Silver Spirits

"Well you heard him! Get this ship airborne!"

Scarlett and Ben were both spitting out orders. Normally, he'd get a punch in the face if he tried to direct her crew, but she didn't have time to pay him any attention. Besides, he knew more about the ship's upgrades than she did. All she knew was that the creature they faced was one she had hoped was just a myth. As they grew nearer, she could see the slimy tentacles rising out of the water, waiting to grab the Spirit and drag her down.

"Why isn't this ship moving away from it yet, Ben?" she called out impatiently, staring ahead.

"It'll get there," he responded.

"It's not going fast enough-"

"Give it some damn time!" he yelled, cutting Scarlett off as the ship suddenly lurched forward.

Scarlett grabbed the rail to keep from falling over, surprised by Ben's sudden change of attitude. A man really changes when he's just minutes away from a possibly painful death. Scarlett almost liked it, but she didn't have time to think about it as the ship lurched forward again, this time rising a little bit out of the water. Scarlett ran to the bow of the ship, finding that it was completely out of the water while the stern was still in the water.

They were just feet from the whirlpool now, the tentacles drawing dangerously close. Percy ran up to hold onto the railing beside Scarlett, looking at the whirlpool himself. His eyes were wide, fearing the worst. He knew as much about the upgrades as Scarlett did, but he wasn't quite as accepting of Ben as she was. He still had his doubts.

"We're not going to make it," he said.

"We have no choice but to believe we will," Scarlett muttered.

The ship suddenly lurched again, and now they were completely airborne, just like Ben had said. It wasn't so much a winged, floating feeling as it was an uncomfortable one, like a small child had thrown them across a pond. For a moment, it looked as if they would be thrown right over the Kraken, but at the last second one of it's tentacles snapped out and wrapped around the stern of the ship, yanking it down.

Scarlett gasped as she lost her grip on the rail and fell back, sliding down the tilted deck. She grabbed the rope tied on the mast to keep from falling overboard, looking over her shoulder to watch as two others weren't so lucky, screaming as they fell back into the treacherous water below. She found that Ben was also holding on for dear life next to Simon, who was reaching out to try and grab Emily and pull her away from the tentacle.

Scarlett feared that it would grab on too tightly and crush the ship, but found that it was beginning to uncoil. When it did, the stern of the ship bobbed in the air, causing Scarlett to lose her grip again. This time, she slid all the way back, wincing as she hit her head on the rail and toppled over the edge of the ship, shrieking as she started falling down towards the water. She would have drowned too, had someone not grabbed onto her wrist. Her head snapped up to find that her savior was none other than Nosebleed.

"I got ya cap'n!" he called out.

At that moment, the tentacle completely uncurled, as if it had seen that Scarlett was about to die and had completed what it wanted to do. The ship bounced up completely, causing Nosebleed to lose his grip. No, this was not how Scarlett wanted to die. Not hand in hand with that damn Nosebleed. However, she didn't hit the water, finding that someone else had caught Nosebleed. She looked up and found Ben holding on to Nosebleed with both hands, struggling to hold up both their weight and pull them back up. Both Simon and Percy ran over to grab Ben and help him pull, their combined strength enough to pull Scarlett (and Nosebleed) to safety.

Ben helped Scarlett as she wobbled to her feet, still panicked from what had happened. The ship started to descend at the same alarming speed it ascended, skipping across the water like a rock. It took a few moments for it to slow to a normal speed. It took even longer for everyone to catch their breath. Scarlett suddenly realized Ben was still holding her up and pushed away quickly, looking towards where the Kraken was, but it was completely gone. The water was smooth and still.

"Like nothing happened," Ben mumbled in awe.

"You saved my life," Nosebleed said to Ben. He reached out to touch him, but Ben awkwardly shifted away before he had a chance.

Everyone jumped when there was a sudden shimmer around them, and for a split second, a blast of cool air. It was like they'd passed through a wall of something. Things seemed the same, but different at the same time. It took Scarlett a minute of thinking, but she finally got it. The wind was a different direction. The barrels on the left side had moved to the right, and the ropes on the right had moved to the left. A small corner of the mast where Scarlett had carved her name years ago now showed the letters backwards, mirrored. Everything was backwards. Ben seemed to realize this too, looking around in disbelief.

"Everything has been reversed," he said quietly. "Like we've passed through a mirror."

"Is that a problem?" Scarlett asked.

"Yes," he mumbled. "It means the entire map is backwards."

Scarlett frowned, the reality hitting her. Ben was smart enough to memorize one detailed map, but could he remember it backwards, too? She stood and looked out to open sea at the still, mirror-like water.

"Well, maybe we can-"

Her voice trailed off as she looked over her shoulder and found that everyone was gone, and the ship was completely silent except for the creaking of the wood. A once crowded deck was now completely empty. Where could everyone possibly have gone? She felt a cold chill run down her spine as she ran up and down the deck looking for her crew, desperate now. Even seeing Nosebleed would have been a relief, but he was nowhere to be found. She was completely alone.