Shimmery Scales

Part 3

Charlie felt like he was at the top of the world as he walked back to his ship. There was still a pit in his stomach with how he reacted to Alpha's affection. Being shy did not let him say all the words he wanted to say to Alpha. Though there was always next time and even if he was terrified about that next time he was still so excited about this new thing in their relationship.

As he approached his ship, the familiar smell of human blood filled his nostrils. This made him freeze and caused anxiety to wash over him, this wasn't just a small cut, he could smell that it was a lot of blood. He hated himself that it was making his mouth water, despite how much it digested him. It was something that was part of him that he would always be ashamed of. He just had to push it back and be concerned about his crew. They could be so stupid sometimes and may have hurt each other.

He walked up the plank to his ship in a hurry.

He froze. Out of all the things to walk into it had to be this.

It was a dead mermaid.

Her eyes were still open in fear. Blood leaked out of her. He felt so bad for her but the worst thing was that he only could think of Alpha and his safety. The cut on his side.

His crewmates were snickering and taking sips of rum from their glasses. They looked so proud and Charlie hated them for it. He truly believed humans were more monstrous than him.

"Hey, Charles look at the prize we got. She is going to sell for thousands of gold at the black market." One of the mates said.

"I told you never to kill anyone!" Charlie choked.

The dirty pirate stumbled over to him, obviously drunk and patted him on the shoulder.

"Come on Caption, we caught her crawling up our ship and stealing supplies. The bitch is a dirty thief. To be honest I'm angry at the boys too! She probably would have been of some use to all of us alive. If you know what I mean."

He winked at Charlie causing him to pulled away in digest. He fought back tears, he learned the hard way that crying around his crew wasn't a good idea. He couldn't look at any of them.

"I'm going to my quarters."

"Captain come on it's just stupid mermaid!"

Charlie did not respond. All he wanted to do was throw him against the deck and bite his face off. He couldn't deal with more blood shredded it on his deck though. Throughout his life, he learned the world was cruel, and adding more cruelty would only make it worse.

"Just tell everyone I need to be alone," he finally said.

As he walked away he heard whispers.

Charlie instantly sat down and slammed his face on his desk. Why must every happy moment turn into misery? He wondered about that woman that was dead on his deck. He wondered if she had a family, people she loved and if she had dreams.

Alpha. Oh god, Alpha. It was just as possible for him to be the one staring dead eyed at him on the deck. The image of the cut on his side flashed before Charlie's eye. This already has happened to Alpha. He wasn't safe.

Charlie felt tears build up in his eye again and drop down on the desk.

He clearly was in love with Alpha, but now he knew that love and closeness was a dangerous thing. Being close to him gave the chance to his crew of finding out. They would slaughter him without hesitation. He had to push him away because if something happened to him his only happiness in his life would be gone. It would be dreadful to never see him again but Charlie would lose all meaning if he knew Alpha wasn't around at all. If the reason why he died was because of him. He couldn't live with himself.