I don't want to die. I don't want to die.
The thought pounded through her head as her hands still searched for an object that would float. Anything that would save her from the watery, unmarked grave that lay below her. She had been underwater for far too long now. Her chest was ripping apart, her head was exploding from lack of oxygen. Reaching out feebly, she made one last effort to save her life. Something rough and hard brushed her hand. It seemed to be rising in the water, fighting to get above the crushing weight of the ocean. Digging her fingernails into the wood, she grabbed it and held on for dear life. The wood finally surfaced, bringing Katherine above the water with it. She drank in the air as if she was parched and the air was cool water. Looking around her, she saw was that she was utterly alone, surrounded by debris - all that was left of the mighty vessel that had been floating peacefully on the water only a few minutes ago.
I'm going to die here, she thought. Everyone is lost, taken down into the sea by some monster, and now there is only me. She thought of all the people she had seen aboard the Marauder. Men and women going to a new world to start a new life. Sailors, young and old, who didn't deserve to die like this. And the children - oh, the children. Just yesterday she had seen a family strolling on the deck together, with two little ones, the little boy looking like he'd just learned to walk. Now they were under the cold, merciless sea, and she, Katherine, was alive. She didn't understand how this could happen.
Her thoughts were interrupted by an unearthly roar of the sea. She turned towards the sound, and was shocked to see a ship that looked as though it had come from the bottom of the ocean. The ship sailed towards her slowly, glistening with water. It kept coming closer until the sharp-toothed creature carved into its bow was almost upon her. Katherine just looked up, wide-eyed, at the colossal ship above her. A gruff male voice from the ship told some unknown party there weren't any survivors.
"Good," a cold voice answered. The owner of the voice stepped onto the bow of the ship to look over the ocean, placing himself in Katherine's line of sight. She had to stop herself from screaming when she saw he. "He" appeared to be a man, except for the octopus-like growths coming from his face where a normal man would grow a beard. The thing didn't have a nose either. She stared at it in stunned horror, both repulsed and fascinated by this supernatural being. The creature finally noticed her in the water below him.
"There's a woman in the water!"
"Should we get her, Captain?"
The "captain" stared at her icily. A frigid tingling went up Katherine's spine. "No," the captain said after a moment. "Leave the girl in the water."
With that, the ship began to move off into the now setting sun, leaving her to stare after it. She could almost swear she heard the distant sounds of a pipe organ in its wake. I must be going insane.