The Masked Pirate

The first time the Masked Pirate appeared, it was at a ball. My opening to society, in fact. He stood there fearless, a white mask on half of his face, a dark cloak swept around him.

I still remember the fear on my father's face when he raised his oak-made gun toward him. They both spoke in riddles, talking about old hurts. Dark deeds done long before I was born.

Then the masked man looked down at me. His icy blue eyes seemed to speak of every desire I had never expressed.

Every dark thought I've ever had.

Every wish that I knew better than to say it out loud.

My father stood suddenly in front of me as if he could block out the Pirate's gaze. He had shouted "Not My Daughter."

But it had only made the Masked Pirate laugh. There was a sudden movement between them both, and then suddenly they were both engaged in a sword fight, that seemed to echo in the hall. As they moved away from me, I saw the masked man's cloak on the floor, the pristine black at odds with the pearly white floor.

I had found myself among the others at the edge of the balcony watching as they fought down the stairs, their shouts at each other barely legible with how far they had gone.

I looked up, to the other side of the room and saw my mom looking down at them both with a look that could not be described.

She looked down at them both not with horror but a grim sort of fascination. In my deepest fears I believed that she was the one who had caused this. My Mother, the Craven Witch who had bewitched many a man into her bed. Including my father, the Nobleman of high standing.

But what reason would a masked Pirate have with my father the Nobleman?

I found myself leaving the balcony, my steps finding themselves at his dark cloak, barely hearing the scandalous gasps behind me. I heard footsteps and looked up to see yet another masked man, this time someone I knew.

Zyair raised his many ringed hand to remove his silk mask looking down at me and at the cloak I had in my hands. "You shouldn't see this." he said quietly, raising his hand towards me. "Come with me and I'll take you far from here."

"My Parents." I said hesitating.

"They made their choice, but it doesn't have to be yours."

I had believed his words, and taken his hand allowing myself to be taken from everything I had ever known. I had allowed him to shape me into his own image the perfect bride for his wayward son. A bride with grace and beauty, who bowed to all.

Perhaps I would've made a good bride in their home that had always felt more like a prison. Yet I had always known that the Masked Pirate was out there like a spectre over Zyair's perfect ending for me.

Today was the day I was supposed to be a perfect bride, with pearls in my hair, and jewelry so heavy I could barely move. In the pearl white dress that sparkled like it had an entire constellation upon it's bodice.

It was going to be perfect.

I was walking towards my soon to be groom, who looked like he'd rather be anywhere but here. It was as I walked that the music seemed to change from the wedding ballad to a dark melody I had only heard once before. It quite literally stopped me in my tracks my eyes going once towards Zyair who face seemed to be frozen with fury his eyes towards the entrance.

I turned slowly seeing the unmistakeable face of the masked Pirate his ice blue eyes on mine.

There was a sense of calm that came over me. Even with the fear. There had been moments I had feared that he would show up, and then moments of clarity that he never would.

His steps seemed to thunder as he walked towards me his eyes seeming to rake up and down my body. "Hello Nyms." He said his eyes a storm.

"Didn't you already get your vengeance?" I asked, not bothering to correct his horrible butchering of my name. "Is my father not dead?"

"His death did not save you from me." He said, his gaze seeming to strip me bare. His arms going against my waist and gathering me against him despite the thick skirts of silk and tulle.

"You belong to me."

I heard distantly the echoing roars of Zyair and my betrothed, both furious to see a pirate dare to touch me. Their roars making a melody along the hums and moans of dissent from the royals and nobles that had come all over to see Zyair marry his son to the last pure blood of the line of the Cathrain line.

I couldn't stop looking up at the masked pirate that I barely felt when he raised me into his arms and whisked me away far from the world I knew, just like Zyair had done so long ago.

The Masked Pirate barely said a word to me as we rode past the assemblage of nobles and royals that watched him take me away, my veil flying away in the wind as his black stallion rode down the winding roads that the carriage had pulled me towards not hours before, my body embraced in the embrace of the Masked Pirate as we rode closer, and closer towards the sparkling blue waters and the dark hulking ship that stood before it. The black crossbones flag with the skull that was also wearing a mask.

I rode towards my fate not really knowing what I rode towards, but knowing what I had truly left behind.

I should have felt fear, but instead I felt for the first time, a kind of clarity.

A kind of freedom that I had never felt before.