Jenna woke up to bright light shining through her window. At that moment she heard a man's voice call up to her.

"Jenna Ryan Smith. Get down here now!"

Jenna cringed. She knew that voice. It belonged to her adoptive father. After her mother passed away when she was six she was sent to an orphanage. Ryan(her adoptive father) later took her out of the orphanage. It all seemed fine at first until he started to hit her. When she turned ten things went bad. Her father had started locking her in her room with no food or water.

"Coming, father." Jenna called back. She hated calling him that. He had never really been a father figure in her life. She got dressed and went downstairs where her father was holding a spiked belt. Jenna knew what was going to happen and tried to run back upstairs. But she was to slow. Her father grabbed shoulder firmly and whipped her back with the spikes. She desperately tried to hold in a sob of pain, but could not keep tiny whimpers from escaping her mouth.

"Shut up brat. You know you deserve this!" Her father snapped, smacking her face. He dropped her on the ground, looking rather pleased with himself.

"Now will you be a good girl for daddy?" Ryan asked, still keeping a strong grip on the belt.

"Y-yes father." Jenna stuttered.

"Good girl." Ryan said softly, as he placed bread and water in front of her. Connie took the water and drank it without hesitation. She then grabbed the bread and ran up to her room. She stuffed the bread into her mouth and grabbed her old school bag. She emptied it of her school supplies and packed some stashed away food, a water bottle, her mother's diary, a blanket, some matches, and her stuffed wolf. Then she jumped out of her window and ran away to the docks.

She looked around and saw exactly what she was looking for, a small rowboat. She threw her bag in and lit the oil lamp. She pushed away from shore just as she heard her father's angered cries. She rowed away from the docks until it started to get dark. She looked behind her and could no longer see the small island that she used to live on. She decided to rest now.

She took out her blanket and wrapped it around herself. She used her backpack as a pillow and closed her eyes. When she woke up she could see a boat in the distance. She sat up and tried to row away. She thought she was safe until she heard someone's voice call out,

"Captain, there's a girl in the boat."

Jenna's heart began to race. She had heard bad things about pirates and she had begun to fear them. Despite what her mother told her.

She felt tired and tried to keep herself from falling asleep again. Her eyes felt heavy and she began to fall asleep again. She began struggling as she felt someone's arms wrap around her. The last thing she remembered hearing was a calm voice saying,

"Easy child. I won't hurt ya."

And with that she passed out.

When Jenna woke up her back stung terribly. She tried to remember what happened. Her father had beat her so much that she ran away and she found a ship.

She tried to sit up but the pain was to intense. Where was she? She let out a whimper and fell back onto the bed. That's when she heard a door open. She looked up and saw a man in pirate clothes coming toward her. She tensed up as she thought about what could happen.

"Please d-don't hurt m-me." Jenna whimpered.

"It's alright, child. As I said before I'm not gonna hurt ya." The man's voice said calmly.

"How's yer back?" He asked.

"Stings." Jenna said not taking her eyes off of the man. Although he had told her he wouldn't hurt her she was still scared. She tried to hide it but apparently he saw.

"There's no need to be scared child. I just want to help ya." Hector said sadly.

"A-alright." Jenna stuttered.

Hector gently rolled her on her side and pulled her shirt up. He wanted to throw up the minute he saw her scars.

"Who hurt you?" Hector asked.

"My f-father whipped m-me today on m-my back. S-so I r-ran away." Jenna said in between whimpers.

"Stay here." Hector said and walked into the bathroom for medicine. He came back and sat down on the bed. He massaged her neck gently to comfort her. She flinched at his touch.

"I'm gonna put medicine on yer back. It's gonna hurt but it'll help it heal." Hector said, pouring the liquid onto the cloth then gently dabbing her back with it.

Jenna felt a horrible pain assaulting her back. She tried to hold in sobs of pain but couldn't. A second later she was full on sobbing into the pillow. Finally the pain began to subside. She felt herself being pulled into a sitting position. She resisted at first but relaxed when she felt the man rubbing her back and talking to her in a soothing voice.

Hector continued to talk to her as he gently wrapped a cloth bandage around her, covering her wounds. He noticed how skinny she looked.

"Did your father ever feed you?" Hector asked, concerned.

"He only fed me once a day. The only thing he gave me was bread and water." Jenna said, suddenly realizing how hungry she was.

Hector nodded and walked to the kitchen. He came back out carrying a bowl of warm soup. He sat down and held a spoonful to her mouth.

Jenna looked at him, confused. Was he actually allowing her to eat. Finally, unable to bear her hunger anymore, she sipped the soup out of the spoon. She felt her stomach plead for more.

Hector saw this and kept feeding her until she turned her head away.

"Try to get some sleep, child." Hector said, sitting near her. He felt something new. It was almost surreal.

"Is this what it feels like to be a father?"