A Shade Darker ✔️

{Chapter Sixty One}

Slave

April 4th, 2018

Mike

The weeks seemed to pass by now aboard the ship very quickly. Everyone moved around so frantically and there was always work to do. There was always ropes to be tied, stock to be checked, and someone to steer the ship.

But I grew lonely as the days grew warmer and I was slowly surviving it seemed without my family. My daughter was at home, and my wife, always running around the ship fetching things for men, shaving their faces, and fixing mending their wounds and laundry.

It seemed that the men had grown fond of her, greeting her every morning with smiles and bows of heads. Even laughter rang out among the crew, and she frequently wore a smile on her face.

I blinked a few times, staring at the blank mirror in front of me and wondering if I would ever smile again. My mouth seemed to hold a permanent frown, and it became dry from lack of conversation.

The last words I had said to Ashley were ones giving advice on how to tie the ropes correctly, but even that was nearly three weeks ago. And when I walked onto the deck in the mornings, I almost felt as invisible as my reflection.

I splashed the straight razor down into the soapy water and watched as a small figure entered my cabin with an arm full of laundry.

She said nothing as she entered, only dropped the clothes on the bed and gathered up last night's shirt.

I looked over my shoulder, watching as she placed a new clean shirt on the bed post and gathered up the laundry again.

"You're up early..." I watched her back stiffen at the sound of my voice, as if someone had threatened her and she was planning out an escape.

She took time placing the dirty laundry on the floor and fixing the sheets on my bed.

"There's work to be done" She replied softly, her voice barely carrying over the walls and to me.

I only nodded, dragging the razor up my chin to get rid of the stubble that began growing from two days ago.

I heard no movement and glanced at the mirror again, watching her eyes shift away from my gaze as if she had been burned.

She cleared her throat and finished pulling the first sheet over the bed.

"You missed a spot...near your neck" I stood still, rinsing the razor in the water again.

She pulled the blankets up over the bed and completed her job, coming over to me and grabbing the razor out of my fingers.

She put her fingers on my chin and lifted it. I shivered at the touch. Her hands were cold, fingers skinny.

I kept my eyes down on her face, tan and shiny with a small layer of sweat from the sunlight outside. Freckles began forming across the bridge of her nose, something I had never seen her with before.

She lightly drags the razor up my neck and I can hear the hair as it gets shaved away. The small crackle and then the rinsing of the razor.

She runs her fingers up the spot where she shaved and nodded with satisfaction to herself, but a frown and tight lips still remained.

She let out a slow breath and held the razor out for me. I stared down at her but couldn't pull her eyes up to mine in my silent pleadings.

I took the razor from her fingers and she took a step back.

"I've got work to do..." She whispered her excuse to leave before walking back over to the floor to grab the dirty laundry she had dropped.

I turned back to the empty mirror and just started down at the bowl of water.