Prologue
The shriek of seagulls rang over the restless surface of the water. The waves were striking our ship persistently, as if they were trying to break it, crushing firmly into it, and then disappearing the next moment. The sun was high in the sky, but it was not torturing, with its hot beams of burning light, as it usually does this far from the mainland.
I'm a pirate, somewhere in the middle of the sea. Our crew has been searching for six months now, trying to find a mysterious object our captain would kill for. But, we had no success... Things have happened - troublesome things. Words were spoken, and mistakes were made. But, we all make mistakes, don't we?
Nevertheless, when you are on a pirate ship, mistakes should be avoided. If you were bold, or unintelligent, maybe, to make one, you would be punished. On our ship, punishes were cruel. Our captain... is not a good person. Some say Giovanni's even evil.
Rare are the occasions when the person would be made to walk the long board that stood on one of the sides of our ship. Walking the plank, that's how we call it. Most of the times, a person was taken to our captain's room, where Giovanni would personally take care of the delinquent. Nobody knew what happened to those people, and nobody was brave enough to ask – because if you did, you would be the next in line for the death sentence in captain's rooms.
But not this time. This time, it was big. This time, the person was walking the plank.
The crew was gathered together, with their swords in their hand, waiting to push the poor girl down if she tried to run back. Another girl, London, was being held by two muscled pirates, their shirts stained with pig fat and their breath smelling of rum. She was crying, reaching for her sister, trying to break free, unsuccessfully, of course.
Her sister didn't even look at her. She just held her head straight up, looking at the empty horizon. She could not stand to look at London, not when she was about to die. The last image of her sister will not be the one intertwined with half-drunken pirates. No, she will have some dignity. She took a deep breath, and made a step toward the edge of the plank. The euphoric shout of the Italian crew broke the song of seagulls as the show had started.
My name is Chelsea, and in just a couple of seconds, I will jump into the cold water, and into my death.
