Open Sea

The Skull Brothers

Alexander threw Mirabelle his coat.

"Put it on, it'll be chilly once we set sail."

Mirabelle did as she was told unable to remove her gaze from his mask, it was scratched and banged up. She could only imagine the stories behind each individual scratch, that mask had already lived a more fulfilling life than she had.

Alexander walked over to the window and looked down, "Well doesn't seem too far down." he pulled on her linen and began to tie them together expertly until he reached the desired length.

"Alright that should do." He tied one end to the bed post and threw the other end out the window.

"Wait why don't we just go through the house?" she asked.

"Because darling the crew if they see you will eat you alive on sight, even small little Denela. You're more of a personal treasure for me, I'm taking you to the ship myself." he stepped aside and motioned towards the window.

"After you milady."

She rolled her eyes and walked over to the window, she looked down and an instant feeling of fear completely over took her. She stumbled back and tripped, "Nope nope, I can't do that, I'll die!" she stammered.

Alexander sighed, "No actually you won't die, c'mon it ain't that high." he looked at her and saw the terror in her face. He walked over to her knelt down leveling his face with hers. He looked at her directly in the eyes. He grabbed her hands and slowly comforted her.

"Easy I know it seems scary but come on this is what adventure feels like, that pulse racing thrill that you're feeling its fear but of the good kind. Look I'm going to go down first and wait for you down there, I'll make sure that if you fall you don't hit the ground. Deal?"

She looked him in the eyes, his piercing green eyes showing concern for her. She felt like she could trust this man, this pirate standing in front of her.

She nodded, he helped her up.

He walked over to the window and slung a leg out of it, he grabbed the linen and once he had a good grip he threw his other leg out placing them both against the outside wall and began his descent down. Mirabelle watched in amazement as he expertly made his way down, keeping a firm grip on the linen and releasing ever so slightly whenever he would go down. He reached the bottom and waved at her signaling her to start going down.

A slight breeze blew in through the window sending a shiver down her spine. She wrapped the coat tighter around her body, catching a slight smell of Alexander. A mixture of sweet caramel and a summer breeze, she closed her eyes taking the smell in. She looked down at him.

She had to trust him, "Let's go Mira, this is the first step to living a fulfilling life. Come on you can do it." she slowly lifted her leg over the edge and sat on the window ledge her legs dangling outside.

"OK ok doing good so far, now grab the linen and then take your other leg out." she grabbed on to the linen tightly causing her knuckles to go white from how tightly she was holding. She took a deep breath in and brought her other leg out following Alexander's lead by placing them on the wall, she was out. Now she just had to make her way down, her arms began to shake. "Come on let's go almost there." she said to herself. Step by step she started heading down, each step giving her more confidence.

"Hey this isn't that hard." she though to herself. She looked down and saw she had barely made it halfway.

"Let's go Miravette your almost there come on! Take bigger steps, and ease your grip a little more." Alexander shouted from the bottom.

She nodded, she took larger steps and eased her grip on the linen. Her descent began to increase speed and the fear that she had in the beginning slowly vanished as she reached the bottom. Once close to the ground she jumped down and let out a sigh of relief.