The soulless ones did not care about them, at all.
They didn't care that Kofi had been a cocoa farmer, a wealthy one who had a family to take care of. They didn't care that Adwoa had once sung at festivals for kings and queens, or even that Femi, who was just given a name, had only seen three rains.
They only cared that they were cargo.
Below deck smelled like dung, and it was also hot and rotting. Bodies pressed against each other, chains clanking, locked on their wrists, ankle against ankle, they were packed like sardines in a can.
These people had lives, amazing lives along the coasts, until the soulless ones came, first with gifts, then little by little, they found a way to try and drain the coasts of its people, and they were succeeding, all the people below deck were either traded or kidnapped. And they had no idea where they were headed to, or what was going to happen. And like many others, Kofi, Adwoa and little Femi did not know that they'd never reach their unknown destination.
Above: boots
The sound of boots determined the lives of those who were stolen from their land. Quick boots meant that the soulless had been angered, and slow boots meant inspection. And the soulless ones did anything when they were angry, after all, they did not have souls.
The boots that were heard that day were quick. The hatch opened, and light fell in. They started by whipping, not minding the part of the body they his, then some of them used their hands, just to beat the stolen. They also started speaking some kind of language that meant nothing but everything to the stolen- those tones were enough. Kofi curled over Femi without thinking, and was taking the whips and beatings that went across his back without a sound. Adwoa on the other hand pressed her face against the wood and started chanting to her ancestors to save her. The ancestors might have heard, because in that situation, the only solution to be free from the soulless was to leave the ship, which in this case meant death.
The sea was way rougher now, as if calling for food. and if there was one thing the soulless were good at, it was feeding the ocean.
Screams from below deck, a whack on the head, a baby screaming, a loud wail. Chaos. then the hatch closed.
The sky, the open sky, it was the most beautiful and terrible thing any of them had ever seen, and then-
The rail. And below the rail, the Atlantic, the hungry Atlantic. Infinite. Dark. Waiting.
Kofi fell first.
Then fell Adwoa.
Then after the soulless sang a sea shanty, Femi fell.
And the ocean received them with open arms, refusing to let them go, just like it did to the others.
What the water took, the water kept. What the water kept, the water changed. And what the water changed, the outside world would never understand.