A Pirate Melody

Chapter 8

After roaming around the ship for a bit, I find the door to the brig. I walk down the musty stairs. There are cobwebs and rat droppings along the edges. There is only one torch lamp that is meant to light up the whole room. I take a whiff of the room and it smells absolutely foul. I gag a little bit after smelling it. I am met with a man standing guard at the bottom of the stairs. He is sitting on a stool, smoking on a pipe. He is  wearing an eyepatch over his left eye and is wearing a red bandana on his head. He almost immediately gives me a look of recognition.

"You must be the captain's newest concubine. I heard that you would be coming. Something about a desire to sing to the prisoners. That is a weird request to make the captain if I do say so myself. But, to each his own." He gets out of his stool and does a couple of stretches.

"Well, I am told that you want some privacy. Since, you a little shy. So, I will just be waiting right outside the door. Don't worry, I shouldn't be able to hear any singing from up there. But, if you do need me just shout nice and loud and I will be able to hear you. To be safe though, just make sure you stay out of arms reach of the prisoner." With that he makes his way up the stairs and I am left alone with the prisoners.

The room consists of three jail cells lined up along the edge of the right wall. The wall on the left is filled with barrels and boxes. The cells are decent sized.  It looks as though six people could fit in each cell if they squeezed. There seems to be a toilet and a bench in each cell . There is also a bench in the middle of the room between all of the cells. I decide to head over there to make myself comfortable.

I peep inside of the first cell while passing by and there is only one prisoner in there. It is a female prisoner with honey brown hair. It seems to be dry and knotted  as if it has not been washed in months. Her hair contrasts against the the bright red shirt that she is wearing. She is facing away from me holding a plate with some sort of  bluish purple paint. She is using her finger as a paintbrush and is doodling through the bars onto the wall behind her. I turn away from her and get back to what I was doing.

I sit on the bench and take a couple deep and calming breaths. I look into the second cell and there are two strong men in tattered clothing. One is laying in the bench looking up at the ceiling and the other one is staring right at me. It is fine though. Who cares if he is staring at me. I will just ignore him.

I decide to sing the lullaby that Tilly used to sing to me when I had trouble sleeping. I don't know if I remember all of the words though.

"When the wind blows in the darkest of nights
I know it can cause the greatest of frights"

I hum the next line because I forgot it. Then I continue.

"So settle down and sleep my dear."

I really focus on the prisoners with the next line.

"Sleep sleep sleep"

That's all that I can recall. I was always too groggy and I would barely listen to the second verse. I look around to see if the command worked. The prisoner who was watching me now has his eyes wide in a look of horror and the man on the bench is now on his side with his hands over his ears.

I guess that did not work. Maybe because that was a lullaby written by humans that it did not do what I intended it to. I guess I will have to come up with an original. I really focus on getting the message across.

"Time to sleep
Time to sleep
Everyone should be sleeping
Close you eyes
Go to bed
Time to rest all your heads."