Life is Stranger

Last Day on Earth

"Everyone, down on your knees."

The bedraggled, bloodied and beaten captives sank to their knees, the caps of bone sinking into the warm sand of the beach.

All of them save one.

"Are you deaf, young missy? I told you to kneel. Now."

"No." the prisoner replied in a low, matter-of-fact tone. "I will never kneel before you. Or anyone else."

"Is that so? Lads, drag the little bitch to her knees. And if she puts up any sort of fight, cut out one of her eyes and force feed it to her."

Four pairs of hands roughly manhandled the young girl to the ground. Her eyes blazed as they did so.

"There we go. Now that wasn't so difficult, was it? Alright. It's time to finally meet the man."

The pirate pursed his lips and whistled loudly. A tall, slender figure emerged from between the trees lining the beach.

"Soiled our breeches yet? No? Somehow I get the feeling that some of you are close. Yes indeed."

The captain strolled along the line-up, casually tapping his thigh with a wooden bludgeon.

"Now, which one of you bastards is the one that killed my men?"

A cutlass was pointed at the back of the only female in the group.

"It's this one. This one here."

"Was it indeed? Are you sure?"

"Aye sir. It was her."

"Hmmm. Let's take a better look at you then, shall we?" he said as he approached the captive and squatted down directly in front of her.

"Hello. I'm Darragh. And you are..."

The question was answered only with a cold, flaming glare of pure hatred.

"A tough one, I see. Good, good."

He rose back to stand upon his feet, groaning quietly as he did so before turning his back for a moment to adjust the patch covering one eye.

"I do not appreciate you killing my men. You have no idea how much that displeases me, young lady. But, I think you are going to understand very shortly. You are going to bitterly regret vexing me. Yes you are. You see, let me explain to you what your whole world consists of now. It's really quite simple. You ready? Here goes. Pay close attention. You work for me now. You do what you're told, when you're told, and you do it to the very best of your ability. If you don't, I will kill you. Savvy?"

The bearded man cupped an ear with one hand. "What? Still nothing to say? You didn't think that you were not going to pay a price for the lives of my men that you took, did you? Now listen. I don't want to kill you people. No. What I want is for you to work for me. You can't work for me if you're dead. But...you killed my men. A whole lot of them. Far, far more than I'm comfortable with. And for that, you have to pay. So now I am going to beat one of you to death with this here cudgel. One of you gets the honour...but who? I have to pick somebody. Everybody's at the table waiting for me to eat."

The grizzled captain whistled quietly to himself, softly stroking his grey beard as he surveyed the souls arranged before him.

"I simply cannot decide. But I have an idea. You. You can choose. You've already killed so many people today. What price one more?"

Silence.

"Very well. You see that fine gentleman over there? The one that captured you and your friends? His name is Sam. He's my right-hand man. I don't know what I'd do without him. He comes in very, very useful. And now he is about to prove his worth to me once again. Sam?"