Sailors Take Warning by Malcolm Torres, CHAPTER SIX - DAY 1

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Sailors Take Warning by Malcolm Torres

CHAPTER SIX – Day 1



 
 
The Nimitz’s anchor chain lockers are steel wells, each 12 feet wide and 59 feet deep, located far forward in the bow of the ship and slightly inboard.  While underway, a dogpile of heavy gauge steel chain sits piled helter skelter in both locker bottoms.  Deep in the port chain locker, three sailors sat on a scrap of plywood teetering atop the tangle of 300-pound links.

The ship rode on gently rolling swells.

Many years prior, a sailor, whom none of those present ever knew, carved a pentagram into the plywood scrap, and since then it served as an altar for many satanic services.  That night a black candle burned at the center of the pentagram.  It fizzed and dripped and added more wax to the dribbles already hardened there.  The flickering flame cast frightful shadows of the three young men inside the deep steel well.  Hanging above them, the chain creaked and swayed as the ship forged across the rolling ocean.

The men held hands in a circle and chanted.

“In the name of our ruler, Satan, we call the dark forces of evil.  Rise from the depths.  Open the gates of hell.  Come forth and answer to your names.  Oh hear your names.”

Danny Jenks whispered, “Baphomet.”

Darnell Ratcomb whispered, “Diabolus.”

Grady Dutro, a novice Satanist, whispered, “Nergo.”

“You idiot,” Danny Jenks blurted and tore his black hood back.  “It's not Nergo!  It’s Nergal, Ner-gal, not Ner-go.  Get it right, dumbass!”

Grady Dutro cowered.

“It’s about good and evil, Grady,” Danny Jenks said.  His pimply complexion shone in the candlelight.  “God and Satan are locked in combat and you gotta pick a side.”

Jenks restarted his rhythmic chanting, trying to heighten his awareness, attempting to achieve the familiar hallucinatory state of demonic possession, but no matter how ardently he concentrated, no matter how hard he tried to detach himself from his immediate surroundings, Grady’s trembling hand distracted him.

Grady gazed at the flickering candle and listened to Jenks and Ratcomb chanting.  He tried to calm down but couldn’t stop his hands from shaking.

The squabbling didn’t faze Darnell Ratcomb.  As he chanted incantations, a green luminescence swirled around him.

“I am prepared to meet the deathless ones,” Darnell whispered.  He floated among sparkling particles in empty space.  “Clear my eyes, Satan,” he whispered.  A yellow beam passed through the murk and vanished.  Another yellow beam shot past like a flashlight searching.  Something rubbed against Darnell’s leg.  “Reveal mysteries to me, Satan,” he whispered.

At the sound of Darnell still chanting, Danny Jenks looked under his hood and saw only the whites of his eyes.  Then he glared at Grady and said, “You’re holding me back, you jerk!”

In the blurry darkness, Darnell saw orange and black fish sliding past him.  Their yellow eyes glowed.  Their slippery scales rubbed his legs.

“I ain’t risking brig time to sit in this hole mumbling at a candle, you pussy!” Danny Jenks fumed.

“I'm trying,” Grady whispered, “but it’s scary.”

Darnell Ratcomb touched one of the slime-coated fish as it swam past.  He marveled at its bright orange and black stripes.  Instantly, squirming curlicue microbes appeared on his finger and burrowed beneath his skin.  Quickly, it spread to the back of his hand and up his wrist.

“Release me from your grip,” Darnell demanded.  “Return me to the realm of life.”

Danny Jenks put his ear to Darnell’s hood.

“Release me from your grip,” Darnell mumbled.

“Holy fuck!”  Jenks knew immediately that Darnell was stuck in some bad shit.  “Get out of it, man,” Jenks bawled, trying to break the spell.  “Get out of there, Darnell!”

Darnell’s pupils rolled down.  He blinked and gasped.

“Shit,” Jenks exclaimed.  He grabbed Grady Dutro around the neck with one hand and slapped him hard across the face with the other.  “You held me back, you pussy!”

 

*   *   *

 

While eating pizza in the galley, Danny Jenks asked Darnell Ratcomb, “Did you see them same orange and black fish again?”

“I touched one,” Darnell said.

“I didn’t see shit because Grady held me back.”

Darnell stared at his fingers where he’d touched that fish.

“We should make a sacrifice of that punk,” Jenks said.

Darnell dropped his pizza on a paper plate.  “What the fuck is this?”  He started scratching the back of his hand.

“What the hell?” Jenks asked at the sight of bumps on Darnell’s dark skin.

“That fish did some shit to my arm.”
 
#

Sailors Take Warning by Malcolm Torres is available in paperback and eBook on Amazon here: 
www.amazon.com/author/malcolmtorres.  Also available on iBooks, Kobo, Barnes & Noble and all your online booksellers.  Did you know that just about any bookstore will order this paperback and ship it to your home?  Ask at your local bookstore and see what they say.






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