Buried Alive at Sea

Buried Alive at Sea

By Geordan Ashford

     Those idiots. Those absolute buffoons! I told them I was hard to wake up, and sometimes I would seem dead for hours, even days, but I would eventually wake up. I’m sure they grabbed someone who thought they were a doctor, and I seemed dead to them, but the closest thing to a doctor on the ship was someone who happened to learn to read while selling newspapers as a kid or whatever that fool was telling everyone. They must’ve thrown me overboard, gave me a sailor’s burial. I would appreciate the respect if that hadn’t landed me on this forsaken rock. I’d call it an island if there was anything more than sand and a few palm trees strewn about. I don’t even know how long I’ve been here. I had counted at least seven or eight days before I gave up. All that I can look for now is a sail on the horizon, but I don’t think they would see me even if I did catch sight of one.

    What scares me most is when I fell asleep under the stars, something kept visiting me in my dreams. I still don’t know what it was. The first night it appeared I figured the coconut I ate was off. Maybe the tiny fish I had gotten ahold of was tainted or something. It came walking out of the water towards me. A sea devil, with scaly skin, clawed hands, and seaweed for hair. That’s all I could make of it. The darkness shielded the creature from me, so that I couldn’t discern its face. Just giant, fishlike eyes that glimmered in the moonlight. It stopped right before another step would have brought it out of the water.

    “Come to me Michael,” it beckoned. “Come and I will take you away from this island and give you a new purpose.”

    “Begone foul demon!” I screamed in response. “Whether you know my name or not, I have no plans to do the Devil’s bidding.” And with that I tried to fall back into my slumber. The least I wanted to get on this island was a full night's rest for the first time in forever.

    Again, it said to me, “Come to me. Come and I will take you away from this place and give you a new purpose.”

    I had already begun to ration what I had left and was in no mood. “Be silent siren from the deep, I know your tricks! All you wish to do is to drown me and feast upon me. As you can see, I would make a terrible meal anyway in my current state.” 

    It let out a gargling sound that could have been mistaken for a laugh. “I am no siren, for if I was you would already be in my arms, and I would’ve already had my fill.”

    “Then what are you? Some hallucination to torment me even further? A vision to drive me insane before I dive into the water? A punishment for whatever misdeeds I had committed?”

    The sky began to turn grey, and before it dove back into the waters it told me, “No something much older. Something much more powerful. You will soon see.”

    I was alone this time, and sleep didn’t take over. As the sun rose and my dream hadn't ended, I was fully aware that the thing that had appeared before me was as real as the sand beneath me. For days I was too scared to get close to the water. To make matters worse, I was running out of sustinence. The my skin was turning into red leather. My eyes never stopped squinting at the horizon, hoping to see a sail. I tried taking rocks and spelling out the word help, but none was coming. I was able to kill a seagull once or twice, I can’t remember. Made me wish I could have dined on the rats that stowed away on our ship. They had more meat at the very least. 

    The island was taking everything away from me. All because of an inability for a couple of men to understand I meant exactly what I had said when I had said it. Those vile villains, probably enjoying whatever rum was on the ship and sleeping with bellies full of food. Here I am barely surviving on coconut water and vermin with wings, and they get to sleep soundly in their bunks after having thrown me overboard. The spite was what was keeping me alive when nothing else was giving me spirit to persevere. They probably haven’t thought about me at all since the incident. 

    I was losing my mind more and more with each sunrise. Everything had slowly gone away. The seagulls stopped coming altogether. Even the small fire I had kept going was ruined by a storm that would give me only a few precious hours of reprieve before pounding me and the sand again. In the cover of that storm, the creature visited me again. This time it left the water and crept closer to me.

    “Come with me, poor, abandoned wretch. I know your thoughts and can see the depths of your heart. Come with me and I will get you back home and off this island.” It squatted near me, with its long arms reaching out. It kept coming closer, the talons on the ends of its fingers gleaming in the moon light. 

    I picked up a log that had embers still burning at the ends of it. “Stay back! Get away from me! I have no interest in making a deal with whatever horrible abomination you happen to be!” As I swung it, the creature recoiled, before snatching the weapon from my hands and throwing it aside.

    “Fine, than starve. But remember this, the dead often don’t get their vengeance from beyond the grave.” It turned its back on me and vanished in the storm.

    Slowly but surely even the little I had left was gone. Food, drink, sanity, all of it was taken from me. My teeth ached for anything to chew on. My throat became a hollow tunnel used for nothing but taking in air just to let it back out again. I began growing desperate. I wanted it all to end, and wasn’t willing to wait until starvation and dehydration had overtaken me. I took the log that I had tried to use as a weapon and fashioned it as a shiv. I figured I would take my own life, and make sure I never touched the water, just to spite the evil thing that had also forsaken me. When I held the weapon to my own throat, I lost my nerve. The strength in my arms was only useful in holding the weapon up, but I couldn’t even end my own life.

    As I sat on the sand, I thought of everyone and everything that had done me wrong. The crew for ignoring my warning and throwing me overboard. The trading company’s solicitors, as they snaked an extra five years out of me when I had only signed on for two. My own parents, for committing the ultimate sin of birthing me. My anger burned day and night, sun-up until sun-down, as if fury and wrath itself were the only thing sustaining me. It grew and grew, until the small fire that had gone out had found its home in my chest. Aching, writhing, and hungry.  Only God Himself could've decerned if it was rightous fury or sinnful wrath that had overtaken me, and so I sat there waiting in my little hovel, waiting for everything to burn out and for death to take me. At the worst of it all, the damned thing appeared to me again. I was so weak, and so frail, I just didn't care anymore. There wasn't anything left for it to take, yet there was still nothing I was willing to give.

    “Have you finally come to your senses? Are you ready to come with me?” It said, as if trying to sound as pleasant as possible.

    “No, no I don’t believe I have. I think I will starve. Die here, tired, angry, and with vengeance I have not yet sought after. Maybe I will come back as a vengeful spirit and haunt you all.” I began to laugh deliriously. Or cry. I couldn't tell.

    The monster began to growl. It tried to lunge at me from the safety of the water. I stumbled backwards, my laughter cut short by it's nails ripping through the pathetic shirt I still wore.

    “Then die for all I care, you ungrateful man-child! Wallow in your own filth. At any time you could have left and yet you choose to die here, wasting away!” It turned its back on me again.

    “No, I couldn’t have.” It stopped in its tracks. “I have been stuck here for who knows how long, and my only way home has been either you or the sweet mercy of death. You have said come with me, but you have yet to tell me what it is I will do.”

    It snapped back around, hatred in it’s eyes. “I don’t have to tell you anything worm. My offer is as it stands; come with me, and you will be given a new purpose.”

    “What purpose? Who will give it to me? I fear God Almighty himself, yet you think you can give me purpose just because you come wallowing up from the depths like some pygmy leviathan?”

    “My master is even greater than Him! He fears my master! Otherwise, he wouldn’t have been locked away at the bottom of the ocean since time began!”

    I struck a chord. I thought I had nothing left but that seemed untrue. I hadn't lost my sense of humor, or whatever this could be mistaken for. “Then why isn’t this master here? Why hasn’t it broken its own bounds? For goodness sake! With all this power I am surprised this grand master of yours hasn’t made a ship appear out of thin air yet just to ferry me home!”

    As I began poking at the fish's mind, I felt a slight drizzle begin. “Don’t you dare take a mocking tone! If you are so great yourself, why haven’t you left? Better yet, why not just swim home!”

    “I am no fish beast such as yourself. I would more likely fall off the face of the Earth before making it back to England. Maybe Europe if I got lucky.” I began to laugh again, as lightning struck across the sky. Rain began to pour, and the creature began approaching once again.

    “I wouldn’t say you were so lucky. Not now of all times.” A sinister smile began to play across its face. A flash showed me its horrifying mug, but I was too hungry, too angry to care.

    “Oh, is this storm your master’s doing as well? Well than, take me on these winds and drop me off at home!” I felt around in the sand and took a firm grasp of the shiv. It was only as sharp as I could make it on a rough rock I had found. 

    It didn’t speak, only screeched out in anger as it lunged at me. I used what little strength I had left and stabbed at the beast. Its talons slid through the meat of my shoulder like butter. However, the spikey piece of wood I called a weapon glided under its scales and pierced into its heart. It howled in agony, and gasped for the breath I had loosened from it’s lungs. The blood spilling from my arm released all the anger I had been saving.

    “Where is he! Where is your master?” I stabbed and stabbed and stabbed, “He who can call rain and let you walk on my island? This is not your place! This is mine! MINE! My island! You are nothing! Call to your god! I hope he can save you from mine, becaue he isn't going to save you from me!” I had stabbed and stabbed until the shiv had turned from a sharp weapon to a dull bludgeon. When it had splintered and was hurting me more than it was hurting it, I began to use my fist. “Take me home you damned abomination! You could have done it at any time!” Smack. Smack. Smack. Squish. Squish. “You want me? Now you have me! Take me home, demon!”

    The rage died away, and the only burning feeling I had left was from the wound I had sustained. It would have to burn though, as there wasn’t anything around I could use to staunch the flow. I limped away from the dead fiend, tired, broken, and crying a little. The damned thing could’ve taken me away at any time, but it didn’t. It wanted to make a slave out of me, or worse. As I leaned against the tree, waiting for death, a sharp grumble came from my stomach. The anger and fear had left me, but the hunger remained. I looked again at the watery demon, and tried my hardest not to notice how closely it resembled a fish. 

    Its head and parts of its torso no longer resembled anything after the pummeling I gave it, but its arms and legs still looked in good shape. Even the kelp that replaced where hair should've been on its head could have been used for a nice bandage. I built a fire from what few dry things I could find and prayed for forgiveness even as I took my first greedy bites of the monster's body. It was reminiscent of salmon, or tuna I think. I bandaged my arm too, but the cut was so deep that I thought if the Lord didn't punish me later for the atrocity I had committed, then having a newar useless arm might suffice.

    I awoke with a start as I was shaken awake. I held the shiv out in front of me as if it was going to be any good against whatever was after me next. I didn't get a chance to sharpen it again, I had passed out when my stomach was filled. To my surprise it was a man, with a few others in a small dingy pulled up on shore. The fire I had built had apparently caught their attention. The remains of last night’s meal were gone. Not finding the beast still there meant I no longer had any kind of proof., but it saved me from having to explain the beast to them. Even the wound I had received seemed to have vanished. 

     They took me back to their ship, and I told them my tale. They treated me like a mad man. I know what I saw and have the scars to tell the story for me. I told them everything. Everything except my last meal on the island. I also let them know that if I fall asleep, let me rest. I am not dead. I ate what they allowed me to have, and drank until I felt like my stomach would burst. As they led me downstairs, and pointed me to a bunk, I felt relief for the first time in forever. That was until the sky grew cloudy, and rain began to fall. Then all I felt was hunger. 

Thank you so much for reading this short story, and don’t be too sad it’s over; next Friday another fresh story is going to be dropped here on the blog to keep drumming up hype for my book “Magic Most Foul” that is being released at the end of this month.

Please consider following any of my socials and comment below if you made it this far! Comments let me know what I should keep doing and what not to keep doing (at the very least let me know who all read the story haha). 

Thank you again, and look out for this Wednesday when I will have another little piece talking about writing and gaming. Let me know if there was a specific game y’all think I should take a look at!