The day was clear and bright now, and Vincent was back in all his accoutrements, though they did nothing to hide the crutch he leaned on.

He approached the thing that was on his deck. The creature did not move, save for some thinner tendrils blowing the breeze.

Vincent sneered. "I hate you!"

The creature still did not move; if anything it seemed to stay more still.

Vincent reached for his sword, but was interrupted before he could draw it by Lucretia.

"Please!" She said. "That right there be all that my husband and I have worked for all our educated lives and before! You slay or release it and you shall receive no money, I promise you. We shall find a away to escape you if we must, I swear it!"

"Lady, this thing be the very reason my crew will refuse to climb the deck. My ship be empty thanks to it. My men swear by all they can think to swear by they can hear such a thing screech when it so obviously moves not, and I can hear it too."

"Then that be yet another reason to keep it. It truly is what we seek, though its appearance be not what we imagined."

"Remove it. Have your husband and you remove it from my deck. And silence its screechings."

"Please," she said, taking his hand. "Please grant us time. My husband is ill; his leg crushed in the fall and I fear he has been at sea too long. He is raving and delirious, refusing to believe this be the appearance of his beloved and sought mermaid. Please, I have always sought comfort with him, my husband whom I hold so dear. Please, grant us time, and grant me the favor of one to talk with and perhaps even confide in."

"You know far too much, lady, far too much than is good for one born with breasts. I mean not just your books. I indeed watched you out of boredom, but you saw what you did to me, did you not? You saw this man’s wild heart that was meant only for the sea and those he called his children and you took it as you saw it given to you. You do not belong to me, lady, and it would be in all our best health if you remembered such. I ask only that you treat me kindly for I do not attempt more than a mere look."

"You treat me different from other sailors, and that is why I ask. My husband had packed a pistol, lest he need to save me from the captain’s intentions and I shall keep him from using it. Speak with me, please."

"Your husband has a pistol? I hope he knows of how to use it, lest he lose his other leg."

"I ask for a favor and I am received with mockery of my husband’s condition?"

"You presume too much, lady. I am not but an illiterate fugitive who takes company in brothels. We sailors speak of only what in polite company one would not think of in the company of women." Vincent turned to leave, but was stopped by Lucretia grabbing his wrist.

"I ask again for your company, my captain, for all others refuse it, including my husband. I rescind my asking for politeness. Do not take me for weak, captain. Speak of the improper if that is all you know. And do not address me as ‘lady.’ My name is Lucretia, and I will answer only to that."

"Strong spirited you be," Vincent said, happy for it. "You have lost me my crew and the use of my leg from the ankle down and delivered me this monster. And yet… What did you wish to speak of, perhaps I can keep from being too vulgar."

The scene changed and the crew of the present day found themselves in a dark and rocking hold. Vincent was carrying Lucretia over his shoulder while still on his crutch.

He knocked on a door and heard Erik’s voice asking him to enter.

He opened the door and stopped immediately in the doorway. His expression became immediately blank was he watched Erik finish cutting his trousers just below the knee and occasionally adjust a strap on a pegleg.

"Yes, it is an interesting doorway, is it not?" Erik asked.

"I apologize," Vincent said, coming to his senses. "I… I have never seen anyone to survive such a thing."

"I shall have the mermaid taken down and move it into the room with my books. No doubt you’ve given up and changed course to the nearest port by now?"

Vincent nodded.

"Good. I would have had you change it… were I in the right mind. Is there a reason you have your hand on my wife’s rump?"

"I… I… I was returning her to her cabin," Vincent said, entering the room. Erik stood up and stood in front of him, preventing him from wandering any further in.

"I am not a stupid man, Black Valentine. Indeed that was why I wanted a man who would not question what I set out to do as long as I filled his pockets. There is no way to balance a human being over one’s shoulder without a hand to steady them, and that crutch of yours has prevented you the use of both your arms."

"Indeed. I thank you for understanding," Vincent said, shifting Lucretia and leaning his crutch against the wall as he set the woman in her husband’s arms. He turned, but was kept from leaving by Erik kicking his crutch down. Vincent leaned against the wall, slowly lowering himself to grab the fallen crutch.

"I said I was not a stupid man, Black Valentine, and I am not. The next time I see your hands upon my wife I shall treat you as I would a rabid dog and blast your brains out."

"I have kept my trousers on, if that be what you mean to imply. She fell asleep, refusing to leave. Ask her in the morning if you do not trust me." Vincent finally grabbed his crutch and slowly lifted himself up the wall.

"She smells like rum," Erik said angrily.

"We shared a bottle. Ask her if you do not believe me. And do remove that creature, the wailing keeps me up at night."

The dark hold melted away to the bright of day on the deck again. Vincent was watching as the crew repaired the broken mast, barking orders at them and not noticing Lucretia approaching him from behind.

"Get those gears off, I’ll be damned it I wrestle with that net again! Bend your knees! Lift together, watch that rope."

"Captain, if you have a minute."

"No, Lucretia, I do not. Your husband suspects more than there is and has advised me to keep from your sight. Although I thank you for moving that creature—and I will not ask how—my crew now fear to go below deck."

"I have talked to him. He is jealous, that is all."

"He knows I would fight off all other men if I could have you, but that ring on your finger binds you to him, and a good pirate knows the meaning deeper than just the gold a trinket is made of."

"Vincent, I must thank you… for obliging me and spending your time to talk with me. For an illiterate, you are more interesting than I could have thought."

"Thank you, now if you will let me tend to my ship" Vincent said, turning away from her.

"Let me help you," Lucretia proposed.

"This is nothing your books and maps can fix. What can you do, teach the mast to put itself up?"

"Valentine, you mock me!"

"And you insult me. You forget who you have just called illiterate."

"I can teach you to read," she said, earning laughter from the entire crew. "If you keep up such asking I will be forced to dunk you in the water until you grow some sense. You insult my pride and you tempt your husband to shoot me as best as he can. You bring a curse upon my ship and make it appear I put my hands on women that are not mine. You are trouble. I be too busy for petty talk."

"My husband will pay extra for your knowledge, as well as your crew’s, for each one’s personal tale of sirens and mermaids," Lucretia said, and left.

"Get that mast up, now!" Vincent yelled. "That brass be going nowhere, and if we do not reach a good port it shall lie in rotting hands!"

The sailors faded away, the mast was now up as best they could get it, and land was on the horizon.

Vincent was happily watching the land as his ship sped forward; Lucretia was approaching him as if she were uncertain about how close to get to him.

"I have not contracted rabies or the like," he said, hearing her stop at the broken mast, not looking at her. "I have not seen you in days. Is your husband happier with us now?"

"I suspect so. He seems unnerved about the mermaid. It is all he talks about and sometimes even to. Some days he remains with it until I drag him to bed. I have no knowledge of whether he even thinks me there. Other days he seems afraid to go near and speaks softly of it, as if afraid it will hear him."

"Must have swallowed too much seawater," Vincent said, uninterested.

"You insult me," she said playfully.

"And you insult me!" he yelled, spinning around and grabbing her wrist. "’Twas not my fault to fall in love with you. I gave you as much of my heart as a true man dares to one who can never belong to him and I near lose my leg, I am haunted by your creature, and you receive me as your servant."

"I did not mean to—"

"We are from two different worlds, Lucretia, do not forget that this is not yours. I have no station in yours, and you have no station in mine." Vincent let go over her

"No station?"

"Gold only goes so far on the seas, Lucretia. Books have no meaning here. The sea be the only ruling woman, and I always thought she was the only one to take a man’s heart."

"You say I be useless!" she complained.

"I do indeed love you, yet yes, I do say that. I mean it as well." He turned away form her.

"Really?" she asked. "I be as nimble as any of your men, be that what you call them!" Lucretia did not take off her shoes even as she stepped up on the railing. "Am I still as useless?"

"What do I have for someone so much a fool as to walk the railing in heavy waves on dainty heels?"

"Lucretia!" Erik yelled, coming on deck. "What has gotten into you?"

"Erik, could you please remove your wife?" Vincent asked.

"Lucretia, get down!" Erik yelled.

"You take me for useless as well?" she complained, and her foot stopped and caught on the wood when she meant to turn it. She screamed as she fell backwards, and Vincent finally turned to her, only to see her skirts fluttering as she fell into the sea.

Vincent only took a second to look around. He began untying a rope tied around the mast that he found superfluous and ignored Erik’s screaming. After unwinding the rope he shed his hat and cloak as fast as he could and leapt into the sea.

The crew watching him was instantly thrown into the waters with him. He sped downward and soon the light in the water was gone.

They were locked in blackness for a long time. Nothing visibly moved but they all felt underwater still.

Suddenly they were blinded as the ship and the bright day returned. Three crewmen were hauling on the line of rope, taking a while to finally pull Vincent out of the water.

He held Lucretia by the arm, hardly holding her enough to prevent another slip into the water.

Erik was yelling frantically as Vincent dumped the woman on the deck. Two crewmen held Erik back as he tried to run to his wife.

Vincent threw off his gloves and tore Lucretia’s gown down the front, revealing her corset and eliciting a scream from Erik. Vincent drew a short knife and slashed the corset and pulled it open.

Another crewman had to hold Erik, who was putting up quite a struggle for a man his size.

Vincent bent down and pressed his lips to the cold, unmoving woman. He left her lips to press against he chest, covered only in her chemise. He repeated the act twice; Erik’s screams did not seem to reach his ears.

Then Vincent stopped and shrank back, bowing his head in mourning.

Erik hit one man in the face, managed to hit the other with his sharp elbow and yank out of the last crewman’s grasp.

He ran over and kicked Vincent in the face with his foot. Vincent did not move, he did not even flinch at any names Erik called him.

Erik went on for a long time, claiming Vincent tried to defile his wife’s body after death and had the tastelessness to try it in front of her husband.

Vincent said nothing until Erik picked up Lucretia’s body and left.

"If I ever hear that man talk to me so again, he shall pay for that insult to me and my true intentions for her."

The day melted into night. The deck was empty again and Vincent was making his way around the wall to the door of the hold.

Something white flashed and he turned. He saw something white flutter and went to the railing to investigate. There was nothing there.

"Sea foam on the waves and in my head," he whispered catching his hat as it started to slip.

He did not give it another thought, as ascribed by his face, as he made his way into the hold.

Vincent again walked through the hall and knocked on the door to Erik’s room.

Again Erik asked Vincent to enter.

Again Vincent was too shocked to go past the doorway, but this time out of fear and not awe.

The creature had either been carried or had crawled across the hall into Erik’s room and lay on one of the beds. Erik was fastening his trousers, not a good sign to anyone who was quick with the mind.

"Captain, I expected you sooner," Erik said, turning around. He had a very unsettling look to him. It seemed almost the same as that of a man who begins claiming to smell cooking meat after remaining too long in the doldrums when he has finished off all the moldy and rotten food. Yet there was a knowing past that madness. There was the look of a man obsessed to hunt and skin every wolf in the forest for one devouring a chicken from his coop.

Vincent seemed at a loss for words as Erik approached him. Vincent’s eyes seemed more on the creature that was almost eerily at home on the bed, than on the man whose face was now less than an inch away.

Erik placed two fingers on Vincent’s temple and gently traced down his face, leaving his flesh at his lips. Vincent could not ever blink as Erik grinned at him. "Atone for your sins," he said and pressed his lips to Vincent’s.

Though only gently in Erik’s grasp, Vincent could not wrench his chin away. There was no time between feeling the pistol aimed at his chest and the gun going off. The noise echoed throughout the hallway in the dream and throughout the ship where real people stood watching it.

Vincent, the true man on the deck seemed startled at the noise and his hand twitched ever so slightly, toughing the back of the pendant, causing it to close and the dream to fade.

Seeing the stars in the ship and the sky, feeling the wind and smelling the salt and wood again, the crew immediately came to their senses.

Cid knelt down by Vincent, took off his glove, and touched his cheek, Vincent’s face being the only patch of bare skin on the man. "Damn, he be frozen!" Cid tore open Vincent’s shirt, revealing long lines of incisions stitched closed with black thread. All cuts were open and bleeding.

"We be brothers after all," Cloud whispered.

Vincent awoke immediately upon feeling his clothes torn from him and thrust his fist in the man’s nose as his eyes shot open. "Leave a man to his secrets!" Vincent yelled, closing his shirt. "Leave one who rots in hell alone, lest you find you stuck there yourself." Vincent raised his hand to point at Cid and threaten him more, but something distracted him. He turned his gloved hand over and seemed shocked, despite its emptiness. He screamed, only later did he manage words. "I bleed!"

At that he seemed to choke on his screaming and fainted, again falling on the ship’s deck.

…………………………………………………………………………………………

Thin fingers wrapped around Reeve’s neck.

"What part of ‘Keep out’ did you not understand, Spaniard?" Erik asked.

"Senor, the door was open and—" Erik followed Reeves finger to a drawer in the desk. Blood was pooling around the corner of the desk and dripping down the leg and onto the floor, as if it were trying to escape out the door.

Erik dashed over to the desk and tore the drawer open, almost ripping it out of the hole and off the holds.

A box Erik had long ago thrown the key to into the sea near a port that had been destroyed to cannons was leaking the red liquid everywhere and was the drawer’s only occupant.

Erik lifted the box and tilted it, earning a flood of the liquid to wash over his hands. He held it only for a short time, yet long enough to see the dripping blood would not cease its flow.

Erik dropped the box, never having expected the thing inside to begin to bleed on its own.

He turned to the door. But the porter had fled, no doubt in fear.

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