Skinny, malnourished boys and girls all shimmied along the line from the ship. You could see their bony features through their oversized clothes. One of them locked eyes with me and then immediately dropped his head.
Burning ancient rage rages inside me. I burn with it.
Despite everything that happened, despite the amount of violence that occurred last night, this pushes me. I want every person on that ship dead and killed and all those kids somewhere safe.
I don't know what it is about this particular ship. Maybe I'm going crazy, but I feel like I know it in my bones.
Maybe that's why I'm standing on my feet, inching closer. I'm not exactly covert. I'm tall as hell, and my face is probably plastered all over the kingdom right now. Despite that I'm confident. I'm light on my feet, and I've been training for years to make movements that draw a crowd to my attention and ones that allow me to move as silent as the wind.
I sneak through the secondary hatch, the one that enters into the luggage, and see the rest of the kids, their eyes going wide as they see me. One of the kids opens their mouth, probably to scream, but I move a finger towards my mouth, silencing them all.
I look around for guards and fall short.
There is a drunk sailor with a swollen belly lounging on the floor, probably passed out drunk, monitoring the kids. I retrieve my knife and hover over the drunker. I make sure my body is covering the length of him so when I stab him, the kids won't see.
I roll him on his belly so they won't see the blood.
I turned back to the kids still all wide-eyed seeing me. I inch closer to them. I crouch down, looking at the chains that bind them all. It's one long one that ties around their wrists, and it makes me want to roar. I inch closer, trying to think of how to unlock their chains, but the boy flinches. Fucking flinches.
I tried to think of how to reassure him, but my gaze wandered to the flag in the signet on it. It's finally clear enough for me to recognize Captain Shitface.
That's why I called him when I was brought in this ship, the same ship that brought me into this very country to be sold. I never learned his name. I never saw him again.
Those weeks in that shit in this ship were the worst weeks of my life. I was so scared, puking my guts out because the stench of the corpse of the first kid that died was never thrown overboard, and we were stuck smelling the stench of it and never brought food as much as in the crew, maybe once a day if we were lucky.
I look away before I have the chance take care of the men upstairs, slaughtering them until all of them were dead and reveal what I'm doing here.
Wow, where did those come from?
I shake off my head trying to concentrate. I come through my trousers grinning, realizing that I still have the pocket picker. And in a few quick movements I unlock his risks. He looks surprised, but doesn't think much of it before he turns to the rest of the kids saying something in a language I don't quite understand. I think it's from the Eastern provinces.
I have no idea what they said to them, but apparently it was enough because the rest of the kids look at me with awe.
I make it to the rest of the kids until each and every one of them is free from these shackles again. I lift my finger to my mouth, silencing them all, but they know better than to speak. I leave them looking to see if there is any of the crew outside of the Bay.
There are two who are smoking.
I move towards them, putting on a friendly face. "Hey there." One of them nods at me, the other looks confused. I punch the first one in the face, clunking him to the other man's call, then knocking them out.
Where that strength came from?
I made the whistling sound to let the children know that it's all right to come out. The boy that I let out first, pokes his head. He makes a few hasty words in the foreign language that I don't understand to the rest of the kids, and they all come out.
But with them there is one familiar face that I can't wait to kill. Captain shitface.
I never learned the fucker's name. But I have memorized his features so much so that I can recount them by heart.
He's holding a hunting dagger to one of the girl's throats. She slightly whines but doesn't make a sound. A growl built in my throat, and I struggled to keep it down.
I feel like I can kill him just for touching her like this. As if she is a vase he owned and I inconvenienced him by tampering with it.
He chirps, "Who are you, little hero?"
I hold my dagger as if it's my point of finger towards its future victim. "Tell me your name," I demanded with cold authority.
He smirks, arrogance. "Why would you like to know?"
He thought I weighed nothing in the grand scheme of things. He was wrong.
"I would like to know the name of the person I'm going to kill. "I did not know where this false confidence came from, but I held it strong.
He slightly chuckled, "You are mistaken about which one of us is going to die, but if it makes you feel more at ease, it is at ease, Captain James Maddock."
I hurled the dagger with all my force towards him, and it made a thudding sound as it hit his chest inches from the girl's head.
Most of them started running, not even giving me a glance, except for one, the very first boy I removed from shackles. The boy casts a look at me and takes my hand, pulling me towards the bay. He probably wants me to go with him.
I shook my head. "You go."
He doesn't understand me, but in a way I think he does. Because he lets go regarding me with a strange look about him. He knows, but only because he knows the other kids will follow him if he won't.
I go back to the ship, doing one last thing before I leave.
The ale was tucked away there with tobacco and the matches to smoke with. the perfect recipe for arson.
I spilled it all over the floor before and lit it with a flame. The fire is quick to overtake the room, and it's fucking beautiful.
When I walk away from the fire, the voices come back stronger than ever.
Killer. Killer. Killer. Killer. Killer. Killer. Killer. Killer.
Killer.