Note: This is still a one-shot I just wanted to rewrite it.

Dear Anybody,

My name is Alfred. I used to be in the service of a pirate, as a child. I don't plan on writing many papers. This one letter will do. If you read this I just want you to know that I write this not to ask for help or to warn anyone of anything. I do this simply so I can have at least a testimony of my life and the events that took place.

I'll be honest. I didn't know the year it was, I was never told, and I still don't have the knowledge of the year. At this point I don't want to know anything about the passage of time. I fear that if I knew the year, or my age, my life would cause me to feel even more tragic, and that's not how I wish to feel anymore.

Ah, but you probably don't care about my fears. You'd probably like to know more about my servitude to the pirates. Let me get into that then.

Not long after I was born a man known as Captain Kirkland saved me from the burning wreckage of another ship. I am unaware if it was he who set the ship aflame, but either way, for some strange reason he saved me. Of all the people he could have saved, it was me. It was this that made me feel so indebted to him for so long.

The life was pretty fun, I have to admit. We'd always sail to knew places. The Captain would receive so many lovely gifts from the locals, or so I believed. When we'd sail there was water as far as the eye could see. We were completely surrounded by such a glittering beauty. Even the storms held such a dark and mysterious beauty.

At night we'd look at the stars. He'd point up and tell me where we were off to next and how we were to get there using the night sky. I became fairly good at it and he seemed so proud. He'd give me such a gentle smile. Such a gentle smile.

When we'd arrive, Captain would take me to the town on the first day while the crew watched the boat and went to the fish market to 'buy' food. He'd let me pick out anything I wanted and was always able to get a good deal on everything I had my eyes on. I simply thought we were lucky to happen to want things that were being discounted.

After the first day my Captain would have me stay under the ship and I was ordered not to try to come out or peak out. He told me I was too young to understand. That maybe one day if I showed signs of being pirate-like he'd let me join the crew. But he didn't want me to be a pirate. I never understood why.

I felt as if I wasn't good enough. It was like I'd never be a pirate and the fault was my own. He never taught me how to be a pirate so I thought that it was a type of way to be born and that I had born wrong. I wasn't born for the life. It didn't occur to me that my Captain wanted better for me and hadn't figured how to do so yet.

But I digress.

I was eventually disillusioned. It was like any other day. The boat docked and my Captain took my young hand. It was time to go to the town for some fun shopping. It was different this time. The people began to whisper and shut their doors. Stores that were just opened closed their doors and people made way. Avoiding our very presence.

By that time, it seemed, my Captain was no longer a phantom, his face became famous and word of his deeds spread. People feared us. I didn't understand why.

It was also first time I ever heard him use cruel words.

"Frogs. These women are frogs and the men toads. France is not where I get caught."

He gripped my hand tighter as he turned us around and ran us back to the ship. My legs could hardly keep up with his and I kept stumbling. By the time we reached the ship my legs were bruised and scraped. My Captain had always been so doting and careful with me but in this instant he forgot that I was still a child. He forgot that I was running behind him despite his iron grip on my hand and having to continuously having to get me back on my feet.

I looked over the ship railing. The Captain was yelling for the men to grab as much as their arms could hold and get back on the ship.

He wasn't fast enough. The military was already arriving. He grabbed my hand again and took me down to the canons.

"I'll aim the canon, you light it."

I couldn't see what was happening but I trusted my Captain with the entirety of my heart, so I complied.

Boom.

Screaming.

Crying.

Boom.

Screaming.

Wailing.

And repeat.

He hurried back above and I followed, scared. What was going on? Why? Why?

"Go, burn the whole damn place down!"

In that moment it finally hit me, and my heart dropped to my stomach. Pirates weren't some people born for the sea. They were criminals, violent, angry, criminals. Or, at least the English ones were.

I had always wanted to be worthy enough to be a pirate. To stand by Captain's side as an equal. But it wasn't an honor. It was an exilement form society that you did to yourself. You chose to pillage peoples' homes and steal away the sense of safety that they should have had.

I watched the city go up in flames. But it didn't stop there. The crew went in the peoples' homes and stores and came out with so much stuff before setting it on fire. They would fight people on the streets with no concern of whether that person was adult or child. Children like me being brutalized because they weren't me. That could have been me.

After rendering so many to a weakened state they committed even worse atrocities. They killed many of the men. All of the people wearing military uniforms were murdered and cut into pieces.

Some of the men even openly raped the women. To do so at all is despicable but now people were watching. Any pride they could have salvaged was non-existent.

The streets ran red with the blood of innocent. No man could save his child, let alone himself. Innocence died that day and I became an accomplice in life. My sheltered mind fell apart. Words, how could I make them leave my mouth when I couldn't even understand the actions of men.

His voice was soft but firm, "This is your first taste of the life of a pirate. Whether or not it is your last is up to you." He leaned in closer to me, such stern eyes, "Drink in the sight of this life and never forget what happened. This is the life my men and me chose. Once it's chosen it can never be taken back. Tell me now, is this the life you want? Or will you forge your own?"

How do you answer the only father you've ever known when the question is whether you intend to leave him? I had so many questions but no voice to ask them with.

I couldn't answer him with my voice but I knew I couldn't live that life. I didn't want to. But I didn't want to leave him either. I never even stood on equal footing with him.

I took several step back towards the ramp off the ship. I didn't want to leave him but I couldn't stay.

"It's better this way. I never could figure out how to give you the life you deserved. A life better than mine." He took out his pistol and pointed it at me. "It's time you leave. Don't remember me fondly, save that for someone who deserves warm memories."

I ran as far as my hurt legs could take me. The crew tried to catch me but my Captain yelled his orders for none of them to lay their hands on me. That I am to be let free. That if we ever meet again that is when the Captain will take my life with his own hands.

For years I ran and hid. I never left the country in those years. I didn't know the language. I had no money. I was alone. It stayed this way until one day a man found me.

He said he recognized me and was curious as to why I was hiding in an alleyway when I should be at home with my parents. Through this man I found out that I have a family and why I was on a ship to begin with.

My twin brother, parents, and I were to go on trip with some cousins and an uncle. My brother fell ill so my parents stayed behind with him and my uncle convinced them that he should still take me. No one really knows why the ship burned and they couldn't say for sure it was pirates, but they couldn't rule it out either. Apparently, my name isn't really Alfred but it's the name I was raised with so when I'm alone I still refer to myself as such.

I live with my family now. They try and convince me to talk to them about my life but how could I tell them that I was a part of the infamous band of pirates that burned half the world and sea with glorious fire?

They still try and get me to learn the years and days, and to get married but I can't. As bad as it is, I still yearn for the sea and my Captain. I can't be untrue to myself in such a drastic way. As it is, I'll forever live in my nostalgia, until the day I die.

Signed,

The Former Alfred F. Jones