Never Letting Go || CS

Chapter Five: The Marauders

Emma had eventually passed out from the excuciating pain of having both of her shoulders dislocated due to the previous day's events. She did eventually wake up and continued to scream and cry in pain until her throat was raw. At that point she could scream no more and silent tears just constantly streamed down her face.

It was now dusk and Emma had stopped screaming hours ago, but she was still crying. It was agonising because the crew had been told not to help her, so she was left with dislocated shoulders and she was unable to move her arms. She just leant against the wall of the room she'd been shut in for the past day, wishing for death. She'd had enough of the pain that was constantly there. It was driving her to madness.

Heavy boots could be heard coming towards the door. The lock clicked and the door made a creaking sound as it opened, revealing a slim blonde man, no older than 30. He silently walked over to her, drink and bread in hand, and held it to her mouth, as she couldn't move her arms to take it for herself. She refused to eat it, not wanting to give the captain the satisfaction of having the gold which was promised to him in exchange for Emma. She now wanted to die, no longer caring about survival.

After a few minutes of the man trying to get her to eat, he left her alone once more. The room was now almost dark and Emma just listened to the waves lap up gently on the side of the ship.

Just then, she heard the shouts of the crew members above and they sounded panicked. Emma could only make out small phrases that were said like; "Enemy ship approaching!" Or "Load the cannons!" The low thuds of many men's frantic shuffling could be heard from where Emma was. Soon, cannon fire was booming loudly and echoing around the room. This persisted for about 20 minutes until everything went deadly silent. All that could be heard was the gentle creaking of wooden boards as the ship moved to the rhythm of the waves.

Suddenly, the sound of metal on metal burst into life as many sword fights were taking place at once on the top deck. Shouting and high winds were heard over the top of the deafening sound of swords colliding with one another. Dust fell down through the cracks in the wood because of all the movement going on above Emma and curiosity was getting the better of her, but of course she could barely move.

On the top deck was a sea of dead and dying bodies, mostly of the crew that sailed the poison serpent. The remaining crew soon surrendered, knowing that they had lost the furious battle. All that was left was the Captain of both ships as they stood facing each other, taking stance ready to fight. "Give it up already, you know you've lost, mate." The invader taunted Morgan. "You know me better than to think I, of all people, would give in so easily Killian, surely!" Captain Morgan retorted. "It was worth a try." Hook shrugged.

As if they had both anticipated each other's next move, they both lunged forwards at once, making their swords connect in the center. "I'm giving you a chance to surrender all of your precious cargo to me now, or die and we'll take it anyway." Hook smirked whilst he said this, his ego inflating massively. Although, this was just a mask he wore to hide the man behind the callous, unfeeling persona of Captain Hook, the most feared pirate to sail the seas. He had never dropped this wall he'd built up around Killian, the man inside all of that, to anyone, and he didn't plan on letting the lost, broken man out any time soon. He saw this as weakness.

"And miss out on the fun of duelling with you, Hook? Never!" Captain Morgan replied, carrying on their less than playful banter. "As you wish." Hook said with a small bow before swinging his sword around, trying to disarm the other captain. Morgan matched his movements and stopped his sword in mid swing. The remaining crew members that hadn't been killed or fled from the losing battle had stopped fighting in order to watch the duel between the two captains.

They erupted into swords clashing and boots hitting the dark wood of the deck as both men fought in hopes of victory. Hook was getting pushed further and further towards the side of the ship as Morgan seemed to be winning. Just as Hook's back touched the damp wood of the side of the ship, he sliced at Morgan's torso and made a deep gash in his side. Morgan doubled over and grunted heavily in pain as blood seeped from the fresh slice. Hook took this chance to disarm Morgan, pushing the sword away from his hand and pointing the blade's tip close to his neck. Morgan held up his hands in surrender as one of Hook's crew went to tie Captain Morgan's hands together behind his back. "Take him prisoner aboard our ship and I'll go searching below deck for anything of value to us."

Hook descended the steps that lead below deck and looked around every room on there. He rooted through every drawer, cupboard and cabinet he could find, but he found nothing of value. The Last room he reached was right at the end of the hallway, almost out of sight. He almost missed it because it was so insignificant. But, he thought it would be worth checking just In case there was anything in there.

It took him a minute or two to finish picking the lock that was placed on the door. That's what made this room more intriguing to Hook. He wondered why such an unimportant looking door would need a lock on it. With a small click, the door swung open to reveal a small, dark room which had a few crates lining the walls. As Hook glanced around, his eyes finally adjusted to the low lighting and he saw a frail-looking young girl leaning against the back wall. Her skin was so pale that she looked almost dead and under her eyes were dark purple bags. The light pink dress she was wearing had dirt all over it and was ripped in several places. She had bare feet and her hair was a tangled blonde birds nest. Dark purple and black bruises covered her entire shoulders and some swelling was evident near the socket of her arm.

Hook approached her and knelt down to eye level with her. There he saw that this girl was barely conscious but he still tried to get some answers from her. "What's you name?" His accent was a beautiful thick British one. The type that women swooned over. She didn't respond to the question, not that Hook expected her to.

Without another word, he picked her up with one arm under her knees and the other behind her back, being careful not to catch her smooth skin on his hook. He took her aboard his ship, where he laid her in his own private cabin. In there, he called the only doctor on board to examine her.

"It seems that both of her shoulders are dislocated, captain. The only way this could have happened is if-" the captain cut him off with his own theory. "She'd been hung up by just her arms. Why would they do this to her?" The captain asked, not understanding how someone could stoop as low as hurting a woman.
"I don't know cap'n, but if I don't put her arms back into place soon, the damage may be irreversible. Would you like me to do it?" The doctor asked the captain. He responded with; "Aye, you see to it that she is given as much help as possible whilst I go and have a little chat with our dear captain." Hook had a smirk on his face as he left the cabin to go and get some answers off of Captain Morgan.