Spam

He returned and rushed to the tavern, expecting to find Bethany to greet him. Instead, everyone avoided his glance. Now in terror, he grabbed one of the tavern maids by the arm, wrenched her around until she faced him. She blurted out an address, and he threw her to the ground and rushed out the door.

He knew long before he reached his destination. When he read her name upon the gravestone, his heart was filled with hallow hate. He hated God. He hated England. He hated everything around him, and swore never to return. He never learned how she died, and never cared.

Before the Blue Rose sailed away from the bay for the last time, Jude gave any on his crew a last chance to leave, but none did. He had been the only one with an anchor in England, the rest of his crew having run away from home and drafted, or long ago buried their loved ones. They were the only family each other had left.

Hunted for desertion, having nothing but the ship and barely enough food, they quickly turned to piracy. Originally hunting only foreign ships, they turned to hunting English merchant ships by necessity. Horrifically successful, the Blue Rose became the Bloody Rose, and earned a legendary reputation. Known for their policy of leaving no survivors to identify them, as well as for their unusual figurehead, the Bloody Rose brought fear to the once peaceful waters around Britain. The Bloody Rose was an unusually large and well equipped warship. This, combined with a well trained crew and his military and local marine knowledge, allowed the ship to make short work of most of its victims. He learned that his reputation distorted descriptions of himself from a captured sailor right before he killed him. He decided then that they would reap one last merchant ship before he and his men would retire to some land far away. Four years of murder had worn away at even his frozen heart.

It was then that they spotted an unusually large merchant ship. The ship sailed slow as if laden, and Jude knew immediately that it was a prize he could not ignore. Instinct tugged at his mind with doubt, but greed tempted even louder. At night they had tried to sneak up to attack, but the target oddly sped up and disappeared into the darkness, no lights marking their position. Ignoring the signs, he ordered the ship to keep course in the hopes of catching the ship.

And now he realized it was all a trap. His thoughts were jarred away as a lantern lit up the stern of the enemy ship, now feet away from the Bloody Rose’s port side. At least the enemy captain had some humor.

The impact came with a deafening crack, followed by a bellowing, thunderous groan. Thrown down upon the deck, he watched in horror as his first mate was smashed into red jelly between the embrace of the other ship’s figurehead and the Bloody Rose’s main mast. He was mercifully in the ship’s prow. Another crack and the sight of the mast falling towards him, however, let him know he would not be spared.

As he watched the giant tree trunk fall towards him, he felt an odd calm wash over him. Even stranger still, he thought he heard Bethany calling his name. Tears, not sea water, stung his eyes. A now unfamiliar emotion squeezed his heart. Guilt and sadness tugged at him as he remembered: today was her birthday. Nothing around him mattered in those last seconds, all he wanted to do was see her again. Adrenaline slowed the mast’s fall.

For the first time in five years, he prayed.