Hannah

Previous

For all her talk, the captain hadn't put her to work yet four days after her rescue.

Saoirse knew what she was now, in the light of the sun. A mermaid of sorts, a terrible beast of empty eyes and endless teeth. She towered over the human crew, even in her landwalking guise.

The captain was a creature of unimaginable violence, a monument of wiry, supernaturally strong muscle. Her rough grey skin was marred with scars, records of the many battles she had survived. Her pride and joy: The worst one, a deep tear across her neck. It gave her her awful voice, the terrible harpoon she carried. Constant reminders that she was unkillable, unstoppable. A force of nature that existed to destroy and take.

And she had done nothing to Saoirse.

"What are you?" The captain asked her, in her quarters on the fifth day.

"Whatever you want." Saoirse said flatly, and the captain scoffed.

"I don't need you to tell me what I know, lass. What are you?"

She shrugged. "A stowaway. A housewife. Nothing."

"Species, girl." The captain spat, irritated.

"...Human." Saoirse said, after a short pause.

"The fuck you are. No human could have survived that dive."

"Think what you like."

"You reek of the sea. I thought perhaps it had seeped into your lungs, you would keel over out of nowhere, drowned on dry land. I've seen it before." The shark explained. "But you haven't. And I don't think you will. I think it's in your veins. What. Are. You. I don't need monsters lying to me about needing rescue, doing god knows what on my ship."

Saoirse glared at her, stared into her shiny black eyes.

"Selkie." She said, finally. "With no coat. Human."

The captain laughed, a horrible, scratching sound.

"An almost drowned selkie. Fucking incredible." She said, uncorking a bottle of rum and pouring herself a glass. "Go on then, where's the coat?"

"If I knew where my fucking coat was I wouldn't be here, would I?" Saoirse hissed.

"You must have some idea."

"It's where it always is. Some fisherman decides he wants a wife, and suddenly I'm trapped."

"And so you run, aye? You stow away, and your ship sinks, and now you've traded one captor for another."

More of that awful, jagged laughter.

"So? A fisherman decides he wants a wife, and what next?"

Saoirse withdrew into herself, not enjoying her life being regarded as entertainment.

"I take the kitchen knife to him when he takes me into his home and tries to tell me hiding my skin makes me his."

"Good lass." The captain said, nodding. "But he wouldn't tell where it was?"

"No."

"And he lives?"

"Yes."

"Ah, next time maybe." She said, finishing her drink. "So the plan was what? Do the same to me, fight through my crew, row your way to freedom?"

"I wasn't planning anything." Saoirse said, irritated. "Though if I could have seen down there how ugly you were, I wouldn't have offered my body even if I planned to kill you when we reached shore."

"Hah! And if could have seen how whorish your tits were, I'd have just said yes instead of giving the scary pirate queen speech." The captain cackled. "But no, starting now you earn your keep like anyone else. Welcome to the crew, landlubber-selkie. I am Reka, you will call me Captain."

Reka offered Saoirse her hand.

"Saoirse, Captain." She said, taking it.

"Good. We'll have you start swabbing the decks, doing whatever anyone tells you needs doing. Maybe after enough time we'll make a real pirate of you." Reka said, shoving a mop into her hands. "You don't get paid or leave this ship until I decide you've earned your rescue."

"How long will that be?"

"Swabbing decks? Longer than you'd hope, lass. Especially if you'd like to eat while you're here. But you'll come out the other side a free woman, and there are worse prisons than the open sea."

Saoirse grumbled and started mopping as she was shunted out of the captain's cabin. All she'd wanted was to return to the sea, and now she was trapped there.

How fucking poetic.

Next