Never Letting Go || CS

Chapter Four: Held For Ransom

As she sat up, Emma's eyes adjusted to the darkness of where she was being kept. Emma recalled the recent events of how she got here. When they reached the docks, they hit her over the head with something large and heavy. After that, everything went black. That was the last thing she remembered before waking up here with a pounding headache. Her hands were still bound behind her back and her hairstyle was ruined. Her dress had dirt stains on it, probably from the dirty floor on which she sat.

The room she was in was made of wood and through the gaps in the wood small slits of sunlight leaked through. The room had one small, lone wooden door on the right side, and it had a few crates and barrels lining the walls. Emma assumed she looked dreadful, considering that's how she felt. She felt like she had no energy left to move and her mouth felt dry. She heard faint footsteps above her, and the creaking of wood all around. Fear swept over her as she heard a set of footsteps coming closer to her. They stopped directly outside the door and she could hear shuffling and fumbling for about half a minute. She heard the lock click and the door swung open and the light that flooded in almost blinded her. "Ah good, you're awake." Is all Emma heard before she was roughly pulled up onto her feet. She was so weak that she almost fell down when all her weight was put on her legs. When she regained her balance, she was roughly shoved towards the open door. In any other situation she would have protested to this rude way of handling her, she was a princess after all, but today she just didn't have the effort, or the courage to go against anything right now. Besides, she felt that it would only get her into more trouble than she already was.

The man guided her up a set of wooden stairs and out into the blinding sunlight. It was then when her stomach dropped. She looked around to see nothing but ocean surrounding her. No land was in sight on any side. "Good afternoon, Princess" the words were spat out like they were poison on his tongue. "So good of you to join us." Emma looked towards where the voice was coming form. She saw the voice belonged to a tall, thin man with a long chin and a black goatee beard covering his chin. He had black hair that reached the bottom of his ears, which had one gold earring in the left ear. He was wearing a crimson overcoat which reached his knees that was held shut by a small golden clasp that sat about half way down his torso. He was wearing scuffed black boots that reached mid shin and black leather trousers. "Allow me to introduce myself. I'm Captain Morgan and you are Princess Emma, aren't you?" Emma nodded quickly as the captain slowly approached her. "Quite a pretty thing you are, aren't you?" Emma just stared at him, unable to answer the question. "You are lucky enough to be aboard The Poison Serpent . One of the most feared ships to ever sail the seas." The captain said with a proud smirk on his face. "Might I ask why I'm here?" Emma said, trying but failing to fill the question with power. Instead, it came out weak and to that, the captain's smirk grew wider. "Well, we want money and your kingdom has it. We simply want to trade you for your parents' wealth. If they do what we say, you will remain alive. If they do not, you will die in 7- well, now 6 days." Emma's expression turned to pure fear.

She knew that the pirates would not hesitate to kill her at any point. The only value she had to them was the money she would bring form the ransom. "Don't worry. I'm sure your parents care about you enough to pay for your return." By now he was so close to her that she could smell his putrid breath. He strode off to take his place at the wheel and ordered them to tie her to the mast.

After about half a day tied to the mast of the ship, Emma was severely dehydrated, and the sun's rays constantly beating down on her, making her incredibly hot did nothing to help her situation. By now, she was struggling to remain conscious. The captain did notice this but only smirked at his achievement. He strived to make her life hard, for he promised that she would return home alive, he did not, however, promise the princess would return unharmed. He smirked at his thoughts as he continued to steer the ship.