The Whale that Swallowed the Sea

Chapter Eight: The Cobalt Blue Blues

Hard rain dashed into Marinus' eyes, nose and mouth, drowning him and soaking him to the bone as he quickly tried to secure the lifelines. The deafening sound of the rain hitting the metal deck of the tanker was like the roar of some monstrous beast only heard of in a fairytale. This storm had whipped up out of nowhere and none of the crew had been prepared for its ferocity. Marinus could hardly hear himself think, and he sputtered and gasped as he tried to blink the streams of rain out of his eyes, and several times his hands slipped on the knots and he lost his balance as the ship rocked and swayed on the massive, angry waves. It was then that he heard something over the pounding of the rain and the howling of the wind, which should not have been possible, but something else was bellowing louder than all of those things sounding in unison.

Feeling like his head might just explode from all the noise, Marinus' eyes were drawn up to where it was coming from, and then he saw something so big, he thought that his eyes were playing tricks on him with the dark, cloudy sky. He saw a red glowing light, almost like a distant sun, but he knew that that was impossible in all this, and then he saw the unmistakable image of the fluke disappearing into the massive waves with a tremendous splash of water and a sound like a sonic boom. In shock over what he had just seen, Marinus ran to the bulwark, wanting to catch another glimpse at the monster when someone put a hand on his shoulder, but when he whipped around, the massive creature's glowing red eyes once again shown through the darkness and torrential rain, its mouth opened, and it leapt out of the water straight for the metal ship, and then there was darkness and chaos, and Marinus couldn't comprehend what was happening as he felt himself being knocked all around and grating against the sharp metal of the ship and the salty waves of the sea until an intense pain ran up and down his left arm as he felt it being pulled away from him in an awkward way as the bone splintered, flesh was pulverized, and the form it once maintained was stolen within an instant of screaming, blood, and indescribable pain.

Marinus sat up from his cot with a gasp, his eyes wide as he panted with exhaustion from the nightmare. His body was covered in sweat and he felt feverish and weak. The place where his arm used to be was aching painfully and he gripped his shoulder, feeling where the warm flesh and the cold metal met and remembering everything all over again.

He grimaced from both anger and pain, and then whipped the covers off and stalked out of the cabin he shared with the mute trumpeter boy who was sound asleep in his own cot across from Marinus' while Azeria and Grandma Coco had claimed the cabin across the hall.

Marinus silently walked down the hallway and into the kitchen where he found a bottle of booze and began drinking it straight from the bottle in long swigs. When he had downed about half of the bottle, Marinus came away with a sigh as he leaned against the counter; feeling like he could handle the things sleep always enjoyed throwing at him that liked to haunt him in his waking hours. He felt like that dream was always taunting him – laughing at how he could do nothing as the giant whale again and again swallows up the entire ocean and leaves Marinus with a missing arm and the empty feeling of revenge. But that would all change when he finally found the beast and exacted his feeling of emptiness upon it.

"Can't sleep?"

Marinus looked up unsurprised by the robotic voice as Kaleo walked into the kitchen – looking as if he himself had not been able to either.

He shook the bottle in his hand, sloshing the dark brown liquid around, "nightcap," he said simply, "what about you...?"

Kaleo shrugged, "I'm kind of a light sleeper. You know – slavers and all that. Have to always be alert even when I have my eyes closed."