Chapter Twenty Six: Hell
~~ I groaned as I woke, gently lifting my eyelids up, for a headache raged near my forehead, causing my eyes to ache. I sighed as my eyes adjusted to the light, which was, indeed, pouring in from the windows, even with the curtains pulled! "First hangover, huh?" Someone asked from somewhere in the room.
"Shush!" I hissed, covering my ears. "Too loud...too...too loud" I whispered, rolling over in the bed, causing my face to plummet into the fluffy, comfy mattress. There was quiet chuckling, along with quiet talking; however, the talking wasn't addressed to me. But, I made out some of the speech.
"How come she doesn't have to go on deck? We have to when we're drunk." A voice I knew not said, the other person sighed.
"We'll allow her to relax for a while longer, then, after a long talk, she will work on deck." The Captain said softly.
"Captaaaiiinn" I groaned, my voice muffled by the bed, I rolled over and he stood by the side of the bed, watching me.
"Yes, Anna?"
"I love you" I said, smiling; he gave a forced smile and patted my cheek.
"Sleep now, you'll need it." He replied, pulling the woolen blanket back up, around my shoulders and walking away, out of the room. But, I did not sleep, I did not feel like sleeping, I only closed my eyes and relaxed; I didn't know how long later, but, a while later, when the sun began to shine less in the windows, is when he returned. He sighed and sat near the footboard of the bed, causing the side of the bed to sink. I opened my eyes and sat up a little, most of my headache was gone and my need to vomit diminished entirely; my ears had returned to normal, and, I felt I was over the hangover.
"Better now?" He asked quietly, I nodded and sat up, rubbing my eyes.
"I don't want to drink ever again." I said, he grinned.
"Yes, hangovers aren't the best things in the world." He said, looking from me, down to his hands; silence stole in the room and paced before he and I, until he shoved it out. "Anna" he began again. "There's a large elephant in the room which needs addressing; I know you've said it, over and over, but, Anna, how can I know you're feelings are real? For, you lie quite well and that's what scares me; I've gone through heartache before, Anna, both from you and one other woman and I can't take it again."
Said he, pausing, he sighed. "Anna, truthfully, I tried to wash my hands of you, I tried to forget you and leave, I tried to move on, I called you some...mean...things and did some bad things to myself. I hated you, for a brief period, I hated you for playing with me, and I still harbor a little resentment to you, but it doesn't extend to the realm of hate any longer. All that we had, I felt, that you crushed it, you demolished it, Anna; now, I am willing to give you a second chance, but, we must start over." He finished, I felt hollow at his words, he...he hated me?
My sickness returned, he seemed like such a stranger now, he was changed, and he was different. And, not entirely in a good way. "You...hated me?" I choked out, my eyes became irritated and stung mercilessly as I bit my lip, attempting to stop tears. He sighed again.
"For a short time...yes." He answered, I nodded slowly and breathed deeply for a moment. "But, Anna, didn't you hear? I'm giving you a second chance, okay? But, things cannot automatically go back to the way they were...we're going to have to work up to that, just like we did before, alright?"
He asked, ducking down to look at my face; I nodded and he opened his arms, non-verbally asking for a hug. I thrust myself into his arms and buried my face into his shoulder, getting a tight grip on his coat and whimpering softly. "Now" he began again. "You are now only a crew member upon my ship, which means, you must live, eat and sleep like a crew member, no more sleeping in my room or your own; the other crew members have been warned that if they attempt to touch you in any non-consensual way, shape, or form, they will be killed. Tell me, if one of them tries or does, now, go, if you can, help clean out the canons."
He said, I nodded slowly and stood, I was a bit dizzy at first, but I got used to being on a boat again and walked out, down a deck to where the canons were kept.
~~ Whilst I was down there I was given a few strange looks, but, mostly I was ignored or treated like any other crew member, which was a little refreshing. We weren't ported anymore, apparently, we had gone out to open sea in search of god knows where; no one knew besides the Captain, and, the air thickened with awkwardness every time I attempted to speak/made eye contact with him. So, asking him was out of question. The Captain, apparently, killed all of the prisoners save Willie, who, he let free in London, so, I didn't have anyone to speak to; being quiet all day isn't the best thing in the world. However, after I climbed into my hammock, which was in its own corner, away from all of the other crew members, they began to cat call me simply because I took off my vest and was in a cotton shirt and trousers.
I was already unsettled, and a bit angry, so this caused me to explode. I stomped over to the main one who was catcalling me and held a pistol to his head, grasping the cuff of his shirt and yanking him up to me; the entire crew went silent. "I killed a man for doing exactly what you're doing, so, my advice to you is to shut the hell up unless you want a bullet in your brain." I hissed; I shoved him back, causing him to fall out of his hammock and slam against the deck; I tucked my pistol back into my belt and the crew member came up laughing.
"You won't do jack shi-"
Is all I allowed him to say, I turned upon my heel and pulled my arm back, packing as much strength as I could into my fist and slamming it into his eye. He yelped and fell once again, cradling his eye. Then, the first mate ran down to us, he was about to tell us to go to sleep when he saw the pirate lying on the ground. He pointed to the man and then the crew pointed to me; the first mate's brows furrowed, I shrugged. "He catcalled me and said I wouldn't do anything about it; he was asking for it."
I said, justifying myself; the first mate nodded. Lights out, ladies!" He yelled, I grinned and laid down in my hammock, smiling to myself.
~~ The next day wasn't much better, however, I found that no one catcalled me! No one even dared speak to me! Even at lunch I sat off to the side, by myself, I felt hollow and pushed my plate away; I wasn't hungry, I was never hungry, I wasn't tired, I just...was nothing. I was surrounded by people, and yet I was completely alone; wonderful paradox, huh? At this rate, the Captain and I would never speak to each other, let alone allow things to mellow into what they once were!
After lunch I was told to help untie the sails, so, I climbed to the top of the mast, and sat, taking up the rope and quickly causing the knot to disappear, straightening out and allowing the sail to fall using its own weight and gravity. I attempted to climb down, however, the boat lurched to a stop and my grip was shaken loose; I fell, until I grasped onto the sail and tore a hole in it, but, I was safe! I breathed heavily, letting go slowly and landing on my back on the deck; the crew members surrounded me with angry expressions. "That was a new sail" the first mate growled, I stood and was circled completely by the crew members.
"Uh...sorry" I said, getting my breath back.
"Damn right you will be." He hissed, eyeing me before breaking up the circle, the Captain emerged now, demanding to know why we came to a sudden stop.
"We hit a reef, sir." The crewmember said, the Captain nodded, and, his attention was stolen, to the hole in the sail. His first mate walked up to him and whispered into his ear what happened; he sighed and closed his eyes, shaking his head slightly, staying completely silent, he turned and walked back into his room, slamming the door shut. It would be a lie to say that I didn't feel guilty and embarrassed about that, but, it would also be a lie to say that I cared what the crew members thought of me; the only one who mattered, to me, was the Captain, and he didn't seem to enamored with me. Now, as I turned away, I was grabbed and yanked down to our sleeping quarters.
"Hey! Let go of me!" I yelled, the crew members' covered my mouth and threw me to the ground, some of them blocked the door, some of them stayed on deck, and some of them walked down to the sleeping quarters to witness what was about to happen. The first mate walked down the stairs ominously with a nine-tale in hand; I backed away, crawling on all fours, but was grasped by two men and held still. "No...no, please."
I said, the first mate grinned. "You are a crew member, and will be treated as such. When a crew member ruins something new, or something like that in general, on this boat, we have lashings. You will get five lashings, and, if you scream, you will get five more." He explained, a cotton shirt was balled up and shoved into my mouth before I could say or do anything and I yanked around, the back of my shirt ripped open.
There came a few gasps, yet the first mate laughed. "So, you're no stranger to whippings, are you, Anna?" He asked, gently touching my scars, which had just began to heal. I balled up my fists, tensing, bracing myself, but, nothing can brace you for, basically, nine leather belts smacking the hardest they could, against your skin at once. I gasped and my eyes flew open, I cried out, but it was muffled by the shirt; the first mate began to laugh as he smacked me a second time, I nearly screamed!
"Uh, uh, uh, what did I say, Anna? No screaming." The first mate said sing-songingly; I whimpered before I was hit again, my legs fell out from beneath me and I dropped to my knees. The two crew members held me to the deck, twisting my arms, making sure I couldn't fight. The third hit, I couldn't help it, I let out a scream; the first mate huffed and counted aloud as he lifted the nine tale high above his head the next seven times, he hurried his hits up, too, for he knew the Captain had to hear something.
By the tenth smack tears were flooding down my face and I trembled terribly, my back was completely numb and the urge to scream had all but left me; I could only breathe heavily and remain hunched, for to move caused too much pain. The first mate gave the nine tale to a pirate holding me and hurried up to the deck at hearing the Captain's door slam shut. "What's going on?" The Captain demanded, they were standing quite close to the door to the sleeping quarters.
"Nothing, sir." The first mate replied, I whimpered quietly and one of the pirates smacked the back of my head, to quiet me.
"Don't you dare lie to me."
"I'm not, sir, nothing is out of the ordinary." The first mate answered, lying.
"Explain that scream, then."
"What scream, sir?"
"The scream, the woman's scream." The Captain growled, getting increasingly irritated.
"I heard no such scream, sir." The first mate replied, the Captain huffed, cursing under his breath.
"Where's Anna?"
"I suspect, in the restroom, she wasn't feeling well, sir." The first mate explained, the Captain sighed again.
"Which one?"
"The one by the kitchen, sir." The first mate said, the Captain grunted and began walking rapidly away, I smiled, he did care about me! Though, my smile vanished at hearing the first mate return. "Leave her, boys, and go stash the nine tale." He ordered, he walked over to me and grasped my cheeks, squeezing them to pucker my lips; he was grinning.
"Looks like I've made you scream before your Captain has" he said, he threw me down, against the deck so I was lying on my side. "You keep a good check on yourself, Anna, for your Captain won't always be there to save you when you've slipped up." The first mate finished with, he kicked me in the ribs, and walked away calmly, smoothing out his hair again and returned to the main deck; chuckling darkly. I whimpered in pain and glanced around to see that a pool of blood laid stagnant near where I was whipped.
You know, I was wrong before, sitting on the deck with the people I love, in the Caribbean sun, in a nightgown with a good book isn't hell, this, however, is.
(A/N)
Yes, Mademoiselle Lauren, I saw the POTO US Tour! Well, I didn't see it with the principal Phantom, I saw it with a man named Eric Ruiz (haha, Erik...) who was a wonderful Phantom (he messed up on the lyrics to MOTN, but, was made up for by his vocal range). Now, it was the Christine I had a problem with, she couldn't hit most of the notes in TOM! She was also an understudy, and everyone almost had over-diction. The blocking, as I said before, my director would have a conniption at, and there is absolutely no chemistry on stage between Christine and Raoul.
Erik is mad all the time and there is an attempted rape scene in 'The Final Liar' (Erik pushes Christine back, upon the bed, and hitches up her dress whilst singing, then, he rolls off of her). However, the people portraying La Carlotta, Piangi, the managers, and Meg were wonderful! La Carlotta and Piangi were the light of the show! The sets were fantastic and the quick changes were great; I must applaud Carlotta the most, for her voice was stunning, as well as her acting. The show in itself, I felt, went too quickly, as if the actors rushed their lines; there's also a part in Notes II where Christine slaps Raoul and silences the room (also in the song POTO Erik blindfolds Christine).
Also, in 'Wandering Child' Erik is not elevated above Papa Daae's grave, in stead, he is on the ground, with Christine. When Raoul comes in (a good thing they did was add in the 'Wandering Child trio') Erik and he fight and Raoul ends up choke-slamming Erik to which Erik shoots fireballs at him and barely misses him. Also, in 'Little Lottie' Raoul walks in on Christine changing! AND CHRISTINE SHARES A ROOM WITH ALL OF THE BALLET DANCERS! Please, help explain to me how she is to be taught, in secret, by Erik, sharing a room with a gaggle of gossiping ballet girls?
Anyways, sorry, rant over. The show itself I knew wasn't going to be as good as the Broadway, and, if you even get the slightest chance to go see the Broadway, do. I guess it all depends on your need to see the stage version, Mademoiselle Lauren, it's not an abomination, but it's not the greatest; I won't say I regret going, because I don't, nay, it was a good experience, it's always a good experience to see different versions of the same musical, however, this version tells a bit of a different story than the Broadway. I say, if you have Phantom fever and want to experience it, do it! But, if you have read all of the above and it has turned you off, then, I would wait and save up my money for tickets to NY.
I hope I've helped you and you all have enjoyed the chapter!
