The ancient staircase creaked on the ninth step, with a loud groaning sound that sent shivers up her spine. Kailani froze, her heart pounding loudly in her ears.
Seconds passed, the only sound being the splash of waves as the ship continued bobbing.
Releasing breath she didn't know she had been holding, Kailani continued towards her destination. Although the lower decks were dark and musty, she didn't stumble or make a single sound.
She knew she mustn't be discovered.
The storage room was thankfully unlocked, so she slipped in without problem and tried to brush the worst of the dirt off her skirt before surveying her prize - or rather, reaching out and fumbling blindly for it because she couldn't see in the dark and had no way of obtaining a candle. She grabbed something hard and crusty, then swept her hand along the shelf until her fingers dug into something softer and squishier. Cheese! Grabbing the whole wedge, she cradled it close to her chest along with the bread before turning around and trying to leave.
However, she only made it to the door before it swung open and smacked her right on the forehead. As she stumbled back with a squeak of pain, light flooded into the room. A boy stood there, holding up a candle in front of his crumpled sailor's uniform. For a moment, there was only silence as the two of them stared at each other.
"I'm delivering this!" Even as Kailani opened her mouth, she knew it was hopeless. She kept speaking anyways. "Someone asked me to get it!"
"They- what?" The boy tilted his head to the side, brows furrowed in confusion. Large brown eyes looked her over before he raised a hand to scratch a pale, freckled cheek. "You're a girl. I mean, of course you are, but,", he coughed, picking up on her incredulous expressionn. "I'm just surprised! We don't have any girls on this ship."
"Well you're wrong. Now I have to go, excuse me." Holding her head up high, Kailani tried to walk past him with as much confidence as she could muster.
The boy moved to block her way, nudging the door shut with his foot. "No, we don't have any girls on this ship - the captain would never allow that. Having women on a ship is bad luck." He paused, a look of concentration crossing over his face before it gave way to realization.
"You're a stowaway, aren't you? Don't look so scared," he quickly added, upon seeing Kailani's expression twist. "I'm not going to tell."
Kailani took a step back. "Why not?"
"Well, you're not..." the boy hesitated, then shrugged. "You're not bothering anyone, right? We have enough food for the journey. Plus, you're a girl."
"...Is there a catch?"
"I'm being nice, why do you sound so ungrateful?" the boy huffed, crossing his arms. Then his expression dropped, becoming more solemn. "I just don't want to see anyone thrown overboard, that's all. That's an easy way to get rif of stowaways, you know," he added. "If you were a boy, they might put you to work and let you stay. But you're a girl. They say women are bad luck on ships, so you'd best stay out of sight until we dock."
That again. Kailani swallowed, and bit back thr auestions that she wanted to ask in fear that the boy might change his mind and tell on her after all. "Okay. I'll...I'll go."
Without wasting another second, she rushed past the boy and out of the room. The encounter had left her so shaken that her original objective completely slipped her mind. It was only later, as she curled up miserably in a corner with some crates of unidentified cargo, that she realized she should have at least stopped to pick up the loaf of bread. A wedge of cheese itself wasn't very filling.
It was too late for regrets, though. She was lucky to have gotten away at all.
Kailani didn't know when she'd finally fallen asleep, but when she finally woke up, the ship was rocking violently from side to side. This was no longer the gentle waves of a peaceful ocean, but the violent clashes of a rising storm. Footstep thumped above her head as the sailors ran back and forth, their shouts muffled but filled with urgency.
There was nothing Kailani could do but stay where she was and hope for the storm to pass. She couldn't go out in fear of being discovered - but she didn't want to stay either, to drown alone in this vessel full of men when she was so, so close to finally obtaining freedom. I only have to wait for the ship to dock in Calais, she told herself. Then I will sneak off, and find my sister. She will help me.
She licked the crumbs of cheese off her fingers and started counting the cracks on the floor to pass time. However, nothing could distract her from the relentless hunger gnawing at her stomach. Eventually, the storm seemed to subside and the top of the deck became quiet once again. Kailani waited until she couldn't wait any longer, then rubbed the pins and needles from her legs before cautiously poking her head out into the corridor. It was empty.
Against her better judgement, she snuck back outside and towards the storage room again as she quietly as she could. Night had fallen and the winds were harsh, but it seemed that the sailors had all gone to sleep and she encountered no trouble. The wooden door heaved ope, with a creak, and Kailani held her breath in ancitipation as she reached greedily for the food.
"Hey. Didn't I tell you to stay hidden?"
Barely suppressing the startled shriek bubbling up in her throat, Kailani whirled around and, once again, came face-to-face with the boy from before.
"Y-You," she spluttered, arms crossed defensively over her chest as she backtracked rapidly away from the door. "What are you doing here?"
"Me?" the boy's eyebrows rose so high that they nearly disappeared into his mop of auburn hair. "I work here! What the heck are you doing here? I said you'll be thrown if they find you, didn't I?"
"I know that!" the idea of it still sent shivers down her spine. "I was...I was hungry, okay? I didn't get food last time because you interrupted me, and I haven't eaten since I got on."
The boy looked startled. "We have been sailing for four days."
"I know that." Kailani repeated, then stuffed a piece of bread in her mouth. The boy didn't stop her -instead, he glanced back down the corridor behind him, then sighed and leaned back against the wall.
"Why are you here, anyways? What you're doing is dangerous."
Kailani looked away? "I don't have any other way of getting to Calais. I needed to leave? I couldn't stay in town anymore." She thought of her fathers' bloodshot eyes, thin lips and calloused hands. She thought of how her older sister had jumped at the chance to marry and leave, had the luck to actually marry a respectable merchant.
Then she thought of the man she was promised to, and suppressed a shudder. If she could escape from fate, the surely this trip would be worth it. Her sister would help her. She was still young and healthy, after all - she could be a helping hand for her brother-in-law's business in return for food and shelter.
The boy, who had been watching her curiously, gave a slow nod. "Well, you aren't the first one to say something like this. Most of the other ones were boys, though."
"There were other stowaways?" Kailani swallowed. "What happened to them?"
"They got a good whipping and were put to work." the boy shrugged. "We had one girl. She was...about your age, I think. Pretty thing." his eyes darkened. "They tossed her overboard."
Kailani flinched. The boy glanced at her out of the corner of his eye and smiled, but there was no humor in his eyes. "That's why I said I wouldn't tell on you, yeah? I don't want to see you drown like she did."
"Is it because she was bad luck?" Kailani thought of how the ship had rocked sickeningly earlier that day, battered by the storm. "Don't you care about that?"
"I don't know if I believe the whole 'omen' thing. It wasn't even raining that day, see. The skies were perfectly clear - the girl had been on board for days, and we were still sailing smoothly. The other sailors just didn't want to take a chance. In fact..." the boy's voice grew softer, and he sounded almost mournful. "It was only after they threw her off that the wind and rain began. If anything, I think throwing her off was what brought the storm down on us."
The two of them lapsed into awkward silence. Kailani edged discreetly towards another bread roll; and had just closed her hands around it when the boy suddenly straightened and cleared his throat. "You can't stay.", he declared, as if suddenly remembering that she was still there. "Go back to wherever you were hiding, okay? Stay there and don't come out."
Kailani didn't need to be told twice - she was already starting to step out of the room, clutching her spoils close to her chest. Then she paused and looked back. "I..thank you."
A hint of red coloured the boy's cheeks, and he averted his eyes. "Yeah. erm. Yeah." He cleared his throat again, then bent down to pick up his candle. "Get going."
Kailani ran the whole way, only allowed herself to relax once she was safely back in her hiding place behind the crates. She dug ravenously into bread and cheese she'd obtained, but her mind was on the auburn-haired boy who'd shown her such kindness without ever needing to. Once the ship docks, I'll thank him properly before leaving.
But she never got the chance.
On the fifth day, the weather took a turn for the worst, even in the lower decks, Kailani could hear the howl of the wind and crash of waves from a storm that would not cease. Curling into a small ball, she tried to tune out the yelling from the decks above.
It was so noisy that she didn't hear the footsteps until it was too late - suddenly, the door had flown open and two sailors barged in, reaching for the crates but pausing once they saw her. There was nowhere to hide, and the sailors were upon her before she could even scream.
"It's a stowaway!" one of them yelled, and began dragging her forward by her braids. "A woman! There's a woman on boards!" the second sailor joined in on the yelling, drowning Kailani's desperate pleas to silence as they puller her up to the deck. She quickly found herslef soaked to the skin, long hair whipping wildly in the wind and plastered over her neck.
"No, please!" Kailani dug her heels into the ground, but was helpless as her arms were forced behind her back and tied together. The boy's warning rang loud and clear inside her head, louder than the roar of thunder and jeers of men around her, louder than even her own frantic screams. "Please, please-" she was crying now, kneeling on the wet wood as her legs were bound as well, but the faces around her bore no mercy.
"You cursed us." one of the sailors said. "You caused this storm."
"I didn't, I didn't!" but it was no use, and she was lifted into the air and held suspended over the railing - an offering, to satisfy the fears of men.
The lightning flashed, illuminating a familiar face in the crowd. The young sailor boy was staring at her with an expression of horror, his face as pale as a ghost.
Then he was gone. Everything disappeared, and Kailani couldn't see anything at all as darkness enveloped her from all directions. Water closed over her head, then over her heels - she couldn't tell which way was up or down, and her chest burned. But even as she sank, the primal urge to live remained and she kicked, struggling against her bonds with a sort of animalistic desperation. She gasped for air without meaning to, unable to control the instinctive action.
But instead of pain, the rush of water into her lugs brought ice-cool relief and startling clarity.
Slowly, the world around her blurred into focus and Kailani found that she could see, despite her surroundings being dark and murky. There were shadows all around her, of girls cutting through the water with astonishing fluidity and grace.
Wild girls with the tails of a fish.
One of them approached her, and gave Kailani a smile before slicing the ropes around her wrists apart with a single sharp nail. "You're one of us now," she whispered, bubbles spilling from her lips as she spoke. "A fellow sister, wrongly blamed and sacrificed so the men can save their own skin. You're free now."
"I'm...free?"
"Yes. Here, the men are no longer a threat." With a flick of her tail, the other mermaid was gone, swimming swiftly towards the surface. "They murdered us on the basis of superstition. Now, we will make them suffer as we did."
Kailani kicked again and both her legs moved together as one, a sleep tail guiding her through the water as though she was meant to be there and taking her upwards. The weather had not calmed, but now she could hear something above the clap of thunder and rain as the other mermaids broke to the surface as well, their voices melding together into a crescendo that was of equal parts beautiful and terrifying. The storm responded to their voices, their songs of rage and sorrow growing louder and more frantic until it was impossible to hear anything else.
Then the men began to jump.
They moved without hesitation, expressions twisted into one of dreamlike desire as they hurled themselves overboard. And the mermaids laughed, triumph in their eyes as they watched their murderers sink helplessly beneath the waves. All of them had been wronged, forced to shoulder the blame of something they daven't done; women who were sacrificed for the superstitions and cruelty of men. Now, in their new forms with fish tails and mesmerizing voices of freedom and power, they took it upon themselves to return the favour.
Kailani joined their song, the melody flowing freely from her lips without being taught. Her voice was still frail and weak compared to her new sisters, but she had the attention of one - a boy with auburn hair and freckles. Rainwater streamed down his face like tears as he leaned over the railing, one hand outstretched towards her.
Warmth flickered in her chest, a hint of gratitude among bitterness and vengeance. Kailani's song trailed off, then too on a different tone.
Go back. Go back, I am grateful for what you've done. Thank you.
The boy hesitated, then backed away with a dazed expression.
And there he remained, protected by her voice as the rest of his crewmates perished.