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She remembers when it all went wrong. She remembers it so vividly. She sees it in her nightmares that speak of the moment where everything went to hell which included the man in front of her: the Commodore. And, here he was again, trying and succeeding to make this another moment of hell. Now, she was forced to kneel before him and his crew as she snarled at him. w
The Commodore turned his sharp gaze to her, the same gaze that stared her down all those years ago, “Keep quiet or you will be the first to die.”
“I’m not scared of you!”
“You should be.”
Niki let out cold laughter, “You took everything from me! Why should I be scared?”
“I don’t have time for-”
“Do you not even remember how you killed her?!” she screamed at him. Dream rolled his eyes. “Oh, you don’t even have the decency of not being utterly careless. How great.”
“I do not care, pirate.”
“Oh, shut the fuck up.”
The man holding her tossed her away like a rag doll.
She got the last laugh as she spat on the Commodore’s face.
Niki stood at the helm of the ship by Jack’s side. The sun was setting, casting shades of beautiful orange and red on the sky, the seas were calm and gentle; it all filled her with anxiety and deja vu of worse days. Days where she knew nothing but strife. Unfortunately, no matter how hard she tried to banish the memories to the depths of her mind, they always kept creeping back to the forefront of her mind until she could do nothing but reminisce.
This was one of those times.
She spent so many days by Puffy’s side just like this from right after the Great Massacre to her last moments. Guilt wrapped around her and she had no escape, worst of all she had no idea what for. Was it guilt of leaving everyone behind? It couldn’t be, she had no choice. Or, maybe, it was guilt for becoming the very thing that killed her parents. But, no, that wasn’t right either. She became a pirate for them.
Niki sighed.
“Can I tell you something, Jack?” she said. Maybe getting it off her chest would help.
“Ofcourse, anything,” Jack said.
They called it the Great Massacre.
She had no idea how or why it was called that. But, one day, she found everyone calling it that but there was some truth to the title. Maybe it wasn’t bloody but it was one nonetheless.
The Great Massacre took place on a lonely island surrounded by few other islands and the great expansive ocean. Most on the island were adults, some kids and an even smaller portion were elderly. Their village was small and quiet. Nothing great ever happened, no one from the outside would visit them except for a few merchants from time to time.
But, during one unlucky summers’ morn, they got a visitor. He claimed to be a merchant whose ship got raided by pirates, never having to suspect or distrust anybody, the villagers welcomed him with open arms. The stranger stayed a day or two and left with the next merchant ship. And that was that. Just another week in the quiet village.
What wasn’t normal was the navy ship that came onto their shores the following week. The children, who were playing out in the ocean, ran to their homes yelling about the navy ship. Their parents wasted no time to see this phenomenon. They waited as the navy walked into their shores, a man center stage.
The man called himself the Commodore. At nine years of age, Niki had no idea what a Commodore was or how much she’d come to resent the title and it’s holders. He stood in the middle of the village and boldly claimed that they had harbored a pirate.
While it was true that they were closed off, they were not foolish enough to harbor a pirate as they knew the penalty of the crime. They told him exactly that, but he didn’t believe them. He dared to call them lairs and raise his gun at their children.
This was crossing a line. No stranger, no matter how close to the crown, could just come to their land, place blame and point guns at them. They would not deal with such people and the yelling broke out soon. Puffy, an older girl, took Niki’s hand and led her away. She took Niki to the farms where the older children hung out often. Niki could still hear the shouting in the center, although she tried her best to focus on the conversation at hand.
When she returned home, she was met with her parents' grave expressions. This never happened unless there was limited food for the winter or one of the calves died or when Niki stayed out for too long.
But, winter had just ended, there were no calves this spring and Niki came back two hours before dinner.
There was nothing that should’ve made them weary. They should’ve been smiling, making dinner and cracking jokes. Niki called out to them wanting them to stop looking like that, but she had no way of expressing that. Not when she was so young. She was helpless, the only thing she could do was ask for dinner.
“Soon, sweetheart,” her mother said, a tight smile playing on her lips. “Go and wash up for now. Have you finished your homework yet?”
Niki shook her head and climbed up the attic where her small bedroom was located. She didn’t study, instead staying close to the trapdoor wanting to hear all of the secret conversations her parents might have.
They did not have any. The house was silent and Niki could feel the wrongness of it all. Her house was never silent, nevermind the village. Someone was always talking, the cows behind their house could be heard every second of every day and the village children made sure it was always noisy.
Now, it was deathly silence.
Something that Niki would be forced to live with and that will make her heart ache.
It was a few later when all hell broke loose, their parents did not warn them. They knew and they said nothing. They did not fight it either.When the Navy broke down their doors and forced the adults to their knees, they did not fight. They just allowed themselves to be manhandled and chained as their children watched with silent horror.
They took the adults to the center of the village. A small hanging post stood where once there was only an open field. They must have placed it there during the night. Everyone between the ages of twenty and forty stood in a line that led to the top of the hanging post.
The elderly and children stood in front of the hanging post, staring in horror. The only one who dared speak was Puffy. Two guards held her down as she kicked and screamed of the injustice of it all and tried to reach out to her parents who only looked sorrowful. There was nothing that they could do.
No one could do anything. The Navy did not believe them, them getting angry definitely didn’t help. There were three dozen kids but what could they do? And what could the elderly do? If the adults fought back now, then the Navy would burn down the village would they not?
They had no care for human life. The only thing they cared about is their sick twisted view of justice. And, right now, they were killing innocent villagers for that justice.
The only thing they could do was watch.
The following weeks were horrible. The food rations were limited and no one had any idea on how to get more. Their parents did that. All they had known was days running around and staying out in the warm sun.
They tried to keep the rations until at least they figured out how to make everything work and how they could get more food, but there were a little too many kids and elders. Those were the ones who demanded more food than the rest.
So, they ate but did not work.
In a few weeks, the food ran out and they had starved.
How long they starved, Niki had no clue. But by the time a merchant ship came along, most kids were skin and bone, some of the younger ones and the older ones had died. It was a horrifying sight to see kids, who she knew all her life, dead.
Thankfully, the merchant ship came and along with it was a crew willing to help them. The cook, a greying old man, had fed them for a few days of stay. When they were a bit healthier, the crew had shown them how to get food and how to ration everything.
One night, when Niki couldn’t sleep, she walked around the village to where the teenagers would hang out. She wanted to find one person.
And she had found her.
Puffy was standing by her friends who Niki somewhat knew. There was Punz with his dirty blond hair, Karl and his storybook, Skeppy and Bad who seemed to never leave each other’s side and Hannah with her kind words and even kinder smile.
Puffy was the first to notice her, “Nihachu!”
Niki wrapped her arms ‘round herself when everyone turned to look. She waved in hello, getting a chorus of ‘hello’s and ‘hey’s. Puffy nodded to a spot by her side which Niki took comfortably.
Puffy turned back to her friends, “Okay. Here’s the thing, the Commodore isn’t getting what he deserves.”
“And?” Punz asked.
“And I hate it,” Puffy spat with venom. “Who does he think he is to just come here, call us liars, kill our parents, make us starve and then leave to live his luxurious life?”
Hannah rolled her eyes, “The Commodore, the highest of the Navy, the third closest thing to the crown. That’s who he thinks he is.”
“It’s actually fourth,” Karl muttered.
“Isn’t it fifth?” Skeppy chimed in.
“Guys! It doesn’t matter! What matters is that somebody fixes this complete injustice,” Puffy said.
“Sorry to break your heroic bubble, Puffy, but we’re three fifteen, two sixteen and fourteen year old. We can’t do shit.”
“Two fourteen year olds. Nihachu is with us,” Puffy wrapped her arm around Niki. She looked at her with such a hopeful smile, “Right Nihachu?”
Niki forced a smile, she didn’t understand what was happening but she didn’t want to disappoint Puffy, “As long as you stop calling me Nihachu. And, I’m thirteen.”
Puffy laughed, loud and cheerful, “Doesn’t matter and never. Nihachu is cuter.”
Niki laughed.
The seven of them wasted no time getting on the next merchant that came by. They had said goodbye to their island for what they believed to be a short amount of time, but what turned out to be forever.
Niki stood by the helm alongside Puffy staring out to the morning sun. It was a beautiful, silent sunrise. Niki and Puffy had gotten quite close over the years. Niki had come to look to Puffy as a leader and even more than that she was her best friend. It was strange to think that only four years ago, Puffy was nothing but one of the older kids to Niki. Now at seventeen, Niki was her second in command in some ways.
Piracy suited them in many ways. They did not have to worry about food or what was right or wrong unlike the village where everyone became a bit stiff about all that after the Great Massacre.
But, now staring out to the sea and sun, Niki could relax and enjoy the view.
Not for long though, never for long, their Captain, an older woman who had taken Puffy under her wing, had called to them to finish up their chores. Puffy sighed before rushing to check the ropes of their mast. Niki went to get the mop. It was her favorite chore as she got to stare at the horizon for hours on end.
Niki would regret taking this morning for granted.
An hour or two later when they had made it near a port, they ran by a humongous ship. The horror in their captain’s eye should’ve told them everything they needed. They should’ve feared for their lives, but Puffy’s excited glee flooded out their fear.
“Guys!” She called out. The seven of them turned to her, there was no one else who would want to see the Commodore’s ship. “It’s time!”
Even at nineteen, Puffy still held out her foolish hope.
In the same breath, there was a gunshot and a yell. Niki turned towards it to see the body of the cabin and a navyman standing above him. A strangled scream escaped her and she coiled in horror.
The navymen were rushing onto their ship and her own crewmates were picking up whatever weapon they could find and rushing to the bloodshed. Niki looked around frantically trying to locate a weapon. She found one, a small cutlass by the Captains’ unmoving body.
She forced down her horror and grabbed the cutlass rushing to the massacre. She managed to push back one and cut down another before she was roughly pushed to the ground, a foot connecting to her chest. She screamed out in pain but before the enemy could continue his assault he was killed by Puffy.
Niki was pulled onto her feet, Puffy nodded to her smiling and glorious.
“Our justice will come soon,” she had said.
That was the last thing she had said to Niki.
Niki noticed him but before she could say anything, he had made his sword home in Puffy’s hearts.
Puffy opened her mouth, but all that came out was blood.
Niki flinched backwards as Puffy’s body was discarded to the side. The man glared at her, his sword covered in blood. Then, Niki saw his emblem and she stared out in horror. The Commodore was right in front of her.
Niki slashed her cutlass in an arc, but that only served to topple him down. Which was just good enough for Niki to run the other direction and off the ship. She swam to the port, pulling herself onto the platform, she looked back to her ship. Or what used to be her ship. Now, it was nothing but smoke and ash, yelling and gunfire could still be heard from her spot.
“Niki,” a familiar voice called. She turned and stared at Punz, blood covering him head to toe. She ran to his side, but he put a hand out. “Niki, we need to run. We can’t stay here, they’ll be after us. Quite a lot of people ran. Get on a merchant ship and get out of here!”
Another gunshot was heard, Niki turned to the sound but when she looked back to where Punz was standing she only found an empty spot.
Niki followed his advice. She ran and ran until she found a hiding spot by the bakery. She hid there for a few hours, then found a merchant ship and hopped on for the ride.
“And, that’s how I ended up here,” She confessed to Jack.
“That- that’s a lot to process and… it all happened to you? Jeez, Niki. I don’t know what to say,” Jack bit his lip and looked the other way.
“It’s fine. I’m still processing it myself.”
“I’m sorry that that had happened to you. You don’t deserve it.”
“I don’t think anyone does. Y’know, I used to think that the Commodore had hurt me, or Dream, but it was actually her.”
“What?”
“She hurt me the most, even though she didn’t mean to.”