Ch4
Miguel and Antonio got back to Cortez and the rest. Cortez noticed that they arrived back, and he walked up to Antonio. "So, did you kill him?" Antonio nodded his head and gazed at the ground. "Yes sir. I killed him." Cortez grabbed Antonio's chin and lifted his head up. He leaned in close to him and whispered, "Good boy. You're not as weak as I thought." Antonio frowned and snapped his out of Cortez's grip. Cortez furrowed his brows and drew his attention back to his crew. "Now men, don't let the others escape. They are already on deck. Let us head back to Spain…empty handed." Antonio looked over at Miguel who was looking at the ground the whole time. He nudged him a little bit to get his attention. Miguel shot his head up. Surprising Antonio with all of his hair tucked up into the helmet with brown bushy leaves for his hair. Miguel also had this old man look on his face. He gave Antonio thumbs up. Antonio tried so hard not to laugh. "Won't Cortez figure out who you are sooner or later?" asked Antonio. Miguel tapped his helmet and replied, "With my brains, when he figures out that it's me, he'll be dead." Antonio weakly smiled. 'I hope he's just joking.' He thought.
All of Cortez's soldiers got on the gigantic ship and they took off. Antonio took a seat on one of the nearest barrels he saw. Miguel sat on another right beside him. Cortez disappeared underneath the ship into his cabin. A few seconds after Cortez left, Antonio let out a giant sigh. "I wasn't expecting us to get away with this," he whispered. Miguel nodded his head in agreement. Miguel tried to scratch his arm but his fingers hit solid metal. He shook his hand a little, trying to forget the little ounce of pain that came from the hit. Antonio chuckled under his breath, but then winced. He reached up and touched his cheek. He forgot about the soldier that slapped him across the face. Miguel noticed him gently stroking his cheek. He grabbed Antonio's hand and gently pushed it away from his face. "Are you alright?" Antonio turned away from Miguel and muttered under his breath, "I'm fine. It doesn't hurt that much anymore." Miguel frowned while letting go of Antonio's hand. They sat in silence before a question struck Miguel like a ton of bricks. Tulio and Chel. "Oh my god," he said while his face went pale. Antonio turned his head to the side like a questioning puppy before asking, "What's wrong?" Miguel shot up from his seat and started to look around for Tulio and Chel. Antonio pulled on Miguel's arm to get his attention. "What's wrong Miguel?" Miguel pulled Antonio up from his seat and shoved him forward. "Ask those soldiers if they have captives on the ship." Antonio looked at him like he was crazy. Miguel shooed him away with his hands telling him to go. Antonio sighed and walked up to two soldiers, who are having their own conversation. One of them turns around and spots Antonio. "Eeeey, Tony!" he yells. The other soldier turns himself around and grins ear to ear. Antonio glares at the soldier that called him Tony and states, "Don't call me Tony. I've told you that more than enough." The soldiers nudged each other and said in synchronization, "Okay…..Tonyyyy." They swooned at the word Tony. Antonio rolled his eyes and remembered the question he was supposed to ask. "Hey, you guys, did we pick up anyone else while I was gone?" One soldier shook his head yes and said, "Yeah we actually picked up another Spaniard and this dark-skinned girl." Miguel was eavesdropping and when he heard that, his entire face lit up. The other soldier added, "And we also picked up a dark-skinned man who claimed Cortez as a God! Bahaha!" Both of the soldiers found it very entertaining so they broke into laughter. Antonio looked back at Miguel. He left the two soldiers and sat back down on the barrel. Miguel couldn't believe what he just heard. Tzekel Khan. Tzekel Khan was on the ship with them. He sat down beside Antonio and shook his head no over and over and over. "No. That's impossible. How could they have left Tzekel Khan alive!?" Antonio didn't really know who he was talking about, but he just nodded his head. Then an idea struck Antonio. "Maybe they are taking him to Cuba," he said. "I heard them saying that they were going to send you and that dark-headed man to the plantations earlier before we got to New Spain." Miguel lifted his head from his hands. "That's right." He said. Antonio patted Miguel on the back and added, "Yeah, well, they have that Zekai Khan man now. And your apparently 'dead' anyway." Miguel looked out to sea, and smiled. "That's right." He said again. Antonio furrowed his eyebrows in confusion. Miguel shot up from his seat and looked over at Cortez's cabin. He looked at Antonio and said with excitement, "I'm supposed to be dead. But tonight, I'll come back as a ghost to haunt Cortez." Antonio saw where he was going, so he added, "I get it. But how are you going to look like a ghost?" Miguel smiled and asked, "Do you have flour on this ship?"
Miguel and Antonio waited until nightfall to do all of their dirty work. Before they moved into the kitchen for the flour, Miguel checked the prison cell in the middle of the ship, underneath the floor.
He leaned on the door and whispered, "Tulio? Chel?" He gulped and said the last name on his mind. "Tzekel Khan?" A few seconds pass, causing a weight to form on his heart. But then he heard rustling around underneath him. Miguel motioned Antonio to come over where he was. Antonio leaned down for Miguel to whisper something in his ear. "Go get me the smallest lantern you can find." Antonio blushed a little bit and nodded his head. He searched the life boats for a small lantern and found one. 'Why did I blush?' Antonio thought to himself. 'It's not like I have those kind of feelings for him.' This thought made him blush even more than before. He could feel his ears turning red. He shook his head trying to forget what he was just thinking of.
Antonio walked back to Miguel, bent down, and handed him the small lantern. Miguel smiled and whispered thank you into his ear. Antonio frowned and pushed his helmet farther over his face to cover up his blushing. Miguel chuckled. 'He's so funny,' he thought. Miguel put the lantern through the bars while holding the top ring. He shifted forward to get his arm lower down into the pit of darkness. He couldn't see anything. "Cheeelll? Tuuuulliooo? Tzekel Khaannn?" Someone was moving around down there. Or something. Miguel heard the thing stand up and walk towards the light. There wasn't really that much room to walk, from what Miguel could remember so the thing was probably walking very slow. A foot appeared. It was a fabric shoe with a point at the top of the shoe. Miguel smiled and reached his other hand out into the prison to guide Tulio, or at least he thought it was Tulio. The person grabbed his hand and pulled him a little bit. "Tulio?" Miguel said. The person walked into the little bit of light there was and whispered. "Yeah? What do you want? It's the middle of the night."
