by Ron Vitale
“Get it! It’s got me!” Pahukumaa kicked with his good leg and landed a solid blow on the beast’s head.
The blunt thud of the strike signaled Nathan where to strike, and he lashed the chain forward, making contact with the creature’s side. In the diminishing light, Nathan saw the creature let go of Pahukumaa’s leg and backed away. It moaned again, loud and mournful, and used its arms to slither back away from them.
Nathan rushed forward to pull Pahukumaa away from the beams. Once cleared, he lifted Pahukumaa to his feet and slung his arm around his own shoulders and helped him hop away from the beast. In between the silence from two rounds of roaring thunder, from the depths of the ship, an ear-splitting moan emanated. Louder and much deeper in pitch than the white beluga whale they faced, the sound overcame all other noise. A flash of lightning enabled them to see that the beast had turned away and appeared to call back to the noise below.
Pahukumaa winced in pain but pulled Nathan away. “Let’s go.”
Whatever moaned from below did so again, and the whale-like creature near them turned its head toward the sound to listen and then hastened its retreat. The loud moan echoed through the ship’s hold, and there could be no way no one on the ship had not heard the sound. The white whale creature hurried onward and then vanished from sight. Without glancing back, Nathan pulled his friend along and made it to the ladder. Water from the break above had begun to seep down onto their level. He shivered from the cold and cursed from the lack of light.
“Can you make it up?” Nathan asked.
Pahukumaa hopped on his good leg and used his strong arms to pull himself up the first rung of the ladder. “Yes, as I’ll not stay here.” His thick accent was more pronounced from fear.
Up above Nathan could see light. “We need help!” he shouted up as loud as he could.
Grunting from the effort, Pahukumaa pulled himself up another rung, jumped up, and used his arms to hold him still. He kept his wounded leg off the ground and slowly made progress up the ladder. Nathan glanced behind them and with the next flash of lightning breathed a sigh of relief. He could no longer see the creature. He stood prepared to swing the chain, blocking the ladder with his body to give Pahukumaa time to climb up. The boat rocked starboard and Pahukumaa cursed but he did not fall.
Calls from up above echoed down to him, and Nathan glanced up for a moment. Someone had reached Pahukumaa and had wrapped a rope around his torso. In moments, Pahukumaa rose up off the ladder, and from above, several men pulled him up. When he was clear, Nathan kept the chain wrapped around his right hand and climbed up the ladder. He looked down to see if anything followed him but saw nothing in the flickering light, and then darkness descended again. He climbed up as fast as he could until he felt hands pull him the rest of the way to safety.
Pahukumaa sat against the wall of the ship and clutched at his leg.
Zeke knelt by Nathan and asked, “Did you get the beam?”
Nathan shook his head and tried to take a breath. In a breathless rush, he replied, “There’s a creature down there.”
Zeke took in his words, and a peal of thunder broke out directly above the boat. His friend scratched the back of his neck and kept his voice low. “What did you see?”
“I saw…” He started off fast and loud, but Zeke put his hand on his chest and shook his head. Lowering his voice, Nathan watched as the other sailors struggled to hold up the cracked beam. With each high wave, more cold seawater rushed in, flowing down the wall onto the deck into deeper parts of the ship. He calmed himself for a moment and grabbed Zeke’s hand and pulled him close. “There’s a creature down there. It attacked Pahukumaa.”
Zeke turned back to Pahukumaa and saw that the man had lost consciousness. He turned back to Nathan with concern. “Are you wounded?”
“No, no. It didn’t get me. It bit Pahukumaa’s leg, and between the two of us, we fought it off.” He squeezed Zeke’s arm. “But there’s something beneath the ship. Did you not hear the behemoth’s moaning that called the smaller creature back?”
Zeke shook his head and spoke low. “We heard nothing up here but the wind and thunder. And where’s Josep? Did you see him?”
“No, we never met up with him. Maybe the creature we saw got him. I don’t know. But the sound I heard, it was so loud that it went all through the boat. I could feel the walls shaking from the creature’s call. It was the loudest sound I’ve ever heard. How did you not hear it?” Nathan searched Zeke’s face for an answer and asked again, “How?”
The boat pitched again, and one of the sailors slipped and fell back from holding up the cracked beam. More seawater came in from the breach, and Nathan shivered as the water washed over his legs.
“We need a beam. Did they get it?” Qayshaun yelled.
“There was an accident, and they couldn’t get it. I’ll go.” Zeke went to the ladder and started to climb down.
Nathan tried to stop his friend but kept his voice low. “You can’t go down there. The creature’s still there.”
“We have to get that beam to stop the leak.” Zeke kept climbing down the ladder, and Nathan lost sight of his friend.
His heart beat fast and he heard Pahukumaa mumble in his native language. A pained expression crossed Pahukumaa’s face, and Nathan pulled himself up and rushed to the ladder. He climbed down after Zeke as fast as he could. Once at the bottom, he caught up to him.
Once they were alone, Zeke asked, “What was it that you saw?”
Nathan pointed in the direction they needed to go. “It looked like a beluga whale, pale skin, and a bit larger in size, but it had arms instead of flippers.”
In the dark, Zeke ran his hands along the side of the ship. “Did you see a breach in the ship and the whale came in? I don’t see much water down here.”
“No, you don’t understand. It had human arms with fingers.” He lost the words to explain and expressed his frustration by flitting his hands in front of his face. “But it was a whale.”
Zeke stood tall, bracing himself as the ship pitched on the waves. The next flash of lightning lit up his face. “No matter what you saw, we have to bring a beam back. Do you understand?”
Nathan smoothed back his wet hair and nodded. He walked up to Zeke and prepared the chain he held in his hands. “I’ll come with you.”
Zeke walked forward at a steady pace until they found the wooden beams still chained down to the floor. Through flashes of lightning coming in through the portal holes, Nathan saw the signs of his earlier struggle but no blood on the floor from Pahukumaa’s wound.
“Help me with a beam.” Zeke rushed over to the beams and bent down to push one out from the pile. “We’ll take it slow. Okay?”
The ship rocked the opposite way, and distracted for a moment, Nathan stared toward the far end of the room, looking for the creature. He tried to listen for its slick belly being dragged against the ground and for its labored breathing, but the wind and thunder drowned everything out. He bent down to lift his part of the beam and was pleased to find it was not as heavy as it had looked. “Yep, I have my end. Are you ready?”
Zeke pushed, making sure to put his back into leaning forward, and the wooden beam slid forward out from underneath the chains that tied it down. Nathan pulled on his end, and the beam slid cleanly out toward him. He gave a tug and the beam came out fully and landed on the floor with a thud.
“Okay, let’s pick it up and get it to the ladder.” Zeke lifted his end of the beam and Nathan grabbed his end.
When the ship steadied for a moment, they hurried over to the center of the room. Zeke held the beam in his arms and walked slowly toward the ladder.
Nathan walked backward, careful not to trip with the deck pitching, and focused on a spot behind Zeke’s right shoulder, waiting to see a ghostly pale shape emerge from the dark to attack them. A flash of lightning lit the hold, and he relaxed a bit as he saw nothing unusual.
“Take it steady and keep heading back toward the ladder.” Zeke walked onwar
d, hurrying out of the hold.
A hand on Nathan’s shoulder startled him, and he nearly dropped the beam. “Whoah!”
“It’s only me.” He couldn’t make out Josep’s face in the dark, but he recognized his voice. “I’ve been looking for someone to come and help me. What took you both so long?” He grabbed the middle part of the beam, and the three of them rushed back to the ladder.
“You didn’t run into anything odd down here?” Nathan’s heart still pounded from being startled in the dark, but he recovered quickly.
“Nope. I went all through the hold to see if there was any other damage to the ship. I found nothing and came back here when I heard you two.” He helped Nathan with the lifting. “Do you want me to climb the ladder and then you hand the beam up to me?”
“Sure.” A loud bolt of lightning lit the room, and thunder drowned out the rest of Nathan’s response. Zeke rushed to look back over his shoulder and guided them toward the ladder.
“Okay, let me get up there. I knew eating all that pasta over the years would come in handy by giving me strong muscles.” Josep flashed Nathan a smile and then went up the ladder about halfway and reached down with his arm.
Light from a lantern from up above backlit him. Zeke and Nathan worked together to right the beam and handed it up to Josep. He grabbed the end and took it up one rung at a time.
“Go help him. There are grooves on the end. If someone throws a rope down, you can tie it to the beam, and they can help pull it up the rest of the way.” Zeke strained with the effort of holding up the beam. His arms flexed and he grunted when Josep slipped and fell down a rung.
Nathan climbed up the other side of the ladder and called up. “Throw us some rope. We need some rope!”
His words rang clear, and a few moments later, a coil of rope was thrown down toward them. Nathan caught it and said to Josep, “Hold up. Let me tie it around.” He pulled the end of the rope toward him and tied it around the beam. He checked his knot, pulled the rope tight, and called up, “Go ahead. We’re ready.”
The ship tipped to starboard, and water from up above poured down the ladder. The cold seawater caught Nathan right in the face. He cried out and hunkered his head down toward the rungs. Hanging on by one hand, he closed his eyes and did his best to wash out the saltwater from his eyes. “Damn.”
Josep fared better and put both his hands on the beam. The sailors from up above pulled the beam up, and Zeke took a moment to relax. He turned back to listen for a moment, and in between rumbles from the thunder, he strained his ear to hear anything out of the ordinary but heard nothing. The ship then creaked and pitched forward, and he was knocked into the ladder. He took that as a sign and scampered up as quickly as he could.
With the beam cleared, Josep cleared the last rung of the ladder and reached down to pull Nathan up. The rest of the men had already started to prop up the beam against the cracked and weakened beam. Zeke came up last and asked, “Do you think it will hold?”
The first mate, James, replied, “We’ll know more in the daylight, but it’s already helping.” When the ship pitched next, no water came in from the cracked area. “It’s a good fit and we got lucky.”
Nathan went to Pahukumaa’s side. “Not all of us got lucky.”
He started to say more, but Zeke knelt by his side and put his hand on Nathan’s shoulder and said, “Let’s get him back to his hammock and clean him up. He’ll be better in the morning.”
Nathan wanted to say more, but Zeke increased the pressure on his shoulder. “You’re right. It’s been a long night and he needs some rest. Let’s get him up.”
Josep stared up at the beam and held up his hand. “Wait!”
Nathan froze and asked, “Do you hear something?”
A laugh came out of Josep, and he slapped his hand on his leg. “Listen, the thunder, it’s subsiding.”
From far away, a flash of light lit the room. The men counted, and five seconds later, they heard the thunder’s low rumble. With each sway in the waves, the ship pulled farther away from the worst part of the storm.
Zeke smiled, and in the near darkness, Nathan could still see his white teeth. “Let’s get Pahukumaa back to our cabin. Come on.”
Nathan pulled Pahukumaa to his feet with Zeke’s help, and the two men dragged him back to their room. The other men stayed behind. When in their cabin, Nathan placed Pahukumaa in his hammock and then stood back to let Zeke tend to him. Still unconscious and muttering to himself, Pahukumaa’s forehead was dotted with beads of perspiration.
“Go light our lantern.” Zeke gave the order, and Nathan rushed over to obey as quickly as he could.
Once lit, Zeke pulled the lantern out of Nathan’s hand and then pushed him back. “It’s worse than I thought. Stay back.”
Nathan hung back, unable to get a clear view of Pahukumaa’s injuries, and tried to be patient. “Well, how bad is it?”
“This is not good.” Zeke held the lantern closer and gingerly poked at Pahukumaa’s calf with his free hand.
“What’s not good? Is he going to bleed to death?” Nathan grabbed a dirty shirt on his hammock and offered it to Zeke. “Here, take this.”
Zeke turned around and pulled Nathan away from Pahukumaa and held the lantern close to their faces. “I’ve seen this sort of thing before. It’s the curse.” Zeke glanced back over his shoulder.
Nathan shivered involuntarily and asked, “Really?”
“We have to watch Pahukumaa carefully.” Zeke turned back and lost his train of thought for a moment. “I have to tell the captain. He needs to know.”
“Is it that bad?” Nathan grabbed his friend’s arm to slow him down.
Zeke stopped and faced Nathan. “I’ve believed you from the moment you told me, but deep down, I didn’t want it to be true.” When Nathan went to interrupt him, he silenced Nathan with his finger. “But it’s too late now. The curse is on this ship, and now it’s got Pahukumaa.”
Nathan turned back to look at their shipmate. He moaned in a feverish state. “Is there anything that we can do for him?”
Zeke shook his head. “I don’t know. It might already have his soul.”
“You mean that thing that bit him?” Nathan asked and turned back to Zeke.
With a look of dread on his face, Zeke leaned closer to Nathan. “Yes, the werewhale. The devil’s child is with us now on this ship, and it’ll be coming back for us one by one.”
Nathan backed away as far as he could from Pahukumaa until he hit the far wall. “What are we going to do?”
Zeke dropped his serious expression and then let out a deep-seated laugh that bent him forward and had him slapping his thigh. “I’m just teasing you!”
Unsure of what to believe, Nathan remained pinned to the wall in fear.
“You should have seen your face. You looked like the devil himself had come right up in this very room and told you he was here to take you to hell on his horse!” Zeke chortled a few more moments and then cleared the view to Pahukumaa’s leg. “Come here, I was only joking. Look!”
Zeke rolled up both of Pahukumaa’s pants legs, and there was no sign of any injury anywhere.
“But I saw!” Nathan grabbed Pahukumaa’s leg, searching for an injury, and could find nothing. “I didn’t make up what I saw. The creature was real. I swear it! Maybe Josep heard something down there. We can talk with you later…”
Zeke stopped laughing and put his arm around Nathan’s shoulder. “We’ve all been under stress, and we woke up in the middle of the night to a horrible storm. Looks to me that Pahukumaa hit his head, and you either had a waking dream or encountered a rat.”
“What I saw wasn’t a rat or a dream. It was real!” Nathan stared at Pahukumaa’s pale skin and lost himself in thought. “I don’t understand what happened. He cried out in pain.”
“We should count ourselves lucky. No one was seriously hurt. Pahukumaa just needs to sleep things off, and I bet you he’ll be better in the morning.” Zeke pulled his friend away from
the resting Pahukumaa. “Don’t be so hard on yourself. I’ve seen things that I can’t explain on the seas, and between feeling sick and a lack of sleep, your brain can play tricks on you. It happens to all of us.”
“But I know—” Nathan started to argue and Zeke interrupted him.
“I’m headed to talk with the captain and give him an update on Pahukumaa. If you want me to tell him about your story, I will, but that’ll only get him suspicious about you, and rumors will spread through the crew. Some will believe you and be worried, wanting to go home, and we’ll never make it to the island you desperately want to see.”
Nathan kept quiet thinking.
“Well, do you want me to tell the captain?” Zeke prodded him and went to leave.
“No, you don’t have to tell him anything. I’ll just get some sleep and keep a lookout for anything unusual. You’re right. I probably just was dreaming, and my imagination made it worse than what it was.”
“Good. Now get some rest, and I’ll be back in a bit.” Zeke padded his friend’s back and left the cabin.
Nathan lay down in his hammock and closed his eyes. Without any evidence that what he encountered was real, he did his best to brush the image of the creature out of his mind. He tried to sleep but could not. The sound of the creature dragging itself across the floor kept coming back to him. Dozing off for a bit, Nathan would hear thunder off in the distance and open his eyes only to see Pahukumaa resting peacefully. Another low rumble of thunder sounded off from far away, as if the devil laughed across the sea at him, waiting, if only for the right moment, to come back for his unholy minion.
***
I knew that I did not have much time, but if I wanted to land a spot on Marcella’s crew, now would be my best opportunity. Ishmael would not have arrived yet. Experienced as he was, he knew to wait until later in the day.
