A.N. ~ good to see ya! Been a little while, but here's a new chapter! Oh, and I created my own Creepypasta, so if you're interested in reading her origin story, my Quotev account url has the same name as my account here. Just look up "Ven'aranar Angel Quotev" and click on the published works option. The story's title is 'Karma'.
Now, I won't keep you away from the new chapter. Please enjoy!
"Jackie, you've been in there for nearly half an hour!" Jeff's voice ended in a yelp as a large knife sped past his head and clattered against the wall, leaving thin trail of water droplets behind. "What the heck, Jack?!"
"Oh, sorry. I thought L.J. had snuck in again or you were Offender."
"Grief, you shower armed? Wait, L.J.'S SEEN YOU SHOWERING?!"
"He tried to see me showering, but I was armed with shampoo that squirted at a high velocity from its bottle that could conveniently be aimed at eyeballs easily. And I live with a bunch of psychotic mass murderers. Of course I shower armed. And sorry, I didn't think it was that long. I kinda jumped into a freezing lake, you know."
He sighed, nonchalantly causing a small clatter as the knife connected with the counter. "Yeah, well, that was your own fault. We could've asked Trender to make or find us some swimming gear or something, but you had to literally dive in head-first."
"I'm a straightforward idiot who doesn't like making things last longer than they have to. Sorry that I'm impatient. Now go away so I can dry off and get dressed."
"Sure, sure, just don't take much longer. I'm sorta covered in blood…"
"Don't you have your own shower?"
"Your bathroom and shower water are warm already."
In less than ten minutes, Jakara was in warm pajamas and curled up in bed, drowsily toying with her favorite knife as she idly waited to see where her boyfriend would decide to sleep.
Or at least, she was drowsy until something very cold seemed to slide under the covers behind her and ragged breathing filled her ears.
Her round eyes, as she turned around, observed the translucent, mangled body of a male sailor very, veery calmly a moment before she let out a screech and rolled onto the floor, bringing up her knife and backing up as he shot to his feet.
"Jackie, what's wrong? Jackie?!" Jeff's nearly panicked voice barely registered in her startled mind as she continued backing up.
"U-um…Jeff, c-can… THERE'S A FREAKIN' ZOMBIE GHOST THING IN MY BED!" Said creature grinned evilly before starting to shamble threateningly towards the girl, whose back was now pressed up against the wall and fear was wrestling with her self-control.
I wanna run, hide, ANYTHING! It's a ghost, it can't die. But what can it do to me? Reach inside my body? Do weapons even work against him? WhatdoIdowhatdoIdowhatdoIdowhatdoI—
Suddenly a knife went flying into the ghost sailor's neck and it tumbled over before evaporating, leaving Jakara to slowly turn her head to where Jeff was dripping with nothing but a towel around his waist. Not that she really cared at the moment, considering her overwhelming terror.
"Are you okay? Did it hurt you? Jackie?" She slowly nodded, swallowing hard.
"I-I'm okay. Um, we better tell the others."
"…Okay, now the universe is just screwing with us," Jakara mumbled. She started at the creak of the boards beneath her and glanced around the surrounding area nervously.
The moment she and Jeff had left her bedroom, the hallway…well, the best way to describe it would be that the tan walls and carpeted floor flickered and...phased, maybe?...to the likeness of a ship's hold.
"Or you brought the ghosts home with you." Jeff's knife was in his hand and he continued to scan the area continuously for any signs of danger.
"Well, I'd believe that. Crap, we have to find the others and figure things o—ahhh!" The girl snatched for her friend's hand as the floor beneath her suddenly disappeared, but he was too slow and the sort of trap door that had appeared slammed shut, leaving Jakara to land painfully. "Ggh, that was way less fun than Tom and Jerry made it out to be…"
"C-could you please g-get off?" She rolled off a squirming form, observing with wide eyes as Hoodie staggered back onto his feet.
"Sorry, the floor kinda suddenly stopped working. Are you okay?" The shy proxy offered a hand and she accepted, standing with a wince before looking around. She was in a hallway. The hallway you'd expect to see in Trender Mansion.
"Y-yes, but I g-got separated from M-Masky. W-what's going on?"
"Um, I don't really know. Jeff and I had a surprise visit from a ghost sailor and when we went into the hallway, we ended up inside a ship. He said the ghosts might have followed us ba—oh, crap!" She drew out her knives when she took notice of a couple new apparitions stumbling towards them with their swords drawn.
"I-I don't have a w-weapon!" Jakara glanced at Hoodie's cowering form and suddenly all fear was replaced with complete and utter anger as she handed him one knife before stepping between the spirits and the masked killer.
"What do you think you're doing coming here without permission and then terrorizing people who never did a single thing to you, huh?! Go. To. Sleep!" The ghost's stepped back with wide eyes, Hoodie stepped back with wide eyes hidden by his mask, the girl continued looming and began to take slow, purposeful steps towards the now-unnerved intruders.
One of them finally nudged his friend, snapping them out of it and charging towards Jakara, who blocked a sword swing – wondering how she could even do that considering they were ghosts – before jumping back to avoid the second blade.
"Hoodie, if you're not fighting, you're giving me that knife so I don't end up a ghost myself." He immediately handed it over when she got close enough, but suddenly snatched it back and darted towards one of the creatures. With one vicious, well-aimed jab, he dug the weapon into its neck before kicking the remaining phantom and stabbing its chest.
He turned back to the girl, who was staring dumbstruck and he began squeezing one arm nervously. "Thou shalt n-not kill, right?"
"U-um, right, though I don't know if it counts as killing when they're already dead…" Suddenly, the area around them blurred and morphed into the deck of a ship. The air around them was black, the boards were translucent and emanated a pale whitish-green glow, and there were a lot of ghosts around. "Ooohh, crap."
"Oh, hi guys!" They turned to see Toby waving energetically with one hand as a pair of the spirits tied him to a mast.
"Uh, Toby, less waving, more fighting. Don't let them tie you up. And…hi." Jakara backed away from the first phantom to approach and raised her knife threateningly, bumping into Hoodie who had done the same.
"Now then, what have we here? A pretty damsel and her friend, eh?" Both teenager's heads swiveled to observe one of the intruders who wore a tricorn hat and different attire from the others. Though his face and hands were as mangled as all his fellow spirits, this one's coat, shirt, pants, and even his boots were clearly of better make.
The captain, huh? Wonderful, now I have to deal with my temper and somebody from an era where women were little more than decorations. FAN-FRICKING-TASTIC!
"Hello, sir. Might I inquire as to why you're tying up our friend and attacking us? It's really putting a strain on the last shreds of my non-existent sanity." Hoodie glanced at Jakara and took a few inching shuffles away, though this wasn't missed by the captain.
"I see that's somethin' to be feared, then. Well little miss, we're simply punishing you for trespassin'. Nothing wrong with that, is there?"
"Well, except for the part where you're currently trespassing on our territory, no, it's perfectly alright. So why not explain what you're doing attacking us in our house, huh?"
"J-Jaka, m-maybe you should calm d-down. W-we're outn-numbered and they have s-swords." She glanced at Hoodie and for a moment, her eyes softened before a cocky grin plastered itself on her face and the poor proxy sighed under the realization of what was probably going to happen.
"Those are the odds, huh? Hah, then it must be Christmas! Besides, knives are great counters for swords! Sure, they have bigger blades, but those are useless if you're up close and personal."
"A-are you s-sure you're not T-Toby's s-sister?" Her smile stretched even wider.
"Well now, it sounds like you're looking for a fight, missy." She looked at the captain, still grinning like a maniac, and shrugged.
"Nope, but you sort of started the fighting, what with the times your boys came after us first. I'm just cheerful when it comes to defending myself. And don't like waking up in the middle of the night to somebody I don't know in my room. Regardless, are you planning to keep up your 'punishing' or are we going to part ways all friendly like?"
Hoodie almost face-palmed when she slightly adopted an old western accent and speech-pattern. She loved doing that, especially when she knew something was going to end in violence. Who didn't love sounding like Malcolm Reynolds a moment before you kick somebody's butt?
"Think you can fend off all my men?"
"Can't hurt to try."
"Poor choice of words." The captain flicked his hand and three crewmen all rocketed forward at once, drawing their swords.
"It was. How strange you think we'll stop with just your men. I'm not excluding you from the fun!" She caught a blade with her own before delivering a vicious kick to her opponent's head before spinning and clashing with his friend's weapon, sliding closer and connecting her elbow to his chin.
Hoodie simply ducked and dodged before bashing the handle of his own knife into the older male's temple before kicking his chest.
"J-Jaka…" She glanced at him curiously before realizing he was probably hoping for a plan.
"Sorry, no fancy strategy here. Well, except for the part where we have somebody nearby who could be useful…" She suddenly made a dash for where Toby was struggling and promptly stabbed both his attackers in their backs before cutting him free.
"Yes! So how do I do anything without weapons?" He grinned happily, pumping his fists in the air despite his predicament.
"Weelll…they have swords you can steal?"
"B-but…swords are so…flimsy." He picked up the blade of one of the downed phantoms, then frowned. "Why can I hold this? Isn't it a ghost weapon?"
"Why can we cause them physical damage? Heck, I don't know! Just…go nuts." Five more ghouls were approaching, and Hoodie was still dealing with two of his own problems while the captain watched silently. "Christmas indeed…"
"When does New Years come around?" Toby tugged futilely at his restraints and Jakara grumbled under her breath, glaring crossly at the ropes holding her to the mast tightly.
"Now, ya weren't too nice, girlie. Do ye know how many of my men you just murdered?" The captain lifted up her chin and the brunette promptly twisted and bit his hand as hard as she could, getting slapped as a result.
"Let's see. Considering it was self defense and you're already dead…none? Look, you tried tying us up and 'punishing' us for…why are you even punishing us? Your ship is in our mansion!"
"J-Jaka, you sho-should calm down. D-don't anger our c-captor." Hoodie's soft, nervous voice seemed to get the girl to stop and she sighed, still glaring at the captain despite the fact that she'd stopped the majority of her impulsive emotions.
"Ye invaded our ship first, missy. Unless diving into a lake and fishin' around ain't called trespassin' nowadays." She tried face-palming, but just settled for bowing her head with a sigh.
"Oh, that. Well, ever heard of a 'do not enter' sign? How were we supposed to know you were even around? All we knew was that there was a ship wreck and a pile of planks."
"Let me go! Rrgh, I swear I'm gonna keelhaul you with your own intestines!"
"I know that rant," the girl mumbled a moment Jeff was dragged into view by three very strained-looking ghosts, followed by Liu and Masky who were completely unable to move, since cutlasses were pressed to their necks.
"Great, the whole party's here! Now what?" Toby smiled, though Jakara was able to get just enough leg room to kick him.
"Heh, now we have ourselves a nice show as ye walk the plank." Everyone froze at the captain's words. Even his own crewmembers, though they seemed less terrified and more excited. "And I think THE LASS SHOULD BE THE FIRST TO GO!" Cheers erupted from the spirits and Jeff began struggling and shouting more while his girlfriend simply remained silent, eyes darting around frantically as she took in her surroundings.
There was a bit of a scuffle, though somebody holding a blade to Jeff's neck managed to quell all rebellion and Jakara was led at sword-point to an ancient rotting board that led out over swirling green mist that resembled boiling water.
And something was moving in it, just out of sight.
"What'cha stoppin' for, Lass? Keep movin'!" She choked on a gasp when the tip of a sword broke the skin on her back, and glanced over her shoulder to where Jeff watching with wide, pleading eyes that seemed to speak.
"Please don't do it."
Sorry, Jeff…
"MOVE IT!" The girl backed up, teetering on the edge and finally going over the brink, yet catching the wood with one hand.
"Well, captain. Gonna come out here and deal with me? Or chickening out and sending somebody else to do it? Sad little king on his sad little hill?"
Great, now I'm pulling out the Firefly quotes. But then…River.
With the eyes of everyone on him the imposing leader began fidgeting like a five-year-old in church, looking around before grumbling something and beginning to step out onto the plank, towards the tip where Jakara was dangling with both her hands on the edge.
Good, he's too stupid to threaten anybody else with this on his mind. Looks like I was right…
She remembered how many sailors couldn't swim, and had noted how the captain had avoided the edges of the ship as much as possible. Things were quite easily pieced together from there.
As soon as the spirit was standing right on top of the girl's fingers – literally, and it happened to hurt – she drew herself up, gripped the wood firmly with both hands as a silent prayer slipped from her lips, then threw her weight downwards with as much force as possible…and snapped the board.