Chapter 57 (Part - C) end of chapter


Down lower on the ship Chang was shackled by his hands and feet to a wall. He lied on top of blanket as the chains allowed him enough slack to lie down. Chang was dreaming as they placed him there. He dreamed about being home again back in Shanghai with his family being a kid again. His father smiling warmly at him as his mother rubbed his head in her lap. Didi bringing a tray of tea. The feeling was very comforting. Chang also began to realize just how much he was missing his family during all of this.

"Chang dear, you must wake..." his mother whispered.

"Wake up..." his mother said again.

Chang shook his head and slowly began to open his eyes in the almost completely dark room.

"Wake up...please!" a whisper pleaded in his native language.

Chang was suddenly shocked there was someone from his native land and soon realized he partially achieved his objective.

"Please, don't leave us!" another voice sobbed.

Chang slowly began to sit up trying to get himself oriented in his present environment. It was still dark and only a sliver of gold light filtered through the cracks allowing only minor details to be seen. Chang was still wondering if he was still dreaming since people were speaking his native language.

"Wake up!" the whisper said a bit louder.

Chang shook his head and looked carefully on the other side.

"Oh! Is your last name Lam?" Chang asked.

For a moment the voice was silent, then some shifting could be heard on the other side of the room.

"The other girl says her last name is in fact Lam. You are Chinese too! I'm so glad someone can actually understand me now" the older girl almost sobbed.

"Why are you here?" the older girl asked.

"I was sent by her mother to find and bring her home...I promised" Chang
whispered.

"I didn't realize she came from a rich family..." the older girl sighed.

"I don't think she necessarily comes from a rich family" Chang nodded.

"Oh, I don't know if we will ever get off this ship alive Mr." the older girl paused for a moment.

"I'm Chang" he said leaning his back against the wall.

"I am Yan, and this is Ling" the older girl replied.

"How long have you been captive?" Chang asked.

"I have been a prisoner for over two months. Ling arrived a month ago...I am not sure if I am correct but it has been so long and so much has happened" Yan replied.

"Take heart Yan, Ling, we will escape" Chang said cheerfully.

"Don't make promises you cannot keep Chang, many have tried to save us and met a horrible end, and both of us suffer greatly from..." Yan began sobbing some.

"I will keep this promise, I promised her mother, and I will save you too" Chang said with a conviction.

"...I want to believe you Chang" Yan was sniffling.

"Are you chained up too?" Chang asked checking his wrists and ankles.

"Yes, our wrists are bound in shackles which chains us to the wall" Yan answered.

"...how is...my mom?" Ling finally spoke up but softly.

"Your mother is worried about you, and I promised her that you two will see each other again" Chang said boldly.

"...mom" Ling was crying.

"You came alone thinking you would be successful?" Yan asked Chang a bit cynically.

"No, three of my companions have also been captured, I must save them too" Chang nodded.

"How are you going to save all of us? Please tell us how?!" Yan said even more skeptical.

"I will find a way" Chang whispered.

"Everybody tries and everybody fails!" Yan whispered loudly across the room.

"My friend Tintin is brave, if I cannot do it, then he will" Chang said with much faith.

"It's easy for you to say so, you haven't been locked up for months and abused in every way...I'm sorry..." Yan hung her head down.

"I'm sorry for both of you having to go through such an ordeal" Chang waved his hand with the chains slightly clanking as he moved.

"Were there others?" Chang asked.

"...yes, there were three others when I was taken from Taiwan. One was a girl from India, one was from Malaysia, and the third was from somewhere in North Africa" she paused to reflect on her own situation.

"What happened?" Chang prompted her to continue.

"I don't know what fate became of them, maybe that horrible man sold them or worse..." Yan finished.

The three of them fell into silence only to be disturbed by heavy boots hitting the floor outside. Chang could see the girls almost instantly huddle together. Chang stood up in a defensive position, but didn't have much slack to move around which his shackles were chained to. The door handle started to turn until a voice interrupted the sound.

"You have a message to meet the boss on the sixth deck in one of the conference rooms sir" one of the crewmen replied.

"Is that a fact?" the gruff sounding voice replied confidently.

"I was hoping to have some time to play with my new prisoner" the man almost laughed.

"The message seemed pretty urgent sir" the crewmen nodded.

The handle turned back the other way, "That aint no fun, now what do they want!?" the gruff voice growled in agitation.

"What's he saying?" Yan asked Chang while huddling next to Ling.

"He's being called off somewhere else, so we have been spared for now" Chang translated.

"You just don't know what we've endured" Yan sighed in relief.

"Who is this guy?" Chang asked.

"His men call him "sir" or "Gaspar" I've heard..." Yan answered.

"Gaspar!" Chang gasped remembering what had happened on the Sirius.

"You know him?" Yan asked almost incredulously.

"I just know he is a very evil man" Chang said.

"You don't even know the half of it" Yan sighed.

Chang tried to look at his shackles trying to look at their mechanism. The chains seemed firmly attached to the walls. Chang began feeling on the floor for any kind of item that could be used to pick the lock on his shackles. He only could find some straw, splinters, and dust. Chang looked up above but couldn't too much.

"...will he disappear too?" Ling whispered to Yan as Chang thoughtfully tried fo figure a way to get out of his shackles.

"...I don't know, the fate of the last man was most likely a certain death...don't get your hopes up too high" Yan warned.

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