Eleanor felt her back hit the water as if it were a frozen patch of earth.

The impact knocked the breath out of her, which wasn't all that much, to begin with. Her heart was beating against the wall of her chest, and the only thought running through her head at that moment was to close her eyes.

If she closed her eyes, she didn't have to watch her ship fade away from her. She didn't have to see the surface of the water get further away or the water drown out the moon.

With the moon and the stars went the only light available to her.

The water was well below the temperature that her body should be able to tolerate. Even though the air above was a warm summer night, the water was frigid. Her skin had goosebumps from head to toe, and her clothes began to weigh her down. So she tried to hold her breath for as long as she could, leaving dry but empty lungs on the inside and heavy, deadly water on the outside.

With her eyes still closed, all other thoughts faded out of Eleanor's mind.

Time had still been moving excruciatingly slow, up until the moment a slim hand moved around her waist. As soon as she felt that grip, her eyes popped open. They stared wide upwards, despite the stinging of the saltwater that surrounded her. Staring up, she could still see the moon, large and close to the earth. She could see the outline of her ship and the backdrop of the stars behind it. Her world was still there. She was not going to give up that easy.

With those thoughts racing through her oxygen-starved brain, she twisted her body. She aimed her head in the direction of the yellow moon and kicked downward with both feet, hoping she would connect with some sort of power. She was well out of her element but also out of choices.

She felt the tiniest spark of relief as her feet collided with something solid. She looked down to confirm what was happening around her and was greeted with Isabelle's teeth looking sharper than ever and her own feet on a pair of shoulders. This situation would go from bad to worse if she didn't act quickly. So she bent her legs, looked back up at her only hope of safety, and kicked off as hard as she could.

With her senses slowing down the time frame in her mind, she hadn't been able to tell how far down she had sunk. She had moved quickly enough and with enough force that her head found air. Her nose and mouth were taking in gulping breaths, even though the rest of her body was still in the water. Isabelle had only just begun to get a hold of her. Eleanor had moved fast enough to avoid getting gripped.

'If only the rest of this fight would be so easy,' she thought to herself.

Her lungs were gulping for air, screaming that the rest of her body was refusing to slow down long enough for them to recover. Eleanor had already begun to wade at the top of the water, attempting to move back toward her ship. There was no land to get to, only that massive slab of wood and whatever men were still in working condition on top of it.

"Get there, Eleanor." She found herself saying out loud, using precious air to verbally propel herself forward. The mantra repeated itself as her body inched forward.

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

"Get there." She forced the words out one more time as her fingertips grazed against the bottom hull of her ship. She let out a small sigh of relief, feeling comfort despite none of her immediate circumstances changing.

As if on cue, she felt a tug at her ankle. She had just enough time to recoup the sigh she had let go of before her head was pulled back underneath the surface of the water. Her skin was becoming numb in the water, the cold seeping in a little bit less the longer she was under it and out of the warm air above. Despite the damage, the cold would cause, she could feel every finger around her ankle. She could feel the shape of the finger, the entire bend of all the first knuckle.

Eleanor could feel the nails at the tops of the fingers, creating a set of claws that she would never forget. Her imagination told her she could feel that hand changing and twisting as it pulled, but it didn't matter anymore. Her current version of hell could not get any worse. She didn't want to look down and give the creature the satisfaction. She didn't want to feed Isabelle her anxiety, her fear, or her pain. She didn't want her to think for one moment that Eleanor was going to give up and die here.

A thousand paths should have led to her death, and she came out the other side. It was not going to be this that became her end.

With renewed determination, she pulled her knee in, the same as she had done before, pulling herself closer to Isabelle. She looked down long enough to decide where her other foot may connect and looked back upwards at her hope. Much deeper, and she may lose the pale light that could guide her to the surface.

The foot that hadn't been pinned yet swung in the direction Eleanor thought she needed it to. She felt it touch something that wasn't liquid, and she kicked. She kicked up, hoping that the impact would free her other leg as the momentum she created moved her body upwards. She looked down one more time to watch as a thin stream of blood flowed out of Isabelle's mouth.

The creature let go, the face contorting in pain and surprise. Isabelle brought both hands up to her face, letting Eleanor get up to the surface a second time.

Her lungs ached in a predictable fashion the second her mouth hit the air. It forced her to breathe with speed and force. Her limbs were getting heavier. Her brain was becoming muddy and her vision watery, making everything seem like the death trap she floated in. She paddled the few inches she had strayed from the outside of the ship and grazed her hand along the sodden wood again.

As she attempted to place where she was along the boat, she felt a strange rippling around her. Her arms found energy as they fell in the same rhythm as her legs. Her mind was so busy with trying to get her up on the deck that it ignored what had changed in the water. She just knew that it felt wrong all of a sudden.

Her body was moving at a snail's pace. It seemed as if it were impossible to move any faster, despite her internal voice yelling for her body to hurry up. Despite the anger emanating from her thoughts.

She had only moved a couple of feet from where she surfaced when Isabelle's fearsome head broke the surface as well. The water had stopped rippling, but one sight, and Eleanor knew that her hell could and would get worse. Isabelle took a deep breath in through her mouth, throwing Eleanor a wink with one almond-shaped eye. Before either of them moved again, the mermaid let out a second, more powerful, scream. It hit Eleanor full force.

The captain watched the water ripple towards her with the vibration of the sound. She swore for one half a second that she could see the sound coming at her before she was thrown away from her ship. Her eyes looked up at the sky as her weight shifted against her will. The moon faded from the outside in, becoming just a tiny pin of yellow against the blackness of her sight.

Just before she lost all consciousness, she felt two sets of clawed fingers around her waist and warm breath against her ear.

"Hear my song, and fear no more. You knock not on death's black door. I alone will keep you safe. Until you finally join my race."