His Perfect Wife Strikes Back

46 The Fear Of The Unknown

The woman told me her name was Fiona. At first, Fiona's boyfriend lied about going abroad with his best friend to make a fortune. He tricked Fiona into going with him. Fiona was tempted, but her boyfriend sold her to the Karr brothers, who owned the boat. Fiona's boyfriend counted the money in front of her and left without looking back.

Fiona was kept in a cabin where the women were sold by their families or partners. No one knows where they will be sold. They were confined like piglets in a small space, and the guards would come by regularly to deliver food, but the food was limited, so the hungry women fought like mad for it. Then the watchman stood aside and laughed as if he were watching a play.

"Sometimes the Karr brothers allow the guards to come in and have some fun," Fiona whispered. "When their d.icks are itchy, they'll f.uck any woman they want!"

"Right here?" Every time I open my mouth, my brain stings like it's being ripped apart by a steel wire.

"Yes, right here!" Fiona said, glancing at a bedpan in the crowd across the way. "They're animals. They don't mind getting dirty at all!"

"Help me!" I whispered into Fiona's ear. "Let's get out of here!"

Fiona frowned and made a shh gesture. "They have guns. Just yesterday, a woman tried to take the guard's gun, but she was quickly knocked out by the guard and never came back!"

Outside the cabin came the dull, loud sound of the freighter's anchoring. Fiona looked at me sadly, as if to tell me that there was no hope!

Fiona pulled a crusty piece of bread from her pocket and offered it to me. She told me that food and water were provided on the boat only once a day. She had managed to snatch the little loaf of bread from the other woman.

I ate hard bread, and the lack of water made my throat feel like something was blocking it. The cabin at night was so cold that I shivered. Many of the women in captivity sleep close together. Fiona leaned over me, and after a long time, I passed out from exhaustion.

After some time, I was awakened by a man's roar, and saw one of the men at the door come into the cabin with a gun, and strike the handle of his gun against the floor to wake all the sleeping women.

The other women looked at him with fear in their eyes. They all looked down, afraid to look up at him. The man smiled smugly. He wore a red checkered scarf around his neck and held a gun with black dirt on his fingers.

"Don't look at him!" Fiona said to me in a low voice. "He's having fun!"

Fiona pulled the blanket up over me, trying to cover my face. Then she hung her head like the other women.

"Look up, you lowly women!" The guard seemed to be drunk, and his mouth smelled of cheap wine as he spoke.

"I said raise your head!" He went up to a blonde woman and struck her body with the butt of his gun. "Are you deaf?"

The woman clung to her body and screamed. Another short-haired woman next to her was also beaten. The others huddled together with their hands over their heads, not daring to resist.

"Hey, where's the new girl tonight?" The guard turned around. "Come out and don't make me come after you, or I'll put a bullet in you!"

Fiona held me in silence as the guard came within five paces of me and stopped.

His gruff voice echoed above my head.

"Come out, you b.itch!"

The cabin was so quiet that no one dared to speak. The dim chandelier rattled. The guard belches. He puts the gun on the ground and tugs at Fiona with his hand.

"Is that you, is that you?"

"Let her go! You b.astard!" I pulled the blanket from my body and rushed to the guard, who fell to the ground because he lost his balance.

I grabbed his gun and pistol-whipped him over the head. All the women in the room screamed.

"Don't scream!" I said to them, holding up my gun. "Who wants to rush out with me?"

None of the women responded, and finally Fiona stood up and said, "I'm with you!"

Then I heard a noise outside the door. Another guard knocked hard on the door and asked, "Rute, are you finished?"

I motioned for silence, then crept to the side of the door. After a while, the door opened and another guard came in.

"F.uck, Rute! What the f.uck are you doing?"

I hit him on the back of the head with the butt of my gun as he rushed at his partner. The man fell to the ground. He turned to look at me and tried to reach for the gun.

I rushed over and hit him on the head a few more times. Now he's completely out. Blood oozed from his forehead.

The other women were so frightened that they dared not make a sound or move.

I gingerly led Fiona out the door. I looked up at the stairs. The deck was quiet, and I guessed no one was on it.

Fiona followed me up the stairs, and I gave her the gun I had taken from the guard, and we walked in different directions. I went first to the control room. She is responsible for keeping an eye out for me.

I slipped into the cockpit, and through the window I could see two pilots inside. One of them was sitting on a chair with a bottle of wine in his hand, and the other was facing the steering wheel.

"Hey, buddy! I have to pee!" said the grizzled driver.

I stood outside the door and watched him push it open. He swayed left and right down the aisle to the deck. As he was about to unbutton his pants to pee, I hit him right in the head.

There was a muffled sound as he fell to the ground, which made his companion rush out to check the situation.

"Don't make a sound, get in!" I said to the pilot, pointing my gun at him. "If you don't want your head to explode, put your hands up and go into the control room!"

He obediently raised his hands, and I followed him into the control room with a gun to his back. He sat back down in front of the control panel.

"Where is the ship going now?" I asked.

"Pudding Island!" The pilot said truthfully.

"How long will it take to get back to Manhattan?"

"At least two days!" he said.

"Turn around and go back! Now!" I said in a commanding voice.

"No, the Karr brothers will kill me," the driver said reluctantly. "I don't want to be chopped up and fed to pigs!"

"Or you can be the bait!" I poked him in the back with the muzzle of my gun. "Do as I say!"

Just as the driver was about to operate, the door was kicked open. I saw the dark-haired man I had seen on the dock come in. He had a gun at Fiona's head with one hand and her neck with the other.

"Put the gun down or I'll shoot your partner!" The dark-haired man's eyes were so fierce that Fiona could hardly breathe in his hands.

Damn it! I curse in my heart.

Just as I was hesitating, I saw the man in front of me wink at the pilot, who immediately threw me from behind onto the ground. The gun flew from my hand to the ground.

The pilot put all his weight on me, and the black-haired man kicked the gun aside as his buddies charged the room with their guns. I saw that one of them was the guard in the red scarf that I had just knocked out.

He rushed to the front and kicked me hard in the face.

"Rute, stop it!" The dark-haired man shouted. "I need her face to make money!"

They stripped me naked and tied me to the mast, and the sea breeze blew through my body like a knife, cold and painful. I watched them take Fiona away, and for the first time I regretted my impulse.

The boundless deep sea is as dark as the night sky. The hope in my heart is taken away by the sea breeze, and replaced by the fear of the unknown.