gypsies and thieves ~ {finch brothers}

”Pirates.”

The word had been spat with enough venom that Jasper could particularly see it dripping from his chin. The other boy’s had laughed, before Jasper had shoved him off of the ship, letting him be claimed by the sea. He had stood there and watched as the waves had surged over the man’s body, as he had flailed, trying to desperately tug at the ropes that kept him bound tightly and slowly he had sunk, unable to swim or move. Jasper had been left with gut wrenching guilt that night. The hateful cries of the man still echoed in his mind, but he knew he had had to do it. He had to had been the one to push him off, to kill the man. The other boy’s had wanted to do it; Two of them had jumped forward eagerly wanting to send their captive to an early grave. Some of them, like Charlie had hung back, watching wide eyed.

In the end Jasper had said he would do it. He had already killed a man and he knew that if he was to ever let one of the other boys do it they would live with it for the rest of their lives. They would carry that burden around with them forever and sometimes they would wake up with the man’s face swimming at the surface of their mines, plaguing them, tormenting and teasing them. Jasper could never let one of his brother’s take that kind of weight, feel that pain as he had done. It is no easy thing to take a man’s life, especially when you were so determined to never do it, especially when everything you knew went against it; everything Jasper believed in went against killing that man.

Regardless of what he had thought he had killed him. The many other ships they had raided had ended with no kills, but this one had been different. He had been the Captain of the ship, and when the rest of his men had surrendered, the Captain had turned and spat at them before drawing his own sword and driving it through one of his own, helpless men. One of his own men. Such a traitorous act cannot go unpunished and so he had showed mercy to the dead man and the Captain’s crew, by dishing out a punishment that had left him shaken trembling. He often woke in the middle of the night shaking, sweat clinging to his skin, the dead men crawling towards him. Before he could think, before he could even begin to wipe them away and tear down the walls of fantasy that tormented him.

The ship rock gently under his feet and his boy instinctively swayed with the motion. It was a Captain’s job to know his ship better than anyone else. He knew her movement, her feel and every little tiny detail about her, from the number of planks that border her to the amount of knots that tied the sails to the rigging. The Red Star was his ship and he was her Captain.

The ship stood tall and menacing, in the shadows of the fading light. The sun had begun its slow descent to the edge of the ocean, where the water would swallow the fiery ball and send the world into cold darkness. At times like this Jasper would often pause, his eyes swallowing in the small ripples of the water. He loved the foam and the way that has the sun fell the ocean water glitter, flicker and sparkle with a thousand lighter shades of the blues and greens that mingled in the salty water. The sun sent a thousand different shades of colours dancing across the sky as a final show before plunging the world into darkness, only lightened by the stars that speckled the sky. And Jasper loved it. He loved the power and beauty held into the Earth and whilst he watched he could forget, the killings escaping his mind for a few moments.

As ever the clumsy footsteps of his crew drew him back to the present. He swivelled his head around as he turned to face them. Tonight was going to be a very busy night, they were going hunting. They need new supplies, new clothes and food. They needed equipment and everything they could get, winter was coming and at sea it would be extremely harsh and cruel. Besides his boy’s had grown bored and restless, they had been moored for the whole day now, whilst most of them went ashore, trading some of the things they had. He had feared for each of them, scared that some peacekeeper would notice them and drag them away. Most of all he had worried when Charlie had fled the ship, hoping ashore with a few goodies to trade.

He had bit his tongue back, holding himself for calling her and telling her to stay. She was old enough to care for herself and the young girl did not always take well to protectiveness. She could care for herself. Right now she was the only one to return as he waited, impatience pulling at him, he started issuing orders. His commands came out crisp and clear, but they were under toned with doubt, the continuous question of his own authority always came from within himself. He always doubted himself more than any of them. In fact none of them doubted Jasper Finch, they all looked up to him and as far as they knew he was the boy that had lead them to the ship. The boy that had given them all a new life and protected them in everything they had faced.

”Edwin.” He beckoned his first mate and best friend over to him. “The ship we are going to hit is a merchant ship, it is slower than ours and heavily laden with goods of all sorts, mostly food. It is headed towards the Capitol, but it has lagged behind the other ships, that left yesterday.” He grabbed a map from his pocket, where he had carefully drawn and marked the travels of every ship that had left the district four harbour for over the past month. Searching for a moment he then pointed to a small black dot only a few centimetres from the other another dot labelled “Red Star”. “That is where it was only an hour ago, I scouted earlier today and so by now, it should have actually moved closer to us, the currents would have pushed it closer.”

Just then a loud shriek tore through the air. Jasper spun around alarm prickling across his skin, but it quickly faded, replaced by a small grin that played across his lips. Charlie was finally back. Looking back at Edwin he turned and faced the rest of his crew. “It’s time to go hunting.”