Chapter One: In The Middle

The swords sparked like fire as they clashed together, drawing against each other like they were permanently welded. I gritted my teeth and shoved back, releasing my sword and making me stumble back a few steps.

The man leered at me, his black teeth barely visible in the rapidly disappearing light.

"They told me you could fight." He taunted.

I swung my sword at him, catching him at unawares and making him spin back a few steps. I pointed the sword at him, breathing heavily.

"I'm still alive, aren't I?" I demanded before jumping back with a squeal as he came back at me with a bellow of outrage.

We twisted and turned, the horrible sound of metal on metal making my ears bleed as the loud bangs and shouts could be heard everywhere from outside.

"Why are you playing with me?" I ducked as his sword almost encountered my neck.

He brought it down beside me and I brought my sword up, forcing him backwards as I raised from my squat.

"What do you mean?" He gritted out, perspiration beading on his brow.

"I mean why are you playing this game?" I asked, forcing him back another inch. "You're a pirate! Why don't you just shoot me and be done with it? Or better yet, maroon me on a desert Island!"

"Maroon a woman on a desert Island?" His eyes looked across our crossed blades at me, wide with confusion. I took my chance and forced him back another step.

"Yes, maroon me!" I frowned and thought about it, thinking perhaps it wouldn't be the best idea in the world. "Alright, what about a gun? A musket?" I prompted when he just looked at me blankly.

He nodded his head and ginned again. A horrible smell wafted towards me and I cringed, my force stopping for a second so I could take I small step back. I wasn't sure whether the smell was coming from his wide, gaping mouth, through the rotten teeth, or just his body and the unclean, dirty clothes.

"Oh, sweet'eart." He grinned and the sword lashed out. I tripped and let out a little scream. Suddenly, I found myself on my knees, facing away from him and towards the door, with his sword up against my neck. I trembled as he lent closer into me. "Where would be the fun in that?"

I felt his muscles tense and coil, the blade almost tighten as it prepared to slice my neck open. I tried to keep my eyes wide open, free from tears, staring straight at the door. This was it. I was going to die in a strange land, a place I knew nothing about with nobody I knew nor cared about.

I wasn't going to cry though. Crying was for the weak. Crying was for the people who were scared.

And I was beyond scared.

I felt the sword move, just an inch, on my neck, not cutting anything, when the door suddenly banged open. A man appeared in the door way, dressed in baggy trousers and a loose cotton shirt, a bandanna around his head. He held a sharp silver sword in one hand. A gun (Sorry, musket, I mentally corrected) was tucked into the waist band of his trousers.

"Sorry to barge in like this." He said, not sounding particularly sorry at all.

He strolled right into the cabin, the sword barely dangling from his finger tips. He looked and sounded careless, but I watched as his eyes stayed pinned and trained on the man behind me, and me.

The man's hold on the sword loosened. I could now safely breathe without fear of the sword cutting into me.

"James Shandy?" The man behind me whispered.

The younger man stopped in front of me and he did a mock-bow.

"The very same." He mocked, straightening up. He then cast his eyes pointedly to me. "And I'm afraid, I'm going to have to ask you to stop doing that. She's my property now." He paused and did a bit of a shake of his hand, as if re-deciding something. "Well, our property." He repeated the movement. "Well, his property." He seemed to focus back on the task in hand and looked directly at the man behind me. "The point is, I need you to hand her over to me. Alive. And, if it's possible, unharmed."
The man behind me's grip on me tightened and I was hauled back as he started to back track. I yelped as I was dragged back along the floor boards.

"I'm going to get splinters!" I yelled, knowing it wasn't the most important thing but fear, I thought, had made me go mad.

James pointed at me.

"That would qualify as harming, I'm afraid." He told the man, seeming almost regretful. "Now, could you just hand her over?"
The smelly man behind me had now hit the wall of the cabin he had no where else to go. I found the sword suddenly digging right into my neck again. If I could've sighed, I would've.

"Why should I do anything for you?" He demanded in a snarling voice, though I heard the tremor in his voice. "We've taken over this ship!"

James pulled that regretful face again.

"And we've taken over the ship again. All the original crew are dead. Just us and you now."

I choked up.

"All of them?" I couldn't resist asking. I felt the blade cut into my throat. A tiny trickle of blood oozed out of it.

James spared me a glance and his face turned uncaring and unfriendly.

"Yes."

He looked back at the man behind me.

The man shook.

"Why do you need her so much?" He asked, before seeming to shake himself. "It doesn't matter anyway. If you need her that badly, I've got leverage, don't I?"

James shrugged.

"I suppose." He then pointed the sword directly at us. "But then I'd have to fight you."

The light suddenly vanished from the room. We all looked towards the doorway, where a similar man had appeared. Actually, upon closer inspection he was taller and a bit leaner but apart from that, his silhouette looked exactly like James.

"Don't take all the fun, James." A very male voice said, laced with amusement.

James tossed his sword absently to the other hand and turned towards the figure.

"No fun here to be had. He was just about to hand her over."

The man behind me growled.

"No, I wasn't!" He hissed.

"Really?" The man in the doorway stepped out, and I realized he didn't look like James at all. Where as James had light brown tousles, this man's hair was jet black and stuck out all over the place, handsome yet clearly uncared for. His eyes were dark and sparkling with amusement and excitement, but an undercurrent of danger and steel lined them. He wore almost the same things as James, except he had two muskets and his sword was less well-cared for.

He looked dangerously on at the man.

"Are you sure about that?" He asked, his voice dangerously low.

All males in the room seemed completely oblivious to my presence. I could've been a melon and they would've taken more notice of me. I sighed and the sword cut into my throat again. I bit my lip to keep back a groan of pain as the blood dripped slowly down my neck and onto my chest.

Suddenly, this new mans eyes snapped to me and the blood. His eyes darkened even more, which I hadn't thought possible, and then his sword was raised towards my captor as well.

"Let. Her. Go." He gritted out.

James sighed.

"Watch the temper, Damon. You could hurt her."

"He's already hurt her." The other man, Damon, pointed out, waving his sword towards me impatiently.

James' eyes flicked over to me and a muscle in his jaw twitched.

"I know." He muttered. "But he won't anymore. And he's just about to hand her over."
"Who says?" My captor hissed out again. "I ain't givin' 'er up for no price."

"Of course you're not, I never expected you too, a sensible man like you." James returned to his demeanour before. Damon chuckled.

"I think we've got a good enough price for you." Damon agreed, still chuckling.

I felt the man behind me suddenly become stiff and alert with excitement.

"Really? Well let's see it then!" He cried eagerly.

"Good idea." James turned to Damon, his sword still pointing to me and my captor. "Damon?"

Damon stepped to one side obediently, leaving the door wide open to view. I bit back a whoop of triumph. All the men who had boarded the boat were tied up to the mast like some kind of scene from Peter Pan, struggling and yelling abuse as some other crew kept them where they were.

The man behind me froze. Everybody seemed to freeze. James smiled cruelly.

"Name your price."

The man behind me was still frozen, then suddenly he started bouncing on his heels, fear and anger building up inside of him. I could feel the tension.

"Release them and I give you the girl." He called out to James and Damon.

Damon grinned, the same smile James had.

"We were hoping you'd say that." He confessed, then turned to wave to one of the sailors who were watching the thieves. The sailor nodded and untied the nearest man. He nodded to the other sailors and they all started doing the same.

"The girl, if you please?" James asked politely.

"Not until they're all free." The man objected stubbornly.

Damon shrugged.

"As you wish." He turned around and waved to the sailor again. The sailor nodded.

All of a sudden, I heard a splash and jerked my head up. The sailors were grabbing the men and literally tossing them over board.

"What?" My captor bellowed.

Damon smiled again.

"We're setting them free." James explained with a grin.

"You didn't play by our rules." Damon shrugged when the man behind me stared at him in confusion. "It's your own fault, really. You've heard of us."

I saw my chance.

I suddenly reached up and jerked his sword hand away from me, using his momentary distraction and lapse in speech to help me. His sword dropped away from his hand and I swung around, my leg knocking his out from under him. He fell with a crunch, hitting his head against the back wall of the cabin that he'd been so near too. He was temporarily dazed and I scrambled away from him, grabbing the sword he'd dropped and straightening it up, pointing it at him. I hurried forward and pushed it up towards his neck. He stared up at me, confused.

I spat at his feet, tipping the sword. It moved his chin so he was staring directly at me.

"You made a mistake hurting me, sweetheart." I spat at him, digging the sword in further. "I never let anybody get away with that."
He stared, bewildered, before a dazed and slightly cocky smile graced his ugly features.

"What are you gonna do then, sweet'eart?" He murmured. "Kill me?"

I tossed my head at him and gave him a disgusted look.

"Unfortunately, I don't do death." I jerked the sword up, cutting his chin and lower lip with the tip of it before crashing the hilt down onto his head. What with the crash on the head not two minutes earlier, he fell quickly unconscious. "I do do unconsciousness, though."