Every time Chloe closed her eyes, her mind reminded her of the cursed black night that had taken precious cargo from her life. Her parents had taken a detour past Devil Skull Cove upon visiting the king of Fishysauz Domain. Chloe had always hated those occasions because they expected her to be as dainty as possible in front of the other royalty on the sea. The only good thing about a night of charade was how it helped her hone her acting skills when she was in front of the minister.

After an entire night of acting like someone she wasn't, the captain of her parents royal cruiseliner had decided to economize on time and steer the ship through Devil Skull Cove, a location famed for its connection to the Everworld, the otherworldy realm of death that lingered at the bottom of the sea.

A craggy rock carved in the twisted features of a skull stood errect in the center of several other boulder islands. The captain, someone who was a talented naval commander, weaved expertly between them, but right when he had passed the devil's skull itself, the moon had turned a ghastly neon red and an impressive, if heavily rotted pirate vessel had sailed out of it.

Where it had come from was beyond the knowledge of all the mortals aboard the cruiseliner. The question was instead: would they survive this encounter with pirates from a dark realm?

Other worldly abominations with greenish and blueish skin hopped aboard the cruise liner. Many of their features and their clothes were carved out in clusters of slimy seaweed or pinkish warty barnacles. Some of them looked like unworldly fusions of creatures found at the bottom of the sea, which the face and jaws of a barracuda and the antenna of an angler fish. They quickly dispatched the royal guards with curved swords and lengthy claws. They surrounded young Chloe and her parents.

It was then she saw him...Fienmond as he later introduced himself. He was wrapped so tightly in black shrouds that the only thing that the only feature that appeared from behind his veil was a piercing red eye and hair of black seaweed that fell around his neck.

Her parents made endless bargains and pleas with the fiend, but he would only settle for one: their daughter.

Chloe, much more timid than she was now, hid behind them like they were the only thing that stood between her and the nightmarish demon.

"Come, itty bitty one," he hissed with gleeful delight. "Do not be afraid… I come bearing a gift to the princess of the Mainland."

"Will you let us go if she accepts your gift?!" the king asked, blocking his daughter from the demon's sight.

"Perhaaaaaps," the demon said and a long, spindly finger reached from outside of his cloak.

The other hand reached behind him and pulled out a black box, bound with bolts and studs. It resembled a treasure chest. Fienmond moved it to Chloe's face and opened it with his knotted, grey fingers.

Chloe screamed. Inside, there was not a golden doubloon or an amulet, but a revolting purple eye with a curved dark pupil like a serpent's. It started at her like it was brimming with life.

With his hand, he grabbed Chloe, lifted the demon's eye and shoved it right into her head. All Chloe saw in her left eye was purple miasma swirling endlessly in a veil of darkness. But slowly, the miasma formed lips and eyes of a sultry kind.

"You and I…" Rosemary rasped from the depths of a hellish abyss. "Our being is now one and the same. You are me and I am you. Together we shall rule your mortal kingdom from the demonic Everworld."

When Chloe turned around, her parents were mortified. She now had a demon's eye in the place of her left eye and it swiveled with a mind of its own, completed detached from the right.

"Please…" the mother said, her face awash with tears. "Now that you have scarred our only daughter...please let us go…let her go!"

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

Fiemond merely laughed. "There can be only one ruler of the Mainland."

With a demon blade of his own, he slayed her parents and left her crying in the blood red moonlight. But the only tears came from her right eye. Rosemary's eye was too proud of what had transpired to cry. The last thing Chloe always heard in her reoccuring dream was her own sobbing.

Soon, she heard birds chirping. She opened her eyes and was blinded by sunlight. Fortunately for her, a pair of horns blocked out the sun. "Thanks heavens!" Ramone cried. "My queen, we've reached Shady Palms Resort Island!"

"You mean that chintzy spa town my parents own?"

"Just the place," Ramone sang. "A hardworking beast of burden like me could use a vacation."

Chloe crossed her arms as she lay on a blanket of grass and sand. "Not bad. Not exactly where I wanted to go, but I'll take it. Let's get some grub and a boat and continue on our journey."

"Yes let's," the satyr smiled.

"But uh, Ramone," she said, closing her one good eye. "What, uh, happened out there."

"It was the most marvelous thing," the satyr said, brushing sand from his filthy suit. "I had thought you'd lost consciousness, but once we both grappled onto the same piece of driftwood, you began to paddle like you were possessed by a demon itself "

Rosemary, Chloe thought.

"And don't forget it," the demon eye whispered in her ear. "I can't have you rotting or I'll rot too. This is my last chance..."

For what? Chloe asked herself.

There was nothing but silence.

"Well now" Ramone said, holding his hooves together. "Would you fancy getting us some food at least? You do have your…"

Chloe pulled out a small piece of parchment from her ragged dress. "My credit parchment?!" she asked with a sly wink. "Only daddy's finest. Cha-ching!"

The goat man excitedly raised his hooves. "Spot-on! All of this near death delirium has made me famished and I know just the place!"

***

The seaside resort town of Shady Palms was enforced by an enormous wall that fenced the full length of it. The towering sea wall was made of white limestone and patterned with palms trees and clams shells, both of which decorated the border of the whole island. Two guardsmen in pink and white outfits protected the inside from trespassers. With towering staffs, only the ritziest of the rich could enter...or a member of royalty.

As Ramone happily paraded towards the entrance, no doubt imagining the martinis that would grace his dry throat and the palm leaves that goatmen like him often ate, Chloe halted.

"Erm… Annabell?" Ramone said. "Make-bah on the hustle-bah."

"Huh?" Chloe said, her eye widening.

"That's goat Latin for hurry up!" the satyr said. "I need my martini lunch."

"I just thought of something," she said with a troubled look. "What if they know about the warrant the minister put on me?"

"That's true," Ramone said. "You better bah-lieve he's gonna be looking for you."

But before Chloe could answer, one of the guards screamed her name. "Queen Annabell! Queen Annabell! Is that you!"

Chloe hid in Ramone's shadow causing him to wryly remark. "Oh so you want them to butcher me instead! How rude!"

"My thoughts exactly," Rosemary hissed. "Send the expendable barnyard animal to the meat grinder rather than yourself!"

But the guards did not attack as they ran to Chloe and Ramone. Instead, they had upmost looks of worry on their faces.

"Queen Annabell!" the first guard said with a salute. "I would not advise you to visit this lovely resort at this time."

Chloe stepped out from behind Ramone, pretending like she wasn't hiding from them. "Umm, why exactly."

"Because…" the guard said in a very dire voice. "Somewhere inside, a renowned killer is hiding among the populace! His name? Django the slasher!"

"A killer?!" Chloe said with a smirk. "Wicked cool."

Once she got looks of disapproval from Ramone and the guards, she instead muttered, "Wicked terrible."

"How he managed to get in is beyond us," the guard remarked. "But people have found their vacation houses broken into. It's only a matter of time before someone goes missing or worse!"

Chloe raised an eyebrow. "How exactly do you know who he is?"

The first guard trembled and turned whiter than the dunes of the beach. "Whenever he appears, he slashes a dreaded M right into the wood of the house."

"What's the M stand for?" Ramone asked. "Martinis? Matinee?"

Everyone looked at Ramone who said, "Sorry. Getting a bit hungry and thirsty. We shipwrecked here not a while ago. We could really use food and drink."

The guards looked at each other. "We can let you in, my queen and your dapper friend, but please do not stay long. We don't want you to be on the receiving end of his blade."

"I'll be fine…" Chloe remarked. "I've been through a lot more than you can imagine."

The guards turned to guide Chloe and Ramone through the tunnel to the town. As they walked, a devious smile fixed on Chloe's face.

"I know exactly what's going through your sick head," Rosemary remarked. "And I approve if it since it means achieving our goal."

Yes, Chloe thought, I think I've found my second crewmate. We could use a swordsman."