A Demon of the Sea - Gravity Falls

Chapter 5

      As soon as the thought crossed his mind, there was a loud crash and the ship lurched to the side, sending the two men tumbling to the ground, Dipper somehow managing to land on top of the captain. "Oh! Uuhh, sorry!" he said apologetically. Cipher pushed him off, both of them getting slapped back to reality. "We'll talk later, this isn't important right now!" he exclaimed, jumping to his feet. Both men (and the guard behind the door) ran for the top deck to see what they hit, or what hit them.
      As soon as they emerged from below deck, it was dark, as though the sun had been blocked by the moon; the darkness was enhanced by a thick fog that seemed to roll in out of nowhere, and everywhere. Nothing could be seen very far beyond the ship. Except for the giant glowing one right next to them!
      That entire ship seemed to have its own kind of bioluminescence. In addition, it seemed to be extremely old, as though it had been slowly rotting away somewhere for scores of years prior to appearing before them. The sails were reduced to rags, hanging by threads from decayed wooden posts. The sailors that were coming across wooden boards onto Cipher's deck couldn't have been a better match to their vessel's eerie appearance. They were mere flesh and bone, with glowing blue eyes and slightly transparent overall forms. Even their clothes seemed a bit outdated, not to mention they were in about the same shape as their sail.
A ghost ship! This is impossible! He thought to himself. He had expected to see weird creatures on the edge of science and fiction and attempt to study them, but this crossed the line into pure fiction! It has to be some kind of illusion, a trick of the eye, perhaps? Maybe someone switched the water rations with alcohol? But how could tricks of the eye start murdering the other crew members?!
"Oh, shit! I didn't realize how much time we were taking!" Cipher cursed to himself, unsheathing the sword at his side. He also unsheathed a knife from his belt and tossed it to Dipper. Wait, did he know this was going to happen? "It's not much, kid, but you're gonna need something to defend yourself with. Hope you have some kind of combat training!" he added, running off in the direction of the monsters to fight. He didn't. All he had was the experience of being beaten in the occasional wrestling match with Mabel. And anyway, how was a knife going to help him in a fight against the undead?!
      You wouldn't think you could even harm a ghost in the first place, but somehow, they actually were taking damage like humans, although it didn't seem to phase them in the slightest. The only way they could be completely immobilized was by striking at the head or heart, or cutting off all their limbs! They weren't exactly slow-moving either; their movements were astonishingly fluid.
      Luckily, most of them passed off Dipper as a non-immediate threat, so he didn't have to go one-on-one just yet; he mainly helped protect others as best he could. He snuck around on the ground with the knife in his teeth, needing to be light on his feet (well, all fours) in order to avoid being stepped on or accidentally slashed by friend or foe as he looked for Red or Question Mark.
Finally, he found Soos, who seemed to have a bit of trouble with a seemingly wimpy ghost. It was shorter and somehow younger-looking than Dipper! The man was wildly slashing in front of him without a specific target in mind, and Dip was a bit reluctant to get any closer, out of fear of unintentionally being his target. Just then, he noticed an actual threat coming up behind the man. Dipper dashed to his side, digging the knife into the creature's chest before it could dig its sword into Soos' back. Its dusty vocal cords could only produce a raspy, dry scream. However, he had just missed the heart, and soon had its bony fingers clasped around Dipper's neck with surprising strength. He stared straight into its soulless eyes, unable to do anything else as he struggled to inhale. He put his remaining focus into flexing his the muscles of his neck to avoid the imminent crushing of his windpipe.
Just before he thought he would pass out from the lightheaded-ness, he could've sworn he'd heard someone yell his name, and then the ghost released its grip. Dipper fell to his knees and gasped for air. As soon as his body would allow, he looked up to see Captain Cipher above, defending the brunette from another spirit just as the first dropped to the ground beside him. Did he just save me? He wondered to himself as Soos noticed he was on his knees, quickly helping him to his feet. "Thanks, Soos," he said with as much voice as he could muster. "Hey, I'm the one who saved you, where's my thanks?" said Cipher, smile cocky and only pausing momentarily to address him.
Dipper heard yet another raspy scream next to him. Red had just struck down another ghost that was heading for him. "Come on, Dip! Get your head in the game!" she said lightly. He nodded in determination. Everyone is helping you now, he reminded himself, it's time to return the favor! Some of the spirits gathered in a small group around them, outnumbering the four pirates two times over! The group of living crew members stood back-to-back, facing their opponents. Armed with his little thorn of a weapon, he swiftly struck down the enemies before him, avoiding the brunt of the storm of blades as they grazed is skin.
      As they fought to survive, Dipper noticed something strange: he could definitely hear the sounds of live men crying their last screams (he had no doubts about that, and it would haunt him for years afterward) but no new corpses littered the deck. He decided to investigate. He stuck the (somehow-clean) knife between his teeth an climbed up a low-hanging rope, just high enough to get a birds-eye view of the battle. To his horror, he saw the bodies of the newly deceased rising from their short slumber, eyes glowing with the same eerie blue light that enveloped the scene. Now that he thought about it, some of the spirits' clothes weren't as outdated as the rest, nor did they look nearly as decayed as their ship. Then, it suddenly dawned on him: the ghosts' spirits never passed on once their 'bodies' were slain. They could wipe out an entire ship and never be defeated. And all they needed for fuel were new hosts, which were easily created. Does this kind of enemy have any kind of weakness?! Is waiting to become a member of an undead army all they could do?!
SNAP. Dipper came tumbling back down to the deck as the rope failed him. He had landed right behind a fight between the captain and a hoard of ghosts. "Oh, Pine Tree! Great!" he said, talking over his shoulder, then shouting toward the center of the the ship not far away, "That's everyone, Red! Close the hatch as soon as he gets in!" He heard her calling his name from that direction, and he dashed by an enemy to get to her. She was indeed holding up the hatch to the lower decks, motioning him in. He dashed in, followed by Bill a split second before the entrance was slammed shut and locked by her.
He looked around the room. Luckily, most of the crew was in tact with only minor injuries. The captain stood on a chair as he spoke to the crowd of exhausted, terrified sailors. "Alrighty, crew. I know how to handle these guys. You mighta noticed that even after they die, these guys stick around and possess the empty bodies of corpses, so we can't just keep fightin' 'em like this. They're unholy beasts, which means we know their one weakness: silver. If ya got anything silver, do whatever you can to make it into a weapon while Pine Tree here and I go to the treasure room." He grabbed Dipper by the collar and dragged him down the steps to the lower levels.
"Wait just a second, Cipher!" he said, ripping himself out of Bill's grip but continuing to jog along, "How do you know their weakness?"
"Trust me, kid, I've been around a lot longer than you think," he said simply. Dipper was becoming increasingly suspicious of his captain. How long was 'a lot longer'? Where did he come from before he became captain of this ship that gave him knowledge on creatures like the ones attacking them? These thoughts buzzed through his head as they ran closer to their destination.
       Soon, they burst into the treasure room and quickly dug through the giant central pile. They found a multitude of silver chains to things like watches and jewelry that could be wrapped around existing iron and steel blades. They even unearthed a few silver swords and daggers! Just as they were about to run back up to the second deck, Bill grabbed Dipper's shoulder and turned him around, saying, "You seem a little uptight, Pine Tree. Looks to me like you need an adrenaline boost before we head up." Without another word, the captain planted a kiss on Dipper's lips and ran past him.
      He was caught very off guard by this, unable to move or think for a few moments. "Come on, Dip! Time is a luxury we don't have!" said Bill, snapping him back into reality. Well, he sure as hell was right about the adrenaline boost. Dipper turned and ran, soon catching up with and even passing the captian.
     When they arrived to the crew again, they were all desperately trying to hold back the doors, which had the latch broken off. The two men quickly distributed the silver, and not a moment too soon. The ghosts finally broke through a moment later.
Armed with the captain's knife with a silver chain wrapped tightly around the blade, Dipper began fighting his way back to the surface. Now, whenever someone made a cut on the beasts, they would let out their raspy screams with more intensity no matter where they were struck, and erupted black smoke from their wounds, as though their very souls were being ripped apart. Now that the playing field was leveled, it was only a matter of time before they fought their way through enough of the enemy that they slowly began retreating.
Dipper couldn't stand to have them retreat. What if we were the only ones that knew how to kill these monsters? They could easily take over countless other ships and claim as many lives as they pleased, even if there were only ten or so left. Once they were all back on their ship, Dipper was just about to jump onto the boards and chase after them, but someone grabbed his collar.
"Let me go! We can't let them escape!" he argued, trying to wriggle put of the person's grip. "Woah there, kid! Save your bloodlust for later and use that brain of yours! Do ya really think it's a good idea to follow them onto their ship?" said Captain Cipher. Just then, the ghost ship began to sink into the depths below without disturbing the water. Dip looked over the side if the ship, expecting to see glowing water beneath, but it was pitch black. They just vanished. As quickly as they'd come. The fog diffused and the sun slowly began to show its face again, but it was in the same spot as it had been when the battle started. No time had passed. Or maybe it was 24 hours.
A hundred thoughts and theories wizzed through his head. 'I gotta write this down' was one of the most important. He ran to the living quarters and found a quiet, uninhabited bed. He took out his pen and journal and furiously began scribbling notes, both about the ghosts and the captain: the two biggest mysteries on his mind at that moment. Was there a possibility that they were somehow connected?