Embedded Files
I screamed, but the sound was lost in the crashes and yelps of the fighting behind me.
Twin bandoliers filled with pistols and bullets were strapped across the headless man's chest. Wicked sharp knives and various other weapons hung from his belt.
"Maybe he can’t see me" I thought. But as soon as I took a step to the right his hand shot out and gripped my wrist.
“Settle down, you filthy bilge rats, before I hang you from the mast.” A low voice rolled over the deck.
The pirates froze. Slowly everyone released the bottles and chairs and started to gather the dice and cards to start up the games again. With some horror I realized the low, gravelly voice was coming from the headless man.
I struggled against his iron grip as I screamed, “Help! Bartholomew! Sam!”
Their eyes met mine, but they turned away. No one was coming to save me. The headless man drug me away from the gambling den.
“Where are you taking me?” I tried to keep my voice from shaking.
“To see the missus.” he replied, his voice coming from everywhere and nowhere all at once. “She doesn’t take well to thieves in her gambling den.”
“You- you saw me?”
We turned from the deck and started the descent below deck. Candles flickered on either side of a wooden staircase.
The headless man’s voice rose above our creaking steps. “I see everything on this ship.”
I had a sudden, horrible, realization. “Davy Jones?”
His hearty laugh came from all directions. “You think I am that washed up sea-devil?”
The man’s continued laughter rubbed me the wrong way. “Then who are you?”
“I’m Blackbeard.” Pride seeped into his tone. “Scourge of the seven seas.”
“Blackbeard!" I started at the familiar name. "Umm... if you don’t mind me asking. What happened to your head?”
The air between us chilled. "What if I chopped off your pretty little head? How would you like people asking you about it?”
“I’m sorry. I meant no offense.” Blackbeard’s hand was still tight around my wrist. “But is that what happened? Someone chopped it off?”
“Not just someone, Robert Maynard that devilish crimp!” The candles guttered as his voice rose. “He snuck up on me in the middle of a celebration. That just goes against all morals doesn’t it?” I didn’t know if he wanted me to answer or not but eventually he kept on going. “And still I almost won the battle! But there were too many of his men, and my ship was overrun.
"We battled fiercely, Maynard and I. Sword against sword. I would have won too, if that lily-livered coward hadn’t have had his soldier stab me from behind. They called us the outlaws, but what sort of person stabs someone when they’re in the middle of a sword fight with someone else?”
This time I did chime in, “How awful.”
“That’s not even the worst part!” Blackbeard slowed as we descended the final steps. “Maynard chopped my head off and hung it from the mast of his ship!”
It was hard not the feel bad for the pirate. I couldn’t imagine walking around without a head for a couple centuries. Maybe if I offered to help him he would let me go.
“Is your head still hanging from the mast?” I asked, “If you let me go I could—“
“No,” Blackbeard said. “She found my head years ago. I cut a deal with the missus to get it back: become a part of her crew, serve her faithfully for five hundred years, and I get my head back.”
We had come to the bottom of the stairs and were now walking down a long hallway that ended at a wooden door.
“Who is she?” I asked as we approached the wooden door. “Who is the missus?”
“The closest thing we have to a captain now.” Blackbeard placed his hand on the door knob. “Ching Shih.”
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