The day had started out so unremarkably average that If you had told me that morning my whole life would change, I would have laughed in your face. I had been going through the motions of my normal routine when all hell had broken loose.
That morning, I had eaten my standard breakfast with my family, both of my parents, and my younger brother, Jean. Like always, we made small talk: discussed our usual things like how my work was going, how Jean's school was going, the weather, the newest town gossip, and other trivial things like that.
After I was finished my breakfast, I headed straight to work just as I always did. If I had known what was to come, I would have appreciated the walk more. I would have taken in the sights of everything, taken a good look and made a mental memory of every inch of my town. If only I had known that soon, it would be a wreck.
My job was perhaps the most boring job one could possibly have. I was a librarian, in my towns one and only library. It was was a small building, hidden in the back of town, where people scarcely visited.
Despite its tiny size, it was actually packed to the brim with some interesting reads.
They weren't native to our town, however. Years prior, our town had been a hot spot for pirates.
They used our town for a hide out. Mainly, this was because our town was both small and well hidden. It didn't even appear on most world maps. It meant that when the navy went looking for them, they never checked our town.
Once the pirates had realised what an amazing hiding place our town was, they began to store their treasures here, too. One of the many things they hide in our town, was stolen books and important maps.
This was actually the main reason why I took the job as a librarian. Secretly, I loved pirates. It was born from the fact that the pirates that visited our town were pretty nice. They never harmed us - in fact, they often brought us supplies as reward for us hiding them.
We formed somewhat of a bond with them, particularly with their red haired captain.
The children in the town, of which I was one at that time, all wanted to join them. Our parents, of course, were not so happy about this. Their leader heavily encouraged us not to be a pirate, which surprised me.
Still, I took the job as a librarian, studied every single one of their maps and books, in the desperate hope I may join them one day. I discovered pretty quickly that I had a photographic memory, meaning I could quote and cite all those books and map from memory.
If the library burned down and all the books had been destroyed, I could have rewritten everything by memory. I had tried to tell the red haired captain this, who just told me that a gift like that meant I shouldn't be a pirate - I should educate myself, get a good job. It was a disappointment.
In reality, I just wanted a change. I was bored and wanted some adventures. That was something that, even all those years later, I still yearned for.
I stuck by my job, however. Even without the prospect of being a pirate, the work was still interesting and I kept reading those books over and over again. I sat in work that day, re-reading the most impressive of the books that they had left. It seemed to be a very long map which led to some insane treasure.
If only I had a ship, I had thought to myself, I could go sail and find that treasure in no time. I wouldn't even need the book. I sighed as I flicked through the pages, bored to the point of tears.
That's when the chaos started.
The front of the library was a giant window, meaning people outside could see in and people inside could see out. As I stared out it, people watching, I heard an ear splitting explosion which was swiftly followed by the sounds of terrified screams. People raced by the window, seemingly running for their lives. I watched in horror as people ran so fast they tripped, people were dragging their children by as fast as they could get them to move.
I, however, was frozen in my spot. For a whole minute, I watched the chaos, before my survival instincts finally kicked in. I had no idea what was happening but what I did know was that I needed to get out of here.
Everyone was running away from where I was. That meant I should be doing the same, I decided. Panicking, I shoved all my things into my backpack. I should have left my belongings behind, just focused on getting myself out of their, but I didn't want to lose my belongings to whatever this was.
In hindsight, it would have saved me a lot of trouble if I had just left my stuff behind.
I had shoved a couple of books, including the pirate book I had been reading, into the bag along with some of my personal belongings and then made me way out into the street.
It was absolute chaos. More explosions began to go off, and I could see that many of the houses were ablaze with fire. It wasn't small fires either - it was fire that was all consuming, burning bright and high, filling the air with a dark smoke.
I was right, everyone was running away from this area, away from the source of the chaos.
The crowds pushed past me as I stood there, frozen to my spot, watching in horror as a part of my village burned. The reason I was frozen was because I knew I couldn't run with the crowd, because the part of our village that was burning was the part where I lived. My brain was locked onto the thought of my family. I imagined them stuck in our burning house, or at the mercy of whoever had done this.
I was sure they would have run off but what if they hadn't? What if they couldn't?
So, instead of running away from the danger, I ran straight into it. I ran like my life depended on it, struggling to keep my backpack securely on at the speed I was going. I stopped dead in my tracks when I saw my house. No, not my house. What was left of my house - which wasn't much. The entire building was burned down, now just a pile of ash and rubble.
Worse than that, was the sight of a large group of townspeople in chains, which included both of my parents.
A group of clowns - yes, clowns - were struggling to force my little brother, Jean, into chains. My parents screamed for him not to resist, to just let them put the chains on. I could see why. The clowns were armed, each holding equally terrifying weapons.
One finally got a good hold of Jean, wrapping his large gloved hands around his throat which allowed him to hold Jean still.
That kick-started something in me. Without even thinking, I slammed my body hard into the clown, sending all three of us flying.
We had all hit the ground with a loud thump! ending up together in a big pile, with our bodies tangled. I wasted absolutely no time, as soon as we were on the ground, I screamed for Jean to run. The clown tried to fight me, get to his feet, but I did my best to keep him down.
Jean moved fast, springing up onto his feet immediately. He ran, and he ran fast. For a slim moment, relief filled me as I saw him dodge multiple clowns effortlessly, and came close to running off.
I say almost because at the last minute, a clown managed to tangle his fingers into Jean's t-shirt. He was roughly pulled back, falling into the clowns arms.
The clown dragged him kicking and screaming to the group of townspeople who were all shackled together. Jean did his best to fight, to struggle free, but it was in vain. The chains were slapped onto his wrists, connecting him to the rest of the townspeople. Now, he couldn't run, and there was no way for me to free him.
I wasn't ready to call it quits. I wasn't going to go down without a fight. If they were going to take me prisoner, I would cause them as much trouble as possible, and attempt to take as many of them down with me as I possibly could.
The clown I had knocked over had gotten back onto his feet as I was distracted watching Jean. Once he was standing, he grabbed the fabric of my shirt and yanked me onto my feet. I didn't have time to register it, nor fight back.
This cause him to seem to think that I would be docile now, attempting to shackle the handcuffs onto me. Before he could, I slipped my bag off my shoulders and swung it at him.
It was lucky I had shoved those books into my bag because it meant that the force that I hit him with was enough to knock him clean out. I even saw a couple of his teeth go flying, along with some of his blood. It wasn't a pretty sight.
For someone who had never been in a fight before, I was handling myself pretty well against these killer clowns. Everyone seemed to freeze in that moment. My fellow townspeople stared at me with amazement while the clowns looked like they wanted to kill me right there and then.
It was the clown with bright blue hair and a large hat that spoke finally, ending the silence.
"Come on! Grab her! Can you men honestly not handle one woman?" He screamed impatiently, waving his arms in frustration.
"Anyone who comes near me is getting the same treatment that Bozo the clown got!" I declared loudly, trying to look and sound as intimidating as possible.
Some of the clowns seemed unsure. They moved slightly towards me, but none of them dared to get close enough to grab me. Maybe it was because I was still holding the handle of my backpack, ready to swing on anybody who got too close.
My tactic seemed to work on every clown except the blue haired one.
He rolled his eyes, dropped his hands to his side, and declared, "Fine, I'll deal with her myself!"
In a flash, he was charging at me full speed. He was so fast that I almost lost sight of him. Still, I gave my best attempt to smack him down with my backpack the same way I'd done with the other clown.
Unfortunately for me, this man was significantly faster than his friend. He ducked effortlessly under the bag and slammed into me.
I braced myself, thinking that he was going to try to knock me to the ground, but instead, he effortlessly hoisted me up off the ground and flung me over his shoulder.
He had done it as if I weighed nothing, as if I were as light as a feather. He was strong, I knew that now. More than anything, I was shocked. That hadn't been what I'd expected him to do.
I did my best to struggle out of his grip, to free myself but it was fruitless. He was just too strong. He held me in place firmly.
In a blind panic, I did the only thing I could think to do. Bite onto whatever I could get my mouth on to. That happened to be his ear. Horror filled me as I felt the ear completely detach. Somehow, I had bitten in clean off, and now I had his ear in my mouth.
I hadn't thought that it would be so easy to bite someone's off. In fact, I hadn't even felt myself biting through his flesh. One minute, it was attached to him, the next it was in my mouth.
The feeling of his whole ear in my mouth made my stomach wretch. I felt physically ill. I clasped my hands over my mouth, trying to suppress the urge to vomit up my lunch (and his ear).
The blue haired man roughly threw me to the ground where I landed hard. When I looked up at him, I saw the look of absolute horror that was spread across his face. His eyes were as big as moons, green beautiful moons, his mouth left gaping open.
"What did you just do?" He asked, lifting his white gloved hand to the spot which bad once contained an ear.
The most confusing thing was that there was absolutely no blood coming from the wound. His white glove, held against it, remained spotless.
I didn't speak a word, just simply spat his ear out and onto the ground. It took all my willpower to not throw up, especially at the sight of the ear. I think the lack of blood was helping.
There was a second silence that settled over everyone now. Then, the clowns began to whisper amongst themselves.
"Did she really just bite off the captain's ear?"
"Is she crazy?"
"He's going to go nuts!"
"She's dead!"
It was the last comment that made my stomach drop. I should have guessed that biting off one of these mens ears would result in certain death, but I had been so caught up in the moment that I hadn't really thought through the consequences.
The next part my brain focused on was the word 'captain'. That's when it finally clicked who this blue haired clown man was.
He wasn't just anybody. He was one of the most ruthless pirates of all time; the strongest and most feared man in this part of the East Blue.
And I had just bitten his ear off.
My courage left me all at once, and I waited to be killed, or worse, by Buggy the clown. I watched his face carefully, waiting for the look of anger or aggression to spread across it. It never did.
Instead, his face lit up with a bright smile, and he began to maniacally laugh. He laughed so hard that he almost lost his balance, having to brace himself. The rest of his clowns looked just as confused as me and the rest of the townspeople. Nobody else made a sound, but that didn't stop Buggy from laughing like a crazy man all by himself.
He stopped very suddenly, looking around at his crew, then yelling, "Come on, laugh! It's funny!"
On command, they all joined him in laughter. It was almost creepy to watch them follow a command like that so genuinely. Their laughs were unnatural, too. Almost robotic, too loud, and dramatic to be real.
It made me realise just how much power this Buggy held over his crew. He said laugh, they laughed. Was there anything they wouldn't do for him?
When he finally stopped, after what felt like a lifetime, he smiled at me. The way that he looked was so odd: simultaneously, he was incredibly handsome, and incredibly scary looking.
The scary element came from his face paint - blue triangles above and below his eyes. White bones painted in an X on his forehead. Red over-lining his lips, as well as covering his nose. He seemed to be wearing some sort of fake nose, as well. Clowns had always creeped me out.
I imagined that under that scary make-up, he was probably handsome. You could tell from his features: those gorgeous eyes, his face shape, and... why was I thinking like this?
He spoke again, slowly. "I like this one. She's got a lot of fight in her. Make sure she's given front row seats at our show."
Show? What is he talking about?
I was confused and scared, wanting so desperately to ask what he had meant by that. But all my strength and courage had left me now. I was too scared to even utter a single word to him.
There was a small voice in the back of my head that urged me to fight some more. However, when I looked over at Jean, I saw one of the clowns had a knife to his throat.
Now, I felt guilty. Even if I had won the fight and ran off, my family would likely have paid the price for my actions. The most important thing right now was my families safety. So, I had decided to submit completely, in the hopes that I would be forgiven for my assaults. That seemed unlikely. Surely, I'd be punished for that. But hopefully if I played nice, my family wouldn't be harmed in any way.
Buggy seemed to notice this, tilting his head, he asked "Finally ready to go quietly?"
"Yes," I replied meekly, struggling to get the words out. "Just don't hurt him."
He nodded to me, seeming to agree to my terms. I allowed his men to put their shackles on my ankles and wrists. I tried to pick up my backpack, which was foolish. I hadn't been planning to use it as a weapon again, I had just wanted my stuff. Unfortunately, I was now not to be trusted with my backpack.
Buggy scooped it up, moving it out of my grasp.
"Do you really think I'm that stupid?" He asked, in a mocking tone. "You've already used this thing as a weapon once. You won't do it again."
I tried to tell myself that it was alright because maybe I would be able to get it back later. As if Buggy could read my thoughts, he launched the bag into the ocean. He flung it far, too. The sight out of it made me want to sob, as I saw it sink out of sight. He was strong, I'll give him that. There was no chance of retrieving my things or those books.
"Now!" He cheered happily, clapping his hands together, "Time for the show!"