The sky was ravished by ravens as we set off. They dominated the dark night, weaving in and out of the endless clouds as we drove down to the dock.
A storm raged, raucous, with lightning blazing down into the briny blue as we approached the boat.
It wasn't safe to sail, but the Consternation called to us all the same, and we had no choice but to answer her, setting off into the warring waves with a silent prayer.
We sailed out a little, battling the storm as it battered my boat.
I looked back to the shore, watching the rain taper off as we sailed away. The storm followed us, but left those who were smart enough not to be curious alone.
I had fallen into a trap, without ever knowing that I would. My stomach sank as I thought about how different our lives would have been, if we had only taken a different path.
"No use dwelling on it." Captain Flynn shouted, seeming to read my mind. He nodded towards the water, and my mind became clear as two distant, red dots seemed to get closer, growing larger with every second.
Captain Flynn cleared his throat and grabbed a knife from his waistband, signalling for me to get behind him. I obeyed quickly, and we waited.
The eyes shone bright, lighting up the dark water as the creature swam around the boat, mocking us.
The boat rocked as the red eyes glowed, their light capturing us and suffocating the darkness.
The boat shuddered again, prey to the furious ocean.
"It's here." Captain Flynn bellowed as waves rose from the sea and cascaded on top of us. I crumbled to the deck, watching helplessly as my boat was captured in the grip of a long, dark tentacle.
More sprung from the water, each gripping onto the boat as the red eyes rose. I was speechless as the creature towered above us, it's dark body bursting with tentacles, the red eyes, shining in the dark and dismal night.
I heard Captain Flynn's knife clatter to the floor, and as I turned to him, his pale face was fractured with fear.
Suddenly, my breath was caught in my throat and pain shot through my body, as one of the creature's tentacles snatched me from the deck and lifted me high in the air. I scratched and struggled, desperately trying to escape.
The creature clutched me close, and I was lost in the red eyes, drowning in my hopelessness as it dragged me down towards the dark depths.
As I sank beneath the waves, the last thing I saw was my boat, sailing away, with Captain Flynn offering one last, sympathetic look.
As I descended through the murky blue, there she was, the Consternation, watching me as I fell down towards her, to join Tommy and all of Captain Flynn's crew.
He had left me, just as I had left Tommy.
The rusting ship was littered with bones, each of them slowly falling into place and rising as I sunk, reaching out to me.
The creature's tentacles trapped the air in my throat, its red eyes bearing into mine, so much that I suspected madness was already upon me.
I struggled, but it was no use.
It seemed inevitable. I fought back all the same,
My death was by design. Something had led me to the bottom of the place, and it wanted me to join those lost souls on the Consternation.
I couldn't fight anymore, letting go, and letting death come.
The creature's eyes faded, as the ocean went dark, and peace broke through the chaos.
I was almost there, when I was thrown from the creature's grasp. Blood burst through the dark waves, but it was not mine. As the world became clear again, I saw Captain Flynn, wrestling with the creature, his knife, deep in one of its eyes.
He motioned towards the surface, and I understood, swimming, with all my might, and all my will. Surviving, for Tommy, Captain Flynn, and everyone that the creature had taken.
I will likely never know the truth of the HMS Consternation, or how she happened to find herself in the tentacles of the fiend that found her and all the crews that it has and will continue to claim.
All that I know is that the madness of not knowing is worth my life.
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