Bella and the Pirates

The storm raged all night, and the pirate ship "Scarlet Scourge" struggled to endure in the tempest. Lightning flashed across the sky, thunder roared like an enraged titan, and waves rolled in like hungry beasts, threatening to engulf the ship and its ruthless crew. However, at dawn, it became apparent that the "Scarlet Scourge" had survived, albeit bearing scars from its encounter with the sea.
As the weary pirates surveyed the aftermath of the storm, their gaze fell upon a distant silhouette on the horizon. It was a merchant ship, adrift and helpless, with torn sails and broken masts.
A malicious grin appeared on the face of Captain Harlow, a notorious pirate with a reputation as merciless as the sea itself. The prospect of potential easy plunder infused the entire crew of cutthroats with renewed strength. Despite their fatigue, the pirates eagerly launched the dinghies and energetically took up the oars.
When the pirates boarded the abandoned ship, they were met with eerie silence and an empty deck scattered with debris and wooden fragments of various junk. However, upon entering the cargo hold, their joy knew no bounds: enormous crates of exotic spices, chests with valuable goods, and silk lay untouched.
But there was no sign of the ship's crew anywhere. Suspicion lingered in the air as the pirates explored the dark corners of the hold. In one dimly lit cabin, they stumbled upon a collection of elaborately adorned chests. Intrigued, the pirates opened the first chest and found a dazzling array of treasures—diamonds, rubies, sapphires, pearls. Their greedy eyes gleamed as they uncovered more and more treasures. However, when they opened the last massive chest, their greedy hearts froze in shock.
There, amidst the sparkling gems, lay the body of a young woman. She possessed an otherworldly beauty, with hair the color of blackwood cascading down her pale shoulders. Her skin was as smooth as ivory, her lips as red as blood, and her closed eyes, adorned with long lashes, seemed like windows to a fairytale world.
Captain Harlow, despite his cruelty and ruthlessness, was captivated by her beauty. His cold gaze softened for a moment. "She's worth more than all the treasures in the world," declared the captain. The crew nodded in agreement, and he decided to keep the girl with them, assuming her to be dead.
They placed her in a separate cabin, away from the revelry.
As the sun set, casting the sea in a crimson glow, the pirates celebrated their newly acquired wealth, forgetting about the mysterious lifeless passenger.
With the onset of night, the drunken marauders dispersed to their corners, some falling asleep inebriated on the deck. The captain, taking a partially consumed bottle of rum with him, descended into his cabin.
Seated in a chair near his cluttered table, filled with various papers and navigation charts, he wearily closed his eyes. Harlow began to drift into sleep when a sudden noise jolted him awake.
A cold shiver ran down the spine of the fearless cutthroat. On his bed sat the lifeless girl!
Harlow froze, his mouth agape. It was unclear how long he sat in the silent stillness, but then the lifeless beauty abruptly stood up, reaching out towards the captain.
Startled, Harlow somersaulted out of his chair and found himself in a corner, clutching his musket, trembling hands pointed at the lifeless stranger.
In the air hung a sense of foreboding. A gentle breeze rustled the curtains in the cabin, where an unspoken scene unfolded: the maiden in the middle of the cabin and the frightened captain in the corner with a loaded musket.
The girl stood, unafraid of the weapon, smiling her beautiful yet unsettling smile.
There was something horrifying and simultaneously captivating about her face.
Her emerald-green eyes, like precious stones, met his gaze. With a soft, melodic voice, she whispered, "Who are you? Where am I?"
The pirate, struck dumb with amazement, couldn't utter a single word.
Several minutes passed, or perhaps even more. The passage of time dissolved for Harlow; it ceased to exist. It's uncertain how long it would have continued, but then the revived stranger made a sudden movement forward, and... a gunshot rang out. The entire cabin was filled with smoke, and the scent of burnt gunpowder permeated the space.
The gunshot was heard. The sounds of about a dozen running footsteps followed. When the cabin door swung open, the astonished pirates were greeted with an unusual sight: the captain, pale as chalk, standing in the corner of his cabin, and the revived stranger, unscathed and looking quite rosy compared to the pale captain. The beauty in a gorgeous, expensive dress evoked very mixed feelings in the pirates who were dumbfounded by such news. It was a sense of reverential fear before something deep, mysterious, and unknown. Before some infernal sensation and admiration for this earthly beauty and femininity.
This silent scene was finally interrupted by the voice of the beautiful stranger: "I welcome all of you, my liberators. I was a prisoner on that ship, which, fortunately, you discovered and rescued me from perishing in this boundless ocean."
Her voice was enchantingly gentle and, at the same time, very noble. Judging by her attire and manners, this girl came from a very noble lineage; all her behaviors attested to it.
After the girl spoke, she introduced herself as Seraphina and told the story of her appearance on that abandoned ship, where she ended up not by her own will but was abducted by a very influential person who forcibly wanted to marry her. All the pirates disapproved with a disapproving murmur, apparently forgetting for a moment that they themselves were robbers and bandits. Finally, even the captain himself emerged from his protective corner. His face once again took on its fierce look, and there was no trace of his indecision.
A few hours after this, the scene on the pirate ship underwent a radical change. The entire pirate crew, led by the captain and our freed captive, moved to the huge hold of the ship. There, around a massive table and large chests serving as tables, the revelry unfolded once again. This time, there were no fights or clashes; on the contrary, the enormous sailors behaved casually and rejoiced like little children. They sang songs and danced, giving the impression that everyone had gone mad. Each of the ruffians tried to present themselves in the best light before the beauty sitting next to the captain, who, alone, did not participate in the festivities but watched each of his charges with malice and jealousy.
The next day, the captain woke up well past noon. The sun was already high, scorching so intensely that he concluded they must have unexpectedly found themselves near the equator. However, this couldn't be true, as just a day ago, they were at the latitude of twenty degrees. It was impossible for a ship to reach the equator overnight, covering hundreds of miles. Yet, the captain's concerns weren't about their location. Firstly, he couldn't recall how yesterday's revelry had ended and how he ended up in his cabin. Secondly, he couldn't find his beautiful companion anywhere. It might have been presumptuous and premature to consider her his own, but Harlow believed that as a captain, he deserved the best. And he had earned it through strength, agility, and cunning, shedding both his own blood and others' to become who he was now. He had killed scores of men. This beauty would be his; he had decided, and woe betide anyone who stood in his way.
However, as time passed, he couldn't find his beauty anywhere. She was nowhere to be found. A dozen sailors from his pirate crew were also missing from the deck. The remaining crew searched the entire ship repeatedly, but there were no results. Harlow began to suspect that something terrible had happened, and perhaps his failed lover had been killed and thrown overboard by drunken pirates fighting over her. He interrogated the entire crew, but no one, including himself, remembered anything. Harlow was infuriated. He didn't know what to do, didn't trust anyone, and suspected that the pirates had conspired against him. His mind feverishly contemplated ways to navigate this situation. Understanding that something devilish was afoot, he decided to return to his cabin and prepare for a fight if the mutineers decided to overthrow him. He had about a dozen people on his side—those he could trust—including his assistant, the boatswain, old Jack. He had sailed the seas with Jack for over a decade, so he trusted him the most. As for the rest, each owed Harlow their lives, whether he had saved them from the gallows, bought them from slave traders, or spared their lives in a bandit skirmish. Giving orders to the entire crew and stationing reliable sailors outside the cabin, the captain secluded himself in his quarters, preparing for a potential storm.
Time flew by, and evening arrived. Unnoticed by himself, Harlow fell asleep in his chair. He had a dream. He rarely dreamt, and this dream felt so vivid, as if it were happening in reality. Seraphina, the beautiful woman, and he were in bed making love. Everything was so real that Harlow could smell her, feel the smoothness of her satin skin, immerse himself in the thick strands of her silky hair. He was in a state of bliss, feeling so good, a sensation he could hardly remember, enveloped in a dense, sweet fog. He didn't want to wake up; he only wished for it to last for eternity, completely dissolving into the ecstasy of love. And at the very peak of ecstasy, just as he was about to soar into the pinnacle of amorous euphoria, he suddenly woke up! Or rather, he was forced to, as the thunderous noise and creaking of the door to his cabin couldn't leave even the deaf indifferent. Beyond the door, horrifying screams, curses, and gunfire resounded. Harlow jumped to his feet, grabbing his saber from its sheath, holding a pistol in one hand, another at his belt, ready for action. The captain rushed to the cabin door. It wobbled but held. He heard Jack shouting, and he was ready to fling the door open and rush to his old friend's aid when suddenly, behind the door, a terrifying roar echoed. It was a roar, the growl of some beast—something no human could produce. Harlow, a man who had seen it all, hesitated for a moment, and then he heard Jack's cry, a deathly scream, the final cry of his friend! Forgetting about the danger, the captain tore the door open and leaped into the dark expanse of the hold...
Nothing was visible, only the smell of gunpowder and blood, fiery flashes here and there, and the cries of his dying sailors as they were attacked by shadowy enemies. Something incomprehensible was happening—dark figures, only remotely resembling humans, flickered before Harlow's bewildered eyes. He fired a few shots at them, but all missed. The shadows moved very quickly. Then he drew his saber and swung it right and left at the elusive enemy.
It was all futile. He couldn't do anything against these shadows. In the corner, he saw Jack lying, and a sailor leaning over him doing something unimaginable—he was biting the old man's neck and emitting a horrible growl. Overwhelmed by rage, Harlow's reason was clouded, and with a few leaps, he found himself next to this lover of human flesh. With one powerful blow, he severed the man-eater's cervical vertebrae. The cannibal silently slumped to the side.
And then the captain's head rang like a bell. A terrible, dull pain from the powerful blow enveloped him entirely. His legs gave way, and slowly, as if in a dream, he settled on the floor. The last thing Harlow saw before his fading gaze was Seraphina's face—twisted with fury and smeared with blood. Time stood still.
When Harlow opened his eyes, he found himself in the dark hold, where he and about a dozen surviving pirates from his crew lay. His head and body still ached, but the pain was now bearable, and the captain attempted to stand. To his surprise, he wasn't bound, and neither were any members of his crew. Soon, his eyes adjusted to the darkness, and Harlow began to distinguish faces, recognizing his sailors. Everyone was alive and relatively well. Their wounds were minor, and someone had already taken the trouble to clean and bandage the injured. Harlow looked around and began questioning his people about the events of the previous day.
According to the sailors, the following picture emerged: Late in the evening, after sunset, Seraphina and a dozen missing pirates appeared on the deck from somewhere unknown. They looked very strange and behaved unusually. Their sudden appearance shocked everyone, and before someone could send for the captain to interrogate them thoroughly, it was already too late. The newcomers, appearing out of nowhere, scattered on the deck, and then simultaneously attacked the sailors. A brawl ensued; some managed to grab weapons, others barricaded themselves, but mostly all resistance was quickly broken. The attackers moved and fought like wild beasts. It was challenging to hit them, and even a gunshot couldn't kill them. The most frightening part was that Seraphina was leading all of this. And she killed with such ease that no pirate could boast of.
Category:Beings
Category:Weird