Chloe heard a click.

She wiped tears away from her one good eye (her demon iris didn't emit anything) and rushed to the door. With a slight creak, the door opened, but there was no one standing behind it to open it.

“Either they’ve already injected me with loopy meds,” Chloe whispered to herself, “Or this door opened by itself.”

A man’s raspy voice spoke from inside the room, “Maybe a shadow opened it.”

“What the—”

Chloe turned around. She caught a glimpse of a man as tall and pale as a sliver of moonlight. He had no chin, and his nose extended out twice as far. He was clad clothes as dark as a shadow itself. “Allow me to introduce myself," the man said with a humble bow. "I’m the Moonshadow, a stealth pirate.”

“Whoa—get out,” Chloe stammered, her one good eye widening like that of an intrigued cat. “A real life pirate? Have you really come to rescue me, your one true superior?”

“My superior?” The man scoffed. “A little girl like you is my superior?”

“Why yes,” Chloe scoffed again. “Not only am I the queen of the Mainland! I am the queen of all pirates too!”

“Listen kid,” the man remarmed. “I don’t care who you claim you are--you could say you are a talking fish with a mustache, and it wouldn’t matter. I’m simply fulfilling the debt to the man who freed me from prison."

Chloe pursued her lips with interest. "A debt?"

"Stealth Pirates have that kind of honor to them, you know. Our tribe on Bamboo Island centers around it.”

“From Bamboo Island, huh?” Chloe said.

The Moonshadow nodded.

The young queen chuckled boldly. “How would you like to be my shadow assassin and dispatch my foes at my command?”

“Getting a bit ahead of ourselves aren’t we, kid?” the beaky man said walking over to the doorway. “Wouldn’t you rather be free, first?”

Chloe nodded. A great big grin fixed itself on her face. Despite Rosemary whispering doubts in her head, she happily left her rubber room behind. The taste of freedom was sweeter than she could ever imagine.

As the light of the hallway glistened off the Moonshadow’s bald head, he urged her, “Besides, men like me, we work best alone. We align with no leaders, only our own interests.”

"Suit yourself," Chloe said as she poked her head out the doorway. "I prefer subservient goons anyway."

Seeing no one was there, Chloe emerged into the bright hallway. Candles hung in candelabras allotting much more light than her dim white room and the cobalt hallways shimmered from the overhead lights.

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

"Where are we going?" she asked the Moonshadow.

"The way I came in," he said, "through the top!"

"Or!" a weasely voice cried, "You're going back in your room!

The churning of a machine bubbled at the far end of the walkway, catching Chloe and the Moonshadow off guard. The metal mass was the size of a cattle cart, and it barrelled down the hall making all sorts of unpleasant hissing sounds.

Upon closer inspection, it resembled a rectangular box with a metal hand popping out the top. Steam generated from the exhaust pipe on the side. "The Pluckity Pluck machine!" Chloe cried, covering her demon eye.

Doctor Needles stepped beside it and cried, "Guards, the Queen is escaping! We need her eye!"

The machine reached down the hallway, its gruesome hand opening and closing. Chloe screamed in terror. The Moonshadow spared no moment's hesitation, he swept her off her feet and sped down the hallway to escaping the steam powered machine. He ran to a closet labeled, "Ye ole Janitor" and opened it right when the sinister gadget approach them. He hopped inside and slammed the door, closing it on the metal hand.

"Get that thing away from me," Chloe cried as it continue to pry through the door. "As queen of the pirates, that's an order."

The Moonshadow rolled his eyes. "First rule of the sea, missy. There's no royalty among pirates, we live outside the bounds of society"--he pointed at a ladder beside them--"Now get climbing!"

Chloe was still hopping furious by his statement. "I'm going to start the first pirate monarchy, just you wait. Besides, you are already bound by honor to help me so why not join my new empire?"

"But it is an honor I've decided to possess myself!" the Moonshadow said drolly. "For even the most honorable pirate charts their course by their own fate, not the words of kings and queens!"

Chloe was silent. She obviously had a lot to learn about the pirate code that her storybooks couldn't tell her.

She grappled her way to the top of the ladder and emerged onto the metallic, domelike roof where rain lubricated the surface. It was hard to walk, let alone stand.

"What do we do now?" Chloe asked, looking out onto the foggy horizon. She could scarcely see the Mainland Square in all of this mist and rain.

"Now," the Moonshadow said, "We fly."

He spread his arms revealing a glider cloth patterned like a shadow moth. "Hold on…" he said.

A bang went off and he clutched his stomach. "Gah!"

Two naval guards emerged from the janitorial room, along with Doctor Needles and the severe nurse. The nurse clutched a smoking gun, indicating the source of the Moonshadow's pain.

"Interloper!" the nurse demanded. "You are to surrender the queen and her cursed eyeball, or we will finish you."

The Moonshadow held his side, and gazed at Chloe. She was crying again, though the tears were hard to distinguish from the rain.

With nearly inaudible whisper, he said, "Go now!"

The paling Moonshadow handed Chloe the shadow moth glider and he screamed, "Go!"

"But...what about you?" Chloe asked.

The Moonshadow looked up at the sky. "I charted my own course as a pirate. I lived the code I bound myself to. This was my destination in the end and I live by it."

The man lifted his sharp nose in the air and roared. "Now I can finally where I scream, 'land ho!' and lay anchor in the next life!"

Chloe gave a moment's hesitation, before she spread her arms like wings like a butterfly and leaped off the building.

Behind her, she heard the Moonshadow scream, "Archibell, my debt to you is repayed!" before his voice was cut off by the sound of ripping lead.

"No!" Chloe cried, but she didn't have time to mourn. She was falling to her death and soon she would join her noble pirate ally in the afterlife.