Heart of the Abyss (A Pirate's Tale)

Heart of the Abyss (A Pirate's Tale) - 2nd Chapter

Chapter 2

A Suspicious Visitor

The next morning, after Jeremy had his daily morning toilette, he went out of his room for breakfast.

Just as he was about to go down the stairs, he saw his mother on the door, talking to someone wearing a hooded gray cloak.

He hid behind a post near the stairs. He strained his ears intently to hear what they were talking about.

"... I can't bear to avoid him no longer," his mother was saying. "I knew what he was planning last night, and I'm at my wit's end in avoiding his questions."

"It's not time yet," the cloaked person spoke, and by his sinister, whispering deep voice, he was a man, and was up to no good as Jeremy judged. "The soothsayer's words must unfold before you tell him the truth."

"Be hanged the soothsayer's word," his mother was starting to get angry. "He needs to know it now!"

"And what?" the other retorted in a much angrier tone. "What will he do when he finds out too early, eh? I swear, he'll hang you and the rest of us before he hangs himself out of shame! Please, endure it for another while..."

His mother wouldn't take the other's plea.

"He's bound to ask me anytime once he became reminded of his object the night before!" His mother didn't bother to keep her voice low. "And I swear he wouldn't stop before he find it all out!"

"Endure it still," was the visitor's final words, for it rang with finality when he spoke it. "Or else we all fail..."

By the sound of a fluttering cloth and the silent closing of the door, it was deemed time for him to go out of his hiding place.

"Good morning," he greeted casually, trying to be oblivious of what had transpired.

"G-good m-m-morning," Lady Cassandra was startled when she turned at the sound of her son's voice.

"Who was that?" He asked in the same tone.

"No one," Lady Cassandra answered quickly. "Do you want breakfast?" she asked to change the subject.

He nodded silently, and the both of them proceeded to the dining hall to eat.

As they were relieved of patrolling duty for a month, Jeremy had quite a lot of free time on his hands, and he spent it quite judiciously upon the mysterious visitor of the Bloodrose household.

Once, he found him lounging in the docks while waiting for a fish to bite in the tackle that was cast out one morning. If it weren't for the hustle and bustle of people, he would've revealed him then and there.

Another instance was when he was in a tavern around mid-afternoon three days after his visit at his house, drinking ale and eating a side of roast beef and bread, but, as rotten as luck would have it, he were yet again surrounded by the public.

Yet for the third time, he found him playing cards with two Frenchmen and a Dutch captain who were passing time outside of an inn at dusk two weeks after he last sighed him, but the man seemed to have a gift for having people surround him and avoid a scene, and this time he chose it well. The inn was favored by sailors and captains of merchant ships, warships, and privateers.

But on the fourth, he was lucky.

Jeremy was walking from the garrison from some work he was asked to do by the Admiralty. It was well past curfew, and, not wanting to be caught by the patrolling guards, he was hurrying to get home.

He was on a dirt road leading towards his home when he saw him. He was going the same way he was; hurrying might be the right word for it, as his footsteps were uneven and more like running.

Wanting to be silent, he dared not make even his boots make a patter, but as Port Royal is full of taverns and inns, there were bound to be lots of broken bottles, and he had just stepped on one of those broken bottles.

The hooded figure stopped dead in his tracks. He turned, but Jeremy hid in a narrow alley just in time. The hooded figure then went swiftly to the alley opposite to where he was hiding.

"Oh no, you don't!" he muttered as he went after the hooded man.

Through a maze of roads and alleys they went, fast then slow then fast again, the hooded man wanting to shake loose his stalker.

On it went for a good hour, but the hooded man made a fatal mistake. He turned to a dark alley where a large wall lays... a dead end.

Jeremy Cocked the pistol he drew from his belt.

"Now I've got you," Jeremy said in triumph.

The hooded figure stood still for a moment, then he relaxed and laughed in the same sinister, whispering, deep voice.

He turned, and then he ran towards him and out of the alley.

For a moment he was confounded, and then he regained control and drew out his infamous whip, making him a notoriously dangerous adversary for it, a weapon he used with liberty when he deems it useful in a situation.

He brandished it and launched towards his legs. It coiled around it tightly, and he pulled it, making the hooded man spin down to the ground.

He ran and pointed his pistol again to the man. The man stood slowly and was beginning to laugh his sinister laugh once more.

"Do you really want to do that... my younger brother," and by that statement let loose his over-garment.

He was a tall figure, about as tall as him. Beneath the cloak was the vestments and effects of what he called a scoundrel of the sea... what Catherine called a pirate.

Of this entirety he noticed nothing, for he was wide eyed at the face of the man, as if he was looking onto a mirror... only... there was none.

"Surprised?" The man asked mockingly.

"Who are you?!" Jeremy demanded rather rashly.

"Now's not the time for names, as we have-" the man stopped midsentence.

The town was suddenly engulfed with mist, and with it was the smell of the most abhorrent thing you can imagine. Something like a rotting corpse.

"He's here," the man whispered, fear ringing in the two words of his sentence.

The moon had suddenly burst through the clouds, which first shined white. And then, it turned blood red.

The sea, previously devoid of anything, was being disturbed by a ship. It was a ship made out of bones, with tattered black sails, and atop it was a black flag bearing the image of Death brandishing his scythe.

"Holy mother and child," was all that Jeremy can say.

The scourge of the seven seas has come to Port Royal.