A Pirate's Song

Chapter Five.

By the time I awoke, the storm had passed and the sun was starting to set in the sky, signaling that it was past noon. I sat up on the bed to find that I was alone with a trey of food waiting for me on the nightstand. I threw my legs over the side of the bed and placed the trey in my lap. To my surprise there was a piece of descent meat waiting for me which I quickly finished and moved on to my piece of bread and water.

A loud thud caught my attention and looking in the direction of the stairs, I found Caleb making his way below deck. I quickly averted my eyes down to my food and tried ignoring his presence.

“How're ye feeling?" he asked and I dropped my cup onto the floor of the room. He was stood near the foot of the bed, waiting expectantly for my reply.

“What do you care?" I asked, bending down to pick my cup up off the floor and place it back onto the trey. Caleb stiffened from beside me and stomped his way around so that he was stood in front of me.

“Excuse me?" he asked and I sighed heavily, picking my trey up and placing it back down on the nightstand before getting up off the bed to meet Caleb's heated gaze "You don't care about me-." I began, reaching for the book that was lying on the bed. I held it up for him to see.

“All you care about is me reading this" I placed emphasis on the word 'this' and shook the book before lowering it back to my side "As long as I can do that, you do not care about what I go through" it felt like I was taking a stand, a small pixie standing up to a giant, terrifying cyclops. Caleb's eyes grew darker as they looked me over and his aura grew blacker. He took a threatening step towards me and I backed away, back into the side of the bed.

“Watch ye tone, girl" he said in a domineering tone. I refused to shrink away and stood up on the tips of my toes to make myself look bigger against his height and build.

“I refuse to watch my tone, just like I refuse to help you find the rest of those treasures" as soon as the words were out, I regretted saying them. Caleb's hand shot out to tighten itself around my throat. The book slipped out of my hold and cluttered to the floor by our feet as my hands shot up to grip his wrist, trying to pry his hand away.

“Ye will lead me to those treasures or I'll make ye walk the plank" he barked in my face, tightening his grip with every word. I gasped and tried talking but no words would come out, only strangled gurgles “Don't think that just because ye look like Mary, that I care for ye" with that he let go of my throat and I fell to my knees on the floor, grabbing and clawing at my throat as I began to cough violently. Caleb took a step back to give me some room but his eyes continued to glare holes into my skull. I gripped the edge of the bed and tilted my head back to glare up at the man before me.

“I am not Mary-." I began, forcing myself onto my feet. I took a stand in front of him as I bit out the word 'not' as if to spit it in his face. Caleb shifted from one foot to the next but kept his eyes on mine.

“I am not stupid enough to fall in love with a monster like you!" I shoved his chest hard, sending him back a step and tried to get away but Caleb reached out to grab my upper arm and pulled me around to face him. His face was mere inches away from mine when he spoke the words in a deadly, hateful tone.

“Don't ye ever speak about Mary again" he then shoved my arm away and sent me falling back on the bed. There was blood on the pillow beside me from me having hit my head earlier and Caleb seemed to notice it for the first time. He turned his attention to the pillow, picking it up and inspecting the large stain before looking back at me.

“You're hurt" he stated, tossing the pillow aside and reaching out for me but I backed away from him, crawling onto the corner of the bed that was farthest away from him.

“Evangeline" he said in a threatening drawl like a father scolding his daughter. I shrunk further into the corner, hands gripping the walls on either side of me. He climbed onto the edge of the bed and I felt like a caged animal.

“Don't touch me!" I snapped when he reached his hand out to me. He paused at my tone but continued, taking hold of a few hair strands that were framing my face. He held them out in front of me and I noticed that they were bloody but that the blood was fresh.

My hand shot to the back of my head and felt a warm liquid start to coat my head. My fingers started trembling as I realized that our argument had caused the wound to start bleeding again. Caleb reached for me once more but I started thrashing as he tugged me across the bed and to him.

“Let go of me!" I yelled, kicking and screaming as he tried to hold me down long enough to see the back of my head but he couldn't since I was moving around too much.

“B-Ben!" I screeched and Caleb released me instantly as if that name escaping my lips had somehow stung him. In a matter of minutes, Ben came running below deck, looking at me and Caleb with furrowed brows. I quickly shrunk back into the corner when Caleb released me.

“She's hurt" Caleb explained then got up and left, leaving me alone with Ben. He hurried to my side and sat down on the edge of the bed.

“Let me see" he insisted and after a few moments' hesitation, I began to make my way towards him. I held my blood smeared hand out to him as if trying to show him that something was wrong and touched my soaked hair to indicate where it was hurting. Ben gently turned me so that my back was to him and started picking apart my hair to get to the wound.

“You shouldn't have slept after hitting your head" he scolded me, getting up off the bed to go get a bucket of water and a cloth. He then started dabbing the wet cloth to the back of my head as an attempt to clean the wound so that he could more clearly see the extent of it. I flinched whenever the cloth touched the wound which gained me a few muttered apologies from Ben.

“It could've caused you more harm" Ben explained as he finished cleaning my wound and used his fingers to spread the injury apart.

“It doesn't look too serious" he announced then got up to start cleaning the mess he'd made. I followed him around the room with my eyes until he came to a stop near the foot of the bed, beside me.

“Thank you" I muttered, my eyes softening at the sight of him. His eyes roamed over my body, from my bear, crossed legs to my bear shoulders from where the shirt was too big for me and hung on my form.

“H-How is it possible for you to have legs?" Ben surprised me by asking. I looked down at my legs and ran my hands along my thighs before meeting Ben's confused gaze. I reached up to grip my necklace, holding the anchor out for him to see.

“This necklace was given to me by my mother before she died" I began, thinking back to the few memories that I had of her before I was orphaned and spent the rest of my younger years at an orphanage "She told me that it was blessed by a witch to give me legs on land and sea as long as I wore it" I never knew the witch that blessed it but she was a good friend of my mother's. I twisted the anchor back and forth between my fingers as Ben took a seat on the edge of the bed, facing me.

“That's how you survived that jump" Ben muttered and I realized that he was talking about the dive I took at the first treasure sight. I dropped my necklace, causing the metal to bang against my chest and glanced at Ben.

“Yes" was all I said as I looked away and to the pillows at the head of the bed. Ben looked like he wanted to ask something but he was cut off by Caleb's voice yelling out over the crew "Land ho!" Ben turned to look at the steps that lead above deck and I got up from the bed. I tugged the boots I had onto my feet as Ben made his way towards the stairs, heading up.

I followed him and stepped out onto deck to find the burning light of the sun waiting for me. I placed a hand over my forehead to shield my eyes from the sharp rays and looked out onto the open sea.

There was an island in the distance that looked abandoned and empty but then I noticed something. I stepped towards the edge of the ship and leaned over the railing to get a closer look at the figure waving and yelling for us to help her.

She wore a ripped, white under dress and had fiery red hair that caught the sunlight.

Ben stepped up beside me and tried to make out what was going on as I pushed myself away from the ships railing and rushed up the steps that lead to the wheel where Caleb was stood, staring emotionless at the desperate woman on the horizon.

“We need to help her" I declared as I reached him. He turned his head to look down at me with a hard gaze then opened his mouth to hiss out in a single, monotone tone.

“No" I listened to the woman yelling help in a thick English accent in the distance for a few seconds then tried again.

“She needs our help" I tried to reason with him but he turned his back to me and looked at the map of the seven seas "She's not my problem" I looked at the small island and then down at the crew. Some of the men were whistling at the woman and yelling perverted things while Ben looked away and blushed slightly at the sight of her in her under dress.

“Fine then" I declared and reached down to tug my boots off my feet, throwing them at Caleb. One hit him on the back and he turned to look at me.

“Evangeline!" he snarled but it was too late. I stepped up onto the railing of the ship and dove off its side, into the water. Ben quickly rushed to the side of the ship to check on me as I broke through the surface and started swimming towards the island.

“Damn that woman" Caleb's voice came from somewhere behind me, laced with frustrated before it was followed by a much louder.

“Get me on that island!" the crew scurried and began to adjust the ship's course as I swam through the water and allowed the waves to carry me to shore. When I reached the sand, I stood up and started trudging through the water, gripping the hem of my soaked shirt as I approached the yelling woman but as soon as I got close enough for her to see my face, she froze. Her eyes went wide and her mouth fell open in shock.

“Mary?" she asked in bewilderment and allowed her eyes to roam over my form. I stopped in between the waves and was about to protest when she ran up to me and wrapped her arms around me as if we had known each other for years.

“I thought we lost you, Caleb said-." I didn't hug her back and placed my hands on her shoulders to give them a light push. She stepped away from me and her face fell, eyes filling with worry.

“What's wrong?" she asked just as the ship sailed into the sand beside us. A heavy thudding of feet reached our ears and both the woman and I looked up to find Caleb standing a few feet above.

“Rebecca" Caleb greeted the woman with a jerk of his head as a few of the crew threw a rope overboard for us to climb back on board the ship. The woman placed her hands on her hips and turned to face the Captain.

“You have some nerve Caleb Campbell" she began, her accent shining through as she began scolding him. Caleb sighed heavily and looked away as she grabbed hold of my arm and pulled me closer to her.

“I thought she was dead!" she screeched which seemed to annoy Caleb even more. He glanced down at the two of us.

“That's not Mary" he argued then pushed himself away from the edge of the ship to thud his way back towards the helm of the boat. Rebecca looked at me and let go long enough for her to realize that there was something wrong with me.

“Wasn't Mary blonde?" she randomly called up to the ship and made her way to the rope. She then started climbing and scaling the side of the ship until she reached the deck. Ben was shoved out of her way as she tried to follow Caleb around.

“What the bloody hell is going on here?" she questioned as I huffed and started towards the rope. Ben helped lift me onto the ship and handed me the shirt off his back to dry myself with as I sat on a barrel and watched Rebecca stalk her way up the stairs to where Caleb was stood.

“She's the reincarnation of Mary" Caleb explained as the red head neared him. Ben was listening in on the conversation while the rest of the crew couldn't shake the sight of her breasts peeling out of her white corset and her skirt sticking to her legs from the sea water.

“So she's not Mary" Rebecca concluded, turning to look back at me as I sat with Caleb's cream shirt sticking to my body and my hair sticking to the side of my face.

“No, she only looks like her" Caleb agreed, leaning forward on the helm of the ship with his arms as he watched Rebecca study me.

“But she has Mary's soul" Rebecca argued, turning to look back at Caleb. I froze at the thought of having someone else's soul inside of me and chose to listen intently to what they were saying.

“And her aggression" Caleb muttered to which Rebecca threw her head back, laughing loudly. She walked across the deck to the map and took a long look at it.

“As feisty as ever then" she replied, running her fingers along the map until they came to a sudden halt and she turned on her heels to look at Caleb with wide eyes.

“You're going after the seven treasures" she declared to which Caleb stiffened and shot a quick glance in my direction. Rebecca stepped around the helm to face him, leaving her back to us.

“You don't honestly believe that it's going to work, do you?" she questioned to which Caleb grew silent. He stood up straight, hands clenching and unclenching at his sides. His eyes shot to Ben and he barked out in a demanding tone.

“Get her below deck!" Ben instantly grabbed hold of my upper arm and started to gently guide me below deck through a trap door in the deck surface. The small beds on either side of the narrow passage we found ourselves in smelt of mold and salt. A few lamps hung lit on nails that had been hammered into the wood, giving us enough light to find our way to the end of the passage where a door stood slightly ajar.

Ben let go of my arm to open it, revealing a small room that had a bed pushed up against the far wall and rope littered the floor apart from a table on which various maps were spread out.

“You can have a seat" Ben urged, his hand held out towards the bed as I entered the small, pocket sized room. The door squealed shut behind me, followed by Ben dragging the chair in the corner over to the bed. I sunk down onto the side of it as he took a seat in the chair, too much of a gentleman to want to sit beside me on what I assumed was his mattress.

“What was that about?" he suddenly questioned, making my back muscles stiffen as I looked up at him, his brows were furrowed up in confusion. I could hear faint yelling coming from the deck but couldn't make out what they were arguing about. I sighed.

“I'm the reincarnation of Mary" I explained, speaking the words that I so hated. I wasn't her, I didn't want to be linked to her like I was. There was a loud bang that caught Ben's attention and made me jump.

He glanced toward the deck as he spoke "Who is Mary?" my hand clenched against the fabric of his bed sheets as I contemplated the question. She was Caleb's dead lover, Rebecca's friend but who was she really? What kind of person was Mary?

“She's Caleb's deceased lover" I decided to say which had Ben's head hurriedly turning to look at me. In his mind, it meant that there was something between Caleb and I.

“B-But there's nothing between us" I quickly went to object before he got the wrong idea. I turned my head to look at the dirty old mirror that hung on the wall above the bed.

“I just look like her" my voice whispered as I reached up to touch the side of my face, pushing the hair back and out of the way to reveal small patches of silver scales that were almost unnoticeable.

The ship rocked violently and water came in from the sides, spilling across my bare feet and over Ben's boots. I steadied myself, feeling Ben's intense stare on me as I gasped in a sharp breath, watching my feet.

“They're beautiful" I froze at his words, my hands gripping the side of the bed while the scales that appeared on my feet reflected the light of the candles, creating small specks of light that stuck to the walls and furniture around us.

The chair scrapped across the floor as Ben stood and I watched him move across the room to a small barrel, filling a wooden cup with water. I was unsure of how I felt about his words, did he find them beautiful because they could fetch him a pretty penny or did he honestly just find them beautiful?

“May I?" he politely asked when he came to a stop in front of me, towering over my form with the cup raised slightly above my head. I glanced from the cup to him and nodded my head, once, slowly.

The cold liquid first met my already wet hair then trailed down my forehead, over my nose and cheeks to my lips where it dripped down my chin, following the curve of my neck to the dip between my breasts.

The breath escaped his lungs at the sight of me and the cup cluttered to the floor at our feet. My hair gained a silver gleam, many scales appeared on my cheeks, forehead, neck, chest and chin where the water had been flowing over me. My eyes almost glowed bright grey and blue and the start of gills forming on my neck made it slightly harder for me to breathe outside of the water. My round pupils had become slits but as soon as I blinked my eyes were back to normal, my scales began to quickly fade and my hair went back to its usual ivory color.

“You're beautiful" my lips slightly parted to reveal the small fangs that were retracting from his words, confirmation that he didn't just think my scales were beautiful because of their worth but because they were mine, they were a part of me.

“Ben-." his name left my lips in a voice that sounded like that of a Siren's song. It had him completely entranced, moving closer to me as if I had called him, enchanted him to do as I wanted.

He placed one knee on the mattress, in between my legs and loomed closer, his hand snaking around the back of my neck, tilting my head up so that he could lean down, pausing only to glance at my rapidly rising and falling chest through the wet shirt that I wore. I could feel his warm breathing against my parted lips, my eyes drooping at the thought of tasting his.

My hands snaked up his chest, over the material of his tattered shirt, feeling everything that lay underneath before coming to a stop at his shoulders, gripping them. He moved down but was snapped out of his trance when the door to his chambers was flung open.

I turned to glance in the direction to find the silhouette of an angered man.

Ben quickly scurried off me, moving to stand with his back pressed up against the far wall "C-Captain" was all he could get out as I lowered my leg from where it had been rubbing up against Ben's thigh only moments before.

Caleb's nostrils flared as he looked from me to Ben, his feet stomping their way over to the younger man, grabbing hold of the collar of his shirt to force him further into the side of the ship. The look in Caleb's eyes was almost feral as Ben struggled against him.

“Ben!" I shot up from my place on the edge of the bed, no longer lost in the moment as I reached for Caleb's arm, trying to get him to let go of Ben. It was no use, he was stronger and ignored me, eyes burning into Ben's skull as if contemplating murder. I got in between them, my back pressing up against Ben's chest while my chest brushed against Caleb's.

“Stop it!" I yelled, my hands moving to grip the material of the Captain's undershirt and coat. He stared past me as if I didn't exist, as if I was invisible to his eyes.

“He didn't do anything wrong!" I tried again, shoving at his chest, banging my fist into him as I heard Ben gasping for air behind me, Caleb's hand now wrapped around his throat, lifting him slightly off the ground. I glanced back at Ben with fear in my eyes.

“It was me!" I frantically cried "I seduced him!" Caleb's eyes began to grow gentler, sadder as he met mine, a small hint of pain reflecting in them before it was replaced by the stone cold glare he always wore. His hand released Ben, who slid down the wall, coughing and clutching at his throat. I knew my words would give Caleb the wrong impression but I was desperate to stop him from killing Ben.

“So ye fancy the boy" he began, moving back slightly so that we weren't as close. I glanced down at a confused Ben who had moments before been trapped in my spell and wasn't sure how he had gotten on top of me to begin with. I had no response, no words to speak since they caught in my throat the moment I opened my mouth. Caleb shifted his weight.

“Fine then, if ye want to w***e around with the boy then have at it!" he snarled in my face, eyes wild and fists balled at his sides, knuckles turning white as if he wanted to punch something.

He turned to storm off but paused in the doorway to glare back at me from over his shoulder "Just get me to them treasures" he slammed the door shut, causing the walls to tremble then was gone.

I stayed rooted in place, a pang surging in my chest at his insult and how he didn't care what I did as long as I got him the treasures. There was a loud fit of coughing and I was snapped out of my thoughts to turn and fall onto my knees in front of Ben, my hand moving to caress the side of his face.

“I'm so sorry" I apologized to which he furrowed his brows and ran the back of his hand over his lips where saliva had trickled down to his chin from the deprivation of air and the force Caleb had inflicted onto his jugular.

“W-What just happened?" he stumbled over his words, eyes meeting mine in the dim light of the candles. I could tell that there was a gap in his memory and felt guilty for something I couldn't control. I let my hand slip away from his face to brace itself against the floorboards.

“I didn't mean to compel you; I was just-." I began to hurriedly explain but he cut me off, the color returning to his features as he reached for the wall behind him.

“Compel?" he stood, leaning back against the wall as I mimicked his movements, standing and catching him in my arms when he staggered forward, half falling into me with most of his weight. I felt the air leave my lungs from the force but helped him over to the bed where he sunk down onto it, breathing hard.

“Mermaids have lured drunken sailors into the water for years" I tried answering his question as I took a seat in the chair opposite of him. He rubbed at his throat, eyes filling with understanding when he looked at me once more.

“To feed on their souls" I averted my gaze, staring down at the floorboards. Mermaids were mythical creatures, said to prey on the souls of men that would dare venture out onto the sea. My lips parted, the tense silence growing too much to bare.

“In order to do so they would compel them to enter the water" my head nodded once as I thought of how it must've made me look. A woman who preyed on the souls of human men, tempting them then devouring them. Ben was the only person on board the ship that treated me as an equal and I didn't want him to fear me or see me as some type of monster.

“But we can only compel men if we're attracted to them" I quickly added, my head turning to meet Ben’s eyes. He watched me with eyes that gave away nothing, no fear, no confusion only a blank stare while he processed it all.

“I see" he eventually uttered, shoulders relaxed and his eyes calm. I didn't want to lose the only person I could trust and spoke before I could even process the words, rushing to get them out.

“I didn't mean to compel you, sometimes I can't control when-." I was cut off by him rising from the mattress, placing his hand on the top of my head as if to tell me to stop speaking. My voice trailed off as I watched him leave my side and head for the cupboard that sat off to the side.

“I understand, now let's get you into something dry" his subject change took me by surprise and left me speechless while he rummaged through his closet in search of something for me to wear.