The sack was pulled off of my face and I looked around to be surrounded by a bunch of old geezers. From short and pudgy to tall and bony, they ranged in shapes and sizes but nevertheless they all shared one thing, wrinkles. They all stood around me awkwardly in a circle, I think they were possibly trying to intimidate me but I was pretty sure if I made a fast break between this skinny grandpa and a chunky 70 something year old I could've been home free. But that idea was quickly caboshed when something metallic was held to the back of my head and sharp swords were put to my throat.
Swords, I thought, who the hell in this day and age has swords? Maybe they are a part of some old geezer organization for rustic things. A convention possibly. This has to be cosplay or something.
Each old man held a gleaming handle of a sword, each sword though, like its owner, appeared old and seemed to be breaking and crumbling.
"Get up," one of them said in a cracking voice, it was the gun holder behind me, "Cap'n wants to see you."
Captain? If this is some kinky role playing thing I'm outta here.
I slowly rose being very careful of each sword and the men dispersed to allow me to see my actual location. I was on a ship, an ancient looking ship that I was sure could be out of Pirates of the Caribbean but highly unlikely it could have been used in its dilapidated state. The ship in its day I'm sure would have been beautiful, fading red paint broke and crumbled off of its rotting mast and once golden words at the head of an onlooking railing were blackening and smudged out leaving a few visible letters. A capital J an and R remained tarnished but still visible. I gazed up at the huge sails that looked like they, like the rest of the ship, as if they were once beautiful but were now grey and smudged with dark brown spots and multiple sails. I'm surprised it even sailed considering its shitty condition.
"Turn around slowly." the cracking voice said. I did as I was told and slowly turned around to see the oldest out of the crew and probably the oldest man I had ever seen in my life. He was pudgy with rolls of wrinkly fat, a loose striped shirt lay over his rolls of pale white skin. He had a droopy nose and Harry Potter glasses and a worn out knit beanie. The other old men all looked like they could have lived a life of crime in their younger days but not this man. He had watery eyes and constantly coughed as if every breath he made was difficult. He fumbled a bit after I gave him a questionable look, the gun shook a little but stayed at my head. He swallowed nervously eyeing the other men and licked his cracked lips before spiting out (with great effort) his next sentence.
"Cap'n wants to meet you." he said after a cough. I recognized that through his coughs, he had a British accent which I was excited to hear once reaching England but thought was strange to find in this tropical environment. I debated whether or not to smack the gun out of his hand but with a shaky trigger finger I did not want to chance anything.
"She already heard you the first time you fool." on of the other old men said and like the one with a gun, he had a British accent.
"Just make her move, Smee. Honestly, I don't understand why Cap'n keeps you around." another said with a gruff voice. Again the European accent.
"You're just here for a good laugh, ain't that right, Smee?" another said shoving the old man who swayed and almost fell.
Smee? I thought, the name sounded way too familiar and as I looked around, the ship reminded me of something. It was like a dejavu moment or feeling of having a word on the tip of your tongue but the word escapes at the last second. The whole situation in itself was weird enough but now the whole idea with the island and the old men on a ship kept perplexing me.
The men around me started to laugh boisterously while the old man by the name of Smee tried to gain his balance. He was quite a pitiful sight, fumbling and wheezing while the others laughed but I took the opportunity to duck under the gun and make a break for the railing. After my earlier aquatic adventure I was pretty sure I could swim back to the island and make S.O.S. messages out of kelp, but my dreams were crashed when a rough hand grabbed the collar of my T-shirt.
"Don't think we forgot about you." one of the men said with a snort pulling me back. He put a sword back to my neck and gripped my shirt tightly. "I'll just take her to the Cap'n, this is taking too long. You know how patient he is. " and with that I was shoved in the direction of a door near the mast.