2 days before
Today was not my day. Firstly, my alarm went off two hours too early and then made me almost over sleep afterwards. Secondly, while I was trying to find my shoes, I hit my poor little toe against my desk. After that my darling cat decided; 'oh why don't we just ruin her day even more,' by making me spill my orange juice all over my shirt, and lastly it's raining.
You might be thinking that the rain isn't so bad; however, I have to walk. So here I was, dripping wet and walking to school.
As I was kicking a stone on the pavement, a massive headache hit me like a ton of bricks. I stopped walking to clutch my head to maybe dull the pain, but it wasn't working. It felt as though the aching was intensifying and I wanted to scream out in pain.
Then my vision started to change and I started seeing these giant waves in the middle of the ocean; with thunder banging in the background, as if I was physically there. I could feel the waves pulling and pushing me roughly, smell the salty water and fresh foggy air and even taste the awful seawater in my mouth. At the same time, it felt as if I was seeing all of this from a third person's view.
I was brought back to reality by icy cold water flooding all over me...
You know what, I think today just got a whole lot worse. A special little red car just splashed me with rainwater all over!
"Ugh!" I groaned in frustration.
I looked like a wet poodle when I finally arrived at school. I got quite a few stares from fellow students but my mind was once again somewhere else. That 'vision', whatever you want to call it, was extremely weird. It just didn't make sense...
Ring...!
"Oh shoot", I yelled out in surprise. I was going to be late for my first period of the day!
I ran down the hallway like a mad woman.
I wasn't really paying attention to my surroundings while I was running. Next thing happening was me sprinting flat out into a wall and falling to the floor hard onto my spine.
"Ow," I muttered under my breath, "what on earth?"
I looked up to see that I hadn't in fact ran into a wall but a giant figure about six foot tall, looming over me with a dark look on their face.
"Uh...can I help you?" I questioned, confused.
He quietly kept staring at me with a blank expression on his face. His arms were crossed over his chest and stood with his legs evenly spread out.
I started standing up but he roughly pushed me back down onto the floor.
"Hey! What's your problem?!" I all but yelled at him.
Silence
"If you do not answer me right now, I will punch you so hard..."
I was cut off by a door opening to the left of me. I looked to see my English teacher, Mrs. Scarlet, approaching me.
"What's with all the ruckus?"
"Well..." I trailed of when I noticed the man that I had ran into was suddenly gone.
"Well, what?" She asked me in a stern tone.
Where could he have possibly gone? "Um...I just slipped while I was going to class."
I said in a distracted voice, looking around the hall for any sign of the man.
"Get to class Miss Roberts before I report you for a detention." She said.
"Yes, Ma'am." I replied, standing up and brushing some dust of my jean shorts while I made my way to my first class.
When I finally arrived at my first class I knocked lightly, Mr. Edison was busy giving a history lesson on ancient ships when I entered.
"Ah, Miss Roberts, you're late." Mr Edison said.
'Sorry sir, but this big guy I walked into, pushed me and then vanished into thin air.' I wanted to reply but thought better of it, "Sorry sir, I was held up" I replied instead.
"Don't let it happen again, Miss Roberts." He replied.
"Yes, sir." I answered meekly and made my way to my seat while Mr. Edison carried on with his lesson.
"As I was telling you before, your task for this semester will be an information (informative) task about Theodore Cox, the youngest, most successful and most feared pirate that was ever known in the history of the seven seas and his beloved ship; the black swan, this assignment will be due in two months; use your time wisely."
After Mr Edison, finished handing us our task the bell rang signalling the end of the first period.
The name Theodore Cox bothered me, it sounded so familiar but I didn't know why. The two periods before lunch went by in a blur, my mind occupied by Captain Cox.
When lunch finally arrived, I went to my table where my best friend Lucy and I sat. She was extremely kind and always did anything she could to assist others.
Lucy saw me and made her way to the table with two food trays in hand. We always bought each other lunch, I would buy food on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays and she would buy on Mondays and Wednesdays. Seeing as today was a Monday it was her turn.
"Hey Danny, I brought you lunch." she said as she sat down across from me, handing me my lunch tray.
"Finally, I was on the brink of starvation" I joked with her.
"Very funny. Now you better eat all your vegetables." she replied. The rest of the time, we just talked about how our day had been so far and what assignments we had received.
After the bell rang, I went to my English class, she was the most feared teacher on the school grounds and I never wanted to get on her bad side.
The final bell rang after a kind of weird and long day; I was home free. After saying goodbye to Lucy, I walked home. I only lived a few blocks away from school, so I didn't need a car, although I really wished my parents would get me one for my upcoming birthday.
On my way home, I passed the famous museum, which held most of the history of every pirate that ever 'sailed the seven seas'. I would surely have to visit the museum for my assignment. I loved history, it was my best subject right after mathematics.
As I neared my house, I noticed my mom's car in the driveway. I made my way to the front door and as soon as I closed the door behind me, I felt at peace.
"I'm home." I yelled throughout the house.
I smelled something delicious and went to the kitchen to investigate the divine smell. My mom was in the kitchen baking her world famous apple pie. "Hello sweetheart, how was your day at school?" She asked.
"Good thanks, why are you home so early?" I asked as I sat down on one of the kitchen island stools.
"Oh, I just wanted to make something special for me and your dad's anniversary" she said.
Anniversary?
Oh no.
"I completely forgot" I said, I couldn't believe that I forgot something as important as my parents anniversary. I mentally face palmed myself, how could I be so inconsiderate.
"Don't worry sweetie, we were all so busy these last couple of days and your dad and I always leave the house before the sun even rises." She said in a motherly tone, coming over to hug me with an understanding smile on her face.
"Alright then. Well, I think I should better go get started on my homework." I said as I stood up from the stool.
"Sure thing darling, I'll call you when dinners ready." she replied and continued with her cooking.
I turned to leave when I remembered about my assignment. "Mom, I received an assignment about some pirate history, I need to go to the museum to do some research, is it alright if I go tomorrow after school?"
"Of course darling, as long as you don't stay too late." she said.
After hearing her reply, I went upstairs to do my homework.
As soon as my homework was done, my mom announced that dinner was ready and I went down stairs to spend time with my family. My family, especially my mom and dad, were very dear to me and I loved them to the moon and back.
We had a fun evening with a lot of laughing being involved and after a while, I began getting tired. I said my goodnights and went straight to bed.
After school the following day, I went to the museum as planned. I needed to get as much information as I could, especially about Captain Theodore Cox and his ship, the Black Swan.
I decided to go to the museum's library, where most of the artefacts' histories were stored, and do research there. I collected a few books and made my way to the back of the library where I wouldn't be disturbed.
i read book upon book of information about Captain Cox. He was a fierce pirate from the eighteenth century and was feared by all that had ever encountered him and even those who only ever heard stories. Apparently, whoever was in possession of The Black Swan would have great power befall them, as well as true love and a life of happiness: If under the right command and held dearly to the heart.
His father had apparently mysteriously died of some sudden sickness when Cox was about fifteen and his mother had died when giving birth to him.
I was so engrossed with reading about his many adventures and taking notes on my exam pad that I didn't notice time. When I finally thought I had enough research about him, I packed away my things and finally seemed to realise how quiet it was. Checking my watch, I noted that it was past the museums closing time and Mother would surely be worried sick.
I made my way to the main hall to be greeted with complete and utter silence. It was so different from the lively atmosphere during the day, it almost looked like a completely different place. Making my way to the front hall, I felt eyes on me and when I turned around, I saw there was a dark figure at the end of the hall making its way swiftly towards me. I got this wary feeling about the man and did the first thing I could think of... RUN!
The silence of the night engulfed me as I was running for my life throughout the dark, gloomy halls of the museum. The only thing that could be heard is the sound of my swift footsteps followed by my pursuers.
Losing them seemed like a task I could not fulfil. Every corner there was one waiting at the end of the hall, blocking me from going further.
I was running for what seemed like hours when I came to a stop at the main attraction of the museum. The famous pirate ship, The Black Swan, with its beautiful masts standing high and proud. I couldn't help but stare at it in awe, but my admiration was cut short when the footsteps of my chasers neared. I had nowhere else to go, except aboard the ship.
I quickly climbed on the ship and made my way to the tallest mast trying to scale up it. I felt something pulling on my leg and when I looked down, one of the pursuers was trying to pull me down. I kicked him off and scurried my way up.
I was finally on the yardarm of the main mast when I noticed the pursuer behind me. I was facing towards him, backing up slowly when my head started swirling. I felt dizzy and lost my footing on the yardarm and started falling, I screamed for my life knowing that this was going to be my death...
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A/N: Firstly I want to thank GOD for giving me the wisdom and courage to write this book and then I just want to personally say thank you to my best friend for helping me write this first chapter and supporting me on posting the book; she's been a great help. Also, everyone who's been giving a helping hand aswell.