A Drifter's Inferno

I am drifting…

Or so I think. It’s been hours. Maybe days. Months would be too much.

As I lay on this curved wooden structure, I feel numb. The aching hasn’t stopped. The cold wind blasts chills down my spine, but all I can do is stare at the holes in the wood. Through them, I see an endless horizon of sparkling blue with no land in sight. With no shelter but this canoe, I scream.

What I’ve lost is far too much. The treasure I’ve held so dear to my heart has vanished.

I scream.

I scream.

I scream until my ears ring and I drift out of consciousness.

I wake to the bright sun beaming in the sky. It’s so bright that I squint to look out over the canoe’s edge. The vastness of blue overwhelms me. I crawl back into a fetal position. As I wrap my hands around me, I feel my skin, dry and flaky. The heat is like acid. Each touch is fragile like an eggshell.

With no sound of life, I lay in the sun to rot away. It’s what I deserve.

The slightest of winds makes the water sway in an aimless direction. I have no journey. No destination. No worth.

I thought I won. I had gotten away and beaten him. I had found the very thing he worked so hard to obtain. But it slipped through my fingers, too quick for me to grasp.

My stomach turns from the smell of rotten eggs in the sun. The program in my muscles becomes overactive and forces me to hurl into the water. I spit up mostly blood. Though, as it floats downward, I watch as my last dinner sparkles in the twilight. I draw in a shallow breath and wipe my mouth. I slowly look over to the source of the smell.

Our captain sits with his jaw ripped open. Flies escape as the sun continues to roast his deformed flesh. His black beard is caked with dried blood and maggots. His slump stature gives no support to his neck as it bobs back and forth with the sway of the water. The oar is still held in his hand but a finger is pointing towards me or through my soul.

He is no longer the steadfast captain I once knew. He is a shell of a man I wanted to be.

Had we only reached the shore during daylight. Had we escaped hours before. We could've reached freedom. We would have escaped the devil’s wrath.

Had I not robbed him blind. Had I been honorable to my savior.

In the eye of the storm, it is a sailor’s duty to serve blindly to the lord, for the crooked man is ready to claim any man’s vessel.

Or so I think it goes…

I wanted more. So I took from my captain’s booty and readied for the night. I didn’t know my actions would bring such a storm. I thought I could travel to the light, but the darkness reached me first. I had no choice but to save my hero. Though, once he learned of my true intentions, a gunfight he couldn’t survive ensued.

So here I lay in my misery. This…inferno I built.

Till suddenly, I hear a chirp.