Silk Spider Web

Captured

I am unaware of the period of time which has passed since we were kidnapped by these demons, bundled up indifferently and put into this foul hellhole. This journey has successfully taken the lives of many of my fellow people. With disgusting waste overflowing the floor of this wooden contraption, rats and other foreign creatures quickly have appeared, burrowing their way into our depleted food stock, contaminating it and spreading their vile diseases.

 In the time that we have endured this journey, the fatal disease of Cholera snatched up poor young Ben. At the timid age of 13, poor Ben had become an orphan from a harvest which went badly wrong one year. Scrawny and lonely, Ben often would appear in our midst being all too happy to help out with the daily tasks in our village in return for some food and shelter. We loved Ben as if he were our younger brother or son. Curled up in a corner, with bones protruding from his frail frame, hollowed eyes blankly staring up at the ceiling, Ben spent his last moments in this way. “Sing me a song,” he muttered minutes before he passed.

   At once, in unison, the entire lower deck sung out, our voices joining as one stringing together the words of a lullaby we used to sing to the young children, helping them to sleep. By the end of the song, his hazel eyes were glazed over, lifeless. Stepping over weeping to close his eyes for once and for all, I must remind myself that his soul is finally at peace now and he is at a better place.

At the moment, I feel as if I am in a state of delirium, not being able to tell dreams from reality. Recently, whilst I had passed out, dehydrated, I had the most wonderful vision of my family – being led by my younger brother dashing across the African fields towards my extended and unbound arms.. only to be herded off, gagged and beaten to a bloody pulp. I awoke to the sight of the entire party of the lower decks staring at me from the corner of the ship, petrified of my feral state.  Vomiting into the already grime coated floor I realized that their petrified, faces had reflected a mixture of fear, desperation and pity as they understood what I was going through, for we all shared the same burden and wish to be free.

 Weary, fatigued and severely weakened by disease, the wooden contraption finally stopped and our hellish journey came to an end. Severely malnutritioned, dehydrated, bearing the insurmountable, fatal disease of cholera, my naïve, and delusional mind wildly believed that the suffering had ended along with the disastrous journey. Concluding, that the land at which we had reached which lay waiting, for us no calling for us at this very moment, was our beloved homeland Harmonie.       

Stumbling blindly,  I was shoved mercilessly above the lower decks along with my other fellows.  Oh how wonderful the air tasted in comparison to the horrible tainted stench of the lower decks.  Struggling to stand against the sound of the once thrashing wave, gently lapping the sides of the wood, weakened dangerously yet still alive,  I realized that I was claustrophobic and that never would I ever subject myself to the brutal treatment I had just received. I would do everything in my power to remain above ground in wide open spaces, realizing that this thought was pointless seeing as I had been bought back to Harmonie , I felt much more contented. However, as my eyes slowly adjusted to the intensity of the sunlight, the sights which my frail brain were slowly processing were becoming more and more unlike that of the welcoming, visual sights of my homeland. Minutes later, my now relieved nose, picked up the unfamiliar and revolting stench of the White kidnappers.  Attempting to absorb as much as possible of my surroundings with my damaged eye sight, I wearily glanced around. The strange sights which befell me took me be surprise. Instead of feasting my eyes upon the calming and reassuring sight of the surf gently lapping against the sandy coast, I found myself forced to cast my eyesight upon the disturbing image of white demon land.

The coast covered with so little sand, was an intoxicatingly filthy yellow in contrast to the plentiful soft, white sand of our homeland. Bile and hate rose up in my throat and I had to suppress the intense urge to vomit. My reaction was laughable in comparison to the reactions of my other fellows, most of whom were throwing up onto the wood uncontrollably, unused to the intensity of the sunlight after being trapped in the unfathomable hellhole. However this heart- wrenching display, left the white demons unfazed, most of which were turning up their bloated noses up in distaste. Some had actually passed out, and were cruelly being prodded and slapped, hopelessly being bought back to the nightmarish reality, forced to accept the recent series of traumatic events.  

It was not until the heavy handcuffs were enclosed over my torn and bleeding hands, that I remembered that Ben was still down below, lying there, as lifeless as a doll, caged like a fly in a spider’s silk web.

Back in Harmonie, Ben loved the outdoors, dashing across the fields of the savannah happily despite his traumatic past, free as a butterfly, his sole purpose to help out as much as he could in the village or to entertain the young ones, with a sparkling laugh which could bring out the smile from even the grumpiest elderly. And now, now he was enclosed below amongst foul rubbish, utterly out of place, something broke inside of me at that moment.

There was only so much the white demons could control. But this, this was too much, blindly, ignoring the excruciating pain I was experienced I let out a strangled roar which reflected the pain and suffering we had felt, the diseases which had befallen us, the slaughtered young, innocent, my young brother back at home who would never know where I disappeared, and finally young Ben so out of place, caged below decks, a lifeless doll, Nothing else mattered in that moment. Forgetting myself, my surroundings, the throbbing pain, forgetting everything except for the dangerous fury which pulsed through my very veins, which had been concealed for so very long, I attacked.

  Elbowing the captors in the stomach as hard as  I could, I immediately felt their grips slacken, a second later, they fell with a dull thud against the ground, unconscious. Yet My fury had not been satisfied, running across the wood, I hurled myself at the puny captain, punching his stupid pink face, dragging my filthy nails down his deranged face, ignoring the blood which was gushing down his face onto my shaking hands. He had fallen unconscious moments ago, yet I attacked his feeble chest punching will all the strength I could muster, thinking of nothing except my fury. Just as I was about to deliver another blow to his cracked skull, I felt myself wrenched back by at least 5 white men, savagely I struggled against them, I was so absorbed in inflicting pain upon them, I failed to notice the wooden underside of an all too familiar bat.