Seas of Affliction

When the rain had swept away and the clouds had cleared, they had taken the sun with it. There was a cool breeze from the north, furthering the chill all my crew was feeling from being drenched. No matter how exhausted they were, we had to keep going. With myself included, we all felt more washed up than seaweed baking on a hot shore. Until I felt as if we were on the right and safe course of travel, there would be no rest, even if night had fallen around us long ago.

For the first hour, it was easy sailing. The waters were smooth and no longer rough and the wind was steady in its ways. I thought that after the ropes were tied and the sails set, I could begin the nightly shifts. Then we hit and seemed to drag to a halt against what felt like a sandbar. It rough enough to cause some men to lose their footing and the lighter things to tumble over if they weren’t tied down.

“Mr. Beaty!” I shouted, my feet feeling heavy as I cursed over to my navigation head. “Why in the hell did it feel like we just hit a wall in the middle of open water?”

“I have no idea, captain. Honestly, the waters are vastly deep in these parts.” His hands fumbled with the course map he kept on him but to both our dismay, he had forgotten to stick it someplace dry during the rain.

“Figure it out,” I said lowly before I turned to see some cleaning up things that had fallen, others checking for damage, and Nickolai climbing up the rat ropes. Every crew member was moving about to try and figure out had happen, all except for that girl. She was standing idle, arms hanging rigidly still at her sides, as she seemed to be locked in on something down in the water.

I squeezed my eyes shut tightly in frustration and in some part willfulness. When I stopped a few feet away, she didn’t bother to notice my presence. “With you standing still while the rest of the crew is trying to get this ship sailing again, all I can hope is I am hallucinating because you couldn’t possibly be stupid enough to anger me once again.”

Her eyes flashed over, startlingly dark as her mouth soured into a frown. “Don’t say I never tried to help you.”

I suddenly felt as if I had been slapped in the face with familiarity. Before it had only been waving itself in front of my eyes, taunting me to try and pinpoint why my head thought they had been mutuals in the past. But now, oh, now I knew exactly who she was. My knife was drawn and my other hand had her already pinned against one of the masts. There was no struggle against her part as my blade rested comfortably against her throat.

“I've failed to see who you are--or rather what until now. You just gave yourself away, sweetheart.” I spat, waiting for her eyes to widen in fear or to look away in cowardice.

“What are you talking about?” She choked out with the small about of air I was allowing her to breathe.

“Captain! What is this all about?” Burke was approaching with alarm, assumingly representing the rest of the crew in a bystanders confusion as to what they were suppose to do.

“Admit it,” I growled to her, ignoring Burke’s question.

“It seems there’s nothing to admit.” Her words had me pressing my knife hard enough to break skin. I didn’t know just how much I would regret that when I found myself colliding into the steps to the upper deck, my knife no longer in my hands and my ribs tickling the nerves that swathed them under my skin tenderly.

“Don’t make me hurt you, captain.” My eyes looked to a determined but apprehensive Mr. Wick tackling her to the ground. There was no fight to be fought though. He had no chance to prepare himself for her unmarked strength, taken completely by surprised by it. He was hunched over, heaving from the impact to his gut.

“What has your plan been all along, sea witch? To feed us to your sea gods, to feast on our bodies for sustenance?” I rose to my feet, starting towards her with caution but purpose, tensely controlling how much pain I was in outwardly.

“Sea witch?” Several crewmen mumbled and questioned around, either more bewildered or alarmed.

“You think me so savage?” I could swear she was about to laugh but instead she looked overboard just as she had before. “I’m afraid the real savages are the ones you chose to ignore, captain.”

I watched as a creature seemed to apparate from thin air and onto an unsuspecting crewman, one that was much too young to be sentence to such a fate as he disappeared with the creature back down into the sea. I didn’t have anything but shock to feel, the ghastly look of its gnashing fangs and spindly body twisting more violently than a typhoon had me searching for something bigger than my knife to protect me with. Before I could even move a step, there were dozens of them flying aboard my ship.

I quickly lost sight of the sea witch in the chaos, dodging my way through it all to my main quarters to scramble for anything that could help. The first thing I saw was a broad machete, one that wasn’t for fighting but for chopping things down. In the situation at hand though, I couldn’t see how it’d be any different.

I first found myself lunging for Burke, whose bum leg would be his death if he didn’t find safety somewhere. I swung the blade down at the creature, striking it’s smoothly scaled and thick tail multiple times before it stopped moving. A liquid oozed from it; thick as mucus but a much deeper red than blood. I helped Burke up, ordering him to get down to the cargo hold and barricade himself.

“Absolutely not.” He looked at me as if I had insulted him. “I won’t hide while others fight.”

I nodded, understanding the moral code but knew that chances were he would be dead long before anyone else made it out alive. I couldn't finish my thought before I felt myself get knocked down, no longer seeing Burke beside me but a creature squirming and snapping its springy jaws closer and closer to my face. I struggled under its weight that was equal to a limp corpse. I lifted it up enough to rear the blade through it, rolling it off me as its blood stuck to my shirt and skin. I soaked in the scene around me, witnessing man after man being taken overboard, failing to fight off the hellish creatures as they slithered up the side of our ship. It was as if I was in the same situation from two years ago but this time I had been clean, I had followed the rules and been careful. It was to no avail though, life would fuck me through and through if it wanted to it seemed.

I trudged on, the floor of the ship now gleamed a haunting crimson under the light of the moon. I helped save who I could with others until I could no longer swing the machete in front of me. My strength was spent, my arms trembling with a lethargic pulse. I had long forgotten about the problem that had been leading this one, the sea witch.

She was fighting alongside the crew, who didn’t seem to be trying to attack her while they had the chance. She held two long blades in her hands, elbow deep in blood as it had smeared across her face over time. My blood was boiling. The machete hunger for one more kill, turning over in my hand as I aimed to shatter the two way mirror she had presented herself such. I had it raised when I neared her but lost any chance when she was pinned by a creature, having sensed my oncoming presence perhaps as she was turned towards me. She struggled, the sounds coming from her mouth sounded like long hisses of air, stinging the creatures ears as it shrieked under the heaviness of her words. Her hand sunk into the creature's flesh just under its throat, yanking it from atop of her.

I watch in a conflicted trance as she threw it down at her feet. Its tail curling up like the legs of a dead spider. She raised the knife she had in her hand and cut her own wrist, blood spilling down onto the dying creature. Her movements connected over to her other hand picking it up and holding it inches above her head.

“Tell them who you dare attack,” she seethed before launching it back into the sea.

My blood wasn’t running as hot as it had just before and my machete loosened in the grip of my hand. I remembered her words, remembering that she could’ve done much worse the whole time she had been here with us but she hadn’t. She possessed the violence, the strength, and hate to match my own possibly. My bloodthirst has quickly been doused in obscure curiosity. She had ulterior motive to just being on this ship, this I thought I knew well at one point. Now though, I was backed into the dark.

“What did you do?” I asked her, having been slowly walking towards her the whole time, never even knowing it myself until she was under my stare.

She looked at me, her eyes a silvery hue, bright and as powerful as dueling spears. I instantly found myself even more then thrown back into the painful memory of my failing two years ago. It was all in her face, the same one I had looked upon before she vanished from my memory until now. Then her eyes waned, rolling back in sync with her knees, falling unconscious with a hard thud. The suddenness of it had me in blind instinct kneeling over her. I then looking around me, noticing that no creatures were attacking us. No more men fighting but looking around just as I was. The sky moved above us freely once again and I looked back to her.

What had she done?