by Dani Stowe
I recall the moon was full and as I left the pub I did stumble a bit. Nevertheless, the cool sea air breezing through my navy-blue coat uniform along with the sight of hungry rats in pursuit of a passed-out drunkard’s juicy eye kept me alert and my drunkenness suspended until I heard a scream.
I knew I was drunk when I pulled out my sword and allowed it to lead me towards danger. If I had been sober, my head would’ve led me away. Rarely did I engage in combat without Captain Willis having made such a directive. But command me did my sword towards the scream when another and then another pierced the crisp night air.
That night, a lady was indeed in trouble and lucky for me, ladies loved to be rescued of their troubles.
I considered perhaps I should’ve called for more arms, but I was drunk and figured my own two arms would suffice. Not to mention, I’d only heard one damsel scream. To save one damsel meant there’d be only one reward and I’m not the type who likes to share my prizes.
Hence, on I went around a corner, not surprised to find ruffians jostling with a maiden. Strangely, she was masked and I also noticed a recently deceased corpse.
Yes! I thought. It was murder! I had every right to intervene.
It was obvious the three men had slain the dead one lying flat on the ground and they were about to have their way with the masked and oddly attired lady. She seemed to be something out of the theater wearing a white painted mask made of baked clay decorated only with rose red lips and she wore brightly colored silky robes stained with the blood of what I assumed was her bodyguard on the ground. I remember thinking she might’ve been an actress although it was more likely she was a whore or quite possibly a pirate from the Asian seas.
“What have you got there?” I asked the men.
“She’s none of your concern,” one scoundrel croaked.
“But she is my concern. She looks like something of a pirate and as a Master at Arms of our Majesty’s Royal Navy, I’m finding an investigation to be of the utmost importance regarding this situation. We can’t allow pirates to infiltrate our ports.”
“She doesn’t look like a pirate,” said the second scoundrel with his hand on the lady.
I pointed my sword in her direction and she calmly turned her head away. “She looks like one to me.”
“How do you know what a pirate looks like?” asked the third.
“I’ve killed many,” I replied and glided my sword to point at him.
“You’ve killed pirates?” he asked with eyes focused on the tip of my sword at his neck.
“Indeed,” I stated.
“Well, she’s not a pirate,” cut in the first scoundrel. “She’s a whore. A very expensive and favorite whore to a lord. And we believe he will pay more than a few coins to get her back, so get out of the way or we’ll have to kill you.”
“Ugh,” I sighed, “I wished you wouldn’t have said that.”
“Said what?” chuckled the third scoundrel as he drew his own blade to point it at me.
He stepped closer as I inched back, shuffling my foot into the ground.
“None of your fellow sailors are around to help you,” he laughed, noticing the twist in my leg. “Are you afraid to die?”
“No,” I sang as I flicked my wrist with a twist of my hips that allowed me to lunge and disarm the scoundrel and then spin while taking a hold of his sword before it fell so I could stab him straight in the heart with it.
The other two men were in shock as they watched their friend slip off his own bloodied sword to fall flat and dead on his back.
The maiden gasped and I was thrilled! I recall believing my reward was certainly going to be worth all of this, so I flashed her a wink, but she turned her head away again.
I dropped the scoundrel’s sword and scratched my head at the lady’s reluctance to gaze at me. The other two let go of the damsel and watched me for a minute. I was thinking that whatever was under that mask must’ve really been something worth hiding, especially with a bodyguard in tow.
“I’m afraid you all used the wrong word with me,” I told the two remaining heathens and stupidly, like the first, the crooks made their way towards me—armed with short blades and ready to fight.
“What the fuck are you talking about?” one replied.
“You asked earlier why I wished your friend wouldn’t have said what he did.” I smiled. “Kill is my Captain’s favorite command.”
I was a bit upset when the men came charging at me because I noticed the lady was not watching. I was saving her arse and she didn’t even have the decency to watch her hero in action. Instead, she knelt to the ground with her hands in her lap and her head down.
How dare she? I thought.
Regardless, I disarmed her attackers and managed to kill one as the other fled in fear.
With the scoundrels out of my way, I went to help the lady up. “Is it true you’re a whore?” I asked as she floated to standing.
“Yes, Master...uh?”
I stuck out my chest. “Orphelius. Orphelius Mayhem.”
She cocked her head. It was very strange talking to what looked like an oversized doll so I went to pull at the mask, but the lady blocked me with her hands.
“No, please, Master Mayhem. No one is allowed to look upon me. Only my lord. If he should find out...” She shook her head.
“That’s ridiculous,” I said and my curiosity began to get the better of me. I was desperate to see what was beneath the mask. Something beautiful? Something horrendous? I went to pull at it again and she fought me, though she was hardly strong and mostly frail.
We struggled in the street and I was thankful it was night and no one was nearby to watch other than the dead men with their dead eyes—the orbits still seeming they might roll or come covered with a quick blink because it would not have been proper for an officer to take advantage of a strange feminine thing.
But I finally pulled the mask away while also pulling her long, straight, thick black hair free allowing it to fall over her shoulders and down her back from the large pin at the top of her head.
I was speechless.
What I saw was not only beautiful but also horrendous.
Big brown eyes blinked with heavy lashes. Soft pink lips frowned under an adorably petite pointed nose and her whole face, smooth and fair, was perfect below thick black hair except for the discolorations.
Blue, purple, and even green could be seen at various angles across her soft skin. She did not wear the mask to avoid being seen. She wore the mask to keep her lord from being discovered as an assailant, as a batterer.
I was surprised to see the lady still had all of her pearly white teeth. I’ve known many women to be in her predicament, whether a whore or not, losing their teeth being knocked free. It made me cringe.
To see a lady like this—abused, typically put me off and I hate to say I’d most often leave a maiden to her troubles. Captain Willis was the opposite of me in his thinking. Captain Willis would’ve tracked the lord down and killed him in his sleep. The good Captain had much more of a soft spot for damsels, like Poseidon, particularly those that were distressed by abusers in this way.
This time was different. I felt as I suspected my Captain often did—ready to kill a man that would waste his time and energy on disfiguring something so soft and vulnerable and...beautiful.
Looking back, I do believe I’d fallen instantly under her spell. I could see why her lord would prefer to claim her, the precious pearl he’d stolen from the Orient, as his own. She looked different, behaved differently, and my heart raced with the thought of how it might feel to experience something so...well...different.
“Will you take me to my lord?” she asked as she took the mask from my hand to put it back on.
“Why would you want me to take you back to a man who beats you? If you are a whore, surely you can find work elsewhere.”
“I am my lord’s concubine as the men said, but my lord paid well for my upbringing and training. I have been with my lord since I beca
me a woman years ago. I fear you do not understand the trade. I’m lucky to be with him. Women who look like me and find themselves in this corner of the world do not live very long. Please, take me back. I’m sure my lord will give you a fine reward.”
Reward? She was supposed to be my reward.
I pulled the mask off again, despite her hands’ argument, and let my eyes wander about her face. Even in the dark and with only the light of the full moon, I could see her cheeks blush beneath the bruises.
I shook my head. “I don’t want anything from him.”
She bit her lower lip with her pearly white teeth and I imagined them biting on me.
“Master Mayhem,” she said, “I get the impression you are hoping to receive a very different kind of reward—one I’m afraid I cannot and should not pay you.”
I took the mask from her hand and put her fingers up to my mouth to kiss them, making her gasp and her hands trembled. “But I deserve a little something, don’t you think?”
“Master, please understand. I cannot go with you.” She tried to pull her hand away. “No one but my lord is allowed to touch me. No one has ever touched me but my lord and my lord will be very cross if he should learn you have even looked upon my unmasked face.”
I leaned in to kiss her, but she turned her face away. I felt crushed in the moment. It was the first time a woman ever rejected me.
Never! Never did a woman ever reject me.
It didn’t matter if a woman was noble or a whore, a slut or a virgin, rich or poor—all women wanted me and deep down I knew this one did too, but fear of her lord was keeping her from me.
I finally knew exactly how my Captain felt. It was a shame to see how one man could have so much power over one’s will and I wished to slay her lord.
“Look at me,” I sternly said. At first, she did not look so I yelled at her. “Look at my face!”
“I cannot!” she cried.
“Why not?”
“For the same reason my lord strikes me and makes me wear this mask. I will bring shame to you.”
“Shame?” I laughed.
With a bruised eye and bruised cheek, she squinted her eyes and turned to me. In that moment, I noticed a scar, round but oddly shaped at the ridge of her hairline. “I am a whore,” she said. “You’re a hero, Master Mayhem. To have me in your company brings you shame. As my lord says, a man’s desire may be his undoing. It’s clear you are a much greater man than my lord and I do not deserve a reward so great as to even look upon you.”
“Then don’t look.” I wrapped my arms tightly around her and she resisted—pounding her weak fists at my chest.
After a time, and just as I suspected she would, she finally melted into me. I’m sure her training to serve her lord never included something so simple as a loving, warm embrace.
My hands felt full and I wished I had more hands to go around her. I put my mouth to her ear and I could feel the skin of her neck become gooseflesh as her breathing quickened. “You say you bring shame, but I am shameless when it comes to getting what I want. And I still want my reward, so close your eyes and let me have it.” I kissed her neck with warm wet lips and pulled her hips into my groin so she could feel how bad I wanted her, how I felt I deserved her, yet it still wasn’t enough. I grabbed her jaw softly, as I did not want her to confuse me with her lord and I forced her to look into my eyes. “Let me be rewarded and I will reward you as well.”
“Reward me?” Her brows raised. “For what?”
“For saving a man’s life.”
“I don’t understand.”
“Your lord deserves a good lashing, but if you come with me and reward me in advance, I shall keep him from a whipping of my sword.”
She sighed before she shut her eyelids and nodded. “My lord can never know.”
Chapter 4
Kumiko
I’m furious! I can hear Shelley talking as I wave quick goodbye to Bradley and he drives away.
Storming up the wooden steps to Shelley’s dead aunt’s beach house, I barge through the door. “What the hell!”
Shelley and her stupid boyfriend, Henry, in his wheelchair, stare blankly at me.
I huff at Shelley. “Where were you? Did you know I was lost at sea, trapped on a deserted beach? I had no food, no water, no escape. You’re supposed to be my best friend. Why didn’t you alert anyone? Why weren’t you looking for me?”
Henry drops a shirt he was folding into his lap and moves his hands wildly at Shelley—talking to her with a whipping distortion of bending fingers and wrists and Shelley turns to question me.
“Where’s Orphelius?”
“Orphelius? Who the fuck is Orphelius?”
“You passed out. Orphelius took you with him. Henry says you were perfectly safe.”
Ugh. I’m fuming!
“Safe? Safe!” I look at Henry. “Don’t tell me you’re talking about the man with the tentacles,” I groan deeply.
Henry grins bashfully like he’s trying to be cute with his pretty blue eyes and he nods.
I can’t believe this shit! I remember seeing Henry turn into a merman right before he went to rescue his redheaded, green-eyed girlfriend—MY best friend. I recall seeing his legs fuse together once he hit the water and a huge tail unfolded as I heard his bones crack and morph while his skin melted into a mesh of blue-green scales that could only come from the ocean’s deep. It looked painful and it was gross.
I feel queasy.
Shelley drops a piece of clothing she has in her hand and rushes at me to put her arm under mine. “Maybe you should sit down. I know this is a lot to take in,” she says.
My eyes wander back to Henry, also staring back, but I do not allow the uncontrollable twitch of my suspicious gaze to turn away as Shelley sits me down on the fluffy old sofa that looks like her aunt patchworked at least a dozen times.
I detest that fucking sofa. The two of them—Henry and Shelley, are always making out on it.
Henry crinkles his brow and he looks like he wants to talk but nothing comes out. I used to feel sorry for him, but I don’t anymore. He’s a sneaky fucker who’s stolen my best friend with his mysterious mythological bullshit, but I’m no dummy. I believe Henry is trying to pawn me off like an offering and serve me up to his beastly freak friend like I’m a piece of sushi so he can take full possession of Shelley and make her do everything for him.
Henry claps his hands to get Shelley’s attention and he signs to her.
“I don’t think that’s a good idea,” she responds back to him.
“Hey!” I snap. “What’s not a good idea?” I hate that I can’t understand sign language.
Shelley pulls her wavy, strawberry blonde hair behind her ear and sits next to me. “Henry wants me to read your palm, but I don’t think I should.”
It really pisses me off that I can’t understand their conversations, especially when I know they’re talking about me.
Nudging Shelley hard with my elbow, I lay my palm in her lap. “Why would Henry want you to read my hand? And why won’t you? You’re supposed to be my best friend. I’m not saying I believe in all that cosmic mumbo-jumbo. Your aunt was probably just exceptional at being a con, but I don’t understand why you won’t even take a stab it. Even if it’s just for fun. All we ever used to do was have fun together. But lately, all you do is shy away from anything fun unless it smells fishy, which stinks, so I can’t help but wonder what the fuck keeps you from having fun with me anymore. All you ever want to do is let fish man play with your coconuts like you’re Brooke Shields from the Blue Lagoon. After everything we’ve been through, I don’t understand why you’re so attached to him and how you could easily leave me—leave me out there with that beast!”
Shelley massages her temple. “I didn’t leave you.”
“Yes, you did! You left me to be kidnapped by a monster and you didn’t even come looking for me.”
“Orphelius is not a monster,” she cries with a whine while Henry rolls his chair closer and
moves his hands with excessive agitation trying to talk to her.
“Shut up!” I snap.
Henry drops his hands in his lap.
I look at Shelley. “I just don’t understand. The tentacle man—he’s huge! We should be talking about him like he’s a big deal, but he seems to be no big deal to you. Yet, you won’t do something as simple as read my palm to tell me my future? What is the big deal about that?”
Shelley turns pale. Blood seems to have drained from her head and the clash of color against her red hair makes her look like a ghost. She sighs as she reaches for my hand to squeeze it. “Because it’s not your future I fear your hand will reveal to you but your past.”
