Warning! This chapter is very dark.
Matthew and Jay walked away from the prison/slave labor camp. Each one feeling sick to the stomach at seeing their friends in great pain. Matthew wanted nothing more than to go down and bust his friends out, but he still was to weak to do that.
Jay just wanted to leave the island and never return. Being a slave for twelve years made him lose it. He was a danger to himself, more then a danger to his crew.
"I can't do it, Matthew," Jay said, shamefully looking at his feet.
"Do what?" Matthew asked turning to Jay.
"Can't help you save your friends."
Matthew stopped dead in his tracks. Slowly, he went faced to face with Jay. The weasel looked the tiger in the eyes. "Why?" he asked.
"Because if I go back and get caught, the guards will beat me. So you're going to have to risk your own skin, Matthew," Jay said turning away before he ran off into the jungle, leaving Matthew behind.
What? He won't help me or his crew? The very thought broke Matthew down. He fell to his knees and began to cry. Looking up, he shouted to the clouds. "God! Please help me. I can't do this on my own. Just help me save my friends and the other pirates and I'll obey and follow you all my life."
Suddenly, a bolt of lighting shot from the clouds and Matthew cover his eyes in fear. When he looked up, he saw a man looking at him, but he glowed very brightly.
"Are you an angel of God?" Matthew asked, he was trembling with fear.
"I am." the angel replied softly. "God has heard your cry for help and the cries of the slaves. He has sent me to tell you that he will deliver the people out of slavery and you will lead them into battle against Shere Khan's soldiers."
"How can I lead them?" Matthew asked, doubting the words he just heard. "I'm just a simple weasel, I can not lead an army of slaves against the forces of Khan."
The angel pointed to the sky. "God will give you everything you need if you just listen and obey."
Jay then came back out of the jungle and looked at the angel. He had heard the whole thing. He didn't believe a single word of it. "If God had heard our cries, then why didn't he save us?" Jay said with a scoff. " I mean, how can't Matthew here be the one to help my crew and the others? It is just impossible."
The angel then shouted and a powerful wind swept through the trees. Dust was kicked up and thunder rumbled loudly in the clouds. Matthew knew that Jay's unbelief had angered God and he was about to make the tiger see the truth.
"Who made man's mouth? Who made the seeing and the blind? Was it not I, the LORD!" a voice boomed from within the thunder, Jay fell to his knees. Blinded by the very voice he heard. "Now therefore go, and I will be with you." Then the thunder stopped and the angel left.
Jay was still blinded and he wept saying, "Why did I have no faith? I should have believed, for I would not have been struck with blindness."
"Jay, I too didn't believe in my days, but God called me to him and I followed." he said, helping his friend up. "But now I ask one last time, will you...help me?"
Jay nodded. "Yes, I will."
"And we will too," a lovely voice called out from behind the two pirates. Matthew turned and saw that it was the royals.
Someone then called out from the shadows of the bushes. "So will I, or my name isn't-"
"Ace London," Matthew and the others said.
Ace snapped his fingers and smiled with a wink, "you got that right."
Meanwhile...
"Alright to you maggots, let's get something down for Mr. Khan!" one of the slavers shouted, cracking a whip to make himself clear. Kit picked up rocks that fell from the conveyer belt, his hands were covered in cuts and they hurt badly. The young boy took a second to catch his breath, but the slaver whipped him for that.
"Don't stop you brat!" he shouted. Baloo then shouted at him. "Don't you hurt my son, you son of bitch."
The slaver smiled. "Maybe you would like to take this up with the boss?" he waited for Baloo to break rank again, so he would be allowed to whip him too, but the angry father knew what he was thinking. So, Baloo did nothing but go to help his son up.
Kit felt glad that his dad was doing his best to protect him, but he was mad at him for not fighting back. Baloo was strong enough to take that one slaver down.
"Ten lashes!" another slaver shouted. Two panthers grabbed Baloo and Kit and tied them to the post, which was something the slaves had named from their many years here.
"Dad! I'm sorry I got you in trouble," Kit sobbed as he watched his father get his ten lashes first. Baloo fought hard to keep himself from crying out. After slaver reached ten, Baloo was cut free and he found it very hard to stand. The slaver turned to Kit.
"This will remind you to keep working until we tell you to rest!" he shouted and raised his arm and pulled it back. But Rebecca reached out and took hold of his arm.
"No!" she cried. "Don't hurt him."
"You'll share his punishment," the slaver warned her. Rebecca stared him down.
"I'll take all twenty."
"Will you now? And what would that do for your baby, Mrs. Bruinwald?" Shere Khan asked walking up after witnessing Baloo's punishment. Rebecca's heart sank, he was right. If she took the twenty lashes for her son, it could mean killing her unborn child. No, that couldn't be allowed to happen.
Shere Khan then showed his true dark side, as a cruel idea came upon him. He looked at Rebecca and then her son who was still tied to the post. "Young Kit won't be given ten lashes by my slaver here, Mrs. Bruinwald," he smiled and took the whip from his slaver. "You will be the one to do that," with his arm stretched out, Rebecca stared at the whip.
"No, no, I won't!" she screamed.
Shere Khan's smile faded. "You have no choice. You can do it or let my slaver do it." It was becoming a battle between Rebecca's will power against Shere Khan's threat. The aging tiger still held the whip out to her.
Don Karnage, who stood in the back of the crowd was growing very tired of waiting to see who would use the whip. "Oh, for the love mud, let Don Karnage, which is me, do it," he shouted pushing past the other slaves. But then Rebecca quickly grabbed the whip before he did.
"I'll do it," she sobbed. Rebecca looked at her son, her eyes now full of tears. "I'm sorry, Kit."
Kit's only reply was, "I know." He looked over his shoulder to see all the men watching him intently. He could hear the slavers whispering and making bets, all seeing how long he would…
Kit watched as his mother who was going to suffer the most pulled back her arm and brought it forward. The whip came down on him. Kit heard a loud crack across his back, then a second later felt the pain. But he was already dull to this pain, but not the burning pain he felt in his heart. It was like a fire coursing through him. As his mother pulled back for a second strike, Kit shouted...
"Just get over with it, MOM!"
Rebecca's eyes widened and she could feel the blood roaring in her ears. Her son was begging her to do this. Then the third strike hit, then the forth.
Kit could hear the slaver counting the blows. "5, 6, 7". As tears filled his eyes, Kit began to scream. The sound of the young boys' cries made Karnage take a trip down memory lane. To a memory that he had tried for so long to forget.
(Flash back)
Twenty five year ago...
A ten year old Don Karnage sat on his bed. Looking at the pistol he had stolen from his father's bedroom. Fresh cuts and bruises were visible on his arms and legs.
"Why does father do this to me?" he shouted loudly, tears ran down his cheeks. Karnage looked back down at the gun. His father never loved him, only his mother. The sounds of his mother's screams were heard again. Karnage knew what his father was doing to her right now. He covered his ears and began to cry.
"Daddy, please stop hurting Mommy!"
His bedroom door swung open and in stepped his father. Drunk and very angry. "You little rat," he growled, dragging his wife in and threw her on their son's bed.
Karnage looked at his mother, she was crying. "Son, don't look." Her husband then grabbed her and hit so hard that it knocked her out cold. But Karnage did look, and he jumped on his father's back. He bit him. He kicked him. But it was nothing to his abusive father.
"You will learn not to fight against me!" his father shouted before throwing Karnage onto the bed, then began beating him. But beating him wasn't enough, Karnage's father tore of his son's clothes off, then his own. Karnage felt his father get on top of him and he screamed as his father held him down.
This wasn't happening to him. Karnage's own father was trying to rape him.
"You will learn why I am in charge and you are just a bit player," his father smiled. He leaned down and began biting his son on the neck. Every bite was freezing cold and more tears ran down Karnage's cheeks. His father then spread his legs and...
That was when something in Karnage snapped. He suddenly reached over and grabbed the gun and shot his father in the heart. His father fell to the floor with a thud. He was dead.
"Now you have learned why I, the great pirate, Don Karnage am the one in charge." And so that very night, Don Karnage left home and became the man his father was. A abusive pirate.
(End of flash back)
As the blows continued "8, 9". Kit felt the wetness from his back and tasted metal in his mouth, and realized he was bleeding. It was about to end, just one more strike of the whip and it would be over. Kit's body was on fire as the final blow happened and the fire was replaced by coldness. "You did it mom," Kit whispered to her, being strong enough to force a weak smile, then his pain gave way to darkness and he passed out.
The slavers cut him loose and Rebecca and Baloo held their wounded son in their arms.
"You monster!" Karnage bellowed, as he stormed toward Shere Khan. The tiger's bodyguards got between them. "Do you know what this will do to Kit? And it will do to his family?"
Shere Khan shook his head and chuckled as he smiled. "No, I don't know," he said, "but I know what it did to you." then Shere Khan turned and walked off.
One of the slavers shouted, "One hour break."
Stephen came running up with Molly. Both shocked and horrified to learn about what Rebecca had to do.
The Bruinwald family was unable to sleep that night, and neither was Karnage. The feared pirate captain was crying because this day finally brought him back. The pain of hearing his mother's screams haunted his memories. The twisted images of his abusive father played back in head. It was what drove him crazy.
He was going to make amends to Bruinwalds, but how?
Three months later...
When Shere Khan saw that Rebecca was showing signs of having Baloo's baby, he ordered his men to give her easy jobs to do, mostly washing the camps cloths and cooking. But that only fueled her hate toward him. She could never forgive him for making her whip her own son.
But today was different, Baloo, Molly and kit was given permission to help Rebecca in the mess hall. Her heart skipped a beat when Baloo wrapped his arms around her waist. He hugged her.
"I missed you last night," Baloo cooed, kissing her on the cheek, his hands moved across her now growing belly. "I want this baby to know who his or her father is."
"The baby will know, Baloo," Rebecca sighed. She so wanted to be back in her nice warm bed right now, not in some slave/labor camp.
As Kit stirred a pot of hot soup, Buffy and his wife Muffy walked up. Buffy seemed nervous, his shifting around the camp, as if he was looking for a way out. Kit cocked his head.
"You alright?" he asked.
Buffy quickly slipped something from his pocket and gave it to Kit. Kit looked at it and saw that it was a folded piece of paper. Knowing that if he looked at it where the guards could see him, then they would be on to him. So Kit walked into the freezer and unfolded the paper.
It was a note from Matthew! He was alive. But what really sparked his attention was that Matthew had a plan for the prisoners to escape.