Cinderella Terror Island

Chapter 2

Flashback

Ellie was out with her parents for her tenth birthday. They were going on a family outing on the sea with their own privet ship. Ellie loved the sea and how the sky was so beautiful and all the creatures. She could talk to the birds in the air and she could talk to the dolphins that swam by the ship, it was amazing.

Ellie was just starting to refine her gift of talking to animals, she'd only just learned it wasn't normal. She had been talking to her mother's mice friend for years and never knew it was out of the norm, well, not until the visiting royals saw her talking to them and laughed and called her a freak. Her father, of course, had sent them away, needless to say they wouldn't be having any more play dates with that royal family. But the damage had been done and now Ellie knew she wasn't normal.

She didn't care because she had her parents and they loved her no matter what. This boating trip had been planned to help her forget about the horrible prince that had called her a freak. The words still stung, but out here on the sea, she felt alive, and with all the animals to talk to, it was great.

But then things turned for the worse. The skies turned black and the water started to turn. The waves started to grow bigger and the boat began to be tossed about. Ellie was on the top deck when the storm broke out and her parents had been below. They hurried up to the top deck right as a huge wave hit the boat. Their boat hit a large bolder and between the bolder and the wave, the boat had no chance. It began to sink and a few pieces of wood floated above. Ellie's eyes grew wide as her parents were tossed in the opposite direction as her.

"MOM! DAD!" Ellie cried out and then coughed as water rushed into her lungs. She fought against the current as it pushed her down. She pulled herself up above the water and took a quick breath just in time for the water to push her back down again. Her heart was beating wildly as she tried to fight against the waves, but there was nothing she could do.

Just when Ellie thought it was over for her, a large net caught her and pulled her up the side of a large ship. The waves still thrashed and she had a front row seat to watching the rest of her ship sink and her parents tossed and turned and she saw a large wave engulf them and didn't see them come back up. Ellie cried, the loss of her parents hard to bare. Once the morning came, the sun came out and the storm finally ended. Ellie was curled in on herself when the net was finally lifted up on the deck.

Once the net landed on the deck, Ellie still stayed curled in on herself. She was physically fine, but emotionally she was a wreck. She didn't care who had saved her, she wished she'd stayed in the water and stayed under with her parents. She didn't want to live in a world that didn't have her parents. She was only ten, she needed them.

"What did we catch last night boys," the man in the top hat asked and slowly Ellie looked up with terrified eyes.

"It's a girl, Captain," one man said and Ellie didn't like the tone he used nor did she like his smile.

"Can we keep her," another man asked.

Ellie shivered and curled in on herself again as the man with the top hat, the "Captain," came up to where she was curled. He circled her and looked closely at her. She could feel his eyes on her, but she couldn't bring herself to look up.

"What is your name," the captain asked calmly and when she didn't answer, he gently used his foot to nudge her over so she was looking up at him. "My name is Thomas Bucks, the captain of this ship. What is your name?" He asked her but she could tell that he wasn't really asking but he was demanding an answer.

"E…Ellie…" she said in a shaky voice. She coughed, her voice sore from all the water she'd inhaled in the storm.

"Well Ellie, how old are you," he asked frowning.

She was afraid to answer and was afraid not to answer, so slowly she answered… "T…Ten…"

"Well Ellie, I suppose we can keep you as a pet…Maybe you can be our cabin girl, do the work around the ship…What do you say?"

Ellie's terrified eyes looked up at him and she swallowed, "I…I don't know…I…"

"You're not afraid of me are you," he asked smiling.

"I…I don't know…" Ellie was shivering, somewhat from fear but also because she was soaking wet and cold. Her dress was torn to shreds, it didn't look like a princess dress anymore.

"Well Ellie, I'm going to adopt you, you can be my personal cabin girl, and who knows, I might even be a father to you."

Ellie's eyes welled up with tears and she shook her head, "N…No…I have a father…and mother…"

"Yes, and they sank with your ship," he said snidely and Ellie's tears came again and he smiled. "It's alright dear, we can be each other's family because here on my ship, we are all one big family." He turned to one of the beefier boys working for him, "Take Miss Ellie to my cabin, she'll be staying in the spare quarters and she will be my new cabin girl."

The man smiled and nodded, walking up to her. He roughly grabbed her and carried her with him until he reached a large room on the top deck. He kept going until he entered a smaller room behind the main room.

"This will be your new room. The Captain will come for you whenever he's ready for you," the man said with a scary smile and then he walked out. Ellie heard the door lock and she collapsed on the floor in a heap and the tears started to escape again, that night she cried herself to sleep.

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The next morning Ellie woke to a shock of cold water being tossed at her. She gasped and shot up with a cry of surprise, fearing she was still in the sea. Slowly she grasped her surroundings and saw she was inside the ship and her reality came crashing down on her again. She'd been saved by this ship. She'd watched her parents be swallowed by the sea and would never see them again. She was alone in this world.

"Good morning Miss Ellie," Captain Bucks said in a chipper voice and Ellie looked down. "What, still don't feel like talking? Well, I suppose that is okay since you did lose your family and everything you have yesterday in that storm and now you are all alone in this world save for me and my crew." A stray tear trickled down Ellie's cheek and Bucks smiled. "Lucky for you, I have the perfect solution for you. The best way to move on and forget about the pain of losing your parents is to get to work and work hard. Lucky for you, a ship has a lot of hard work to be done and my men are rather happy you are here. With you here, they will be able to focus on the capturing of fish and not have to worry about minor details like keeping the ship clean. So, now it's time to get to work."

"W…work," Ellie asked in a shaky and fearful voice.

"Yes my dear, you have to earn your keep here after all, you wouldn't want us to put you back in that net would you?" When Ellie said nothing, Bucks sighed. "I am a fair and kind man, but I do not approve of lazy people. If you can not comply then I will simply have to get the whip out."

Ellie blinked in confusion, but when she saw Bucks reach behind him and pull out a bull whip, one that some people used on horses to make them go or behave, (her parents never did, but Ellie had seen other royals do it), Ellie gasped. Slowly she backed away from Bucks and into a corner, shivering in fear.

"Now, now my dear, there is no reason to be afraid of me, I won't use this whip on you unless I have to. If you do what you are suppose to, then I will not have to punish you. Now, are you going to get to work or do I have to teach you first hand what this whip feels like?"

Ellie was afraid but she didn't want to get whipped. Slowly, and on shaky legs, she stood and walked to Bucks, head bowed. "I…I will do what you ask…"

"Marvelous! Just outside my cabin is the bucket and the scrub brush. You will fill it with soapy water and begin scrubbing the floors for me. Once you finish the main deck, you will do my cabin and my guest quarters then you will stop and prepare lunch for us. After lunch you will get to work on cleaning the floors below deck and you will also have to feed the animals I have here on the ship before you come back to fix our dinner. I will tolerate no lazy people, so I better not find you asleep at work!" Slowly she nodded and he pushed her forward. "Alright then, get to work!"

And that was what began her soon to be five years of slavery to this man. Ellie wiped away her tears and got her bucket ready and began to scrub the floors. By the time she finished all of her tasks at the end of the night, she was so tired, she dropped on the floor and fell right to sleep, too tired to think of anything else.

The next morning she was instructed to was the crews' clothes and to not get any spots on them. She was also instructed to polish "Master" Bucks' shoes till they shined so bright he could see his reflection. She was also still in charge of scrubbing the floors and feeding the fish as well as cleaning the nets after each catch. Ellie tried not to shudder when she was handed the boxers to clean, she wasn't use to all this work.

It was true that she wasn't a normal princess and that she did help her mother around the castle, cooking was her favorite task, but she'd never been driven this hard before. She had always had lighter work and never been watched like a hawk, waiting for a mess up. If she did something wrong at home, other servants would jump in and show her how to correct it, but she was never punished for it. Here, any time she messed up, she was punished.

Ellie was so tired after fixing dinner, but she still had a lot of work to do. She went to the kitchen area of the ship to start washing the dishes when she slowly started to nod off. It hadn't felt like she had slept at all, but apparently she had because she felt the slap to her face and she blinked in surprise, cradling her cheek.

She had no time to react as she was hauled away and back to the main deck. She looked up with fearful eyes as she looked up at a frowning Bucks. He looked down at her with a frown and then up at the man who had carried her to him.

"What is the meaning of this," Bucks demanded.

"She was sleeping when shew as suppose to be washing the dishes boss," The man replied.

Bucks frowned down at Ellie, "I told you when I took you in that I would not tolerate lazy people, and yet you still fall asleep while you should be sleeping! What do you have to say for yourself!"

Ellie's eyes were wide with fear, "I…I'm sorry! I won't do it again! I promise, I won't! I didn't mean to! I promise I will work hard for you! PLEASE!" Her eyes were wide with fear as she saw Bucks reach for his whip. "Please no! I'll do better, I promise!"

"No, I don't think you will mess up again because I am going to teach you what happens when you don't do what you are told," Bucks said and sighed as if he were a disappointed father.

Ellie didn't have time to react as the first whip strike hit her back, all she could do was cry out. Ellie tried to brace herself for the next group of lashes, but the next four weren't any less painful then the first. When he was finished with the five whips, he instructed his men to take her down to "the brig." Ellie was tossed on a cot in a small cell and it was locked behind the man and he walked out.

Ellie let the tears escape freely now. She missed her family. She missed her home. She would give anything now to have that stuck up Prince Octavius there making fun of her just to get out of here. It was in her crying though that she noticed a couple of rats on the floor of her new prison.

"Did you find any food?"

"Nope, what about you?"

"I have nothing, the only thing I see is that human girl, and I don't like chewing on humans. She's not one of those mean ones, I've seen her, they work her hard. I don't think she belongs to them…I don't think we should eat her…"

"Well if we don't nibble on her than what are we going to eat? I'm starving and those humans up there haven't had any crumbs left on their food for a while…"

Ellie moaned and sighed, "I…I don't know if this will help, but I have a bit of bread in my dress pocket that you two can share if you really are hungry."

The two rats paused and looked at her with wide eyes, "Did you just talk to us?"

Ellie gave a weak smile and then winced, "Yeah, I can talk to animals…It's something I got from my mother…But anyways, as I said, I have some bread in my pocket that you two can have…I'd give it to you myself, but if I move it hurts…" As if on que she winced.

"Victor, we should help her…"

"No way, every time we help a human they either die or they get away and we are alone again. Or they try to attack us once they are all healed up…We're not helping them Xavier!"

"But she not like the others, she nice, and she talk to us and know what we say back…We need to help her…Besides, she offer us food, we should repay her…"

The other rat sighed, "Fine, we help her…I get the stuff stuff, you get the food…"

The first rat scurried off and the second one climbed up the side of the cot and crawled to Ellie's pocket and pulled out a large piece of bread and smiled with wide eyes. "You can take both pieces out of my pocket…I don't feel much like eating…"

Not long after the first rat got both pieces of bread out of Ellie's pocket, the second rat returned carrying some sort of plant. Ellie raised a brow but didn't move, she was in too much pain. It took the second rat a little longer to climb up the cot with the plant because he was a little heavier. The first rat, the one who had gotten the bread out, handed the first piece to the second rat and then carried the plant over to Ellie's back.

"I gonna work on your back…This will help take the sting away and eventually help heal it…We help you put on every day…Your back get better…You see…" Ellie nodded and so the first rat began to bite the plant open and then began to rub the sap on her back. At first Ellie winced and then she sighed. "I Xavier and her Victor…We hide here and we get what scraps them men not want, but now they no have scraps…"

Ellie sighed, "Yeah that's my fault…They want the ship clean and if it's not, they will punish me, like they did tonight…I…I'll save you some food when I am cooking each day and bring it to you as often as I can…" Ellie's eyes were starting to feel heavy.

"You sleep, we wake you if they come back…You need rest…They work you hard and you no need to work that hard…"

Ellie sighed and yawned, "Okay…Thank you…"

"You welcome…That what friends for…" Ellie nodded before falling asleep.