.One final time
“Its time.”
The words echoed in the small wooden cabin.
Eyes tried to open but only one did.
A hand reached, located the gauze across the face and removed it.
After blinking a few times and focusing on the light hanging from the ceiling, legs swung down from the table and a sitting position was achieved.
“It felt worse. Thought I’ll need an eye patch.”
“Not anymore.” echoed the reply.
“It could’ve added to my reputation...”
The figure in the middle of of the cabin was difficult to comprehend. It had features but they didn’t form a whole.
The face was there, every part of it detailed and accounted but the face as their sum, refused to come together in the mind.
And yet, perception insisted the figure was more in focus than the rest of the world.
“Come along.”
The words echoed but it wasn’t sound, it was intention reverberating through space.
Not a command, but an almost palpable sense of future events.
Feet hitting the floor and balancing, a missing weight was felt.
"Where's my rapier?"
“It was left on deck.”
“Then let’s go get it.”
“We can’t.”
“YOU can’t. I’m not going anywhere without my sword.”
Stepping quickly around the figure and grabbing the door handle, a thick impression of dismay permeated the cabin for a few seconds, but was dispelled with the door opening as noises of a busy ship’s deck aired it to be replaced with the muteness of surprise.
“Avast!”
The call didn’t have its usual effect.
No one stopped or even turned their head toward the captain.
On deck it was the sight of carnage, bathed in the bleeding light of dusk.
Bodies of enemies and fallen crewmates were being sorted. ones were thrown overboard after a search for valuables, others were carefully laid aside for a respectable burial.
The captain surveyed the scene, silently approving of the crew’s discipline at a time of defeat. Their unresponsiveness, forgiven.
Nearby, a circular guarded marine cutlass tilted back and forth by the motions of the ship, sounding against the wooden deck.
The captain bent to pick it up, and failed. The hand going straight through the handle without even feeling resistance.
Surprised, turning to look back into the cabin and the figure still standing there, the body on the far table was finally noticed.
There, in the captain’s cabin. On the captain’s table. Laid the captain.
As clean as she was this morning, her pistol still loaded. The only difference is a bloody piece of cloth covering half her face.
“I’m dead!?”
“Yes.” Came the answer. From only a few steps away, yet seemed immeasurably distant.
The captain checked herself against her body in the cabin.
The pistol was there, ready for use. The broad bladed dagger sheathed at her back was also present.
“I can’t get my sword?”
A vague feeling of a question already answered wafted through the doorway.
Looking up, the captain located her second in command on the poop deck, supervising.
“The captain’s sword…” She whispered to him.
His hand came up to rub his ear, as if it was cold.
“The captain needs her sword…” She whispered in the other.
He rubbed his other ear, but seemed to be looking for something on the deck below.
“Bring me my sword…” She whispered again, “that’s an order.”
Looking confused after furiously rubbing both ears, her second in command descended to the busy deck.
Watching him stepping over crew and dead, the captain smiled to herself as she saw him pull her sword out of a marine lieutenant, clean it on his uniform and quickly making his way back.
She was standing at the door when he passed as if nothing was there, through the figure still in the cabin’s centre, and saw him carefully inserting the blade to the scabbard at her belt. Setting in on the table at her body’s side.
Stepping through the doorway back onto the deck, the man seemed to come out of a revere.
He stopped, looked around to get his bearing, glanced back into the cabin at the captain’s body, and only long seconds afterwards joined the crew. heading straight for the body of the lieutenant.
The captain checked her belt and a smile that was known to make men take a step back, spread across her face at the sight and feel of her trusty rapier.
“You’re Death, aren’t you?” She asked matter of factly.
“And you’re here to take me?” She added when no response was given.
“Very well! Where are we going?” She announced.
Confusion emanated at her, the sense of going through the door but not to the ship’s deck.
“You can’t come out after me, can you?”
She considered the muteness as confirmation.
“So you can’t take me…” She said aloud more to herself than anything.
Patience came out in waves through the doorway.
“I figured Death would one day come and take me. Never thought it would be this soon.”
She quietly contemplated the situation a bit longer.
Patience from the cabin was washing over her in what would’ve felt like a gale if it weren’t aetherial.
“Very well....” The she acquiesced, and stepped back into the captain’s cabin, closing the door behind her.
“Come along.” The captain gestured Death to join her, and opened the door to Infinite blackness.
Letting Death go through first, she looked one final time at herself, before closing the door and leaving her body behind.
---
You conquered life and everyone you touched.
It would be more than fitting for you to conquer death.
“Its time.”
The words echoed in the small wooden cabin.
Eyes tried to open but only one did.
A hand reached, located the gauze across the face and removed it.
After blinking a few times and focusing on the light hanging from the ceiling, legs swung down from the table and a sitting position was achieved.
“It felt worse. Thought I’ll need an eye patch.”
“Not anymore.” echoed the reply.
“It could’ve added to my reputation...”
The figure in the middle of of the cabin was difficult to comprehend. It had features but they didn’t form a whole.
The face was there, every part of it detailed and accounted but the face as their sum, refused to come together in the mind.
And yet, perception insisted the figure was more in focus than the rest of the world.
“Come along.”
The words echoed but it wasn’t sound, it was intention reverberating through space.
Not a command, but an almost palpable sense of future events.
Feet hitting the floor and balancing, a missing weight was felt.
"Where's my rapier?"
“It was left on deck.”
“Then let’s go get it.”
“We can’t.”
“YOU can’t. I’m not going anywhere without my sword.”
Stepping quickly around the figure and grabbing the door handle, a thick impression of dismay permeated the cabin for a few seconds, but was dispelled with the door opening as noises of a busy ship’s deck aired it to be replaced with the muteness of surprise.
“Avast!”
The call didn’t have its usual effect.
No one stopped or even turned their head toward the captain.
On deck it was the sight of carnage, bathed in the bleeding light of dusk.
Bodies of enemies and fallen crewmates were being sorted. ones were thrown overboard after a search for valuables, others were carefully laid aside for a respectable burial.
The captain surveyed the scene, silently approving of the crew’s discipline at a time of defeat. Their unresponsiveness, forgiven.
Nearby, a circular guarded marine cutlass tilted back and forth by the motions of the ship, sounding against the wooden deck.
The captain bent to pick it up, and failed. The hand going straight through the handle without even feeling resistance.
Surprised, turning to look back into the cabin and the figure still standing there, the body on the far table was finally noticed.
There, in the captain’s cabin. On the captain’s table. Laid the captain.
As clean as she was this morning, her pistol still loaded. The only difference is a bloody piece of cloth covering half her face.
“I’m dead!?”
“Yes.” Came the answer. From only a few steps away, yet seemed immeasurably distant.
The captain checked herself against her body in the cabin.
The pistol was there, ready for use. The broad bladed dagger sheathed at her back was also present.
“I can’t get my sword?”
A vague feeling of a question already answered wafted through the doorway.
Looking up, the captain located her second in command on the poop deck, supervising.
“The captain’s sword…” She whispered to him.
His hand came up to rub his ear, as if it was cold.
“The captain needs her sword…” She whispered in the other.
He rubbed his other ear, but seemed to be looking for something on the deck below.
“Bring me my sword…” She whispered again, “that’s an order.”
Looking confused after furiously rubbing both ears, her second in command descended to the busy deck.
Watching him stepping over crew and dead, the captain smiled to herself as she saw him pull her sword out of a marine lieutenant, clean it on his uniform and quickly making his way back.
She was standing at the door when he passed as if nothing was there, through the figure still in the cabin’s centre, and saw him carefully inserting the blade to the scabbard at her belt. Setting in on the table at her body’s side.
Stepping through the doorway back onto the deck, the man seemed to come out of a revere.
He stopped, looked around to get his bearing, glanced back into the cabin at the captain’s body, and only long seconds afterwards joined the crew. heading straight for the body of the lieutenant.
The captain checked her belt and a smile that was known to make men take a step back, spread across her face at the sight and feel of her trusty rapier.
“You’re Death, aren’t you?” She asked matter of factly.
“And you’re here to take me?” She added when no response was given.
“Very well! Where are we going?” She announced.
Confusion emanated at her, the sense of going through the door but not to the ship’s deck.
“You can’t come out after me, can you?”
She considered the muteness as confirmation.
“So you can’t take me…” She said aloud more to herself than anything.
Patience came out in waves through the doorway.
“I figured Death would one day come and take me. Never thought it would be this soon.”
She quietly contemplated the situation a bit longer.
Patience from the cabin was washing over her in what would’ve felt like a gale if it weren’t aetherial.
“Very well....” The she acquiesced, and stepped back into the captain’s cabin, closing the door behind her.
“Come along.” The captain gestured Death to join her, and opened the door to Infinite blackness.
Letting Death go through first, she looked one final time at herself, before closing the door and leaving her body behind.
---
You conquered life and everyone you touched.
It would be more than fitting for you to conquer death.