Thud. The forty-second body hit the floor. Her heart and memories sank further into dormancy with each body that fell. The crimson liquid that flowed from underneath the cadaver rushed across the wooden steps and onto the clumping dirt. It was only a matter of time before someone noticed; only a matter of time before some wench saw the dead man currently at her feet and screamed her lungs out; only a matter of time before he was robbed of any valuables he had on him by some poor passerby.
She turned into the street, her boots and the front of her shirt drenched with blood, a mark of both innocence and impurity. The stale smell of the horrid port that was Tortuga met her nose. Whores, sweat, dirt, ale, piss, and ash were all mixed into that smell.
"I've got to get out of here." She mumbled to herself, her eyes searching the docked ships as they had so many times before. Tonight, her eyes landed on a small vessel. Etched onto the side, in crackling golden letters, were the words 'Rosa de Espina'. She glanced at the ship and back to the restless town behind her.
"Perhaps something a bit more civilized lies ahead…" she mused to herself. Her hands pulled off her shirt, which accidentally smeared her left cheek with blood. She took the dirty wad of faded cloth and dipped into a nearby troth of water, then wiped off her face and soon after, her boots to the best of her ability. She tossed aside the useless shirt and looked around for another shirt.
Her gaze found a young sailor, his shirt relatively new and seemingly unused. She strolled over to the man and used her feminine wiles to persuade him out of his shirt, which he did more than willingly. She bade him a goodnight and headed back to the pier, straight for the 'Rosa de Espina'.
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This is a prologue, it's a bit of background but it doesn't change how the first chapter reads.
By the way:
This story is dedicated to Alyssa Monique Pena, a beautiful eight-year-old who is sadly diagnosed with CD, a rare disease which many symptoms of she has overcome. I hope that she will continue to astound and prove wrong all her doctors and family. They said she'd never walk; she did walk. They said she'd never talk; she did talk. They said she'd never make it; she is making it, being it, and doing it all.