The Summer Siren

Astrid

I'm woken up suddenly by boots stomping down the stairs. I don't know when I fell asleep, but it was long enough for crust to form in the corners of my eyes. I stand up and rub my eyes quickly before I step in front of the cell door. I'm hoping it was long enough that my night in solitary is over, but when I see Jake standing in front of me with an evil grin on his face. I take a step back, "What do you want?"

He laughs and then leans on the door of the cell, "I've come to see the interesting girl that has captured the eye of my captain. There's only been one girl able to do that in the history of our crew and she died last year. Disappeared off the face of the planet. Then you show up and send him into his funk once again. I was finally getting him back to his ruthless self. You've ruined him again."

I take another step back and I want to do nothing more than crawl in a hole and disappear. My hands are shaking, and I try to hide it by clasping them behind my back, but it just shows off the front of my body more so I bring them back and cross my arms around the front of my chest, trying to block his view of my body as best as I can. "I never did anything with him. How did I ruin him?" I whisper.

He slams his fist against the door and ignores my question. Suddenly, like he was possessed he stands up and starts looking for something. He starts mumbling to himself and then suddenly, he yells "Aha!"

He rushes back over to the cell and starts to mess with the lock. He's still mumbling, but I can hear what he's saying now that his back isn't turned towards me, "He won't want you anymore if you're ruined and broken."

He continues to mumble these same sentences repeatedly while he fumbles with the locks of the cell door. I've cornered myself in the room, shrinking into myself trying to curl into a ball. I don't notice the shadow behind him and the next thing I know he's screaming while being held in the air by his captain. "What are you doing?" Ace asks, not yelling but certainly not quiet either.

"I was taking care of your problem for you. You have far too much on your plate, captain. She's only going to burden you further. You just want Annalise back, but you won't ever get her back. She's gone captain. This girl isn't going to replace her, she's not strong enough! I can already tell."

I tune him out, even though he continues to talk about how weak I am. I lay my head down onto my knees and think about how he's right. I am weak and the only reason I was strong enough to almost kill him on my ship, had to be because it had to be an adrenaline rush. That's the only thing that can explain it.

Wallowing in self-pity I hadn't realized that the two men had unlocked the cell and made their ways over to me. Ace picks me up by the back of my shirt and sets me on my feet, "Get out."

You could tell it was an order, so I quickly got out of the cell and waited by the bottom of the stairs. Watching the best I could through the small bars, I see Ace place Jake on his feet and then suddenly he punches him in the jaw, "If you can't follow your captains' orders then you can spend the night in here. I won't tolerate the disrespect Jake and you of all people should know that."

Jake falls to the ground with the hit, but it doesn't take him long to sit up, holding his cheek, "Yes, Captain."

He doesn't move as Ace makes his way to the door, locks it and then makes his way over to me. "This doesn't change your sentence. You're just being moved to a different cell for the rest of the night," he says, turning me around and guiding me up the stairs with my arm behind my back once again, this time it's only slightly looser than before.

"I'm sorry," I sniffle, no longer crying but still feeling the effects of it.

"It's not your fault, I stepped away for a moment to go talk to my men about something and he saw the chance and took it. I'm ashamed that my first mate is the one who broke my trust and orders, especially with something as trivial as this," he sighs.