Sea of Tears

Chapter Ten

Larissa cried out in alarm along with the riotus pirates as the row boat flipped over into the dark choppy waves. Her voice was instantly cut short by the onslaught of salt water invading her lungs.

Beneath the depths, she saw nothing but churning water rushing through her vision. Distant cries of terror and anguish from above the surface filled her ears. Murkey red waves began to swirl all around her, and suddenly, a flashing streak of white, and the glimmer of a silvery blue tail swooshed past her eyes in an effervescent blur. Adrenaline immediately crushed into her, enveloping her sanity. Her heart hammered erractically, and her limbs frantically moved on their own volition, propelling her upward for air. Breaking through the surface, she gasped anxiously for oxygen, while the invading shouts of the English men bombarded the air with the atmosphere of sheer panic.

Paralyzing fear gripped her entire being as she looked up, the salt water trailing down her face from her wet hair. One by one, before her very eyes, each man still swimming within the beating waves was mercilessly yanked down into the depths, followed by a splash and glimmer of that same silvery tail whipping back and forth viciously within the churning waters, sending up foamy sprays of water and spurts of pirate blood in it's wake.

"AHH!!!" Larissa screamed in terror, certain these would be her very last moments alive. The water splashed across her face as a man right beside her suddenly let out an agonizing cry that was promptly cut short by his body being dragged underneath the water. The depths were now warm with the blood of the pirates, the taste of both salt and iron invading her lips.

"Gah! Ah! Save me!" The only pirate now left in the waters with her was frantically swimming towards her with a contorted, anguished expression of impending death upon his gaunt face.

Before Larissa could react, he was practically crawling on top of her, gripping any part of her body he could cling to to get himself above the water. Near drowning, Larissa struggled helplessly to get him off of her in his crazed panic. "G-get off me!!!" She shrieked as she bobbed up and down in the water, gasping desperately for air.

"It be a monster from the deep!" The pirate cried, clinging to her head while she coughed and sputtered within the choppy waves, clawing for the surface against his weight. "It'll kill us all!

All at once, something cold and slithery brushed against her thigh from underneath the water, and she jolted in alarm at the same time the pirate clinging to her was instantly ripped away and shredded before her very eyes. His agonizing screams pierced the noon sky, his body flailed in the water like a rag doll amongst giant scarlet splashes, and that silvery tail whipped back and forth mercilessly, driving the pirate down into the deep with it.

Silence remained in the wake of the bloody aftermath with only a serene ocean and gentle winds. A flock of sea gulls flew overhead, cawing their songs as if nothing traumatic had ever occurred.

Larissa breathed heavily, her chest heaving with adrenaline and her entire body trembling in uncontrollable terror. Kicking her legs quickly away from the red waters, her eyes scanned left and right for any sign of the mysterious creature that was definitely coming after her now. "Oh no, no, no." She whispered tearfully, turning and trying to paddle her arms to gain distance. "Where is it?"

A gentle splash resounded in the water behind her, making her jerk her gaze over her shoulder, her mouth agape in fear.

There it was.

She sucked in a sharp breath, fresh terror hitting her instantly. The tail dipped back into the water quietly, right in her direction. Ahead of the tail, a snowy white head covered in soaked red mats of blood, and jewel blue siren eyes suddenly appeared, rimming just above the surface, looking directly back at her.