The island was a flat topped mass of ice and snow that lingered in a cloudless patch of clear sky. How it got there? No one knew for sure. There were myths about Arthurian age magic and sea deities who thought the island was too impure for the water so they banished it from the sea. Some people said that it was raised from the ground by a mad scientist. Others claimed that it rose after Jesus was crucified. Obviously, all bullshit. Ara wrapped her cursed scarf tightly around…

   November 21st,

     My Lady Captain Meiling,

         My first mate, Arabella Porter has disposed of Charlotte Bennet. We are happy to inform you that the former Captain of the S.S Silver Widow is no longer a problem and are very eager for our payment at the end of the month.

     Your loyal ally,

    Captain David Brattle of the P.A.S Nyctimene

   November 23rd

      You're an absolute fuck up. Come to the island at…

    "Feed her to the sky!" Lang shouted.

    "Chain her to a bed in the brig!" Someone called and the rest cheered on. Arabella stood aloof in the corner with her eyes fixed on shadows cast from lamp light that moved to voices on the walls of the galley. David was in the middle of the crowd, writing down brainstormed ideas. 

    "Maybe get her a maid uniform!"

    So far, nothing sounded particularly nice. It wasn't that she expected them to vote for Charlotte…

        "Enter" A soft low voice said from behind the fabric screen wall. David cleared his throat and entered through the doorway with Ara behind him. It had been two days since the Bloody Lotus had dumped Charlotte Bennet onto the P.A.S Nyctimene and David had taken it as an invitation. He rolled his shoulders back and shot Arabella a slow nod as she came up next to him.

      "Captain David Brattle of the P.A.S Nyctimene, my lady captain." Arabella announced and stepped…

               It had been a month since Ara found herself in David's study. No...maybe it just felt like a month. There were no more questions about trust, no more dense silences, and sometimes Arabella felt as though the mutiny had all been a dream. Whoever David was on the S.S Silver Widow, was no longer around. Everyone seemed to get along ok and the although she had expected the idea of equal treatment to be more talk than practice, somehow, it worked and even felt natural. Jabber…

      "Relax." David said with his feet propped up on his desk and his hood over his eyes.

      "You want me to relax?"

      "Yeah, you're being loud." He replied in a slightly whiny tone as he dropped his hood down around his neck. Ara stared for a moment at a human skull that sat at the corner of his desk. "That's Peter. He was the captain of this ship before I was."

       "Where am I?" Ara crossed her arms.

       "The P.A.S Nyctimene."  She had…

     The bottle of bourbon lay empty next to her,

     Not a care on the world ...

     The bottle of rum lay empty on the desk,

     Gone...she's gone

     Never going back

     Never coming back

     Ara hiccupped with her cheek pressed against the wooden floor of the Rejected Gear.

     Charlotte groaned with her cheek pressed against the wooden surface of her desk.

     If Captain wanted her gone, that was fine. Who needs an…

    On the corner of Commercial and Fourier st, a window became darkened with green curtains as a tall, French beauty with a heavy ray gun at her hip held the door open for Captain Cortez.

   "You're Dominique," He scanned her.

   "Keep your eyes on your treasure island." She grimaced and he walked past her with a chuckle sitting lazily at a table where Charlotte sat with Arabella behind her, blond hair tucked behind her ears with a red bandana in her hair and her legs…

             "Question for you, girl." The sailor leaned forward on his bar stool as Ara set the pints of ale down in front of them. "Could you tell me how loud the beds here squeak? Give me a squeal just for example."  His two mates laughed with him and fifteen year old  Ara glanced over to Mrs. McCarthy with an intense eye roll. The portly woman held her finger up which…

        There were gray clouds in the sky the day that Samuel and Zachary showed up at the captain's study. They were greeted by pats on the back and thick hugs and cheers. 

        "After Singapore, I was sent to Tokyo to keep an eye on Captain Meiling of the Bloody Lotus. That's where I found this sorry bloke, no joke, wandering into a ramen shop." Sam knocked Zachary one in the back as they all sat in the big room on Zachary's bed. Roderick explained everything that they…

       "Have you forgotten how much profit we gained in the middle east?" Nate chimed in as the crew stood gathered around their captain in the galley. Charlotte had been sitting there for the last fifteen minutes, letting the crew ask their questions.  "Are you saying that your hidden agenda-"

        "Listen, I'm-" 

        " Maybe you should stop talking about yourself and begin thinking about your crew." Ara said with a quiet calm that made Charlotte inwardly…

       There's something to be said for fear. It's one of the most powerful forces in the world if you tilt your head a bit to think about it. For example, when a pirate aims a weapon in your direction, it's not the gun itself that forces your hands to slowly move above your head. It's that feeling that you could lose everything, and not just what you have at present, if you don't do as they ask. People who are afraid are also obedient to those who shoot the fear into them before…

       "So what do you need?" Ara sat with her feet up on the captain's desk, once a counter of shifting papers, tonight it was clear and wooden. 

       "We're making changes to the way we run things." Charlotte's face remained down with her blue tricorn hat bowing over it. 

        "Changes?" Ara leaned forward with a grabbed attention and anxious brow. That's when Charlotte's eyes dipped up from under the blue hat to stare Ara down in the dim light. 

       …

    Back across the Atlantic, on a big island, in a big city, in a big house, in a big chair, an anxious little girl sat across from her well reputed parents, not daring to pick up her cup for fear they would see the tea shaking inside. 

    "Chrysanthemum, I don't very much care that you were deported from the states. It only matters that you're back, safe and sound." Her father said. 

    "Darling, we were so worried," Her mother said. "Now what is it, you wanted to…

    "I can't imagine how Thomas would react if he knew that the only girl in his social class even remotely interested in marrying him was a lesbian." 

    "You've been laughing for thirty minutes, don't you ever stop?" 

    "I mean, I'm not laughing at you for being a lesbian. I'm mainly laughing at-" She had to stop because her laughter began to dominate the remaining air in her lungs. "At him…"

She burst out again, hysterically keeling over. 

   "What'd…

            Chrysanthemum and Ara glared face to face, a drop of sweat, making its way slowly down the sky pirate's forehead. Chrys wanted a ticket but Ara stood in the way between her and the ticket booth, sitting on the counter with a gun cocked back at the shivering woman behind it. It had been difficult, finding out which platform Chrys was on and Arabella was certainly out of breath. 

             "Out of the way, I must find Thomas!" Chrys snapped, frustrated. 

 …

    It had been a silent morning. Ara had stolen two wooden cups of tea, silently. Chrys had cleaned up her bloody mouth, silently. Ara had delivered a telegraph to New York, silently. They had walked aimlessly around the streets of New Orleans…..silently hand cuffed together. How Ara had lost the key, she wasn't sure. All the two women knew was that they hated each other, they were handcuffed together, and there was nothing they could do about it. So, they sat in an alley way, the…

      "I'll take a southern comfort on the rocks with a splash of seltzer." Ara demanded of the bartender as she let the hood that she had made out of her cursed scarf, fall around her neck. 

     "If you want southern comfort," a man with a scar on his bare shoulder said in a  smirnoff stained slur, "I got some right here."  Ara scanned the bastard up and down and scoffed,

    "And I have something called english aim where we kill things with one shot. Not like you…

       Glass shattered in a dark marble hallway with the mysterious red glow of an oil lantern, swaying and creaking with movement as they stepped, their boots clacking on the stone, into the classroom, crunching on broken glass. The lights in the lecture hall flickered on to show multiple chalk boards that covered the walls of the entire hall. Thomas stepped forward, smoothing back sweaty light brown hair that had stuck to his forehead and the back of his neck. He pushed a board at…

    Harvard square was bustling with students and the faint smell of cafe's swept into the strong essence of genius that made Ara sort of shift in place with a frown that wanted to creep out but remained in a blank stare. This was the first place she had come to after sneaking off the ship she had smuggled herself onto to get…here. Thomas had a friend attending the prestigious university of Harvard and Eudora had "bet the balls she didn't have" that he might be visiting with this…