Rheumatic Obituary of a Drunken Sailor

Rheumatic Obituary of a Drunken Sailor

Jean, King of Thieves, stumbled across the rocky shore. His legs were caked in blood and dirt but he pressed on. He needed to see the grave.

Bezu’s swarthy skin gleamed in the sun as he heaved a massive coil of rope onto his shoulder. The rest of the small crew was below deck. He knew not why but he was glad of it. He loved the expanse of sea that stretched around him in a way that set his nerves alight. The thought of being alone with the ocean suddenly washed over him and left him aching and needy. His feelings were nothing but carnal and he instantly tried to quench his lust. He gracefully stalked across the wooden planks and hooked his tattooed fingers in the thick rope netting that swayed in the brisk breeze.

He clambered up; the muscles in his back rippling under tanned skin. Soon he reached the crow’s nest. He tossed the coil of rope into the wooden circular walls and followed, nimbly vaulting over.

His bare foot hit something smooth that skidded away and he let out a low, nervous laugh when he realized it was a flask of rum. No wonder why Black Eyed Jim had claimed to see visions of an androgynous creature swimming in the wake of the boat. The lookout must have been sloshed out of his mind.

He moved the coil of rope so that it took up as little space as possible and wondered what had possessed him to bring it all the way up to Black Eyed Jim’s post. He stared out at the deep blues of the ocean and began to calculate the estimated distance to the so-called Pirate King’s port, Casaterra.

He gave up after a moment and sighed as he tried—loathe as he was to do it—to shield himself from the whispering that floated to him on the breeze. He bent to retrieve the flask of run and took a sip of the fiery liquid. It burned its way down his throat.

He turned to look back at the expanse of ocean that stretched behind the fleet ship and his breath caught in his throat when he saw something trailing in the frothing wake of the ship.

The salt air was suddenly heavy around him. The tangy wind began to blow in fierce gales that whipped his hair so hard that it broke free of its cloth tie and lashed about like dark coils of maddened shadow. A chill crept up his spine and through his body.

He knew it was time for him to face the fate of the world as well as his own.

Jean fell onto the unforgiving ground and lay panting as waves lapped at his feet. His lips were cracked and dry and his raven hair had almost fallen out of its braid. The boy’s eyes rolled back into his head and he lay on the rocks unconscious, unaware of the savage cross that lay but a meter from him.

Bezu’s eyes rolled up in his head and he struggled not to be pulled into the strange yet achingly familiar throaty song that wound its way through his blood. The seductive voice that sang was ethereal, as were the cool fingers that turned his hot skin to gooseflesh. The singing stopped and he realized he was not alone. His back pressed against the tip of mast that Black Eyed Jim leaned against so often while on watch.

Bezu was instantly so cold that he was hot.

A body rubbed against him, liquid and pliant against the hard angles of his body. Soft panting puffed against his neck. He fought to control the grip of lust that rocked through him like a sudden storm. His eyes flew open and he gasped when mercilessly sharp nails raked their way down his back. He could barely register the color shifting skin and hair of the creature in front of him.

Pale fingers deftly undid the string holding Bezu’s pants up and the loose material pooled around his legs, billowing in the wind.

Cool hands guided his blazing ones to touch his throbbing erection. He shuddered and gasped, screwing his eyes shut at the shock of pleasure that wracked his body. His sweat slicked hand pumped against his slippery erection and his breath hitched when claws dug into him once more.

His mouth slack, he opened his eyes so that they were half lidded. He lazily rolled his balls between his fingers.

Shocking pale eyes stared back at him, hungry and needy.

“Mine,” it breathed and wrapped itself around him.

A hardness pressed against his groin as the creature ground their hips together. Liquid lips crashed against his and he pushed back, aching for more.

Jean awoke to soft pants and moans. The sounds aroused him despite the aches that twisted throughout his body. Low throaty sighs and pleadings and the slap of flesh against flesh had his hand travelling down toward his silently leaking erection.

Bezu shuddered with the pleasure as he splashed white over the ever-changing color of what he knew to be the sea itself. With his ejaculate gone, sadness and rightness and joy and despair all fluttered through him to replace it.

“God and love of my dreams, how did you find me?” he gasped as the creature continued to writhe against him, heady with its pleasure.

It let out a keening wail and emptied itself over his muscled abs. White and iridescent blue liquids swirled together on their stomachs and dripped from their legs.

“I have waited a long time for the true Pirate King to show himself to me once more,” the creature continued to rub sensually against Bezu and the swarthy man let out a low and confused moan. He felt betrayed.

“Shown myself to you, beloved?” Bezu wondered how he had been found. He had tried so hard to resist the call of the ocean for as long as he could in order to buy more time for his people.

“You alone hid from me, that was proof enough,” nails dug angrily into the muscle of his ass and Bezu let out a hoarse cry.

“Only to delay death, dearheart,” the words flowed off his tongue and though he wanted to bury them they were the truth. The nails relaxed and he was suddenly embraced. Tears slid down his chest from his lover’s eyes.

“There will be no reincarnation this time and though you will be with me forever, it hurts you to know the mortal world dies, does it not?” the whisper sent chills up his spine and Bezu clenched his jaw in an effort not to let the strangled sob out.

“There is no place in the realm of mortals for the two Kings to rule for the two Gods anymore,” his breath hished out past the knot in his throat.

“I know,” the creature hummed against him sadly. “But they brought it upon themselves by foolishly taking advantage of Mother’s generosity.”

“I know,” was Bezu’s solemn reply.

But knowing didn’t make it any easier.

Jean opened his eyes and tilted his head to watch as his brother’s apparitional countenance panted above a familiar creature, thrusting into the sea God with avarice. Waves lapped around the two intertwined bodies and the King of Thieves made a strangled sound as he continued to stroke himself knowing that this was the end of mortality.

Lightning flashed in a storm on the horizon and Jean blinked lethargically as he continued to pump his hand over his erection. His eyes fixed on the morbid cross made of jagged pieces of wood. The dim shape at the bottom was his brother’s mortal body, pierced by the wood of his ship. The cross pinned the Pirate King’s mortal body to the Earth.

He knew that the sea God had taken his brother’s body here to complete the ceremony.

“It’s time, darling.”

Bezu clenched his jaw and grabbed the flask of rum. He doused himself in it, feeling as though it clung to him the way destiny did.

Destiny rum.

Strong stuff, that.

With purpose he set to tying the rope securely to the tip of the mast. His fingers deftly tied a knot that was familiar and welcome. His God slipped the necklace of rope over his head and tightened it before pressing a fluidquick kiss to his mouth.

“I’ll see you in eternity,” the sea God whispered and tears of joy and sorrow ran down its cheeks, skin color shifting violently between hues of blue, gray and green.

“And I you,” Bezu replied.

Dark hair intertwined with silver-cerulean and silence reined as the clouds of Armageddon began to mass on the horizon.

The rope went taut.

Jean felt the presence of his lover, the God of earth. The lanky figure watched him through half lidded eyes as he bucked his hips into his tattooed hand. Earthy skin tones were streaked with vibrant cuts of green and red and he sighed at the thought of touching his beloved once more.

“Please,” he let it out as a plea but it was a command and they both knew it.

He felt blessed skin against his own when the creature straddled him. It shifted and slowly eased itself over his length. He smiled briefly but it was bittersweet as they rocked their hips together. The creature picked up a stone and pressed it against his throat. Spots swam through his vision and bright pleasure danced across the backs of his eyelids as orgasm rocked through them. Migmatitic immortal hands were trembling and diamond tears rained down on his face. He grasped those hands with his own and pressed down, asphyxiating himself.

When his pulse stopped the creature above him dragged a cross similar, yet different, to the one that pinned his brother’s body to the ground. He watched over his body from where he stood, incandescent and spectral. The God shoved the plain stone cross through his cadaver’s stomach and he felt the last ties to mortality leave him.

He noticed that his brother and the sea God were looking at him and his own lover with pleading, lustful eyes as they slammed together with painful pleasure time after time.

He gracefully picked his way through the rocks toward them and felt the God of earth at his back. How he had missed his lover despite knowing that their lust would succor in the fate of all mortals. They lay down beside the other King and God and everything turned into a sweaty haze that fogged his senses. Carnal sex raged through the four creatures even as a hellish storm broke loose to drown the mortal world.

A raging woman seeking revenge on her ungrateful creations took comfort and drew power from the love of her sons and their once human Kings.

The storm raged all tempest and scorn, tearing and destroying the footprint of mortal man from the great Gaia and Her abused body. The Gods and their Kings lay safe and in each other’s arms blocking out the sorrow and the loss; the anger and the betrayal.

When the storm finally abated the silence was still. A rope twanged taut.

Of mankind nothing remained save two empty shells that lay pinned to the earth, eyes rolled back in the last throes of humanity.