It must have been days, then. Hawk thought he had heard voices through his restless dreams. A woman - not Elizabeth - and a man, whispering softly over him.
“He’s just right there! Let me hold him, Mara!”
“Are you out of your fucking mind?”
“Just one cuddle?”
“No!”
No. No, he must have hallucinated that as well. Just like he hallucinated the blue-eyed sea creature with a fishtail and the ass of an angel. What had his hallucination said to him then?
Ah yes. You are so much and everything I desire.
Hawk snorted and hit his head against the wooden headboard. His subconscious was the most pathetic place in the world.
He was going to have words with Elizabeth for pampering him like this. Elizabeth was supposed to be his partner. Hawk cursed his rum, his stomach, himself, and everything around him.
Finally, he managed to drag himself out of bed, and he stumbled downstairs to locate some food. Something to soak up the hangover should be easy enough. After all, Elizabeth Barnes didn’t run a fucking tavern for nothing.
He settled himself in a dark corner, projecting the aura of a man who was not to be fucked with, in a way that came all too naturally to him. Soon enough the mistress of the establishment plopped into the chair across from him.
“Welcome back,” Elizabeth said, pushing a cup his way. “It’s water.”
“Don’t tell anyone,” Hawk snarked and gulped down the life-giving beverage with eager, parched lips.
“So, your crew is back.”
“Fuck.”
“They thought you’d drowned yourself,” Elizabeth continued with the air of utter nonchalance. “They said they found your cabin empty and the storm windows opened.”
“Fucking...”
“Empty bottles of rum on the floor. No signs of a struggle.”
“Fucking fuck!”
“If it wasn’t for that lunatic in the courtyard, I wouldn’t have known how to explain it away myself!” she sighed.
Hawk’s eyebrow shot up towards his hairline. "The who now?"
“Some clown,” she waved in the direction of her door, “started spinning tales of ghouls aboard ships that take on the shape of the captain, and how they haunt the sailors and trick them into leaving their captains behind to lure them into a den of killer mermaids. You should have heard him!” Elizabeth laughed, her hand pressed to her heart. “Oh god, Hawk! He... he’s... ahahahhahah... He’s got your whole crew so riled up and fraught with guilt that you’ll have them eating out of your hand for a week, at least!”
“And they... believed him?” Hawk’s brain hurt.
“He’s a heck of a storyteller,” Elizabeth shrugged. “The point is, whether or not they believe a ghost stole your form is irrelevant. They believe they abandoned you at port and they’re deeply ashamed.”
“Good,” Hawk cleared his throat. “Well, that’s exactly what happened, wasn’t it?”
“Aye aye, Captain.” Elizabeth rose with a smile and placed a warm hand on Hawk’s shoulder. “You should thank the kid, when you get a chance.”
“What’s his name?”
“Something Silver?” Elizabeth’s hand gestured into the air as if attempting to snatch a memory back from it. “Oh, there he is now! Mr. Silver, is it?”
“What are you doing?” Hawk hissed, in no mood to deal with any clown, including this one, who was apparently so full of lies that they fell from his lips like...
“Captain Hawk!”
