Sheets of rain sliced against the steel hull of the ship. It was currently cutting through the worst storm it had seen in its life, and the passengers on board were more than aware of it. Nevertheless, a few chose to put the sickening rolling of the floor out of their minds. Late into the night and early into the morning, some sat leisurely around a poker table and chuckled through their teeth, cigars puffing away. 

One man observed the fun from a sofa across the room, but did not join them. He sat, arms folded and resting on his legs, staring through strands of jet-black hair at the carpet. 

Flashes of light painting the hallway outside the lounge. The storm didn’t inherently bother him, though it didn’t calm him either. There were over 500 people on board with him, and none of them were as good of a swimmer as he was.

They were also only human, but that was besides the point.

The first few days of this journey had been nothing if not eventful. The ship had been gradually heading into the storm of the century with no way out except to go through. That already put the passengers at unease, but the worst was yet to come.

All through the night, important looking men strode with purpose up and down the hallways of the ship.

Reef caught some of their words to themselves and a few of the other passengers: the captain was in critical condition, and potentially dead. Reef had a feeling the crew were in the dark as he was. Their bickering and hushed arguments said enough.

Now, in the black hours of the early morning, there were few men left to be found in the lounge except those who had been there all night. Reef wondered how anyone could keep their stomach through the battering waves and smoky haze soaking the room, but here they were nonetheless.

 

Reef took a deep breath in and stood to his feet. There was no point in stewing about and waiting for a bolt of lightning to suddenly split the ship in two. The least he could do was get the smell of smoke out of his mind for the night and wait out the storm.

Making his way to the ornate wooden door, Reef grasped the brass handle.

At the end of the rolling hallway there was a shadow standing deadly still. A pair of glowing eyes pierced through him. In another roll of the ship, it was gone. Reef blinked. It was probably just the lightning playing tricks. There seemed to be a lot of tricks being played on him these days.

 

A roar of thunder shook the brass doorknob under his grip.

He returned the glare, and cautiously made his way down the hallway.

 

Each board creaked under his heavy feet, and his eyes searched every direction for a ghost to suddenly jump out from a wall or a door. It wouldn’t have been the first time that happened.

The hallway finally opened into a large ballroom, devoid of life at this dark hour. More light flashed through the strained windows, pouring into every shadow for a split second, then just as suddenly retreating as if called back to some black pit at the bottom of the sea. The ship’s body groaned and rattled with every wall of water travelling under it, shifting the floor with each swell. Lamps rattled and doors swung and slammed shut with a shove.

Amidst the buckling and chaos, one door remained unmoving. An unstoppable force seemed to pour out from the crack underneath.

Another flash of light, and the eyes appeared again, daring him to step through and confront the black emptiness awaiting him. Whatever this was, it wanted him. For what, though?

 

To torture him in some ungodly way, most likely.

 

Reef balanced himself and reached out. Before he could grasp it, the doorknob turned with a creak. The door groaned opened into the shadow. Even the bolts of light outside couldn’t penetrate the darkness that lived here.

Reef stepped past the threshold. The air was thin and cold. Colder than the seas that threatened to crash through the windows every second.

Darkness. Silence. Even the sound of his breath seemed to be sucked from his lungs here.

Reef made no attempt to call out, instead closing his eyes. They were easily fooled, after all.

 

He pinholed his concentration….

….nothing.

 

Nothing except an icy glare and a venomous hate he had not encountered in a long time.

 

Crack!

 

The door behind him slammed shut, and an angry flame suddenly cut through the void in front of him, illuminating the glowing eyes that had taunted him for so long. A deadly silence came over the darkened room, and not even the ship's rolls and crashes were felt or heard here.

She finally spoke, as a cold needle wormed its path to Reef’s heart.

 

“Look at him.” She sneered. “He’s all grown up.”

 

Reef opened his eyes. Out of instinct, Reef reached behind him and flashed a intricately sculpted, yet practical, gold spear. A roar of thunder rang out as the butt hit the floor, and the warm light reflecting off the polished metal cast away the overwhelming shadow surrounding the two gods.

Reef’s eyes bored holes into the woman standing in front of him. A gold and crimson robe snaked around her, as if trying to strangle its prey. She had one hand behind her back, the other giving power to the flame in her open palm. 

Her long hair sparkled in the flame’s light, white as marble. Equally pale was her expression, one that looked down on Reef, despite glaring up at him. She spoke without opening her bloodless lips, grinding every word through her ivory teeth.

 

“You must have really, really wanted to see me.”

 

Reef refused to respond, still glaring into her blood-red eyes.

She clasped both her hands behind her back, putting out the dancing flame. However, the golden spear still breathed light into the every darkened corner.

The woman hummed in satisfaction, studying Reef. There was now a storm behind his eyes that rivalled the one outside.

Satisfied, the woman appeared to float towards a nearby chair and sat herself down, crossing her legs as if she had all the time in the universe to spend taunting him. Reef’s eyes followed her, refusing to even blink in case she suddenly melted back into the corners of the room.

 

“So,” she began. “No hello? Rude of you.”

 

“I have nothing to say to you.” Reef spat through tight lips. His fist tightened around his spear.

 

The woman’s sharp smile almost dimmed the warm light surrounding her.

 

“Why so tense tonight? No starry sky? No moon for you to get lost in?”

Reef took deep a breath in. His gaze steeled.

 

The woman laughed to herself, then fell deadly silent. A cold frown froze her face.

 

“You can’t save them all.” She goaded.

 

Reef’s stare followed her as she rose again, her feet silently stepping over fallen books strewn about the carpet to study the golden spear in front of her. Seemingly dissatisfied with what she saw, she turned her back to Reef, looking out a nearby window. The storm pelted the glass, yet no sound made its way through.

 

“You can't wipe everything away. Nothing you do will.” She ran a finger down a large wooden bookcase and flicked open the lock. "One day you'll make this so much easier for me when you finally give up."

"I could say the same about you."

The woman let out a strained laugh. "You're pathetic."

"You know, I hated you ever since the day I saw you step foot on that shore. You had this... stubbornness about you. One that doesn't let you off the hook and save yourself even when the word is falling apart."

 

Reef's glace shifted downward. The woman smiled.

 

“No.” He replied sternly, looking back up at her. “I can’t save them all. I know that.”

 

She opened a heavy book with gold lettering on the cover.

 

“But I have to try.”

 

She flicked the pages, as if searching for a word that she had forgotten many years ago. The woman finally laughed again. 

 

“Go ahead.” 

 

Flames danced once more in her palm, engulfing the book. She nestled it carefully back into the cabinet and clicked the lock shut.

 

She stared daggers into Reef’s eyes, then vanished with a flash of lightning.

 

Reef was thrown to the floor by a sudden lurch of the ship. Standing himself upright, he saw that red flames quickly began to lick the ceiling of the library. In one swift motion, he strode out the door he came through, vanishing his spear behind him.

 

A passer-by mouthing a stub of a cigar happened to glance in Reef’s direction as he marched past. Dark smoke poured through the open door, causing him to run down the hallway in panic ahead of Reef, shouting for help. The battered ship groaned exhaustively with every step.

 

He had to try, Reef thought.

 

What else was there to do?

 

---

 

Reef collapsed on the beach and gasped. The smoldering hulk of what was a ship did the same. He took several plunging breaths, taking in the overwhelming scent of salt and smoke embedded in his coat. Rubbing it out of his eyes, he spotted a crowd gathered around the wreckage. 

 

Time to go.

 

He noticed his leather overcoat was nearly burned off his back. He chose to stand up and tear it off in a single rip. It landed in the tide behind him as he wove his way past the onlookers on the beach. None of the people seemed to notice the broad shouldered man moving past them. They seemed to be curious about the blackened and smoking ship that washed up on shore that afternoon, interrupting their lunch.

Standing on what remained of the ship's deck was a woman watching Reef’s exit. That icy glare pierced the back of his skull again, but he didn’t look back... not even after hearing a cold laugh far across the water.