"Blast you, Django!" Monica cursed loudly, swinging her sword like a derranged berserker. "My brother. You killed my brother. Mama's number one, the head of the family when Papa passed!"

"Arrr!" Captain Abacab growled as he ducked an incoming book. "What kind of plague have you brought up on my vessel, little girl?!"

"I don't know!" Chloe exclaimed. "Rammy, what's wrong with her?"

"I'm sorry, my queen," the suave satyr said. "My degree is in fashion, not medicine."

The liquidy miasma seeped from Monica's mouth onto the parchment on Abacab's desk. "Arrr not me sea charts!" he bemoaned.

He took a snort from his thick and bulbous captain's nostrils. "That smell. I have not smelled that since I first sailed around the globe. That be the smell of deadly Nightmare shade!"

"Nightmare shade?!" Chloe and Ramone exclaimed. "What in Sand Hill is that?"

"Aye," the captain said, his filmy eyes glistening. "A mate of mine accidentally ate the blighted Everworld plant. He lived out his worst nightmares in his head until he went mad and died!"

"D-d-died?" Chloe stammered. "Please say there is a cure! Swordslady... she is my crewmate, she can't die!"

"I'm afraid there's no elixir aboard me ship, matey," Abacab said sadly. "But I order yeh to make her stop or I'll have all three of you walking the plank."

Chloe gave an uncertain glance at Ramone. But the satyr placed his hand on his hips. "My young queen, if you truly wish to be a pirate captain like you say, you must be responsible for your crew. I'm not well versed, but that seems to be the nautical code."

Chloe turned to Monica who was practically foaming at the mouth with her eyes rolled up. Chloe willingly nodded. "I do. Ever since I was an even tinier girl, that's all I've wanted: To be a pirate captain and keep everything ship shape!"

She marched up to Monica trying to hide her look of fear. Monica screeched like a demon scorned. "You took away our happiness, you monster! Mama still cries every night over his passing. I swore I would take you down. I swore I would!"

Chloe's voice quivered but she tried to stay firm. "Swordslady. Stop... I command you to."

Monica held her sword over head ready to cut Chloe down. "Why, Django?! I've finally found you. I've waited for the day I can say buenos noches and end you."

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Chloe looked back at Ramone and Abacab. Her satyr friend offered her a kind look. "On behalf of the pirate queen herself," Chloe said, "Stop this instant and stand down!"

"No!" Monica cried, before her voice became cold and passionless. "I will finish what I started. You will die now."

She swung her well cut blade--Chloe's life was about to end in a split second, but Rosemary gripped hold of her body and time slowed down. Chloe threw herself backwards beneath the sword and recoiled, punching the vengeful swordswoman in the jaw. She toppled backwards and Chloe fell forward, right onto her chest. Though she was panting, Monica's eyes were still rolled back and drooled seeped out of her mouth.

"Monica?" Chloe squeaked.

She was greeted with a roar and the spitting of black liquids. "Django. I will stab you for every time you stabbed him! I will have my vengeance even if it kills me!"

Instead of feeling angered or anguished, Chloe was consumed with the most pirate emotion of them all.

She pressed her arms around Monica's shoulders and screamed in a demonic roar. "How dare you speak to your superior like that?!"

Monica paused for a split second and even the black drool ceased.

"You're going to snap yourself out of this! Is that clear?! I am the pirate queen, you are my loyal crewmate and what I say goes!"

"Whoa!" Rosemary chuckled within. "I felt that all the way to Prospect Island. Now let me have some of those savory juices that flow in her veins."

Without warning, a possessed Chloe sunk her teeth into Monica's shoulder, syphoning the black miasma out of her veins.

"Succulent, ravishing juices!" Rosemary gushed. "The thing a growing demon needs to prosper!"

Slowly, Monica fell backwards. Her eyes rolled forward before they shut. She took one last glance at Chloe, before slipping into unconsciousness.

After gulping down a delicious helping of liquified nightmare shade, Chloe wiped her jaw and smiled. "Mmm good," she rasped with Rosemary's tongue. "I'm full and I feel an after dinner nap coming on."

Chloe tried to prevent herself from falling asleep, but drowsiness quickly overcame her little battle. Monica sleeping peacefully was the last thing she saw before complete blackness.

***

Chloe awoke the next morning. She was wrapped tightly in the blanket of Abacab's cot. Her mind was still a blur and so was her vision, but slowly both returned and she could see and think clearly. Ramone was standing over her, a pleased smile on his goatlike face, and Abacab was a lot less furious. "Good morning, my queen," the satyr smiled.

"Yo-ho?" Abacab asked, holding up a bottle of the chocolate soda. "It'll charge up that young body."

"Don't mind I do," Chloe said. She seized a bottle and bit the cap off with her teeth. Spitting it on the covers, she savored the rich chocolatey beverage.

"So uh...Rammy…" Chloe asked with a coy expression. "Where is swordslady?"

"Outside on the deck, my queen. She's enjoying the sunny day out on the sea. She did want to talk to you, however."

Chloe hopped to her feet. "Take it easy, my queen!" Ramone called back, but Chloe didn't listen. She peered out the porthole in the cabin doors and saw the virtuoso swordswoman with her foot perched on the railing, sun glistening on her hair and her sword.

"Swordslady!" Chloe ran outside as fast as she could--almost too fast--as she nearly flew over the railing. A deft hand seized her and pulled her back!

"Watch it, estupida!" the sly swordswoman said, "I know you're head over heels, but one should never be head over boat for someone."

"Point taken," Chloe said.

Monica's eyes looked skyward and firm smile appeared on her face. "But...chica...you were just the person I wanted to see. I've made a decision about something…"