The Captain's First Mate

"I didn't save you, forget about me," the girl said. "That's what you told me, right?"

The moonlit shone a tired runaway slave. The girl have bruises and scars all over her body yet she was unfazed. She have steeled herself long ago before. And to her, those were marks of her victories.

"I don't know who you are," the captain said.

"You're a liar!" the girl said. "You saved me back then. I know! And those words, those were the exact same words you told that man. What you did just now. It's what you did right before you disappeared in front of me. I won't forget who you are. You saved me! So please, let me stay with you."

"Who are you?" the captain once more asked.

The girl showed the captain her neck. It was then did he realized that the girl with her was the same girl that hanged herself. The captain moved back. She remembered me, was all he thought.

"What happened to your wings?" the girl asked. "You were a firefly, right?"

"You're the girl who fell?" the captain said.

"You caught me." the girl said. "What happened to you?"

A certain gleam sparkled in the captain's eyes.

"I'm glad you remembered me, my little friend," the captain said. "It seems my first mate leaving me opened a crucial position in my crew. Would you care to be my first mate? I do recall I asked you to come and join me once, right? You were after all the first person before my previous first mate that should have been the first mate."

"First mate?" the girl asked. "You never asked me-"

"Now, now, my good friend," the captain said. "It seems me telling you to forget about me have actually made you forget about our first meeting."

The girl wandered what he was talking about. He never asked her to do that and yet certain memories were suddenly forming inside her head.

"I don't recall," the girl said.

"Age does takes away some of our memories, first mate," the captain said.

The girl suddenly fell on the ragged wooden boards of the ship. Her memories have been altered.