Temptations

ɎChapter♠TwentyThreeɎ

 Sammy's arms hurt from mopping the floors of the main deck all morning. Since he was only 12 years old he was only supposed to clean and cook; the work of a housewife. Though he was lucky to be allowed aboard the famous Crimson Queen since his father was part of Gaspar's crew, he still hoped he'd have learned how to fight and how to be an actual part of the crew.

He'd been trying to prove himself to Captain Gaspar but she'd barely bat an eye at every attempt. It'd already been a year, yet no one had come to tell him he could stop. Not even his father who only two years ago discovered one of the Pirate Gulf's courtesans had given birth to his son when Sammy confronted him.

It really was a shot in the dark. He'd watched the 20 or so pirates who walked off the marvelous red ship and towards the pubs and taverns. He made sure to pick someone with somewhat of the same features as him and who had regular, drunken stupors with a random whore. Then he simply confronted the man saying "My name is Sammy Calon and I'm your son." He let the panic and irrationality do the rest.

A couple of days later and he found himself aboard the ship itself, standing in front of Gaspar herself looking up at her with his jaw dropped. She'd barely glanced at him before assigning him, busboy.

He sighed, leaning on the tip of the broom just as Jack and Tanner came out, dragging the prisoner behind them. His skin was red all over, peeling and raw, and salt stuck to his skin as if he'd rolled around on a beach.

"Follow," Jack said in his deep, gruff voice. Sammy quickly picked up his mop and followed them down to the hull and into the kitchen. The other pirates were down eating dinner, making a mess of things as usual. But they all stopped what they were doing to watch as the Jack and Tanner dropped the prisoner on his feet. "You don't touch him," Jack told them, then he took Sammy's broom and handed it to the prisoner. "You clean. Or you die."

The prisoner grunted as the broom was pushed into his hands, but he stood straight, ignoring whatever pain he was in. He glanced up, their gazes meeting for a second before he looked away. But Sammy saw it, the defiance, the anger, the strength. He wasn't done yet. Whatever Gaspar did to him now, would only make him stronger. Jack turned to Sammy "Teach him what you know, and I'll teach you." Sammy nodded.

"Aye, sir." They both left, Tanner patting Sammy's hair and leaving him and the prisoner in the room with the pirates.

"If it isn't the Rear Admiral." They laughed as if it were some kind of joke. Sammy didn't get it but he laughed anyway. They surrounded him, like an animal, but no one touched him. No one would defy Gaspar, not even his second. "Look at the pretty little ballerina."

The prisoner didn't laugh or crack a smile, he didn't scowl or roll his eyes. He ignored them all completely and began mopping. Never had Sammy see a man do that to the crew, and apparently, neither had the crew.

"Oi!" One of the men, Harvey, an angrier and more unpredictable pirate, shoved him. No one said a word. "We're talkin' to yer!" He shoved him again but the prisoner just took it. Sammy was pushed out of the way as the crew added some space for Harvey and the prisoner. He could barely see anything. "What? Think yer better than us?" He said, pushing him again.

Sammy knew what was going to happen, and he had to see it. So he jumped up on the table to get a better view. Someone had taken the prisoner's mop, and Harvey was in his face. The prisoner simply looked straight ahead and didn't say anything, as if his gaze went right through him.

"Think yer some sort of special soldier?" Harvey spit in his face, smirking as the saliva dripped down his cheek. "Yer nothin'."

Slowly, with a deathly calm, the prisoner lifted a hand to his cheek and wiped away the saliva. He looked up at Harvey, blinked, and punched him in the face.