by Dani Stowe
I blink, wiping the rain away to get a better view of the horizon because I think I see two. Two dots. There are two boats out there.
The rain is battering down now as we get closer to the eye of the storm and I turn my head, searching, realizing we have nothing to mount an attack with.
I turn to my Master at Arms. “Orphelius, we have no weapons.”
“Not to worry, Captain,” he smirks. Orphelius bends down to pick up another fish and tosses it to his feathery friend.
Is he mad? We are making our approach and he’s feeding the damn bird above!
I recognize it’s been a while (give or take a few hundred years) since we’ve plundered. Like pirates, we’ve behaved together in the past, but we almost always had a plan. Almost. We did, however, always have weapons.
“Orphelius!”
He shakes his head unbuttoning his shirt, with a shout towards the helm. “Henry,” Orphelius calls. “I’m going overboard.”
Henry waves his hands before he pulls up his own shirt.
“Oh no,” replies Orphelius, pointing. “You’re not coming. You’re staying right there. You are not allowed to transform. You know what the doctors have said. If that bullet in your back moves in the slightest…”
Henry scoots off his chair to land flat on the deck.
“Captain, tell him!” cries Orphelius. “Tell Henry he can’t—”
With one pull up and a bellying tip over the edge of our ship, Henry disappears.
I scurry to peep over the side. Between the rain and the rough waves, I can hardly see a thing until...
I’m fairly confident I just saw a seaman with a damn fishtail.
“Well,” says a naked Orphelius. “I think you’ll need more weapons. Don’t you?”
“Aye,” I groan and sigh when my Master at Arms also jumps overboard.
A wave crashes port side nearly tipping over my boat. As much as I wish I could jump in with the other seamen, unlike them, I would not transform. In fact, I’d probably drown. I’m stuck, by my bargain, in this human form until sunrise.
Quickly, I make my way up to the helm and take hold, steering myself towards the ship I suspect is holding Athena and must belong to that demon.
His ship, a rusted black mass of thick tin, is ten times the size of my boat.
Drifting across his starboard side, I notice there are a few men on board. I see the men are all lined up...
Lined up with guns...
And those guns are all aimed right at me.
15
Athena
Gunshots. The pace of my pulse quickens as what sounds like gunshots ring out.
I tug at the ropes that bind my wrists to the bed.
More gunshots go off. Like fireworks, they fire off repeatedly except now more sporadically and in the company of screaming.
Are those men screaming?
I figure the witch did as she said she would, following through on her part of the bargain and informing the sheriff of our whereabouts. I only hope the sheriff also called for help and brought a task force of some kind. Only he and the deputy plus a few retired police volunteers are responsible for our small town. What Bradley has going on here is undoubtedly part of some larger crime syndicate and, although I’ve never heard the sound of an automatic weapon before, I’m well aware of the type of effort and organization it must take to obtain weapons like the ones I’m sure are sounding off right now.
And it sounds like there are dozens of them shooting off outside of this room. It sounds like there’s a war going on out there.
What the hell are they firing at?
“Get the girls!” shouts Bradley approaching from outside. “We need bait.”
My door unhinges, revealing a very pissed off pirate with a huge gun strapped over his shoulder.
“Let’s go,” he commands, pulling a knife from his back pocket.
My body tenses as he steps forward and begins to cut at my binds.
I’m not sure what to do. Should I be fighting him? Or should I let him cut me free in hopes I can overpower him and attempt an escape later?
The glimmer of the blade sawing near my wrists feels as torturous as being bound. I remember thinking once when I’d learned about what happened between Kumiko and Bradley, why she didn’t fight back harder against him. I remember thinking that I would’ve easily fought back if someone had tried to force themselves upon me. But right now, with this… this man with a gun and blade plus a stench so strong he smells worse than death—I feel paralyzed.
Bradley catches my eye as he cuts and gives me a devilish up-quirk of a side smirk.
I pout, helpless in my own skin.
Levi might be a demon, but this man, Bradley Richmond, is the Devil, and he knows exactly the power he has over me right now.
“You gonna come nicely?” The Devil asks. “Or do I have to drag you out by your heels to meet your freak?”
My freak? Willis is here? This is why the men are screaming outside. I suspect Willis is not alone.
I swing my legs around feeling more confident about the situation even though I know there are bullets flying about. Even though I’m doing exactly as the Devil asks and heading towards the door, Bradley still decides to push me. I land on the floor face-down.
Turning around, rolling over to my back, I look at the man standing straddled above me and chortling. He points his gun down at me. “You do as I say when we get out there. Do you understand, Athena?”
I don’t say anything. There’s an itch, an overwhelming urge to try to escape, especially knowing that Willis is out there.
My thoughts betray my face and Bradley kicks me in my side, which is shocking!
I clam up. The immediate sting to my ribs isn’t too bad but I know it’s going to bruise later.
“Now look what you made me do,” he scowls. “Do you think your new owner is gonna want you when you’re all bruised up?” Bradley flicks his greasy blond locks back.
“Maybe I should tie you back up. I can see why Levi likes you so much.” He licks his lips. “You’re too smart for your own good. Perhaps you’re not ready for sale. Perhaps you need a few whips to teach you subjection. Hmm?” He kicks me again. “Do you need a lesson in understanding your place?”
There are too many loose screws in Bradley’s head. Above deck, there are guns firing, people screaming, and a storm raging, but this loony is finding it necessary to take a timeout from the havoc outside to teach me a lesson in slavery.
Bradley’s towering over me, but I’m confident if I just lift my leg and kick really hard, kick him in his balls! I could probably render him helpless.
Or maybe not.
Reluctantly, the words, “I know my place,” flow from my quivering lips.
“Good. Get up. And get on deck.”
I roll over to my knees and get up, reaching for the door handle. Upon opening the door, I see another armed man waiting.
“Take her,” Bradley says as the other man fists my hair at the back of my head, yanking me and then pushing me forward.
The man places the tip of his gun hard into my back as we get to a metal staircase. Hiking up the steps, I see a door.
“Go.” The man digs his gun more firmly into the soft right flank of my back. Right where Bradley kicked me! So, I swiftly move my feet to avoid the pain.
Opening the door, I squeal as lightning flashes furiously before my very eyes.
“Go!” The man yells, again digging his gun painfully into my side.
Within milliseconds I am drenched as I step out onto the deck. It is taking every bit of effort to keep myself from slipping. My bare feet can barely keep me stabilized with all the rain spurting and pooling about.
Every inch of my body is being struck by rain. I shiver as icy cold wet drops pierce every point of my body, in the corners of my eyes, and even going up my nose. A strong whirlwind wraps itself around me nearly knocking me over, but I’m grabbed.
I wiggle as the claws of the armed man manage to
grip right under my armpit. He digs and I squirm in reaction.
To both of our surprise, I somehow manage to free myself from him, standing more than a few feet away. Like a bull, his nose flares and just as some of the sailors are doing around me, I decide to run as he charges.
I don’t know why I’m running. I’m on a teetering ship in the middle of the ocean. I have no idea where I’m supposed to go and certainly not overboard. I see there are twenty-foot waves waiting to pummel and drown me.
The ship tilts and, of course, I slip. The next thing I know, I’m on my knees again. I’m grabbed by the shoulder and smacked in the face with a backhand.
Ugh! I grab my head to calm the dizzying effect.
“Why you fucking cunt!” the man blares, raising his hand once more.
I shut my eyes, readying to take another backhand...
But...
It doesn’t come...
I hear a yelp and squint open one eye.
The man is gone.
I turn my head around, searching for a sign of him when I hear another yelp and words which sound like “help.” The words are coming from beyond the ship.
Helping myself up, I grab the ship's rails, daring myself to look overboard.
Through the blurring rain, I see the man who hit me outside of the ship and treading water ferociously among turbulent surf and squalls. His eyes are so wide, he looks desperate. “Help me!” he yells.
From a few feet beyond the man screaming, I swear I just saw something... the flick of a very large tail fin, although I’m not entirely sure.
It seems my captor also saw what’s coming for him and he shouts for help even louder. The ship teeters and the man is screaming now.
I make eye contact with my former captor and watch as two separate hands reach up out of nowhere to quickly pull my captor under where he disappears into an angry black sea.
I crouch. Planting my butt on the floor and my back against the inner wall of the ship, I hug my knees to my chest. I’m not exactly sure how, but I suspect Henry somehow leaped out of the water to nab my captor and took him overboard.
A pain thickens inside me. The witch tricked me. She said she would put into motion the means to free us by calling the sheriff. But all she did was tell the sheriff where the seamen were and now they are here.
I clasp my hands to my mouth to hide the scream that escapes me and the horror that I can’t believe I hadn’t noticed yet, the horror unfolding before my very eyes.
Tentacles are reaching over the opposite edge of the ship plucking captors one by one to either be tossed into the storm or suffocated and crushed.
The horror of what I must do is beginning to eat away at me. In exchange for all of this, I have to kill Henry.
Bradley appears strolling past me with such confidence, he is completely unfazed by the sea monsters wreaking havoc on the last remaining members of his crew. Bradley heads straight towards the apex of the front deck, towards a huge mechanism I also had not noticed earlier—an oversized harpoon gun.
The harpoon gun is bolted into a raised platform at the bow. It looks like an enormous gun—a whale killer—that is three times a man’s size. As rain continues to batter over our heads, Bradley appears to be loading the harpoon, setting it up to shoot. He swings the harpoon around, aiming it straight over the ship’s edge, pointing into the sea.
From the corner of my eye, I see Orphelius’s tentacles retract and the ship rolls but that does not distract Bradley from keeping his grip on the trigger.
Suddenly, a siren blares and a voice, the sheriff’s voice, speaks loudly through what seems to be speakers. “Hold there!” Pike says through a megaphone. “This is the sheriff’s department.”
“You have no jurisdiction out here,” shouts back Bradley.
As I muster the courage to get on my knees and peep over the rails, I see the waves and rain are calming. I’ve never been more elated to see the sheriff’s blue and red flashing lights.
“Errr.” I also see Levi. He’s cuffed along with another, much older man—Shelley’s buyer?—on a smaller vessel. Thankfully, Levi’s been caught and I pray he goes to prison.
“I have jurisdiction if I believe you’re trafficking women. Step away from your weapon,” demands the sheriff, pulling out his handgun. “Step away and prepare for me to come on board.”
“Step away?” Bradley says and a billowing laugh escapes his lips. “Do you have any idea what’s out here? What’s lurking beneath your boat?”
“Aye, he has a good enough idea.” My heart leaps out of my chest when I see Willis, beautiful Willis, coming out from behind the cabin to stand next to the sheriff.
My insides do a somersault when I also see Kumiko and Shelley peek out of the cabin windows. They’ve already been rescued!
“Aargh,” grunts an infuriated Bradley. “I don’t know how you freaks managed to get free, but that one.” He points to Kumiko. “That little witch belongs to me,” he yells, spinning the harpoon gun and firing in her direction.
The harpoon shoots through the air but is deflected, shredding through one of Orphelius’s elongated arms. Orphelius is successful but hurt and thankfully not dead, which only seems to infuriate Bradley more.
The pirate pulls the gun strapped over his shoulder forward and begins firing. The sheriff fires back and the two become caught up in a shootout.
Everyone is screaming all over again. And me? I’m crouched, covering the lenses of my glasses because I have no idea what to do when...
The shooting stops.
“Henry!” cries Shelley.
I peep my head over the rails again to see Willis dive into the sea.
All is quiet.
Even the waves calm into a soft roll.
Everyone aboard the sheriff’s boat is waiting in suspense.
Everyone aboard the ship I’m on is dead. Bradley included. The sheriff must’ve got him.
Willis finally rises to the surface and he’s not alone. In his arm, rests his friend, Henry, who does not seem to be moving. Not even breathing.
16
Willis
Red. That’s all I see.
Gripping my friend in my arms, I take a quick second to look behind me, towards the horizon to see the sun is setting where the sky is also red and orange. The once damp clouds look as though they have been set on fire.
When I peer back at my paling fish friend, however, I recognize the sea, itself, is a much deeper red at where I am keeping us afloat. He’s been shot. He’s bleeding out.
“Bring him,” says the sheriff, reaching out his hand.
I look the sheriff in the eyes but I can’t see his irises. His oversized darkened spectacles are covering half his face. I have no idea if I can truly trust the lawman.
Yes, the sheriff plucked me out of the sea when I had no choice but to jump overboard before I was shot by Bradley’s men. But, and this is a big but, the sheriff is the one responsible for the fact that Henry can’t walk.
The sheriff tosses his glasses and stretches his hand further towards Henry. “Captain,” the sheriff says to me. “You can trust me. I’m a believer now.”
Hauling Henry over to the sheriff because I have no choice, “In merfolk and magic?” I ask.
“No,” the sheriff replies. “In the people of my town.”
I nod, placing my friend in the sheriff’s hands.
Shelley is beside herself, crying. Kumiko is doing her best to console Shelley and prevent her from diving in as the sheriff and I struggle to hoist the half man, half oversized fish onto the boat. Orphelius joins us, although he struggles as well.
Orphelius, it appears, was not only hit by the harpoon but is harboring multiple gunshot wounds. Thankfully, his injuries are nowhere in his torso. Only in each of his eight limbs. And I’m sure they hurt.
Once onboard, I stammer to kneel at Henry’s side. Despite Shelley’s attempts to wake the seaman, Henry remains unconscious.
A swarm of emotions flurries within me. After
everything my mates and I have been through, this is how Henry’s story ends?
Henry was a fine man... is a fine man. Surely, he is a much finer, more honorable man than I. I think of where he came from—at the end of the line—and where he wanted to be—always at the forefront of whatever vocation he took on.
It doesn’t matter what form Henry takes. Whether he is a man or a monster, a lover or a fighter, Henry takes all things in stride and never gives up.
A salty tear falls from my eye to land in my mouth. I can’t give up on him now.
“Lenora,” I cry out to the sea witch. I know she is near. The lightning and the rain have ceased but there are dark clouds directly above, looming as if they are watching.
“Lenora!” I stand with a shout, turning towards the deepest darkest part I can see of the sea which happens to be directly under us.
A head pops up. “Stop shouting and stop crying.” The dark-skinned head of the sea witch draped in seaweed cocks from left to right. She’s studying me. “Women’s wailing is like music to the gods, but a man crying...” She offers a smirk. “Especially a man of your size and strength... bluh.” She pokes her tongue out.
“Help him!” Shelley flicks her red hair out of her face before she crawls through Henry’s blood diluted by seawater spreading across the deck. Shelley reaches the edge where she hangs over, pleading. “Please, Lenora. I’ll do anything. Give you whatever you want. Bring Henry back.”
Henry makes a gurgling sound and we all turn to see the merman struggling to breathe as the gills at his chest come open and close while his nose also flares. Warily, his eyes open as he reaches out to Shelley, who is immediately back at his side.
“Looks like he’s not quite dead yet,” Lenora says, spinning her head around with a quick glance back at Bradley’s ship.