he reached in my dress and groped my breasts.
“No! Stop!” I screamed so loudly, so wildly, the sound rattled my already shaken brains, but it didn’t matter. I could still see the masts of Captain Johnson’s ship as he shoved me to the ground, but that didn’t matter either. There was no one to stop him when he undid his breeches and no one to help me when he flipped up my dress. Wailing in terror, I kicked and fought with all my might until I saw my beloved shell necklace go flying off my neck. At that point I knew all hope was lost, and I closed my eyes for what I wished would be forever.
PART II
Dreadful Salvation
Strange Harbor Town
Date Unknown
Chapter 4
Not Mine to Take
Had it been days? Had it been months? All I knew for certain was that I was in Hell. Not hell on Earth. Not some place hell-like. But Hell itself. The very pits.
I knew not the captain’s name, nor did I care to, but in the feeble recesses of my mind, I noted him as Lucifer. For like the devil himself, he overruled all my pleas to God, and had done what he wanted with me whenever he wanted. Worse yet, he charged his men to take their turns with me as well. I tried not to think, and certainly never spoke, but my cursed heart continued to feel. Unable to escape the pain, the horror, and the agony haunting my tormented soul, I began to wonder if I shouldn’t just jump overboard.
I couldn’t swim, and that was the very reason I contemplated the notion. Looking out the open stern window, I stared at the blue abyss and dreamed of how sweet it would feel to sink. Imagining the weight of the water engulfing me, filling my lungs and suffocating my existence, I let out an exhausted sigh. The sea, she called to me like a siren, promising to extinguish me from this wretched life and take me to a new world where I would feel no longer. Yes. The ocean would be my way out.
Climbing up in the windowsill, I looked down at the lacey wake and took a deep breath. While building up the nerve to take the leap, I heard the watchman call for land. Now would be the time. The demons would be busy hauling ashore, and no one would notice my disappearance into the deep.
Looking down once more, I apologized to God for what I was about to do and hoped he would understand…But then, I thought about my father. When learning to read the Bible together we talked about the gift of life we had been given. Given. This life was not mine to take. It would be murderous to kill myself, and the Lord God said, Thou shalt not kill. After this taste of Hell, I didn’t want to die only to flee to another level of it.
Maybe there was another answer. Maybe I could escape at the shore. Watching a flock of birds fly overhead, I envied their freedom. If only I could fly away from the Hell I had been cursed to. But I couldn’t. I was a prisoner and I’d have to plan a daring getaway.
Holding tight to the dirty sheet I was allowed to wear, I returned to the cursed room I was held captive in and bargained with the Lord. “One more day. I’ll give you one more day, and if you don’t help me escape, I’ll do it. I’ll kill myself!”
Lucifer walked in. “Kill yourself, eh?”
As usual, I ignored him. Looking away, I crossed my arms over my chest and stared out the window at the sea.
Coming up behind me, he ran his hand through my hair and whispered his filthy desires. I slapped him off of me.
Grabbing my face with one hand, he brushed my lips with the finger of his other. “You know, this could be a lot easier if you’d just cooperate.”
“Never!” I hissed like a venomous snake, then bit down on his finger.
Shouting out in pain, he slapped me across the face and threw me on the bed. I kicked and screamed like I always did. I would never cooperate. Never ever. Knowing now that I was willing to die, I fought with the hope that he would just kill me. That’s it! I laughed deliriously in my mind. If he killed me I could die and God would still let me through the pearly gates. Then I could see my father and Thomas again and everything would finally be all right.
Satisfied with my crazed solution, I resumed my efforts to instigate him into a murderous state. Tooth and nail, I scratched and clawed at his hideous face as he tried to hold me down. I never hated anyone more. Hell, I had never even hated before all this. But I hated now, and in my wrathful torrent, I bit his ear. Like the savage animal I had become, I clamped down until the meat split in two. With the taste of his blood coating my mouth, I tried to bite him again, but he backed away, shrieking like a mad man. “You bitch! You dog-faced whore!” He slapped me across the face again. The relief of seeing him get off of me well surpassed the pain of his slap.
“You bit my bloody ear off!” he bellowed as he looked in the mirror. While he looked around for the piece of cartilage I had removed with my teeth, I covered up in my dirty sheet and scanned the room for weapons. One of us would die today, and I’d be satisfied either way.
Finding his ear before I found a weapon, he picked up the useless chunk of flesh and wailed, “I can’t do nothing with this!” He then looked at me with dastardly vengeance filling his eyes. “I’ve had it with you.”
Grabbing me by the waist, he hoisted me off of the bed. When I landed on the floor, I looked up to see his gun aimed at me. Suddenly the death I wished for seemed to have arrived too soon.
“Get dressed,” Lucifer hissed.
Trembling like a little mouse, I tightened the terrible sheet around my shivering body.
He lunged at me, grabbed the sheet and ripped it off of me. Shoving my now naked body toward his sea chest, he said, “This time I want you wearing something nice. Open that chest there behind you.”
Shivering before his aimed pistol, I opened the chest as directed. Inside I saw three beautiful dresses. Hating him even more for leaving me in rags when he had clothes I could have been wearing, I pulled out the dark red dress and put it on.
Feeling a small bit human again as the long lacey fabric covered my battered body, I stared down the barrel of his gun and awaited his orders.
“Out the door,” he demanded.
Fearing that his wretched men would soon be ripping the dress off of me, I clung to it as if it was my shield as he shooed me out of the room that harbored my greatest nightmares.
Dragging me by the hair, he yelled at his men, “Get your last pinches in, boys. We’re trading her in for a prettier one.”
“Let’s get one who don’t bite this time,” one pig requested as he groped my breast.
“Biter, all right. She bit my damned ear off!” Lucifer pointed at his bloody ear.
His demons laughed as they flipped my dress up and poked and rubbed and fondled me one last time.
Looking up and away from them, I saw land. Land. Where the hell was I, and what would happen now? I prayed that this trade would place me in better hands, but my foolish hope shattered to bits as Lucifer snarled, “I reckon we’ll get a pretty piece of eight for her at the whorehouse.”
No! No. Damn it. Unable to stand another moment of this awful life, I cried in my mind, Oh Lord, why have you forsaken me?
My mind was in a blur as
I was shoved in a row boat and rowed to the dock, and then yanked through the town. The place was full of people, none of which were concerned with my battered appearance. No one cared that I was fighting with the man who was forcing me down the main street. There would be no one to save me, ever. There was not a human in the world who knew me, nor a soul out there who loved me. My fate was in the hands of the devil dragging me to the auction block.
Once again assuming death to be my best option, I wiggled my way out of the painful grip Lucifer held on me and gouged him in the eye. Shouting out in pain, he pushed me into the nearby alley and then shoved me behind a barrel where he got on top of me. “One last time, for good measure, aye?” He snarled as he reached up my dress.
“No!” I screamed. “Just kill me. Just kill me!”
He didn’t stop, and he didn’t kill me. Rather, he pinned me down and forced himself between my kicking legs. As always, I fought as if I had enough strength to hold him off. Just like every time before, I screamed as if someone would eventually answer my plea and come to my rescue. But as Lucifer slobbered and growled on top of me, I was once again helpless…hopeless…a lost cause.
Closing my eyes and struggling to chase the pain from my mind, I heard footsteps pounding against the ground in my direction. I figured one of his crew had come to take a turn with me, but then, as if God had finally answered my prayers, Lucifer was violently yanked to his feet.
With his hand twisted in my hair, I flew off of the ground after him. From my dizzy vantage point, I saw a blade at his throat.
“Let her go, or your head goes,” a mysterious man snarled.
I could not see the man who spoke the threat, but Lucifer—who was usually vile and mean—heeded the man’s warning like a little laddie obeying his father.
Feeling his hand loosen from my hair, I prepared to scamper away like the alley rats surrounding me, but the moment I was free, Lucifer kicked me across the face. Jarring back from the awful blow, I regained my balance just in time to see the mysterious savior slice my captor’s throat wide open.
Backing against the wall, I screamed as blood coated Lucifer’s chest and he fell dead on the ground. Without as much as looking at the man who had killed him, I turned to run away. Where I would go to, I had no clue, but the mysterious man gave me no time to figure it out.
Grabbing me by the waist, he heaved me over his shoulder and started walking towards the harbor.
“Put me down! Put me down!” I pounded on his back. Though he had saved me, I knew not who he was, and the chances of him taking me somewhere better than this were near to none. From where he held me I couldn’t see his face, and he hadn’t yet spoken a word. All I knew for certain was that I had to get away from him.
Raking my fingers through his long brown hair, I yanked his head back until he shouted out. With a few curse words he carried me down the dock and pitched me into his longboat. Against my shouted wishes, he climbed in and started rowing.
While cursing his existence, I attempted to jump overboard. Haphazardly, I flopped out of the boat. He pulled me back in before I fully submerged. Now, I was wet and angry as he forced me onto the bench across from him.
He cocked a crooked grin. “You ought to calm down or I’ll have to tie you up.”
“I’ll never calm down!” I blasted my rebuttal and clawed at his cheek like a wild cat.
He tied me up.
From my binds, I cursed and swore until we reached his ship. There, I continued my tirade as he lugged me across the deck. Unlike Lucifer’s ship, this horrible place was clean and free of clutter, and the ugly men who called this awful man captain easily stood back when he told them to mind their own business. Their flag was black. They were pirates. I was certainly doomed.
Reaching his cabin, he tried to set me in a chair. I thrashed so wildly that I fell over, hitting my head on the table on the way down.
He laughed. “I didn’t go through all that hell to have you knock yourself out on a table.”
He then not only laid me on his bed, but he tied me to the bed post. Thinking that I’d be reliving my worst nightmares on another ship with a new villain, I fought like I had always done when forced into the same devastatingly traumatic position. But, he didn’t get on top of me. He didn’t even touch me. The mysterious man who had killed my recent captor only took a seat at his table, opened a liquor bottle, and began cleaning Lucifer’s blood off of his sword.
With a humored expression, he took a drink and then chuckled, “You might as well relax. I’m not going to hurt you, and nobody’s going to hurt you ever again.”
Chapter 5
Nowhere to Hide
Opening my eyes to see morning sun lighting the unfamiliar room, I looked around in silence. The area was clean and sparse, with minimal furniture and very little décor, but all the items looked expensive. The stern windows were open, with royal blue curtains blowing lightly in the wind, and the sheets I was lying on were silk. Finely woven, plum colored silk. They had to cost a fortune. The pillows were colorful and comfortable, and considering the unfortunate circumstances, I had slept unusually well.
The man who had forced me in here was asleep in his chair at the table. The liquor bottle he had opened before I blacked out was empty, and his clothes were all still on. His emerald coat, like the other fabrics in the room, had to cost more than any house I’d ever lived in, and his shirt and waistcoat were also made of fine materials.
He couldn’t have been more than twenty. In contrast to his well-to-do attire, his facial hair was wildly untamed. A long goatee grew from his chin, nearly coating his jaw like a beard, but there was a break between it and his sideburns. Between the rough patches of hair, the vicious scratch marks I had seared his cheek with were on clear display.
I still had no idea who he was, but as promised, he did not hurt me. Though I was certainly thankful for that and the good night’s rest, I had to get away. The rope I was bound with had been removed some time during the night. With the freedom I was granted, I sat up as silently as I could and began to tiptoe towards the door.
Just as I turned the knob, I heard his voice. “You aren’t going to find anything better out there, beauty.”
No footsteps followed his warning, and there was no threat in his tone, but something about the way he said it made me think it was true. Frozen stiff where I stood, I took a deep breath and pondered my options.
Before I could make up my mind, he said, “Why don’t you come and sit down. I’ll have the cook bring you breakfast.”
Unable to remember the last time I ate something substantial, and hearing my tummy rumble as it often did these days, it was this strange man’s offer to feed me that caused me to turn around.
Startled by the look of his stunning green eyes, which stood out like emeralds in the sand against his golden skin, I exhaled a long breath and said, “Thank you.”
In what seemed like no time at all, breakfast was served. Without a word, I plowed through the biscuits, sausage, and eggs the cook had brought me, and drank so much orange juice that I thought of how my father used to say, an orange tree is going to grow out of your ear. The silly memory made me laugh out loud, but the thought of my father made me want to cry. I sniffled and shivered a bit, but no tears fell. Perhaps I had cried them all out.
The captain must have thought I was a lunatic, laughing and sniffling over my meal. I had to compose myself. Forcing all thoughts from my mind—a skill I had become quite proficient at—I sat there in silence and continued to eat until I couldn’t swallow another bite.
The cook, Mister Henderson, took the dishes away and left me an orange in case I wanted one later. With him out of the way, the captain finally spoke to me. “You’re thin. You need to eat like that more often to get some meat on your bones.”
Squinting in offense, I snipped, “What the hell do you care what I look like? Don’t look at me.” I turned my head away like a bratty child, but was too full and comfortable to raise a serious fuss.
It had been so long and so much had changed since I had last been called by my name, I had nearly forgotten what I once answered to. “My name is Hannah Remington-Wilshire.” For some reason, I answered with both names.
He made a funny face. “That’s a lot of names.”
“You could always just call me bitch, slut, whore, or trollop. That’s what your other pirate friends call me.”
“I’m no pirate.” He looked offended. “I’m a buccaneer and I’ll never call you by none of those names.”
“But you will tie me up and drag me around like a doll?” I snipped.
“Aye. And with that sharp tongue of yours I can foresee such events happening again in the future.”
“The future? How long will you be keeping me?”
“That depends on how long it takes to get you home, Hannah Remington-Wilshire.”
“Home?” I started to panic. Thinking of the awful things that would happen to me if I showed up on that island with word of Thomas’ death following my trail, I felt like vomiting up the tasty breakfast I’d been granted.
Since I had not answered, Mason pressed, “So tell me, where does a pretty little flower like you belong in this big ugly world?”
Annoyed that he called me a flower, like Thomas used to, I once again barked at him. “I am not a flower. I am a nasty little weed and have no home to return to.”
Lowering his face in his hand, he laughed under his breath.
Uncharted Secrets (Uncharted Secrets, Book 1): Endless Horizon Pirate Stories Page 4