The Voyage

The Voyage

The Ocean can be the most brutal of all evil beings. It has a mind of its own and it doesn’t show mercy to the weak. Akua loved the water, ever since he was a little child. Water helped to bathe him, feed him, and comfort him. This Ocean Water was different. It was absent of color, blackness into the depts of it’s unknown. He could no longer see the water, but what he heard was almost a constant echoing of despair and death. During the day, sun light would shine through the open cracks from the wooden top deck. Akua would look through the cracks at the streaming rays of sunlight and be reminded of his home. During the night, it was a different demon. The Hull was where so many of his family were bounded together. It was dark, wet, and smelled like death. The wooded floor attacked the body with needles that wedged into the skin. The medal chains that linked over 600 nearly naked African’s cut into the flesh and left oozing infections. Demons captured them. Akua and his twin Zara were hunting and gathering foods to bring back to their tribes. It was the best part of their day because they were able to work together, there was great pride in bringing food back to share with their people. At first Akua was fascinated when he saw these men with pale white skin. He soon discovered that they were demons. Akua thought that he could see straight through them. Their magical skin would turn red right in front of his eyes. The demonic language that they spoke was foreign and new. Akua was a young man, and he had just finished his right of passage into being a warrior. His father was so proud. Akua had never been afraid of the jungle animals, nor was he afraid of the warrior fights. Now, on this ship he was terrified. Akua knew from childhood that evil could not be conquered by the spear. He needed weapons given by his ancestors, but he was far from home and far from those gifts. In the pitch-black tomb, he called out to his sister. He needed to make sure that she was okay.

“Zara! Zara are you okay?” In Akua’s tribe being a twin was a honor bestowed on just a few. He was also the oldest which made him her protector. The cries and moans made it almost important to make out her voice. They had been on the ship for many days and these poor souls were beginning to weaken. He could smell the carcasses of people who had already succumbed to the voyage. “Zara, please speak to me!” He pleaded.

“Akua, I am okay. I want to go home, please take me home.” She cried.

“I will, I promise. You must be strong sister.” Akua understood that this was the only way that they would survive this.

The loud sound of the door opened leading to the upstairs. Two demons walked down. The light from the lanterns on the top deck made a red aura around them encapsulating the men and making each look as if fire was flowing out of his body. They walked around, sizing the female captives as if shopping for the best piece of meat available. There was a satisfaction on their faces that made Akua know exactly what was next. He summoned his ancestors that they would walk over Zara. Once the men were out of his sight his ears fought to make out sounds of his sister. Akua could hear the unlocking of chains and the screams of one female, only one. Zara.

“Zara! No. Leave my sister alone!” He screamed over and over again. The demons could not understand his language but they knew that he was enraged. One man walked over to him and collided the bottom of a thick walking stick into his head.

The other man responded, ‘Don’t hurt the merchandise, we are going to make a lot off of that one.” Although Akua did not understand, those words were the last that he heard for at least a day.

The sun shined in Akua’s eyes from below. His head was pounding and the thicken, dried blood led him to believe that he was unconscious for quite some time. He sat up, his head spinning from the current of the waves and the pain in his temple. It was then that he remembered. “Zara!” He tried to look around, look over the many people that sat skin on skin. He could see a woman that had been next to Zara. All he wanted was to see that his sister was okay. His eyes met with the woman, and she immediately turned her head, too afraid to see his expression. As she turned, he could see the bare feet that laid next to her. They were Zara’s feet. His eyes squeezed together to focus in the dim room that was only illuminated from the outside sun. He could see blood on her ankles that traveled to her legs and ending toward the inside of her thighs. Zara’s lifeless body laid in a puddle of her own blood. The lady next her was shivering and terrified. Zara’s blood was all over her as well. The feeling of a dead body tied to her own was unbearable. Akua screamed. He began to panic unknowingly pulling the shackles deeper into his wounded skin and causing the people next to him to feel the same pain.

“You must pull yourself together! You will kill us all!” The man shackled a few people away from his screamed.

The door leading to the upstairs opened. Several demons walked down to the bottom floor. Each man took a separate section of the ship and inspected a separate group of captives.

“Got a dead on over here.” He pulled the lifeless body of an infant from the grieving arms of the mother. He held the baby upside down by the ankles as it dwindled in his hold.

The mother began to cry, “He isn’t dead, he doesn’t have enough to eat. He is weak, he is breathing! Please no!” Her cries were ignored as the man took his thick, leather whip and slashed her face with it. She tried to run toward the baby but was pulled back by the chains holding her down.

The other man toward the back end of the room yelled, “Another one back here. Shark food.” The man starts to laugh, “These sharks are eating good in these waters!”

Another man walks over the Zara, he kicks her lifeless foot and receives no response.

“What the hell happened to this cargo? This is prime money wasted. You men can’t keep fucking the pure life out of the merchandise!” He screamed over to the other man, “More shark meat!”

The man grabbed Zara’s feet and pulled her bloodied body passed Akua. Although his eyes were still blurry from the head trauma he received the day before, he could see Zara as her body moved passed him. He was almost able to grab her but lost his grip. Her blood left behind in a trail across the wooded floor. Akua watched as they pulled at least 20 other dead bodies up the steps. At that moment Akua knew what pure evil was. He looked straight ahead, without emotion but with determination. He could hear each body as it was thrown overboard and as it hit the water. He wondered which horrific drop was that of his beloved Zara. He thought about her floating in the ocean and found comfort knowing that she was free.

The night came by quickly and Akua had a sense of well-being. The dread and despair were now gone. He would be with Zara and all of his ancestors soon. The ocean was fierce that night. Maybe the ocean waters knew what was in store for it. Maybe the ocean was preparing to swallow up the spirits that traveled on this boat, but something was off. Akua whispered the surrounding Africans that could hear him, and the rest whispered the messages throughout the ship. “We must call on our ancestors for protection. We must call on them until the waters shake. Bring out of the water our ancestors for protection. Warriors of protection to join our fight against these devils. Join together as one entity to protect us! Join together as one entity to protect us!” Although they only whispered the chant Akua knew that they were loud enough for the Heavens to hear. They began to rejoice.

The door opened and the moon light streamed through the opening. The one devil that Akua believe was known by the name John came first down the stairs. Akua signaled to his fellow brothers and sisters to remain silent. John was surprised by the eerily silence. “What’s going on in here, no cries or moans?” He screamed up to the other two devils on the deck. “Come on down James! William! They are quiet today.” He started laughing. “So, who wants to ride on the John horse tonight?” The women began to worry. Everyone knew that going upstairs with those men would mean, a pure nightmare. The women would rather jump overboard, and some even had that chance. Tonight, was going to be different. John grabbed the arm of a 12 year who was barely 5 foot tall. James grabbed his choice of the night a pregnant mother would give birth at soon. William decided that he would prefer two woman and picked the two youngest that he could find.

“Let’s get this started.” He laughs. “Make sure we don’t fuck them to death this time!”

Akua knew no English but suddenly he understood exactly what they were speaking. His mind was open, and he understood every word. He understood that the ship was just the beginning of a living hell for himself and his future descendants. He understood that it would be centuries of torture. Now was the time.

“Protect us! Protect us!” He chanted until the rest of the captives repeated that chant.

They all repeated over and over again “Protect us! Protect us!” Those words began to vibrate in the ears and head of the demons.

“Shut up! Shut up do you hear me! You animals shut up!” John started whipping his strap across the flesh of the captives.

James and William began to hold their ears to avoid the loud chants. “It hurts!” James cried and dropped to his knees. The men had not realized but the ship had become unstable, rocking, and smashing the men into one and other. John noticed that the Africans were stable as if standing on the top of a strong mountain.

The rest of the crew began to run down the stairs, all in hysterics. “There is something in

the ocean. There is someone standing in the middle of the ocean!” They all ran down the stairs for protection.

Akua, “May our ancestors protect us! May our friends at the bottom of the sea surround us!” Suddenly, people appeared from nowhere. African’s who died and never made the voyage to The American’s. They were no longer in chains, but each spirit appeared to be a King or Queen. There were babies nestled in the arms of their mothers. Family who had risen from the bottom of the sea.

Suddenly Akua’s chains were unlocked. His sister smiled happily at him. “Zara, I am so sorry. I could not protect you” Zara just smiled happily. The ship began to shake uncontrollably, the crew were being yanked back and forth like Rag Dolls. They crashed onto the ships walls, while chains and ship materials crashed into them. The wood on the ship start breaking about. Large pieces of wood stabbing them, flying through the air like arrows looking for a target. James could see the spirits of these African Ancestors strongly standing, unwavering in their stance. The entire crew were screaming in agony as the spirits began to gently unshackle their descendants. Zara was more beautiful than Akua could have ever remembered. The ocean water started flowing onto the floor. The devils ran to the stairs that would lead them to freedom. There was no door, it had magically disappeared. As each chain dropped from the ankles and wrists of the other, it appeared one of the demons. John was shackled first. The water continued to rise. Two worlds appeared in these cramped quarters. The once enslaved Africans were free. The newly enslaved demons understood that the end was near. One group wept in happiness, the other in terror. The water continued to rise. The spirt of the Ancestors holding the hand of each previously captured person. There was no fear, they knew that the end was just the beginning. They would never make it to America, but they would make it to freedom, to their promised land. As the watered filled the Hull the crew began to drown. The ship opened from the bottom. Each Africa became a beacon of light, rising to the top. The blue heavens opening to welcome each soul. For the crew, there was an even darker, reddish light at the bottom of the ocean floor that was welcoming them to their promise land.