This chapter is a bit more lengthy, but its very good, filled with a lot of action. I think you'll all like it, as I did very much. Anywho, enjoy!
Chapter 21: The Glowing Sea
Matt Scurvytimbers sat in the cabin that normally belonged to Davy. As the captain while he was away, Davy permitted him to use the room to work on writing logs and plans. Right now, it was close to night time aboard the
Shadow King. The crew would most likely be below decks, playing cards or chatting before bed. It had been almost a week since Davy and the others had left to go and find El Patron. The first two or three days hadn’t been too bad. The crew had busied themselves making temporary repairs to the ship using wood from the ruined Raven’s Cove docks, practicing their voodoo and swordplay, and joking with each other, among various other activities. But after the third or fourth day of this, things began to get boring. The pirates were used to having to do things all the time, and the sitting and waiting got excruciatingly monotonous. The crew began to get restless. They spent most of their days after that playing cards and doing other activities to pass the time. There was very little to do other than that, and with all the storms that had started, the upper deck wasn’t used much, ruling out activities that required space, such as swordplay.
Matt sat back in his chair and let out a sigh, stretching his stiff muscles. He stood up and walked around the cabin. He glanced at the windows, and saw that the stormy weather hadn’t changed. Rain loudly pelted against the windows, and the occasional flash of lightning lit up the choppy waters of the cove. Matt hoped that the weather would get better before they left, because any sailor knows that trying to get out of a narrow cove like this one in a ship as large as the
Shadow King is extremely risky.
He once again examined all of the possessions around him. On one wall was a painting of a man whom Matt knew to be Henry Fireskull, Davy’s father. He wore a wig and a feathered hat atop his head, and was garbed in a long coat with a purple shirt underneath. In his right hand was a cane adorned with several small jewels, showing off the wealth of the family. Davy had taken it from the ruins of his former home in Port Royal several years earlier, along with another few items that were once his or Billy’s. Including one of Billy’s toys as a child.
Matt walked over to the dresser and pulled open the bottom drawer. He rummaged through loads of clothing, cursing at how Davy cared too much about how he looked, until he found the toy. He pulled out a simple little stuffed bear. It was worn with age, and much of its once brown, velvet fur was now gone, exposing the stitching of the toy. One of its button eyes had fallen off, and there was a growing tear in its back. Matt held it for a moment, remembering his old friend. He felt like he could almost hear him now, yelling his name. Sam too, who had lived with him during the time he had lived with Billy. And… was that Zolina?
Matt put the toy away as he heard a loud rapping on his door. He hurriedly went to the door and opened it. His jaw dropped in awe as he saw the owner of the toy he was just holding.
“B-b-billy?” he stuttered. “But… ten years ago you… how are you here now… and…”
“Easy there, mate,” Zolina said, stopping him. “We’ve got a lot to tell you.”
The more-shocked-than-he-had-ever-been Matt sat down in his chair as they began telling their tale. All the while he stared at Billy, examining his friend who had been dead for ten years. He listened as they told how they found Billy, without any memory and not knowing who they were, and then how they entered El Patron’s Mine. Then onto when they found El Patron was almost free and their separation with Davy, to their encounter with Joanna the ghost again. Dog had said that they had rushed as fast as they could to get here, going for almost twenty hours through the pouring rain.
“And Davy is still out there…” Billy muttered.
“What do you propose we do?” Matt asked. “I mean, with El Patron up and about he could be well on his way to these docks to attack us! I’d say that we haven’t got more than a day and a half before he gets here, and I’d rather not meet him and his ghosts.”
“Well we can’t
leave him!” Billy said.
“And we won’t,” Sam interjected, before Matt could respond. “I say we wait two days. We can send a search party out tomorrow morning. We’ll find him. But I have to agree, we can’t stay here forever. If we are all killed, El Patron will have won, and there will be nobody to warn anyone else of his rising.”
“You’re the first mate,” Matt shrugged. “But be aware that the crew may mutiny against you if worst comes to worst.”
Sam nodded. “But while I’m here, you follow
my orders. We’re in a dangerous situation and we can’t risk anything.”
“Aye then,” Matt said, nodding. “It’s late now. We should probably get below decks and get some rest. You can find some provisions, if you’re hungry.”
The group exited Davy’s cabin into the pouring rain. They couldn’t see any change in the light, but they could tell that it was night time. On Raven’s Cove, you could always feel it. They hurried through the pouring rain, moving to the stairwell that led to the crew’s quarters. They could hear the crew below decks, singing sea shanties and cursing as they lost a game of cards. The group eagerly wished to get into that dry room and have something to eat, out of this horrible rain.
But something felt wrong. Dog noticed this, frowning and stopping. The others continued on as Dog tried to figure it out. Then he noticed a slight glow out of the corner of his eye. He turned to see it, and called the others over.
“See that glow in the sea?” he yelled through the thunder and rain. “Right over there.”
“What in the name of…” Billy muttered. There was a patch of the sea, a bit bigger than the size of the captain’s quarter’s aboard the
Shadow King, that was glowing a bright orange. And it was moving closer. Ghosts.
“Oh God,” Zolina gasped. “They’re attacking sooner than we thought!”
“Over there, too!” Sharktooth yelled, pointing to the dock. Sure enough, there were about twenty glowing ghosts walking down the beach and coming onto the dock, preparing to board the
Shadow King. They had waited for night to attack, when they would have been stronger. These ghosts; however, didn’t look like El Patron’s crew. They seemed to be other souls that had been resurrected by El Patron. Some appeared to be Conquistadors, some looked as if they were pirates or sailors, some others looked to be townsfolk. They all carried a weapon of some sort: swords, daggers, pistols, muskets, whips, and even chain-shot cannonballs. Their red eyes glowing with hate, the ghosts on the dock slowly made way for the boarding plank, while the ghosts marching underwater began to climb on deck.
“SOUND THE ALARM!” Sam bellowed. Dan ran to go and ring the alarm bell near the steering wheel. “Dog, go and and knock over the boarding plank before the ghosts reach it. That’ll slow them a bit. Prepare for battle!”
The alarm bell rang with a deep gong, and within less than a minute the crew of the
Shadow King began to pour on deck, taking note of the ghosts and drawing their weapons. The ghosts began slowly pouring onto the deck, and the battle began.
~~~~~~~~~~
Davy heard bells on the other side of the steep, rock cliffs of the canyon he was in. He knew the bells anywhere. The
Shadow King was being attacked. But right now he had to worry about what was happening right now. The one ghost he thought he could trust had just shaken hands with El Patron, and there was little he could do to fight, should a fight come.
“Its good to be back, Captain,” Smasho said. The crew of El Patron was now turning back into ghosts. Night had fallen, meaning they would be more difficult to defeat. Not that he had a chance at all. Davy exploded in rage.
“Why!?” he snapped at Smasho. Smasho casually looked at him. “You fooled me! You were with him from the start! You don’t want to kill him, why did you need me?”
Foulberto laughed, and looked at Davy. “I think that the both of us had different interpretations of my deal, amigo. It will all end the same, though.”
“Yes, and that will be with you being dead, Fireskull. Although I truly was hoping that had been accomplished two days ago in the mines…” El Patron said, drawing his sword. Davy backed off, drawing his dagger. He knew it would be pointless to fight, but he wasn’t going to let El Patron simply kill him. He limped backwards and stumbled. El Patron’s deep, booming cackle filled the canyon, overpowering the thunder. Davy looked his attacker in the eyes, his bright red eyes. He raised his sword and Davy shut his eyes for what he thought was the last time. But before El Patron brought the sword down, a shrill howling pierced the air.
Everyone turned to see where it came from. Davy had to turn his head to look behind him and see the glowing red figure stood still several meters away. Davy could vaguely make out the form of a woman through the heavy rain. It was Joanna. She had activated the rage within her and returned to the deadly form of a Rage Ghost to come to Davy’s aid.
Before El Patron could say anything, her figure moved with astounding speed and tackled El Patron. In shock, El Patron’s crew ran to their captain’s assistance as Davy crawled to his feet and began limping away.
“Go Davy Fireskull!” Joanna cried. “The elevator! Make for the elevator! I repaired it and it is not far from here!”
Davy didn’t look back. He moved as fast as he could towards the dim form of the elevator in the distance. He could hear the sounds of a fight behind him. Once he had gotten about half way to the elevator, which was now about twenty five meters away. He now dared to turn back. He saw the dim form of Joanna being held down by El Patron’s ghosts, and then El Patron running a blade through her. Her light faded and she was gone.
Realizing he didn’t have much time, Davy began to change his pace from a quick walk to a limping jog. He didn’t look behind him, but he heard El Patron yell, “Bring him to me alive! I want to kill him myself!”
Davy started to run, his leg protesting in agony. He stumbled a few times, but picked himself up quickly. He quickly started hearing the sound of ghosts behind him through the pouring rain. Lightning illuminated the area in front of him and he could see the elevator. He looked behind him, and saw the ghosts gaining. He didn’t have much time. In one last boost of energy, he sprinted onto the elevator platform and dived into the elevator, pulling the lever as he fell. The elevator rattled and started raising slowly. Davy weakly stood as the ghosts closed in around the base. The yelled in rage as Davy got away. Davy took several deep breaths as the elevator rose. After a minute, the elevator reached the top of the cliff and stopped. Davy stepped out and peered down through the rain. He cursed loudly as he saw that the ghosts hadn’t given up the chase just yet. Using the rope that the elevator ran along, they climbed up the cliff to get to Davy. He didn’t have much time. Davy turned and jogged down the path that had lead to the rope bridge. Then, he noticed a second side path. He turned to see a few ghostly hands emerging from the cliff’s drop. Making a quick decision, he went down the new path as he heard the ghosts finishing their climb.
This path was much more narrow, with one tall, steep wall on the left side, the side that the other path was on, and one shorter wall on the right side, about three meters high. Davy quickly turned around to see the crowd of ghosts coming up behind him. The path made a sharp left turn, and Davy rounded it quickly. A bit too quickly. Davy immediately backed up as soon as he made the turn. The path ended about a meter in front of him, dropping off into the cove of the island. Below him, Davy could see the form of the
Shadow King, dotted with ghosts. The drop was far, and the stormy grey waters below him looked anything but welcoming. But Davy reconsidered that when he looked behind him. The ghosts had caught up with him. The lead ghost grinned, pointing his sword at Davy.
Everything seemed to grow silent. Davy held his dagger in a battle ready position towards the ghosts, his feet just inches from the edge of the precipice. There was nothing but the sound of rain and the faint sound of a battle going on hundreds of meters below.
“Here you go!” Davy said, throwing his dagger at one of the ghosts. In that moment, Davy cursed himself for getting into this situation, and dived into the stormy waters below.
--------------------------------------------
There you are mates. I suppose you could consider this ending a cliff hanger... considering that Davy actually jumped OFF the cliff...