Chapter two: Bad Day

Charlotte was, once again, sitting on her bed. But this time it was different, this time her family was with her and there was a lot of noise going on above them. Also she was terrified. She wanted to know what was happening up there, she wanted to know that the crew was safe and that no one, pirate or crew, was injured. Her sisters, however were a bit more superficial,

"Oh dear, I hope they don't come down here! Can you imagine what would happen if the pirates came down here?"

Emily was the one to make this statement, soon to be followed by another said by Amelia,

"All those ugly and mean pirates down here, it would be awful! Oh papa, papa, don't let them come down here!"

Charlotte wanted to slap both of them, also her mother who was infuriating. She wasn't panicking like Emily and Amelia but was shrilly complaining about be boarded by pirates,

"The audacity of these pirates, how dare they try and attack us! I won't have this, I won't! William (Charlotte's father) do something!"

Charlotte closed her eyes and just waited for this disaster to be over, she would be happy once it was silent upstairs. Her mother and two sisters were still acting idiotic and Charlotte just waited until they were finished. But luckily that came quicker than she thought for her father also grew tired of their chatter,

"The three of you just be quiet for a minute. The more noise you make means that someone upstairs will notice us down here and we don't want that. I suggest the three of you calm down and just stay quiet."

Luckily for Charlotte, they listened to her father and quietened down into whispers. Even this was slightly annoying but Charlotte knew they would never get any quieter so just gave up. They all sat there, relatively silent, for about another two hours. Whoever was fighting was putting up a good fight. But the sailors seemed to be just as good otherwise there would be no noise and the pirates would be down here. But soon after Charlotte thought this, all grew quiet upstairs and everyone was wondering who won.

Charlotte grew restless of waiting downstairs and so stood up, against her family's wishes, and walked over to the stairwell. She tentatively walked up each step, taking her time. By the time she was at the door to the deck she wanted to turn and run back down the stairs. However she didn't get the chance to for someone yanked open the door, effectively exposing Charlotte to the man.

"Well well, wha' 'ave we got 'ere?"

Charlotte gasped when the man grabbed hold of her arm and, digging his nails into her arm, pulled her onto the deck. Charlotte paled at the sight that greeted her. All of the sailors were dead, unconscious or chained up to the mast, while savage looking men stood at various places, all of them looking strong and scary.

"Captain! I found someone. A very pretty someone."

Charlotte shuddered at the man's lecherous gaze and his foul breath; she couldn't really believe this was happening. She looked around and saw who the man was calling "captain", he wasn't facing her but she could tell he was a weird one, he had long black dreadlocks with beads and trinkets in them, he was tall but was standing in a very strange fashion and his clothes were those of a pirate. He was very well proportioned and Charlotte knew that when he turned around he would be very handsome. Charlotte drew in a startled gasp, how could she think such a thing? This man was likely to bring about her death and she was calling him handsome!

Charlotte was stirred out of her reverie when she noticed that the captain was turning around. She was right, he was a very handsome man but in a rather odd way, he had kohl around his eyes and looked to be several years older than Charlotte but he was still a very good looking man, even if he was a pirate and was going to kill her. Charlotte stopped her thinking when he started to speak.

"And just where did you find the lovely young lady?"

Charlotte felt his gaze when he looked at her and felt very exposed when his gaze didn't lift after a few seconds. He looked her straight in the eye and just stared; Charlotte felt too embarrassed by her previous thoughts to return his stare and so stared demurely at her feet.

"Girl, look me in the eye."

Charlotte raised her gaze slowly; she was surprised by his command. When she finally was looking him straight in the eye, he started to stroll towards her. When he was standing at a very improper distance from her, maybe ten or so inches, he began his questioning.

"I'll ask a few questions, love, and if you answer any of 'em falsely you'll go down to Davy Jones' Locker you hear me?"

Charlotte could only nod in reply, for she had planned on lying to him.

"Now, where did you come from?"

"I came from downstairs, in the bed chambers."

"What exactly is your accent?"

"I'm from the colonies."

"There are a lot of colonies, love; you're going to have to be more specific."

"Australia."

"I see, I see. Now, who else is downstairs? Don't lie to me; it'll do you no good."

Charlotte knew that she had to answer this truthfully but didn't want him to hurt her family. And so, for once in her life she decided to say no.

"No."

"What do you mean 'no'?"

"I mean that I won't tell you who is downstairs, I won't."

The man looked shocked; clearly he wasn't used to women saying no to him.

"Fine then, don't. Men! Search downstairs."

Charlotte gasped; what were they going to do to her family?

"Wait! What are you going to do?"

The captain looked at her for a minute or two before answering,

"Well now you see, we intercepted this ship expecting to find money or gold or jewels. However, clearly this isn't one of those ships. So we will see how many people we have and then sell them off in the slave trade. Much more tiresome than just looting but it still gets us a profit."

Charlotte was horrified, her family and herself were about to be sold off! It was barbaric.

"You can't do that! It's inhumane!"

The captain laughed a mocking laugh,

"Love, I'm Captain Jack Sparrow, I don't care about humane and inhumane. All I care about is gold."

With that he turned around and left Charlotte there alone, wondering what on earth she was going to do.

A/N: Well what do you think of chapter two? Are you getting into it? As always if you have anything to say just review and I'll get back to you.

Lemon and Strawberries