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SIX I'M JUST A GIRL
LIVING IN CAPTIVITY
⚓️
IT WAS A HOT DAY, there was not a single cloud in the sky, and the sun was burning down onto the deck of the ship of the Cobra Pirates. So, Keeli, aged seven, was relieved that she didn't have to clean the deck that day. Instead, she was cleaning inside, the crew's quarters. Months had passed since Keeli had been ripped away from her home, her parents; and she wished she could say that she had gotten used to life on the ship already, but... she really really hadn't.
Sadness and fear had become her best friends, companions that never left her, and the only things that managed to overshadow the constant pain in her body: sore muscles, blistered hands, bruised knees, sunburn. But she wasn't allowed to stop, no, she had to keep cleaning. If she didn't, Captain Krait would get angry, and Keeli really didn't want to make him angry. He didn't care that she was just a seven-year-old girl — he was horrible with his punishments.
She remembered a few weeks ago, Mina, a nice girl Keeli had known for half an eternity (since she was five), had burst into tears while they scrubbed the deck. One of the pirates, a man with yellow hair whose name Keeli didn't know, had noticed Mina crying and scolded her for it, which had attracted Captain Krait's attention. Captain Krait had been so angry that his face had contorted into an ugly grimace, making him look more like a monster than a man. He'd locked Mina up in the brig (Keeli had learned some ship terminology) for a week, with almost no food and just enough water.
So, Keeli tried her hardest not to appear weak. Not to break and cry. She didn't want to be punished, too.
Keeli scrubbed the floor of a hallway, dunking the mop in water, then scrubbing again. Dunk in water, scrub, dunk, scrub, dunk, scrub, dunk— She winced as a sharp pain shot through her hand. She made a face as she looked at it, at the next wound. Her hands were bleeding from all the cleaning already. She ignored it, though. It didn't make a difference anyway, she couldn't stop working. Even though she was super tired, and hungry, and hot, and she didn't want to do this anymore. She wanted to go home, she wanted her parents, she wanted her mama to hug her and her papa to kiss her head— No, stop, don't think about home, Keeli thought to herself, it'll only make you cry, and you can't cry!
