Vincent and his friends had been on the ship for about two weeks, working and doing whatever miscellaneous tasks the crew and Captain Neil had for them. Vincent had grown bored of the tasks since the second day on the sea, seeing as he already knew a lot of the things they were being taught—whether he wanted to admit that or not.
To cure his boredom, he did whatever seemed interesting to him, and that usually resulted in wandering around the deck, talking to the various crewmates. He never once stopped and talked to Robert, however.
Today, the sky was more cloudy than it had been during the rest of the trip, but he barely even noticed. With the cool, Atlantic wind mildly blowing against his hair, Vincent began to stroll around the deck of the ship, talking to whoever he saw.
As he sauntered about, he didn’t see many people, and after a few minutes with no conversation, he gave up and fiddled with the wrench that was on the ground next to him. Tossing the wrench in the air, Vincent’s entire being began to concentrate on the spinning, metal tool. As it came down, he spun around, catching it behind his back almost effortlessly. He continued this, albeit catching the wrench in different ways.
After absentmindedly tossing the wrench into the air a few times he noticed that after his latest toss that it did not come down and he didn’t hear it hit the ground.
“You’re Vincent Huron, I’m assuming?” an unfamiliar voice softly said.
Turning around, Vincent saw the person from which the voice came from. Standing a few inches taller than him was a slim Japanese man in a sailor’s uniform. The man’s hair parted in two at the head and tumbled down past his shoulders. His hair swayed calmly with the wind, as if nothing could possibly disturb its natural motion. Looking more closely at the man, he held Vincent’s wrench in his hand.
“Yeah I am, why?” Vincent replied.
Before answering, the man stared intently at Vincent. Vincent had never seen such intensity behind someone’s eyes, including Robert. The man’s eyes seemed to pierce through any barriers that he had put up, not that he really had anything to hide. Still, Vincent was taken back by the feeling for a second before shrugging it off.
“Interesting. Tell me, what are your goals? What do you wish to accomplish? What seems to be holding you back? Because it doesn’t seem like a lot,” the man asked inquisitively.
“Don’t know, don’t care.” Vincent’s hands were now comfortably resting behind his head. “You like askin’ a lotta questions for someone I don’t think I’ve met.”
“No, you haven’t. I’m just a traveler who’s on this boat for work and passage.” The traveler rested his elbows on the rails of the boat and looked out at the ocean. “I’ve been searching for the beacon that has been guiding me. I’ve never seen—”
“Dude, I‘m gonna be honest, I don’t really care.”
The traveler was visibly shaken and surprised by the sincere disinterest in Vincent’s voice. “Fair enough, I suppose.” He then adjusted his uniform for no apparent reason. “Anyway, Neil Parker wanted me to tell you to meet him in the boiler room—something about a task and teaching you something interesting.”
Vincent rolled his eyes and didn’t hide his annoyance with having to do something. Still, it was better than nothing. He thought about just screwing with the cargo counters, but then he thought of meeting Robert there, since he worked in that area.
“Whatever, I’ll go check it out, I guess,” Vincent replied with a sigh.
As he walked away he noticed that the traveler was still watching him, his eyes fixed on him like a predator watching its future prey. Vincent waltzed about for a few minutes before making a beeline for the stairs that led to the boiler room. Before he got there, he passed the quarters where he and his friends had been staying.
He casually glanced at the open doorway, not expecting to see anything. To his surprise, he saw a figure curled up on a bed. Curious, he looked in more closely to see who decided to casually sit on their bed. He then knocked on the open, metal door, which didn’t seem to shake the figure. As he sauntered up to the figure he immediately recognized them.
“El, whatcha doin’?” he casually asked. He then remembered he hadn’t seen Eliot during the entirety of the trip up until that point. “El?”
Eliot didn’t respond and just continued to stare at the wall, curled up. There was an eerie silence, but it didn’t bother Vincent. He waited for a few more moments for a response, but after not getting one, he left and continued on towards the boiler room.
Along the way, Vincent found it a bit strange that he hadn’t encountered anyone else during the rest of his journey to the boiler room. He arrived at the boiler room and called out for Captain Neil. There was no response. Annoyed, he called out for a second time, this time a little louder. Still, there was no response.
“I’m gettin’ tired of people not answering me!” Vincent yelled, annoyed.
“Oh ho ho, sorry about that, lad,” Captain Neil replied, coming out from behind a giant tank. “It’s a little hard to hear in this room sometimes.”
“I suppose so. So whatcha want with me? This better be worth my time.”
“Oh don’t worry, lad, this will be worth both of our time.” Captain Neil began to slowly make his way towards Vincent.
“Yeah, I’m gonna pass on this one.” Just as Vincent began to turn his back and a sudden quake shook the room.
“What in the hell was that? Now of all times? We shouldn’t be getting attacked or anything right now, she knows I’m com—” Before Captain Neil could finish his thought, another quake shook the room. “What in the fuckin’ Dead Man’s Sea was that?” He then looked at Vincent with a look of anger and confusion. “We’re going to finish our chat later,” he said flatley, running past Vincent.
What was that all about? Vincent thought.
That thought only lasted a few seconds in Vincent’s mind before he began to backtrack through the ship. As he made his way back, he passed by Eliot in their room and then the ship shook again. Vincent immediately turned back to get Eliot, seeing as the shaking reminded him that Eliot was probably in danger.
“Yo, El, we’re gettin’ out of here,” Vincent said as he entered the room.
Eliot was clutching at his head and mumbling words more rapidly than before, and Vincent could understand them now.
“Not again...they’re here again,” Eliot mumbled, his eyes wide open. “Another one, another one, another one.
“Come on, dude, I don’t have all day,” Vincent replied.
“I can’t control it. I killed him. I’m no better than them, and now they’re here. I hate it all.”
“We don’t have time for this,” he said, reaching for Eliot’s arm.
“No!” Eliot slapped Vincent’s hand and finally stared back at Vincent although his gaze seemed elsewhere. His eyes were full of tears and his eyes showed genuine fear and confusion, all the while his thoughts didn’t seem to be in the place that he was. Perhaps they are at the same place that his gaze was?
“Are you alright, man?” Another quake shook the ship.
Eliot just stared back at Vincent. Vincent couldn’t tell if he could even comprehend what was being said to him—something was not right, and even Vincent could see that.
“ELIOT!” Vincent shouted with a mix of anger and compassion; something that even surprised him.
Finally, Eliot’s gaze focused on Vincent and he seemed to be genuinely taken back by the image of Vincent. His expressionless lips turned into a small, mournful smile. It looked as though he was trying to say something, but nothing came out. Finally, a single question croaked out of Eliot’s throat. “Zander?”
“Uh...I have no idea where he is, but I bet he’s on the deck of the ship.” Vincent then looked around in confusion. “Sooooooo we should go up there now,” Vincent motioned his head upwards.
As they both began to make their way out of the room, a strange sound filled Vincent’s ears. It sounded like pressurized air and metal constantly hitting each other. The more he listened the sound began to flow more and more, and it took on a liquid-like quality. As he looked behind him, he saw a torrent of water rushing up, hungry and ready to consume them both.
Fuck.
Both Eliot and Vincent rapidly increased their pace and made their way up through the maze of stairwells and doors until they were almost to the deck. Suddenly, a gush of water broke out of a newly formed hole in front of them, filling the stairway. Behind them, a pool of death was slowly filling up and in front of them was a geyser of sea water.
The cold pool behind them made its way up to their thighs, and it didn’t have long until it was going to be up to their heads. Vincent’s body was already getting cold, but he couldn’t tell what it was from. As his body cooled down, he sank into the abyss and placed his hand over the geyser of water. His body shivered and in the back of his head one single word cut through: devoid.
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As the thought left his head, it manifested at the hole that the geyser was coming out of. The void stopped the water temporarily, but he knew it was only for so long. His body seemed to almost calm down as he used his power. He felt oddly at peace and his body got colder the longer he held the void in place—though that could’ve been the cold water that was now up to his chest.
With an expressionless face, he looked at Eliot and said, “Let’s go, the path is free.”
When they passed by the geyser, Vincent dismissed his void and the water began to gush out once more. The two then made their way onto the deck, and before them stood a sight that neither one of them was prepared for.
Before them was a giant, undersea monstrosity, the likes of which Vincent had only ever heard of in fantasy tales. This creature was towering at least fifty feet above the front of the ship and its brown, scaly body made its appearance even more unnerving. It had one giant, toothy maw that looked like it could swallow a lake. Above the mouth, sat three yellow eyes which constantly shifted about in their sockets. The most noticeable part of the behemoth was the dozen or so slithering tentacles that emerged from seemingly random sections of its body. The tentacles were about the width of a telephone pole, and at the end of each tentacle was a flat rhombus-shaped suction cup.
The crew on the deck of the ship was in utter panic and Vincent could hear screaming and shouting all around him. Gunshots, screams, snapping metal, and tearing flesh could be heard from all over the deck. As Vincent's mind began to fume from sensory overload, he heard a familiar, egotistical voice near him.
“This is not a very favorable situation at the moment, wouldn’t you agree?” a cowering Zander that was hiding behind a snapped crate asked, his hands and body shaking with his voice.
“What in the hell is going on?” Vincent asked.
“Well, this monstrous aquatic creature,” Zander replied, shakily pointing at the brown-scaled monster, “rose up out of the water, assaulted this ship, and then pirates began to run out of its mouth.”
“Wha—pirates!?” As he said this, Vincent’s head began to throb and a dull pain, like a needle, began to form in the front of his head. This familiar pain pointed in the direction of the creature. “Ah, I see now. This is gonna be fun.” He began to walk towards the chaos in front of him.
“Vincent, where are you going?” Zander yelled at him from behind.
Turning around, Vincent said, “I almost forgot—look after El for me,” while pointing at the now trembling Eliot next to Zander. He then turned back around and continued his pursuit. He ran at full speed, skirting around the edge of the ship.
He figured out that the monster in front of him was probably an Apparition, so all he had to do was beat up everyone until he beat the Apparator. After all, it made sense that if whoever was controlling it fell unconscious, then the creature would disappear, like that wolf-creature. So knocking the pirate captain out should probably do the same thing.
As he passed by a fallen piece of metal, an unfamiliar woman appeared, whose face seemed just as shocked to see Vincent as he was to see her. The woman was dressed in beat-up leathers and a mismatch of clothes around the rest of her body. She began to grab the assault rifle that she had at her side, but he was quicker and hit her with a starbreaker, launching her off of the side of the ship.
He continued to run into the fray, towards the Apparition. As he did, he heard a loud explosion behind him, albeit far away and towards the other end of the ship. The whole ship began to tilt and lean to the left. This knocked him off balance and he tumbled for a few feet before falling off of the side of the ship. As he plummeted, he felt a hand grab his wrist.
“I gotcha, Vince, just hold on,” Robert called out while holding on to the dangling Vincent. Robert pulled up Vincent with one arm and he and Vincent both sat down and hid behind a bent-up car. “You alright, Boy?”
Surprised, Vincent didn’t know how to react. “Y-yeah, sure I’m fine,” he replied.
“Good. Well, we gotta get outta here, but what in the actual hell is going on?” Robert was visibly disturbed and worried in a way that Vincent had never seen before. There was nothing but confusion in his eyes.
“Robert, I got an idea on how to get outta here.”
“I’m all ears, I’m down with any plan at this point.”
“Awesome. So, I’m gonna go beat the hell outta that fish.” Another quake shook the ship.
“Wha—what are you talking about? There is no—”
“I’m serious!” Vincent was dead serious about it. His eyes and voice were just as stern and confident as he was about taking on the Apparition. “Please, trust me.”
Robert was silent as his eyes stared into Vincent’s eyes. “Fine,” he said as he turned his back away from Vincent. “I’ll be back with help.” And with that, Robert made his way towards a stairway that went lower into the ship.
As he sat there, he looked out the broken window of the car to the other side and saw Captain Neil conversing with another unfamiliar figure about thirty or so feet away. This figure was a tanned-skinned man with a long black beard that seemed unnaturally stiff. Listening closely, he could hear a bit of the conversation that they were having.
“...let you live?” The bearded man said.
“I am Neil A. Parker, and I am delivering precious cargo to Lucretia, and she is not going to be happy if you destroy it. You better end this assault right now, if you know what’s good for you,” Captain Neil said angrily
“Precious cargo, huh?” The bearded man replied with an obvious hint of greed in his voice. “It’s too bad though, I ain't never heard of no ‘Lucretia’ before.”
“Wha—” But before Neil could finish even a single word, a gunshot sound fired, cutting him off. There were no more words spoken from Captain Neil.
Just as Vincent was getting up to kick the bearded man’s ass, he felt a hand grab his arm and pull him down. Before he could react and give them a good old-fashioned starbreaker, a familiar voice whispered in his ear.
“Don’t be so reckless, Vincent Huron,” the voice said. Looking in the direction of the voice, Vincent saw the traveler that he met just a few hours ago. “So you are one of those Resonators, after all. I figured as much.”
“What in the hell do you want?” Vincent replied a bit angrily. “I was about to kick that bearded man’s ass and this problem would be solved, dumbfuck.”
“There are people hidden, protecting him—I’ve seen some of them and dealt with them.” The traveler’s eyes then looked around him, as if he was thinking about something. Then suddenly, he shot a look of surprise at Vincent. “Wait, what do you mean by ‘this problem would be solved’?”
“Well, I figured if the guy who’s controlling this fish is dead or unconscious, then the fish will go away too.”
The traveler put his hand on his chin and looked down at the ground for a second. Looking back at Vincent, staring him dead in the eyes he said, “That’s a good point, I think you’re actually right about that.”
“Damn right it is. Now, let’s get going.” Again, before Vincent could get up, the traveler’s arm kept Vincent at bay. “Ya know, I can kick your ass too if that’s what ya want.”
“I’d like to see you try,” the traveler laughed. “Just wait for a second. There’s no way you can deal with all of the invaders, the bearded man, and the kraken-like monster at the same time. I’ll lighten the load for you.”
Vincent saw the traveler close his eyes and seemingly meditate for a second. He heard the traveler, under his breath, say “I guess I can give in a little.” When the traveler’s eyes opened, he had a different aura around him. Vincent couldn’t believe that that was the same person he just saw a moment ago, but he couldn’t quite figure out what was different.
The traveler then stood up and did a backflip over the car that they were hiding behind. Vincent found this flip extremely necessary and very cool. The traveler then casually strolled forward into the chaos.
Although it confused Vincent, he saw the traveler almost wobbling or stumbling about. But he could tell that this was not from being off-balance or from being forced to wobble—he was doing it intentionally. Vincent then heard the sound of various gunshots and saw sparks flying off the metal around the traveler. Somehow, none of the bullets seemed to hit him.
A large male figure that was similarly dressed to the other invaders suddenly jumped out in front of the traveler. The man pointed his revolver at the traveler and laughed.
“Sucks ta be you, but you’re a goner, sailin’ boy,” the man chuckled.
“Quite the contrary, actually,” the traveler retorted.
Before each shot of the revolver fired, the traveler seemed to preemptively move out of its way, as if he knew where and when the gun was going to fire. Not a single shot hit him, and with a surprising quickness, the traveler made his way into melee with the man. He then flicked the man in the head and the man instantly collapsed. Vincent was amazed by what he saw and wanted to learn how to do that.
Suddenly, about a dozen or so of the invaders surrounded the traveler and before they could even point their guns at him, Vincent felt a sort of vibration in his skull, and that vibration was so intense that it made him close his eyes in pain. The feeling was unlike anything he had ever experienced. It felt like the top of his skull was repeatedly hammered by a jackhammer for about three seconds. Afterward, a wave of nausea hit him and left as soon as it came.
“Vincent Huron, go!” the traveler called out.
When Vincent opened his eyes, he saw every single person that was around the traveler on the ground, unmoving. He didn’t think much of it and ran forwards through the opening that was just created. As he ran in the general direction that his head was throbbing, he saw the bearded man from before, and he was in front of the giant sea monster.
The bearded man looked in the direction of Vincent and brought his arm down, much like a medieval general would when signaling their troops to fire the cannons. The fish monster then rapidly brought down one of its tentacles in the direction of Vincent
Upon seeing that, Vincent suppressed his emotions, reached his hand above him, and created a void at the end of that hand. As the tentacle hit the void, it slightly entered the sphere and was forcibly ejected from it. Using this opportunity, Vincent dashed forwards towards the bearded man.
As he ran towards the bearded man, another tentacle came lashing forwards. Again, Vincent sank into the cold place in his mind and in his heart—feeling even colder than he was before. The void defected the tentacle and Vincent could see the utter surprise on the bearded man’s face.
While running, the thoughts and feelings that were always swirling around in his mind slowly began to fade. It was so subtle that he barely even noticed it. He got to the point where his vision tunneled and his only thought was that of attacking the bearded man in front of him in order to render him unconscious. Why? What compelled him? What was he feeling? Just as quickly as those thoughts came, they scattered away into darkness and vast nothingness that now filled his head.
When Vincent made it to the man, without any emotion by it, he hit the man with a starbreaker over the head, just like he was supposed to do. The man, just as planned, fell unconscious and the giant sea monster began to fade away until it was gone completely.
A few moments passed, and there was a stillness on the ship. The punch that Vincent gave out didn’t give him any sense of pride or content. As a matter of fact, he felt nothing. There was a strange emptiness that lingered and sat throughout his body. It was like the uneasy feeling people get when they feel like they are being watched—not oppressive, but consistently present enough to make him feel uneasy and annoyed.
A few sailors then rushed up towards Vincent and began to tie down and chain up the unconscious pirate captain. All the while, Vincent just stared out into the open expanse.
Something about it seemed oddly familiar—not because he grew up around it, not because of his father, but because of something on a deeper level. The vast expanse of nothing resonated with him. He tried searching for something out there, anything, but he only saw water and sky. Nothing else. Why was he looking out there? There’s only water out there, nothing more, nothing less. He felt exactly like the expanse of nothingness that he saw before him. He tried making out the feeling, but the only thing he felt was the ocean breeze, and it was colder than he remembered.