Brian sighed, looking out into the vast ocean in front of his ship. He and his crew had just left port in England, hoping to find something to loot or buy, but there was nothing. Not even an open tavern to drink in.

Word spreads fast among sailors, Synyster Gates and his crew of notorious killers. Coming into the same ports each and every day, passing each other they’d trade stories of when they’d supposedly faced the cruel, heartless man and crew of pirates - however, each and every one of them was lying - none of them had faced him because if they had…

They wouldn’t have lived to tell the tale.

However, people knew about them, they knew what was happening. Pirates were always a common topic of conversation, especially when it was a conversation between high ranking members of authority. And once people heard that Synyster Gates was travelling in their direction, they all fled for mainland.

Brian was a pirate. No, Brian was a name no one had heard in twenty years. Synyster Gates, now he was a pirate. The most famous and feared pirate throughout the seven seas. ‘More famous than Black Beard!’ ‘I heard he met Black Beard in the flesh!’ ‘Hell, I heard he killed the man himself!’ were how the conversations about him normally went.

Now Synyster was fully aware of his reputation, he killed people if they even thought of looking at him wrong, and he was proud of this reputation he’d spent twenty years building up. ‘If you’re going to be a pirate, make sure you’re not forgotten!’ his father used to tell him, and he can definitely say that he lived up to that.

-

Oliver rested his hand on the wheel that steered his ship and sighed, sucking in a big gulp of the salty air that he was all too used to. He stared up at the sky, the sun hiding behind the violently-blowing tattered and torn black flag which held the white skull and cross-bones - the traditional symbol of the pirates.

“Captain!!” he heard someone yell up to him from the decks below. His gaze lowered from the almost-clear sky to his second in command, and lifetime best friend, Joshua.

“Franceschi!” Oliver shouted back and beckoned for the man in just a shirt and trousers to come up to where he stood, “what is it?”

“There’s-” he cut off and gulped, eyes darting about frantically, “pirates.”

“Yes, that would be us,” Oliver rolled his eyes, sarcasm dripping from his words.

“No!” Joshua exclaimed and pointed towards the horizon, his sapphire blue eyes seeming darker than usual, “other pirates!”

“Impossible,” Oliver growled in response and lifted a short telescope that was small enough to fit in your pocket from his pocket. He pulled on the end of it, extending it to a much longer size, aimed it to where Josh had pointed and looked through the eye piece.

Sure enough, there was a small ship, slightly bigger than a dot heading towards them. “How can you know they are pirates?” he questioned, “the ship is barely visible through the telescope!”

Josh bit his lip and pushed the brunette locks from his eyes, “look again, Captain.”

Oliver sighed in annoyance and looked through his telescope once more.

“No…” he gasped, “but…it can’t be! It can‘t!”

-

Zack lay in his small bunk and stared up at the ceiling. It was no more than 6 inches from his face and stained with blood from when he’d awoken from terrible nightmares, hitting his head so hard off the ceiling that it broke the skin.

He’d been plagued with nightmares for as long as he could remember, which was almost as long as he’d been working for the Maddens. His nightmares normally consisted of pirates, but he hadn’t the faintest idea why. He had never seen a pirate, let alone been involved with them. Nor had he ever really thought about them properly aside from nightmares and the short time after he’d awoken in fright.

He could feel himself drifting off to sleep as he thought about all he had to do tomorrow, tidy Joel’s living quarters, lay out Benjamin’s clothes for the banquet he was attending, clear out a spare room… for a friend of the… brothers’, William… make… sure… he…

But before he could think of anything more, he slowly drifted off to sleep all thoughts leaving his mind, all thoughts apart from pirates.

Zack was standing at the end of the port, watching the sailors load things onto boats, ready to cast away on a journey to England or Spain. He and his brother would always come down to watch the ships leave, some destined never to come back again. It fascinated Zack, he hoped to be one of those sailors one day.

“Maybe you’ll be a captain!” his brother grinned at him clamping his muscley hand down on his brother’s fragile shoulder, making the smaller boy flinch.

“There’s no time for ‘maybe’s,” Zack sighed, “life’s too short.”

“I know, brother,” he smiled, “but just think about how amazing it would be!”

“If it weren’t for those pirates.”

“Pirates?” a new voice said. The pair turned round to face a tall-ish man with long, wavy black hair, jaw line that would cut glass and deep brown eyes. He wore very ratty looking clothes, including a ripped and torn trench coat and a tri-hat with a sword tied to his belt. “You mean like me?” he smiled sweetly and drew the sword, plunging it through Zack’s brother’s stomach.

“NO!” Zack exclaimed as his brother fell to the ground, “What did you do?!”

“Began a revolution!” The pirate grinned at him.

Zack woke with a jolt and bolted upright, once again smashing his head off the same spot on the ceiling. That nightmare hadn’t been as bad as most he had about pirates, normally there’s far more death and fear, more threats and such. However, it was always pirates, and always the same pirate who confronted him. The ever so slightly tanned one, with the long black hair and somewhat calmingly warm brown eyes.

“Zacky?” someone whispered from the bunk below. Zack looked down and saw his best friend (and fellow servant) Johnny grinning up at him. “Another nightmare?”

Zack nodded and yawned, swinging his legs over the bunk and jumping down, landing in a crouch on the floor, “same man in it as always. What time is it?”

“A little after six am,” Johnny replied as Zack’s eyes widened.

“NO! Shit I’m going to be kicked to the streets this time for sure!” he panicked and threw a shirt over his head and pulling on some shoes, “Master Benjamin wanted me there by half past five!”

Zacky hurried quickly to Benjamin’s room, knocking softly on the door before entering. He hoped that the twins wouldn’t kick him out this time, it wasn’t his fault he’d overslept! He and the Maddens had always been on good terms, they never mistreated him or anything that a normal person would do to their servants.

“You’re late,” someone said as he walked into the room, staring at his shoes. But even without looking up, he knew that that wasn’t Benjamin, it didn’t sound like him at all.

“I know, I apologize, but-” he looked up slightly and gasped as he saw his master’s body sprawled across the floor.

Notes

God, I just.... my writing has changed so much since I wrote this. I think I might re-write it at some point, if I can be bothered of course.

Enjoy c: Hope you like it!