This chapter's one of my more lengthy ones... there isn't quite as much action in it, but it is a good chapter that moves the story along and will help explain a lot of stuff. I actually finished this chapter Saturday or Sunday, but didn't post it until now since POF was down and I kept forgetting... Anyway, here you go! I think this is a pretty good chapter, but don't worry. There'll be a lot of action in the coming chapters.
Chapter 19: Darkness of Day
Thunder boomed in the distance as Billy stepped out onto the black rock cliffs of Raven’s Cove. He turned around to watch the rest of his comrades emerge from the darkness of El Patron’s Mine. Storm clouds swirled overhead and fog blocked out the view of the ocean beyond Raven’s Cove. Flashes of lightning could be seen in the clouds, raising the hairs on the necks of Billy and his group. Billy’s long hair blew in the icy wind, and it began to drizzle. Not a ray of sunlight shown through the black clouds.
“Look’s like El Patron’s found his way out of his hole, eh?” Dan said over the howling wind. Zolina nodded as everyone sat down in a slightly sheltered area to rest a bit.
“So I’m assuming we’re going to make our way back to the
Shadow King?” Kate asked.
“What about Davy?” Billy demanded. “We’re just going to abandon him? He’s my brother! What if he’s alive? What if he’s on his way out as we speak?”
“We can’t deal with ‘what if’s’ Billy,” Sam said, putting a hand on Billy’s shoulder. “Davy was as much you’re brother as mine. It pains me to say it, but we have to get out of here. You saw him, mate. He was trapped in that chamber as it collapsed on top of him. He’s gone.”
“No… he’s not,” Billy murmured. “I can feel it.”
The group sat in silence after that for a few moments, the wind blowing, but nothing moved. All there was on Raven’s Cove was barren cliffs and stone. Zolina pulled out the last rations of food and water and the canteen around along with strips of dried meat. After it was consumed, they were on the move again. After walking twenty or so meters they came to the bridge that they had crossed to get to this part of the island. Meg gulped as she crossed the flimsy bridge, shutting her eyes so she wouldn’t need to see the drop below to the choppy seas. Through the fog, Billy could see the dim lights of a ship. The
Shadow King.
“Billy, let’s go!” Sharktooth said, beckoning to Billy. Him and the others were already on the other side of the bridge. Billy hadn’t noticed that he had stopped to look at the ship. Realizing how much the bridge was swinging in the wind. Billy made his way to the other side of the cliff and continued onward with his friends. Before long they reached the elevator, or at least where it had been. Something, perhaps one of El Patron’s ghosts, had destroyed the lever that pulled the elevator up. The group all peered down the drop. Billy suddenly remembered when he had tried to come up here and he had fallen and lived. He suddenly remembered his invincibility. Before he could tell his crewmates, Dog spoke.
“Look’s like we’ll have to climb down this thing now…” he said. “I suppose we can climb down one at a time using the rope.”
Without another word, the company one by one grabbed hold of the rope and climbed down, the rain pouring now from above them. Dan went down first, stepping down on the roof of the motionless elevator and climbing down to the platform on which it rested. Zolina followed Dan, then Kate, Sharktooth, Dog, Meg, and Sam. Smelly was carefully slung onto the back of Sharktooth as he descended. Billy went last.
Billy looked down the cliff and gulped. Sam was just stepping down, and Zolina waved upward to him. “Come on Billy! Hurry down so we can find some shelter from this rain!”
Billy had never been a fan of heights, and especially since this was the same place where he had been attacked by a ghost, only to survive. Nervously, he grabbed a hold of the rope and began to slowly climb down. The wind blew his hair in front of his face, stinging his eyes. The wind moved the rope a bit too much for Billy’s comfort. Suddenly he felt something wrong with the rope, and before he could react, he heard a snap and felt himself falling through the air.
~~~~~~~~~~
There were muffled voices shaking. Billy felt his body being shaken by someone, and then the voices became more clear. Light began to filter through his slowly opening eyes.
“Billy, are you alright? Billy?”
Billy replied with a groan, and he heard a sigh of relief and felt the warmth of another human body hugging him. His eyes fluttered open to find himself being hugged by Zolina. When she noticed his eyes open, she drew back. “Thank God you’re alive, Billy.”
“Yes, thank God for it,” Dan said, scratching his chin with curiosity. “But I want to know
how you survived that fall. That should’ve broken every bone in your body, mate. Wait a minute… didn’t you say something about being unkillable back at that tavern?”
“Yes, I did,” Billy remembered. “I don’t know why though. Perhaps because I am truly undead.”
“It’s because you are a ghost of Raven’s Cove,” a voice said. Joanna stood several meters away from them. When everyone turned to look at her, she walked forward to the crew and kneeled down to look at Billy.
“No sign of any damage,” she said as she nervously looked over him. Smelly whimpered.
“A ghost of Raven’s Cove?” Sam inquired. “What do you mean by this?”
Joanna raised her head to look at everyone. Billy sat up, and she explained, “You see, when a human soul is resurrected on Raven’s Cove, that soul is invincible so long as they are on Raven’s Cove. It is their one spot where they cannot die. Likewise, if a person is resurrected as a ghost, they will no longer be in the form of a ghost when they leave Raven’s Cove, except during the night, when they change back to their ghostly form. Night has special powers, you see, similar to Raven’s Cove. It is the time when evil things reveal themselves, so naturally it is when a dead person’s true self shows, and they turn from flesh and blood to a ghostly silhouette. During the day when they are human, they can be harmed as if they were a normal human, but come night, they will reform as a ghost in the spot where they were slain. At night, as ghosts, they are extremely hardy and difficult to kill, but it is possible. Their strength is incredible and one slice from one of their cursed blades will be fatal to most, unless they have a protective charm, which is rare. They are also able to take control of another mortal's body. There is only one known item that is capable of taking down these ghosts easily and resisting their powers. Either way, these ghosts are very difficult to defeat, no matter how you approach them.
“I’m going off topic, aren’t I? I’ve probably said more than I should, but I suppose you could use that knowledge. Billy is technically a ghost here on Raven’s Cove. The reason he is flesh and blood is most likely due to the fact that he was a heavy voodoo user in life and that meddled with El Patron’s resurrection of him. Billy, when you leave Raven’s Cove, you will be mortal and just as killable as a regular person. I doubt that the night time will affect you, seeing as you are flesh and blood right now.”
“So all the ghosts that we have fought now will be vulnerable during the day?” Meg asked.
“Yes, that is true,” Joanna replied. “But at night they will be almost as strong as they are now.”
“Wait a minute hold up,” Billy asked. “If I am supposedly invincible here on Raven’s Cove, why is it that during the fight in El Patron’s tomb I got a few burns from him when he gave my memory back?”
“El Patron is… special, to say the least,” Joanna said. “He has special abilities that I do not know very much of that allow him to still bring harm to ghosts of Raven’s Cove. He would have the power to kill you while you were here, Billy. Or at least destroy your physical body.”
“That’s a happy thought,” Billy muttered.
“I must go now,” Joanna said. “El Patron has escaped, and should he see me helping you I would be killed.”
She began to walk away, but turned around. “One last thing.” The crew turned to face her. “Davy Fireskull is not dead.”
Everyone stared at her in shock.
“Impossible!” Kate stuttered. “He was killed in the collapsing cavern! I’m certain! I—”
“I am not sure what happened to him, but he has found a way out,” Joanna said. “If he found who I believe he did, then we may be in far more trouble then we think…”
“Wait, what are you talking about?” Sharktooth asked. Joanna merely shook her head and materialized.
“She has a nice habit of poofing away when we try to ask her something important,” Dan said sarcastically.
“Well she did tell us one very important thing,” Billy said. “Davy’s still on this island. Somewhere. He’s probably still underground. We can’t leave without him.”
“Agreed,” Sam said. “But we have no idea where he is. I think that our best option for now is to head back to the
Shadow King. Once we get there we can alert the crew of the situation, and show that Billy is back, as well as give us time to rest and reenergize. We can send in some other crewmates to go in and help Davy with us, so we have some strength in numbers in case trouble arises. What Joanna said about someone who he may have met up with makes me uncomfortable.”
“Well first we need to find some shelter,” Zolina said, looking around through the pouring rain. Everyone’s clothes were completely drenched and they needed to find some shelter and start a warm fire. “I know its only midday right now, but we should rest and just wait until tomorrow. I’m not going out a night with El Patron on the loose.”
“Aye, there’s a few shacks over there we can go to,” Dog said, pointing to a cluster of buildings. The others made a few mutters of agreement and everyone began to jog to the shacks through the pouring rain. The crew began to enter a shack that they had found, and at the same time, the sound of a loud booming echoed in the distance.
“That didn’t sound like thunder…” Dan muttered as he headed in.
~~~~~~~~~~
Rock flew off the mountainside, flying into the sea below. The booming of the explosion shook the island, lightning flashing in the air. Thunder boomed and rain poured in sheets, soaking any fabrics that would be out. Lucky for the emerging figures of the newly made hole in the mountainside of Raven’s Cove, they had no clothing made of any thread. The ghosts quickly assembled onto the cliff outside, until there was a crowd of almost fifty of them. Once they were all assembled outside, a final figure emerged from the mountainside. A glowing white ghost wearing the armor of a Conquistador.
“MEN!” El Patron bellowed, holding up his sword. “We are free!”
The crew of ghosts cheered in response, a sound as loud as the thunder that was constantly rumbling in the sky. He looked below into the chasm below him and his crew. Dimly, he could see a mast protruding out from the chasm, almost at level with him. He followed it down and could see the form of a ship sitting in the shallow waters at the bottom of the chasm.
“You ten,” El Patron said, pointing to ten of his crewmates. “Come with me. There is one last order of business that I must attend to before leaving this prison of an island. The rest of you work on blowing open that rock wall that separates our ship from the open sea.”
The crew obediently went to their duties, the ten El Patron selected following him across the ledge. “Now let’s see if you’re still on this island.” El Patron boomed through the thunder of the world that he had been locked away from for so long. And then he stopped and held his sword to the sky, bellowing mightily, his crew mimicking him. El Patron cackled, unleashing a blast of lightning from his blade into the sky. The clouds lit up and a deafening blast of thunder tore through the sky. “Let the whole world tremble in fear in the darkness of this day, knowing that the mighty El Patron has risen once again!”
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Ooooh dramatic ending! What will be happening next? Am I leaving you with suspense? No? Okay. Questions? Comments? Praise? Rum? Rum would be nice. I worked hard on this!