Ghost Ship

 

Cold water sent shock waves through me as the rain pelted down, the storm rocking the great ship from side to side. The moon hid behind the thundering clouds, casting us in total darkness save the flash of lightning hitting the ocean’s surface. People scurried about the deck, yelling as they worked to right the ship that leaned dangerously close to the water.

I pulled on rope, securing myself as we lurched. The captain stood at the helm, the wheel turned and creaking beneath her hand. I watched the light catch in her ebony hair as she frowned, squinting in the dark to the North. Shouts went out, hands raised to point as the storm suddenly stilled and left behind a ship in its wake.

The ship sat, silent as a shadow, barely illuminated in the night. Its black flag whipped in the wind. We stood, transfixed, as the moon slid from behind a cloud long enough to show us the empty vessel that simply loomed. The captain’s voice rang out, calling everyone to battle, yet her siren’s song was barely heard above the thunder of cannons.

I stumbled as the ship quaked, wood spraying from holes in her hull. The sailors fell, grabbing onto the railing and rope where they could. Darkness returned, leaving us moored without bearing. People began to move in an instant, shouting directions as they prepared their canons. Yet the lightning flashed and the ship was nowhere to be seen.

“Steady!” The captain’s voice met the thunder and managed not to be dominated. Flames hovered in the night, prepared to ignite cannons and wake them to life. Time slowed. I stood, stepping back away from the mast to stand beside the helm, glancing at her.

“What is it?” I finally dared to ask.

Her eyes narrowed. “Death.”

Rope wrapped around her waist from the darkness. Our eyes made contact long enough for me to see the fear in her eyes before the rope went taught and she disappeared soundlessly into the night. 

The crew turned, looking up in unison as the ship suddenly came into view on the starboard side, opposite where it had been a moment ago. Cries escaped them as the cannons fired again, shattering the ship’s hull. We lurched again, the boat beginning to fall into the sea.

Shadows on ropes slid through the dark, landing on the deck with heavy thuds. The moon hid herself, casting the sailors into pitch, save their torches. I grabbed the wheel, holding it steady as I watched the torches blink out one by one as the clash of steel hit the air. 

Mist sprayed my face, waves pulling at the boat. I muttered under my breath what little I knew of ships, the wood creaking from the pressure beneath my hands. Below, one by one, the shouts became silent and the lights were swallowed by the night, until the ship rocked soundlessly forward, rain beginning to fall from the sky again.

My heart pounded as I stared at the darkness below, lightning blinking in the sky to reveal strewn bodies and nothing else. Beside the ship was the assailant, silent and deadly, gliding perfectly unmanned in the water. Her black flag haunted my mind as I heard heavy footfalls on the wooden deck near me. 

“Captain.” 

The voice rolled out of the darkness, slithering with a wet sound that brought goosebumps to my flesh. I sucked in a breath, staring into the dark where the voice had come from.

“The sea welcomes you to her depths and claims The Night’s Sun as her own.” His footfalls stopped a few feet away from me. My eyes saw nothing save inky blackness, hidden by the clouded sky. 

I swallow. “I’m not the captain. She…” I trailed off, looking into the darkness where she had vanished, the first taken. 

“Of course. But as the only remaining crew…” his wet voice trailed off. I heard something slimy and slippery move before more footsteps grew new. My head turned when something brushed my shoulder, its flesh cold and wet. 

“Not crew, either. Just… paying for passage,” I murmured. 

“Where to then?”

Something lifted my hair, smelling it, as I felt the sudden closeness of the dark. The ship lurched on a great wave and I stumbled, knocking into great wet bodies that smell of the sea. Something rubbery caressed my shoulder as I pulled away, grabbing the railing instead. 

“To here,” I replied, slowly standing. There would never be a world in which I had sea legs, no matter how long-lived I was.

“How so?” he asked. 

Hands caressed arms, touching the vest I wore over the dress that hung on my body. I turned my head and saw nothing. A thick, wet substance dripped onto my shoulder and slid down my chest. 

“I’ve heard of your curse. I’ve come to break it.”

A spill of laughter came from around me, husky voices mingling with wet sounds. I looked into the dark, expecting to see anything but still, the moon hid her pirates.

“And how do you plan to do that?”

The wheel steered itself as the heavy boots echoed on the wood. I followed the sound, knowing he was walking around me. As he neared, thee touching stopped. 

“To show you love. To not flinch. To look upon you with desire.”

People shifted around me, some chuckling, some tensed, whispering hope. The captain paused in his walking. Thick powerful fingers touched my cheek. “No such person exists. We are cursed to be forever alone, and thus, forever haunting.”

I turned my head towards his hand, leaning into the touch. “And yet, here I am. No one deserves to live as you do.”

He took another step closer as the moon breached the clouds, cascading over the deck. They were everywhere, monstrous creatures of the sea, all tentacles and barnacles and fish featured. The sea had claimed them. 

Their captain was but a few inches from me, tentacled face grim and handsome. His hand was against my face, fingers wrapping around my jaw to hold me there, make me see him. Along hiss flesh salt stains and clams rested, opening and closing in the air, somehow not dying. Coral sprouted from a shoulder, coming through the ancient leather of his coat. His skin crawled with sea life, worms, and slender eels that slid in and out of the coral.

He waited, once grey eyes watching my face, waiting for me to gasp. I stood still, watching him watching me. Beside me, two sea folk stood, bodies as transformed as their captain’s. Their hands touched my low back and shoulders, the threat of holding me there present. 

The moonlight played over the pirates, all of them staring up at me from the deck. I inhaled a breath full of sea air and took a step forward, closing the distance between the captain and me. My hand went up, caressing his cheek where tentacles sprouted. One wrapped around my wrist, suckers pulling at the skin. 

“Still don’t believe me?” I leaned forward, inches from his face. “Kiss me?”

He hesitated, the bravery and hints of courage gone from his eyes. I raised a brow and tilted my head. With a look of curiosity, the captain bent his head to meet my lips, tentacles wrapping around my throat and head to bring our flesh together.

The rubbery mouth met mine, long tongue sliding into my mouth with sudden eagerness as I moaned. Arms pulled me close, pressing me against his body as the kiss evolved. Tentacles engulfed my face and slid down, entwining in my hair. I barely heard the shouts of surprise and delight around us as he moaned against me, my hands sliding over his chest. 

He pulled back, releasing me before turning and pressing me against the railing. With an audible thud, he fell to his knees, hands moving up my legs to raise my dress to my hips. I leaned back on the rail as his tentacles slid up my thigh, leaving wet trails as they went. My moan cut the sound of rain and waves as he reached my core, slippery appendages sliding over my sensitive skin before plunging within me.

Around us, his sailors watched, transfixed as my nails dug into the wood and cries of pleasure left my lips. My hips bucked against their captain’s face as he filled me, exploring every crevice I had and still managing to plunge deeper. I shuddered, clinging to the railing as though I would plunge into the sea below. 

A sailor approached their eyes the color of the ocean, with flecks of red and gold within. Their body was stripped as a lionfish, long trails of fins following behind them. Their eyes looked to my face to the strings of my dress, longing in their gaze. 

I nodded and leaned towards them, finding their lips with mine. Our kiss was wild and tinged with the venom of their species. I moaned into their mouth, whimpering as tentacles coiled inside me, pressing against a spot of divine pleasure. Their hands touched my face and throat, trailing down to the fabric below.

With agonizing and teasing slowness they pulled on the string, letting the top of the dress fall open and expose my breasts to the midnight moon. Stinging hands grabbed, pinching and groping with sudden need and excitement. I whimpered, shuddering against them as pressure built within me, swallowing me in its enormity. 

The captain shifted, holding my hips up with his powerful hands as I bucked, crying wildly into the mouth of the lionfish pirate. Another pair of hands slid up my stomach, gently taking my hand to their thighs. My fingers slid against them and up inside, feeling their slick wetness as I pushed deeper.

My body quaked and my captain pulled back, tentacles wiggling as a knowing grin touched his features. I slid to my knees before him, wind catching my hair. My fingers worked at his old trousers, pulling them open to reveal his engorged length, covered in little suckers as his own tentacles. 

Without hesitating I swallowed him, plunging his length to the back of my throat and deeper. He groaned, fingers finding my hair as he began to pump into my wanton mouth. Behind me, one of his sailors kneeled, pushing on my back to place me on all fours. Nails bit into my back and shoulder as they grabbed onto me and thrust forward, filling me with strange filaments that moved together as one, their delicate tips brushing my insides. 

Inside my mouth and throat, the captain wiggled, exploring while pumping forward. A groaning shudder escaped his lips as his thrusts sped up. Slime and saliva dripped down my chin to hit the ground below, pooling on the deck. His eyes watched me, fingers holding my face in place to match his hungry pumping. I moaned on his length, whimpering as he pushed ever deeper, my body pulsing with the invading appendages.

The captain pressed faster and harder, losing himself in his strokes with each passing moment. Behind me, the sailor began to match their captain’s speed, beautiful breasts swaying in the moonlight as they moved within me. We moved as the rocking waves, crying and moaning as I was filled completely. 

A howling cry left the captain’s lips and an inky release shot within my mouth and spilled out, coating my chin and chest as it dripped off. He staggered back, leaning on the wheel, and smiled at me. With a simple gesture, he commanded his sailors. 

I watched as they approached, bodies just as hungry. New lips kissed mine, a rubbery strange body sliding beneath me as a hard length pushed inside. Another moved behind me, pressing into my second entrance and driving in. I cried out as pain and pleasure mixed, stretching each of my openings to meet their needs.

My body felt bruised as I hungered for more, tasting lips and lengths and wet openings as they came for me. Various releases slid and dripped out of me, covering my body in their viscous fluids. Every muscle in my body ached as the last sailor cried in ecstasy, filling my mouth with a stinging fluid from her grinding thighs. Her mouth found mine, kissing her juices from me tenderly before she pulled herself from the mess and stepped away.

I laid on the deck, panting, in a mess of release. My eyes opened, looking to the captain who stood over me. His eyes had never left mine, watching with each lingering moment as I took another and another of his crew, as moans ripped out of me and they gave themselves over to longing. 

He gazed down at me before kneeling down and pulling me to his chest. Tentacles gently caressed my face, tasting his crewmates as he did so. “You are a wonder,” he said softly, gathering me in his arms as he moved us to the haunted ship he called home. 

The moon shuddered behind a cloud and for the first time in ages, he didn’t disappear. He brought me to the helm of his ship, and sat on the wooden deck, back against the railing, my body upon his. We watched the moon set in silence, listening to the lapping of waves against the hull. 

“Are you afraid?” I asked as sunlight threatened to crest the horizon. 

“Relieved,” he replied. “I never need to take another life. We are free.”

I found his hand and held it, the fingers chitinous as a crab claw. “I’m glad.”

“Will you stay?”

I nodded against him. He shifted, taking the talisman of his curse and pulling it, the chain snapping. Without grace, he dropped it into my lap. “The ship is yours now.”

“I don’t need one, let alone two ships.”

He smiled, soft and content. “Trust her. She’ll see you through.”

My thumb played over the octopus symbol of the ancient curse. “Thank you. For this night.”

We leaned against the rails, watching as the sun hit the sky, cascading golds and crimson through the waves and clouds. The dawn was glorious and slow, bringing with it the promise of rough waters. 

The weight beneath me sighed, breathing a final breath, and then filtered into the brilliant light. My body leaned against the rails, suddenly the only soul aboard a ghost ship, long since known to mean death.