Wretching on the floor, Chloe's tiny stomach felt like it was tightened with screws. She winced in pain as her gums bled. "I thought...scurvy...was awesome!" she cried. "But it blows like the blow hole of a whale!"

"I could a toldya lassie!" Captain Abacab shouted, his face twisted in equal pain. "I had the blighted disease in the Sailor's Siege of '59 and it sure ain't a barrel of sea monkeys, that's fer sure."

Ramone whimpered and cried, "My beauteous pearly whites! Please. I don't want them to go like this."

"You're talking, cabro!" Monica grimaced, her guns equally red. "You don't depend on your looks for your weapon! Who's gonna be seduced by a voluptuos swordswoman with rotten teeth?!"

"I can make an exception, toots!" Vinnie said, grinning callously from the floor."

"Wheeee!" Laura exclaimed at the top of her lungs. She moved her arms and legs back and forth excitedly as her blond hair was spread out on the floor like a spilled glass of honey.

"At least someone's...having fun," Chloe coughed.

Ramone shook his head. "My dear queen Annabell. I think that clown girl is delirious."

"Wasn't she always?" Chloe asked. "But ahh...I can't believe I'm gonna say this...but what's the cure for scurvy?!"

"Vitamin C, my queen!" Ramone shouted.

"Do we have any in this bar?!" Chloe demanded of Mugs the bartender who had been lying there after his testimony.

The eyepatched man nodded. "Aye...I'd been saving a bunch o' lemon slices in the cooler. Was gonna make martinis after you were found guilty."

Chloe rolled her non demon eye. "I'm gonna pretend you didn't say the last part, mughead."

"Well," she said looking over to the bar. "I'll...you know..."

Find this and other great novels on the author's preferred platform. Support original creators!

She crawled along on her stomach. Her limbs ached hard. It was like her joints were made of tin and in need of a good oiling. As she inched herself across the room, a realization dawned on her. Having lived the pampered life for so long, she was never exposed to such dire diseases as scurvy. "The cost of my pirate dream..." The young girl muttered as she avoided a rusty nail hammered carelessly into the floor.

At last, she made her way beneath the bar table and found a metallic box the shade of steely grey. She lifted the hatch and found a bevy of lemon slices all neatly diced and ready to adorn a martini glass. She picked a few up and gobbled them down voraciously. Slowly her body felt stronger and she could stand. She rose to her feet and was about to turn around and tell everyone when a familiar voice rang out in her brain.

"I can't believe a demon is telling you this, child, but shouldn't you get some for all of your friends...and those other losers too?!"

"Rosemary!" Chloe's eyes went wide. "You're finally back?!"

"I never left," the demon singerine answered. "I was simply channeling a ghost. The ghost of that big captain lunkhead!"

"Whoa," Chloe said, "You can do that?!"

"Well..." the singerine's voice teased "I might have heard a few words from him on the grapevine, and then I filled in the blanks."

Chloe nearly toppled over from Rosemary's improv'd puppeteering of her body. "But it's a long story, my meat puppet!" Rosemary said, her eyes swiveling in Chloe's head. "Heal those saps you call your friends so we can confront the..."

"Well...lookee here!" Topsy Scurvy exclaimed at the foot of the stairs. "Seems someone got a dose of their vitamins after all Her rotted pigtails twisting like antennas, she waltzed across the floor with a strange object in her blackened hands. In a hexagonal glass case, a giant black pearl was housed atop a velvet mini cushion.

"The mother of pearl..." Chloe said, "her eyes widening.

"Now how did you..." Topsy Scurvy said, and her enormous yellow eyes bulged in her skull. The demon observed the lemon slices Chloe had in her hands. The demon rolled her eyes in her peculiar way, neither in sync with the other. "I should have picked a better battle ground than a bar. Duh. Only place in the Four Seas with any vitamin C."

An enormous, twisted grin spread on Topsy's face. "No matter," she said, and body checked Chloe.

The lemon slices flew up in the air and scattered along the floor. Chloe weakly rose to her feet again. "You fight even dirtier than us...pirates!" she shouted at Topsy.

The scurvy demon's head twisted around perfectly like a wire. "What can I say?" she smirked. "My head screwed on just right. I'm a sick puppy fish."

Chloe panted hard and her knees nearly gave out from the scurvy infection. "Aww..." Topsy laughed, feigning sympathy. "Are you still a bit tuckered out from my sea sickness. No matter. I'm gonna finish you off with an even quicker illness."

"What's that, you sea swine?!" Chloe demanded.

The demon's eyes went wide and she raised both of her spindly hands. "Blunt force trauma to your skull!"