The Rookie Pirates (Parts 1-6)

25. The Wooden Puppet

Alex's normally laid-back demeanour slowly changed and his face contorted into an all-consuming anger; his nostrils flared, his hands gripped tightly around the metal bars of the cell until his knuckles turned white.

Profane words came spewing out from his mouth as he cursed under his breath, releasing his pent-up emotions towards the high priest stood before him.

The sly look from the shadow of the priest's face made Alex angrier.

He slammed himself against the bars, his arm reaching out to claw at the priest in an attempt to harm him in some way but failed miserably when all he caught was his hood. It slowly fell back, revealing the ugly monstrosity beneath.

The man was bald and old, with a large protruding nose, sunken eyes and saggy yellow skin covered in hideous tribal tattoos. When Alex looked closer, he could see that the black tattoos were moving.

The priest stared darkly towards Alex - angry that his face had been uncovered. He raised his hand, revealing the tattoo of a hissing snake on his palm.

Suddenly, his hand struck forward and gripped tightly onto Alex's arm and the snake of the tattoo bit into his flesh.

"Argh!" Alex jumped back, falling on the ground and hissed as his palms grazed against the floor.

He gripped his arm where the tattoo snake had bit him. Two pinprick punctures were visible on his skin, along with a mixture of blood and ink oozing out from the wound. His arm instantly started to throb and swell red.

"Son of a bitch!" Alex cursed towards him. "What the hell have you done to me?"

"I've poisoned you." The priest merely laughed at him. "You have ten minutes left to live."

He glared towards Alex, concentrating all of his energy on his power to create a tattoo of a barbed wire around Alex's neck and slowly tightening it. Alex instantly started to choke and gasp for breath as the sharpness of the wire slowly cut through his flesh, and soon after, warm blood began to ooze from his wound.

Alex reached up to his neck, clawing at his own flesh at a desperate attempt to save his own life but causing more harm than good as he only added to his pain and suffering. He keeled over on to the ground, having no energy left to fight back, his breaths were short and raspy at an attempt to breathe in some amount of oxygen.

"Beg my pardon!"

Never in his wildest dream would Alex have thought that that particular annoying voice would be a blessing to his ears.

Startled by the appearance of a puppet, its wooden face illuminated by a torch held in its hands, the priest lost his concentration and unconsciously released Alex from his attack.

Immediately, Alex gasped for air, coughing continuously as his airways opened up to the oxygen he took for granted, he must have been deprived of too much air, he could have sworn he saw a talking puppet.

However, now wasn't the time to be worried about his injury or talking puppets, he had to get out of here and fast. Jessica was his priority.

"Hello!" Baden waved one of his wooden hands towards the priest.

Alex paled, and the tattooed man screamed, which caused Baden to scream back at him. His wooden hands placed on his cheeks in shock-horror, scaring the priest even more than he already had.

"Oh my, you startled me!" Baden chuckled.

"I startled you?" The priest shouted back. "You're the living-breathing-talking-puppet!"

The priest turned his tattoo attack onto Baden.

However, as Baden looked down and felt his hands around his body in an attempt to find where the tattoos were, he saw nothing. He couldn't even feel himself choking to death like Alex had only moments ago.