The Captain

twenty-nine

After a tense quarter of an hour, they were upon us. They pulled up beside the Mermaid's Revenge, a ship full of sailors and incredibly, my sister. 

"Ah! Sparrow!" Their leader called, smirking at us. 

"Captain," Maverick responded shortly. 

"Yes, well, Captain, I'm afraid you've got something that doesn't belong to you."

"Don't know what you mean, Anderson," Maverick replied, icy.

Kenneth stepped up to the rails. 

"Cut the shit, boy. That's my property you've got up there looking like a tavern wench."

I bristled. Maverick glanced at me briefly. 

"Property, mate?"

Amelie pushed towards the rail. 

"Florence, are you alright?"

One of the sailors tugged her back. 

"Shut her up," Kenneth spat. 

I nodded at Amelie, not wanting to escalate this any further. 

"Well, you've got two choices, lad. Either you give her up willingly and we show you merciful death, or we take her by force and we blow you out of the sea." The Captain, Anderson, was cold. 

My heart skipped. 

Maverick's lip curled. 

"How about this? You give us her sister, and we all go on our merry way."

Kenneth barked out a laugh. 

"Don't play games with me boy. Hand her over."

"Don't you wanna ask what she wants?"

Kenneth snorted, grabbing my sisters arm and tugging her close to him. 

"As if that matters. Now send her over." 

Amelie looked like she wanted to say something, but shut up when he glared at her. The rest of the crew seemed content to just watch this happen. 

"Ten seconds to decide, pirate. Easy death or painful one."

Maverick unsheathed his sword. 

"Try me. See how many sailors you're willing to lose."

Before their captain could issue an order, I ran forward. 

"Wait!"

Everybody froze. I could feel Maverick's eyes on my back. 

"If I come with you, would you promise not to hurt them?"

Kenneth looked at me blankly. 

"I'll come with you right now, and nobody has to die for this, as long as you don't hurt them."

Kenneth muttered something to their captain.

"Deal!"

Maverick grabbed my arm and looked at me frantically. 

"What are you doing? What about the treasure, about your life? What... what about me?"

His eyes bored into mine and I clasped his hand. 

"I'll be okay.  I can handle a stupid marriage. I couldn't live with myself if he hurt you because of me."

"No. We can still fix this, we can find a way to get your sister and we'll fight-"

I cut him off by pressing a chaste kiss to his lips. 

"I'm sorry."

I slipped out of his grasp and used one of the rigging lines to swing over to the other boat before anyone could stop me. I landed roughly, stumbling into my sister's arms.