My head was banging. Everything was dark and quiet. I moved my aching hands only to feel a sticky warm liquid. A flow of light shown down on me and I reeled from the brightness. I looked around, I was in a box shaped room with the no ceiling, only looking up to a bright light and some stars. From the smell and rocking I guessed we where in a boat. Then I noticed the warm liquid was coming from my head, and relised I was bleeding. “Aye, he’s up!” I heard a deep voiced man say. “W-what, where, where am I.” I rasped “Auh shut up you lil brat.” I looked around again and saw some feet leading up to a body hidden in the darkness. I couldn’t tell If it was a boy, man, woman or girl. They hadn’t gotten up yet. I heard a thump and turned around to the deep voiced man standing behind me. He had jumped down from the deck and was moving closer to me. “Now, Lil one your gonna do excacltly as I say,” I scooted back and hit the body behind me. I yelped. The body stirred and the man laughed. “Oh so you’ve met the other one I see, ya know he was a fighter. Whining about how we shouldn’t tear his precious lil night gown.” “Ya spoiled lil brats.” He said gruffly. Clink. He pulled out a knife and swung it toward my face. “P-please*!* I-I’m sorry*!* Don’t hurt me-“The next thing I know a thin, pale body pushes himself in front of me. “Don’t you dare touch him, don’t bring anybody but me into this.” All this was to much to me, my head was beating louder than before. My mind was racing, what was going on? Everything went blurry and my head hit the ground.

I woke up to seagulls screeching and the nauseating smell of the sea. As I opened my eyes that thin pale figure was standing over me. It was morning. “ Oh, your up. I hope you don’t mind but I tried to clean up your head a bit.” His hands were dabbing a small piece of cloth over my head to stop the bleeding. “Thank you.” I replied. He smiled and continued to clean up my cut. “What...well, do you know what happened, and where are we?” His grin faded a bit as he looked down, and his eyes reflected a type of sadness, not just fright but more like he had been through this before. He swung his head up and with a bigger smile than before pushed his hand out in front of me, “Hello, my name is Saryis I'm from England. what’s your name!” Bright pink blush filled his cheeks. “You can call me Sary for short.” He exclaimed proudly. “H-hi, Sary,” I stuttered. “ My name is Barrinn.” “Sorry,” He frowned, “Am I being a bit to much.” He blushed again. “ You know what I’ll just get straight to the point. I am the son of a rich merchant, that man you saw, the one who threatened you, him and his friends are Atlantic pirates that were tricked by my dad on some Eurpean goods and they took me as a hostage for ransom.” He explained. “Do you know why I’m here?” I asked.“Oh, you don’t remember?” “When they pulled me along, I was blindfolded by the way and you have no idea how uncomfortable it is, anyway I think I heard them talking about how there was a kid on the docks. They must have took you along thinking you might snitch.” Memories flooded back from that night, it was dark and I had gone to the docks to get away from the other kids, I lived on the street and felt like taking a stroll. Then I saw three men hassling a small boy, he was trying to get away so I assumed I should help, but of course they knocked me out in the head and I was taken along. And now I’m here “Hey, um Barrinn was it, look I’m really sorry for getting you into this.” He sighed. “No, no it’s ok life by the docks wasn’t the nicest, and who knows mabey we’ll go on an adventure.” We both smiled but were interrupted by a loud crash on the deck

Crash! I jumped. “What was that.” We both stood up, ready for anything that came from the top. Silence. “Haha! Don’t even try, you can’t beat me!” A woman’s voice yelled. More bumps and bangs, Saris and I stood there wondering what was going on. A pair of feet swung in through the hull and a lady landed between Saris and me. She towered over us with about half a foot, she was the kind of woman that men would stop in the street for. She had perfect curves that led up to even more perfect breasts, I found myself staring. Her face looked down at us in annoyance, but her eyes showed excitement. “Well, who have we got here, a couple of scrawny lil’ lads don't we.” “who are you.” said Saris. “wh-who am I?” she exclaimed in a mellow yet aggressive tone. “I am the greatest, most impressive thief of my time.” “ I noticed the rips and blood on her clothes. “more like the most reckless,” I muttered. “Excuse me little boy, and who do you think you are.” she glared. Saris slid his hand in front of me to stop her from pushing closer. “He, for your information, is- well, is my brother. Yes, he is my brother. Introduce yourself Barrinn.” “ Hello, my name is Barrinn of the-, ” I looked over to Saris. “Hallewell.” He whispered. “Barrinn of the Hallewell house. Stationed in the western side of England?” I looked over to Saris and he shrugged. I looked back to the woman but she didn't look convinced. She rolled her eyes, “ look, I'm just here because your dad hired me to find you. ” Saris scoffed “My father would never hire someone as pitiful looking as you to find me, especially a woman.” he folded his arms and began to walk to the corner when she grabbed his shoulders . “look little guy I got hired to take you home and that's what I'm going to do whether you like it or not. Now get on the deck before I force you there. ” Saris slumped over and began to climb the latter. The woman turned to me “ You can't be his brother, Hallewell said there was only one of you. ” I had to think of something quick, I didn't want to be left here, wherever I was. “Well maybe you'll get paid double if you take me home to, I mean don't you think he would pay more if you brought back both his sons? ” she thought about it for a second then agreed. “ ok fine Barton, well there are some rules your gonna have to follow, oh and my names Jaqy, short for Jacqueline. Got it?” “um- got it? And my names do not barto-” “ok then it's time to go.” she pulled me by the arm and we went up the stairs. I squinted my eyes as we walked up, the light was unbearable after being in the sark for so long. When we walked up I could see Saris pacing back and forth. When he saw us he whipped his head up and began to pace again. “umm, we have a problem. ” As he said this one of the knocked out ship crew began to stir and came up behind him. He yelled and was about to hit Saris when Jaqy stepped forward. She swung her foot at his knee and he crumpled to the floor. Her fist connected just below his nose and his eyes roll behind his head. Blood seaped out of his mouth. “you were saying, ” He stared at her in disbelief. “ Woah Jaqy that was pretty cool.” I said. Saris put on a now disapproving face and said “ so that’s you’re name, Jaqy. Well an ugly name like that definitely fits your demeanor. ” I personally thought he was just jealous. “ Anyway, our problem is that the boat is sinking and there’s no way off. ” I looked around and noticed about an inch of water sealing in. “ So how are you going to deal with that Jaqy?” He said. “ Actually, umm” she looked defeated, so I interrupted. “oh, look there’s a raft.” I pointed to a small shaped boat that looked like it could only fit about as many people as there were. Jaqy smiled toward me, thankful for my help. We all squeezed in and went on our way to Saris’s father, wherever that may be.

Barrinn and I sat across from the nuisance named Jaqy. In seconds he fell asleep, I glared at the woman. “ How old are you anyway?” I asked. “ What’s it to you, little brat.” She snarled. “ ok, first of all I’m not little, I’m 14, so stop calling me that and second of all I know you're not here from my father.” “ Actually I am here at his request and I’m 17.” My eyebrows rose in surprise. 17, it seemed young for a girl of her occupation. She began to move around a bit. “Stop moving, you’re going to wake up Barrinn.” I hissed. She smirked. “ So you’ve taken a liking to this street boy, does he know you like those types.” “ Hey,” I snipped “ shut up, there is nothing wrong with liking him.” “Oh, so you admit it!” I buried my head in my hands in frustration. I decided to try and get some time to think but fell asleep instead. I dreamt. I dreamt of a thing I wish I never had.

My eyes followed the wood bedpost to the ripples in my sheets to my hands sitting under them. My father walked in, his face strewn with disgust. “ look what you’ve done!” He belched in a deep overpowering voice, the thick tone of his anger surprised me. I cowered. He was always frightening but never seemed this angry. “ Now I have to deal with those annoying pirates, they took my money anyway. ”I calmed down a bit, he was just planning on stealing me back and not paying them. My father made sure everyone knew I was not his weakness, this has happened before and you’ll always hear him say that he doesn’t need me, it won’t break him if he loses me. But I deal with it, it doesn’t bother me that much. Once he found out that I possessed a liking for men he despised me even more. “Oh and that boy you brought with, I sold him to some east Arabians.” I looked at him in disgust and anger. “ How could you I-” just then a black bubbly liquid seeped out of his mouth. “Father?,” “Father!” I cowered. His eyes melted into his skull and were replaced with glossy black bulbs. His jaw widened and his teeth grew into black shards matching the same hue as his dead, cold eyes. A hand that grew long, dark, slender tendrils reached forward and began to choke me. “ Oh, you’re such a disappointment, it’s a pity I’m going to have to kill you. I started to take a liking to you.” He said this in a sarcastic tone, making fun of my fondness for the boy. My face was red. My eyes were bulging. I clawed at his hands. And fell into a black abyss.

I lurched forward and felt Barrinn’s warm breath on my forearm. I had fallen asleep next to him. Jaqy looked at me. “You had a nightmare, but looked like you were in such pain so I decided to let you sleep.” she smiled. I dismissed her and set my head back down next to Barrinns, he looked so innocent and precious. He couldn’t be as old as me, his height looked about the same but he looked a little skinny. It made sense considering he didn't even have anywhere to live. I wondered what my father would do with him, maybe I could sneak him in. But there was a chance that Jaqy would tell, amber I could bribe her. If I told my father the truth then there is a chance that I could sway him into letting Barrinn become a servant or even get an education. I could tell him that he would be of some use as a public advocate. I thought of all the things I could do to make my father except him while looking at his face. He seemed so confused yet brave when the pirate had threatened us. His false heroism impressed me. My mind wandered as lay there. U soon heard Jaqys breath calm as she began to drift off into a light nap, still seeming to maintain a sense of vigalence.