So I don't really know how this came into my head, but AU ish thingy.


The pitch black sky split open with an earthshattering roar as the waves battered either side of the ship, causing it to lurch violently with every rolling crest. The scattered seamen battled ferociously with the rigging, wild ropes whipping furiously through the air as the wind screeched furiously around them. In the midst of the mayhem, a woman huddled, limbs tied together to the mast; neither in the way nor helping she whimpered with every sudden pitch and roll of the waves.

"She's bad luck, I'm telling yer. Why d'you have to bring 'er?" Two men shouted to one another over the howling of the wind and the creaking of the ship as she struggled to stay upright in the raging storm.

"She i… my si…er, couldn't ve.. ell leave … behind …ravaged ….merican savages!" Half of his words were lost to the wind's voice as the deck tilted dangerously to one side.

"…El she'll…..ave to…." His words were swallowed as he pulled the woman – girl, really- to the railing, casting her, legs still bound, over the side.

The roaring of the waves, the screeching of the wind and her brother's broken scream swirled around her as she fell, terrified, into the churning depths below.

Weighed down by her already sodden skirts, her entire body seemed to shatter from the impact of hitting the freezing water as she was instantly swept under by the rampaging current. She could think of nothing but how damnably cold it was, and how her poor mother was going to take it if only one of her beloved children returned.

Everything went black as she sank deep into the churning water and the ship continued her laboured journey through the storm.

She woke to darkness. At least she assumed she woke up. At first she thought she was dead, but the cold had permeated her bones and saturated her skin, her very bones seeming to scream in frozen agony; nowhere in the bible did it say she would be cold in death. Fire, she had been expecting, burning in eternal damnation had seemed almost pleasant. Throughout her short life, she had been cold. Coal had cost too much, and the lord of the manor would have overlooked it had she been older and more… willing to his advances.

Hatred swirled through her, hot and heady, warming her chilled, broken bones. The ocean as it swirled around her seemed to whisper to her, encouraging her hatred of the man, spreading warmth from her heart around her body, easing the pain.

Sorrow touched her as she thought about her mother, left to fend for herself. Whilst her brother cared for her in his way, only she knew what her mother needed and when. Leaving her had been one of the most painful things she had ever done, and it was her brother's fault that their mother was going to be left alone.

Thinking of her brother led her to his crew mates. Bastards, the lot of them. They'd tried to force her, on their first night at sea. She'd refused, and her brother had come by, hearing her panicked screams as they had forced her legs apart. Anger and malice coursed through her, sending a tingling through her body, from the crown of her head to the very tips of her toes, leaving her painless.

She experimentally twitched her fingers in front of her, opening her eyes properly. The storm still raged above her, the cresting waves seeming to devour each other greedily as lightning split the sky and illuminated her surroundings.

She was surrounded.

A hundred beings hung, transfixed, in the water, just looking at her in her ripped dress, corset in rags and her legs still bound. Their pale, otherworldly skin seemed to glow in the faint light of the lightning, shimmering green and blue in the murky half-light.

She turned suddenly, flicking her head to the side as the beings glided towards her. Closing her eyes tightly as they drew near, she screamed as their ghostly hands roamed over her broken body, untangling her hair. Softly, their hands caressed her skin, soothing and healing her battered bones, untying her legs and gently removing the remnants of her dress, running their hands down her legs until she felt them meld together. They whispered to her, asking her name and who had caused her such harm.

Her worries faded into nothing as hatred consumed her. Those men; all men. They were responsible for her death. She knew now, that men were evil.

They had thrown her to her death.

Using her pretty face, her haunting, salt roughened voice and the wonderful freedom her tail had given her, she would repay the favour.

They would suffer as she had suffered.

She would lure them to their deaths.