Pierre dragged John along. "Come on or we'll miss all the pirate ships!" Pierre called.

"OK!" John moved his short little legs faster.

When they reached the dock they began to look around. "What does a pirate ship look like?" John asked.

"Obviously it is big and has tall masts." Pierre said, "But the real way you know it is a pirate ship is the captain!"

"The captain?" John asked, looking up at Pierre.

"Yup! The captain is tall and wears an eye patch, and he always has a peg leg." Pierre covered one eye and wobbled around favoring his left leg to demonstrate.

"Ohhhhh. You know so much Pierre!" John grinned.

"I really do." Pierre grinned, "Now come on!" he turned around and ran into someone.

"Well, well. What have we here?" asked the man as he leaned down.

John covered his mouth with his hands and gasped, "A pirate captain!" he exclaimed.

It was true. He did look the part of the pirate. He towered above the two boys. His left eye was covered with a black eye patch and as Pierre could see from his view at the pirate's feet; he only had one foot. The other was wooden!

But he shook his head, "Sorry, boys." he said to the two starry eyed children, "I'm not the captain. He is."

The man pointed to a tall, young, fair haired man who stood on the deck of a boat. He looked over at them and waved. His eyes were the color of rubies.

John grinned and waved back, but Pierre looked again at the eye patch man, "But, but..."

The man shrugged, "Looks can be deceiving. Now run along back home to your mommies."

"We ran away!" John declared.

"Ran away?" the man asked.

"Yup." Pierre declared, "We're going to sail the high sea's with the pirates!"

The man glared at him with his good eye, "No, you're not. You are going to 'run away' back to your parents."

"Oh, come on Benjamin! Let them up at least to see the ship." the pirate captain called down.

"Ruben, they are too young-"

"Nonsense! You are never too young to be a pirate!" Ruben the pirate captain called, "Come on up boys!"

The boys lost no time scrambling up on board the ship. Ruben gave them a full tour with Benjamin tailing behind saying all kinds of pessimistic things.

"Well, boys." Ruben said when they were back on deck, "How would you like to be a pirate?"

"Yes!" both of the boys yelled.

"NO!" Benjamin said, "Ruben, no."

"Benjamin," Ruben said a deathly gleam coming into his red eyes, "Who is the captain here?"

"You, but-"

"It would be such a shame if my dear first mate were to lose his head, now wouldn't it?"

The two boys shivered, even though it was a warm afternoon.

"You're the captain." Benjamin said.

"Good! Now that's taken care of, I seem to have lost my cabin boy during our voyage, so I am in need of a new one. John, was it? John, I want you to be my new cabin boy. And Pierre, you're old enough to start using a sword, I wager. I'll have you made a fine swordsman before the year is out!"

Both of the boys looked at one another and grinned.

Ruben left them to make the plans to set sail, for as he said to them winking, "It's not a good idea for a pirate to stay in the same place for too long."

As soon as he was out of sight Benjamin leaned down close to the two boys and grabbed them by the shoulders. "Listen closely. I only have a little time. This ship is cursed. You will die or fall prey to the curse if you stay here. Ruben has a short memory span, if you leave now he will never even remember that you exist and you will be safe."

John's eyes widened, but Pierre's narrowed, "You're lying." he said, "You just don't want us to be here."

"No! I'm not lying. I am telling the truth. You need to hurry!" Benjamin insisted.

"We're not leaving! Me and my brother are staying and we are going to become pirates!" Pierre said. He grabbed John's hand and walked quickly away from Benjamin.

John looked up at Pierre, "Pierre...."

"Don't worry, there are no such thing as curses." Pierre reassured him.

They sailed happily for two day on the pirate ship. Pierre was told he had a knack for sword fighting and John happily ran errands for the pirate captain Ruben.

But this did not last long. On the third day Ruben fell into a rage. John and Pierre had no idea what set him off, but there was a lot of crashing and yelling going on inside his cabin.

The other ship members continued on calmly, if not a little uneasily. Benjamin kept John scurrying around doing chores so he never had a chance to get close to Ruben's cabin.

Pierre followed John around all day and helped out with his choirs. No one on the ship saw anything of the captain Ruben. That is, until supper.

Everyone was eating their stew when they stopped. Something had changed. Little John was the first to figure it out. The crashing and yelling in the captain's cabin had stopped.

"Captain Ruben? Are you OK?" he cried as he ran over to the cabin door.

"No!!!" Benjamin yelled at the exact moment that little John opened the door.

A flash of silver and John's head rolled to the ground.

Ruben stood in the doorway his red eyes seemingly glowing. "Off with his head, off with his head." he muttered as he grinned.

He turned around and walked back into his cabin. The door flew closed behind him as if by a strong gust of wind.

"No, John!" Pierre cried. He would have flew into the captain's cabin if Benjamin had not grabbed him around the waist.

As Pierre screamed and wailed, the other crew members wrapped up little John's lifeless body. Pierre watched as they let it down into the ocean.

"No, he didn't do anything!" Pierre wailed.

Benjamin took Pierre below deck, "Why? I'll kill him!" Pierre yelled.

"No! No you won't kill him. That kind of attitude will bring the curse to you." Benjamin said as he threw down the screaming boy on to the floor and held him there.

"What curse?" Pierre asked gasping for breath.

"The curse of Ruben." Benjamin said, "Now if you'll calm down, I'll tell you. Are ya calm?"

Pierre nodded even though he felt anything, but calm.

"Ruben was a pirate who lived many years ago when I was just a boy myself. He was the most ruthless pirate captain there was. One year when I was about your age he enlisted a new cabin boy. No one knew why he did it, maybe he was drunk. Anyway he brought the dead boy's body and head out later." Benjamin said,

"Two years later we ran into a woman. Apparently she was the boy's mother and had been searching all over the world for him. We told her what had happened to him and she died on the spot. Ruben was not one to feel remorse, but afterwards he started acting weird. He would hum to himself and when I asked him what tune he was carrying, he would sing 'off with his head, off with his head, off with his head.'.

Nothing seemed to come of it until we got a new cabin boy, he was younger than you, but he was ruthless and a mean-spirited boy. One day we heard a scuffle in the captain's cabin and when we came in Ruben lay on the ground beheaded and the boy was twirling around the sword like a stick, dancing around singing, 'off with his head!'. That boy had bright blue eyes, but after that his eyes were the same red as Ruben's were. The boy never remembered killing Ruben. He seemed to think that he was Ruben. Since then all the cabin boys have either been killed by Ruben or fallen prey to the curse."

This is what Pierre was thinking about on his way up to the captain's cabin. He had made Benjamin a 'promise' that he would not venture above deck. Benjamin had offered to put Pierre off at the next port they sailed into and Pierre was planning on taking him up on that offer. After he killed Ruben.

He opened the door to the captain's cabin. Ruben lay on his cot fast asleep. Pierre gripped his sword. There he lay, as if nothing had happened.

One quick jab through the heart should do it. No, he would cut off his head. Wait. No, his heart. Go for his heart. But his head....

'Off with his head, off with his head.' the walls seemed to chant.

Pierre's hands shook as he walked over to Ruben's cot. "Off with his head." Pierre muttered.

"No!" John's face seemed to appear before Pierre.

Pierre stumbled backward, and tripped on an old glass bottle.

Ruben stirred and sat up, "What?" he muttered, running a hand through his hair. He looked over and he saw Pierre.

"Oh, no." he muttered, "Run!" he ordered.

His eyes began to glow red as the chant grew louder, "OFF WITH HIS HEAD."

"Off with his head." Ruben muttered as he grabbed his sword.

Pierre stumbled to his feet and gripped his sword.

Ruben swung. Pierre blocked it, but was nearly pushed off his feet by the force of the blow. He ducked, turned around and ran out of the cabin.

It was night and only the night watch on top of the mast was up. Ruben ran after him, "Off with his head!" he shrieked with a mad grin on his face.

Pierre ran onto the deck, but was faced with the edge of the prow of the ship. He whirled around in time to avoid being decapitated. He tried to fight with his sword, but Ruben was much taller and stronger than him. Ruben pushed him to the very edge of the ship. Pierre was afraid he and Ruben would topple off the ship. Pierre saw a small opening and he dropped to the ground and slid between Ruben's legs. Ruben tried to turn around, but his foot got caught in a loop of rope. He lost his balance and fell over the prow of the ship.

It might have been a trick of the light, but Pierre could swear that Ruben's eyes lost their glow and he mouthed, 'I'm sorry' the moment before he fell.

Pierre ran to the edge of the ship, trying to catch a glimpse of Ruben. All he could see was the foaming ocean.

Benjamin ran up behind him panting for breath.

"He's dead." Pierre mumbled, "I killed him."

"No." Benjamin gasped, "I saw it, you didn't kill him."

Pierre felt a tear trickle down his cheek, "I want to go home." he whispered.

Benjamin wrapped his arms around Pierre, "It's OK." he whispered, he turned to the man at the steering wheel, "You there! Set course for port! It's OK, boy, ye're going home."

The End