Port Royal - Day
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In Port Royal, a hanging stage had been built with 7 nooses hanging. On one side, a giant pile of corpses with crows eating the fresh flesh from the bodies. On the other side, hundreds of people were kept in chains and were waiting for their turn to be hanged.
The flag of the East Indian Company was moving along with the wind as if mocking them but also reminding them, who was responsible for their arrest, imprisonment and execution.
"To affect a timely halt to deteriorating conditions, and to ensure the common good, a state of emergency is declared for these territories, by decree of Lord Cutler Beckett, duly appointed representative of His Majesty the King. By decree, according to martial law, the following statutes are temporarily amended: the right to assembly, suspended" An officer started reading out loud, announcing to everyone as different pairs of feet came through the gallows floor. "Right to habeus corpus, suspended. Right to legal counsel, suspended..." 7 more people got hanged. "Right to verdict by a jury of peers, suspended... " Seven more people got hanged. "All persons convicted of piracy, or aiding a person convicted of piracy, or associating with a person convicted of piracy shall be sentenced to hang by the neck until dead"
The next group walked to the stage, between them a young boy who was too short for the noose, so the executioner had to bring him a barrel to stand on. At the same time, the boy held a coin in his hands that seemed to ring faintly in his ears. While he was looking at it and waiting, a familiar song started to be sung.
"The king and his men stole the queen from her bed and bound her in her bones. The seas are ours, and by the powers, where we will, we'll roam" At the same time, the executioner placed him on top of the barrel and put the noose around his thin and tiny neck.
"Yo, ho, all hands, hoist the colours high" Next to him a man standing continued and soon everyone started to sing while moving their chained hands to the rhythm of the special song.
"Heave ho, thieves and beggars, never shall we die"
"Lord Beckett. They've started to sing, sir" an officer said as he rushed to the man responsible for it., not sure what to do in such a situation. Those people were about to die and yet they were singing, a local song that had more meaning behind it than most would ever understand or even know.
"Finally," Beckett said as he looked at a map with 6 special coins placed on it.
"Yo ho, all together, hoist the colours high. Heave ho, thieves and beggars, never shall we die"
The lever was pulled, the people were hanged, and the song came to an end while the coin dropped. It echoed throughout the silence and it rolled towards the pile of bodies, scaring the crows away.
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Small Ship, Unknown Coordinates - Day - Same Time
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On top of a small boat, an Artemis opened her eyes as if was waking up from a terrible dream. Both eyes uncovered and looked at the horizon in front of her while in her mind, the song echoed with the face of the child imprinted on her mind.
She was sitting at the very front of the ship, a little behind the small bow. She wasn't sure what she had just seen or when she had fallen asleep. One moment she was looking at the sea and the next that scene played in front of her eyes as if she was there. She could still remember the smirk Beckett gave once the officer told him of the people singing, feelings chill going down her spine.
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The Redhead of the Sea (Jack Sparrow x OC)
FanfictionArtemis Hazelstone Swann, daughter of a merchant and adopted by the governor of Port Royal; Weatherby Swann. Her life had been simply the best as she travelled the seas with her father and enjoyed the best thing in the world, freedom. However, a ter...
