The missionary and the mermaid

Chapter I: "She has a name"

They young missionary still found it hard to take in everything he had experienced over the past few days. He had seen the rest of the missionaries being slaughtered by Blackbeard's crew. He had been tied up a mast for three entire days, starving and parched. He had been used as bait for mermaids and had survived the attack from the raging beauties. And thanks to him one of them had been captured and was now a prisoner of the pirates, imprisoned inside a glass coffin.  

He was half listening to what Jack Sparrow was telling him about saving his soul, as he looked back to see the trapped mermaid.

"...on the off chance that this does not go well for me" Sparrow's ramble continued "I would like you to note it–hearing now–that I am fully prepared to believe in whatever I must, and be welcomed into that place where all the goody-goodies want to go once they pop their clogs. Savvy?"

"We have a word for that, Jack. You can convert" he replied, quite serious, opposite to Sparrow's carefree tone.

Sparrow seemed confused, but Philip decided not to pay much attention to it. Jack was a pirate after all, and what could a man who disobeyed laws, violated rules at every turn and roamed free in the sea possibly know about religion? About God? It was obvious his sudden interest about redeeming his soul was not sincere, but simple convenience due to his situation.

The missionary was finishing to wash his face as he turned around, distracted. His eyes ended up fixed on the glass coffin near him. The mermaid seemed to be breathing heavily and he quickly understood she was suffocating inside her crystal prison. He couldn't help but feel guilty for that, since it was his own doing that she had been captured and taken away from Whitecap Bay. He knew he had to do something.

"She's not breathing!" he exclaimed, standing up and approaching the coffin hastily.

"She's got water" the Quartermaster simply replied, obviously not caring one bit about what was going on. Maybe it was because the man was a zombie and was permanently indifferent to everything. But Philip somehow knew that even if he was a normal, unzombified man, he wouldn't have cared either.

"We have to open this!" he spoke louder, hands fiddling with the lock to somehow open it.

"I support the missionary's position" Sparrow said, again out of pure convenience.

"She will escape" the zombie answered with his monotone, dead voice.

"She needs air!" the missionary insisted.

Philip kept trying to open the lock but was unable to do so. The mermaid inside was dying and every second counted, he couldn't keep wasting time fighting the lock. He took the Quartermaster's blade to stick it in the rabbet between the cap and the rest of the coffin. With a quick twist of his arm, the lock cracked and the coffin opened just a bit, but enough for the mermaid to breathe in some air.

"You see" he said, filled with relief that the mermaid didn't asphyxiate.

The Quartermaster took his sword out but in one swift motion, Philip slid in his Bible to keep the coffin open just as the sword had done before. He got a growl and an angry look from the zombie, but for Christ, he wouldn't let him close that coffin again. They needed the mermaid, and the mermaid needed to be kept alive. Blackbeard seemed to understand that, because he ordered the Quartermaster and the rest of the crew to keep moving.

Philip sighed with relief. As he turned to the side he was faced by the mermaid, staring at him with inexpressive eyes and a blank look on her face. He didn't know what to make of that, but he preferred to believe she was somehow thankful for what he had done. True, she was captive because of him but Philip couldn't stand the way she was being treated by the pirates. He had made it his duty to protect her and treat her with the dignity every creation of God deserved. It wasn't much a duty, though, since it was something he wanted to do. He too was a captive to the pirates so he might as well do something good while being with them. He knew none of them would.