Board Thread:Writer's Workshop/@comment-10789912-20151008060113

Prologue
July 16th, 1985. Coral Gables, Florida. Merindino's Bar.

The music was loud, and the people, erratic. Well, not many people were at the bar, but the four at the counter couldn't contain themselves. Tomorrow, they left Flordida. It was time for deep sea fishing, far from any visible land. Even the day of just driving to the spot had them hyper.

With only a single group of people besides them at the bar, it was a party. Michael Collins sat quiet, holding his drink with a smile. Only 21, drinking legally was still a fresh taste to him. He had short brown hair, which rose to a point in the front. Five feet and ten inches tall, he was your average man.

In the chair to his left was Vincent Hinder, whom everyone called Vinny. He was definitely the buffest person in the bar, though he was only about five feet and five inches. At 46 years old, he had a bit of hair to him, which was greying all over. A sort of salt-and-pepper look, with his black hair still showing through.

He was talking to the barkeeper about the day ahead, and flashing the tattoo on his left bicep. It was actually the name of his boat, the Altenia 5913. Of course, he had a shot of whiskey passed to him.

In the chair to his right, was Melody Asher. Five feet tall flat, she was laughing at Joshua Fedrick, while playing with her long blonde hair. She looked fantastic, which Michael couldn't stop thinking about. She was 22, hardly ahead of him. They met when Michael had just become an adult, speaking for the first time when Vinny took them both to his camp in Okaloacoochee.

They've kissed and confessed feelings for each other multiple times over the years, but it never escalated. She took a drink of her bottle of Malhorn's home style beer, causing Michael to feel even more awkward when it met her lips.

Joshua, himself, was already plastered. All six feet of his scrawny body stood up on his chair, which caused the barkeeper to focus on him. His decently long brown hair met his cliche 25 year old demeanor. On the top of his lungs, he sung along to the music playing above, causing the other group to laugh, and Melody to almost cry from laughter.

"Like a virgin, touched for the very first time!" he sang, loud enough you'd think the whole town would hear it.

While dancing, he began to move his hips. Of course, the bartender told him to sit back down or get out, after sharing a bit of a laugh.

Joshua was the reason Vinny even met Michael and Melody, as Vinny was actually a friend of his father. When his father died on brain cancer, Vinny became a pretty major figure in his life. It was when Josh became an adult, that the pair began to hang out constantly. All four of them loved the sport, and had been thinking about this trip for a very long time.

"To Vinny ,for letting us bum with him on his boat!" Joshua said, raising his glass.

Vinny laughed and clicked glasses with him, before turning and doing the same for Michael and Melody.

"A bunch of partying twenty year olds in the middle of the ocean. Fuckin' fantastic." he said, laughing and raising his glass to his lips.

The Ocean's Wind
The sun was setting. They had waited until night so that the majority of the ride to the fishing location could be slept through, with Michael having to remain awake to steer, and so that Joshua wouldn't have his hangover to complain about.

The waves roared through the air, smashing into the side of the docks. A relatively calm day, disrupted by some water. Some of the water from the crashing waves managed to splash up onto the dock, wetting the shoes of Michael, and the Boots of Vinny. They had spent the day packing the boat with their cloths, equipment, fuel, and enough food for the trip.

Joshua and Melody behind them, they were carrying the smaller boxes. Snack foods, some more cloths, and personal items. Joshua, this time, was carrying the last bit of fuel. This wouldn't have been a problem if they kept up, and didn't walk yards behind Vinny and Michael.

The smell of salt water in the air was enough to take Michael's mind off of all of his troubles. An entire month, they would be out here. The amount of planning that went into this trip was massive.

As Michael stepped on to the boat, Vinny followed. The Altenia 5913 was a large fishing boat, at least large in terms of privately owned boats. The mast hung above the ship, giving a great sight as the sun stood behind it. Painted silver with a blue stripe running down the side, Michael couldn't get enough.

To the right, the area they would be fishing. On the dock, there were several large deep sea fishing poles attached to the boat itself, with a sort of mount. To the right, you had to walk around to where the driving compartment was. Though it had a mast, this boat was motorized.

Beside the steering wheel were two pairs of stairs, each leading to a door. Once you pressed through the doors, the bedroom was forward, the bathroom was to the left, and the meat compartment, aka cold storage, was to the right.

Michael and Vinny stopped at the steering wheel, where a the driver's seat was, along with another to its left. Melody and Joshua had just gotten on the boat. To the back right corner of the boat was an on-deck fuel bladder was located.

It was made of a thick rubber, inflated with fuel for quick use. It held a large sum of fuel, with a house on top, so that it could be added straight to the boat. The rest was all kept in internal fuel tanks, which were located through a door in the bedroom. Fuel went from there, to the fuel bladder, to the ship's engine. All a simple process.

Heading down to the bedroom to place the fuel into storage, Joshua began whistling. Following him down, Melody was already good to sleep.

As the two dissapeared into the stairwell, and through the door, Micheal and Vinny were left alone.

"I suppose it's just you and I, sugarlips." Michael said, sarcastically.

"Honestly, I'll be surprised if Josh doesn't fuck up putting that fuel away, and blow us into orbit." Vincent responded.

"You've got that right. The guy's a party freak. He hardly knows responsibility. Remember when he tried to save that baby bird, and tried feeding it fish food?"

"Yeah, I remember," Vincent said with a laugh. "But the guy's got nothing going for him except us. Got to watch after him, you know?"

"Just night talk, man. None of us really have hard feelings against the guy. He's a wild card, but he's our wild card. We have enough of everything?"

"Enough fuel for thirty days. Enough food for two months, but we all know that someone's going to eat half of it. I can't say much about how much cloths we all brought, but I hope we all brought enough. I've got this. Slept most of the day for this. Go ahead and go down to sleep, kiddo. I'll put 'er on course, and make sure everything goes well."

Michael let out an exaggerated yawn, stretching his arms into the air, before standing up and walking down the stairs to the left.

"Night, Vinny."

"Night." he responded, drowned out slightly by being on a different level of the boat, now.

After a few steps, the door was in front of him. It was a nice painted white metal, simplistic, without a window. Closed by a lever-locking mechanism to make sure no water got into the boat from the outside, it was rough to turn, and let a bit of a screech out as it did.

Pushing through, he immediately saw a door a few feet in front of him and to the right, and a small hallway going left and right, between the two doors from the stairwells coming down from the surface. Lit by lights on the ceiling, the fact no light got in from outside wasn't an issue. Knowing the bedroom was directly ahead, he walked through the bedroom door as well.

Right away, he saw that it was a room that stretched forward far more than to the sides. To the right and left, were bunk beds which were connected to the walls. Beyond them, fuel storage to the right, and emergency communications to the left. Lights hanging from above, it was a pretty nice set up.

Josh on the bottom right bunk, he was drawing with a notepad and pencil, randomly sketching animals he hoped to see out at sea. Above him, Melody was already attempting to sleep, facing the wall. Both had already changed into more comfortable clothing.

As Michael went to lay down on the bottom left bunk, he heard Josh talk.

"You're going to sleep in your cloths? Savage."

Simply rolling his eyes, he flicked the light off before he laid down.

"Goodnight, Joshie." he said, mocking him.

He heard the notepad hit the floor, before a moment of silence, which was broken by Melody.

"Night." he heard, muffled into a pillow.

"...Night, dickhole." responded Joshua.

He pulled his blanket over him, and the three drifted off into sleep.

The Lord; within Panthalassa
Opening his eyes, he awoke, sitting up as fast as he could, looking around. He was still in his bed, but things were very wrong. The light was on, but instead of the usual color, the room was illuminated into a deep purple color.

The air around him was so humid he found himself sweating as he laid still, forcing him to remove his blanket. Rubbing his hand on his forehead, he forced himself to stand and look around. Melody and Joshua were not in their beds. In fact, it appeared as if the beds hadn't been touched at all.

Though he could hardly make it out, the walls in front of him appeared rusted and filthy, instead of clean and silver. Without a second thought, he attempted to push through the door. It was stuck, though a second attempt caused it to swing open, with a cracking sound.

The hallway appeared normal, excluding the same purple lights. Straight ahead, the doors leading to the stairs, and by extension, the deck. He opened the door directly across from him, the one he had come down earlier. This door opened rather easily, and closed just as well as it should have.

It was very obvious here that something was even more off than he had assumed. The hue of the sky, and all of the night's light, was the same dark purple with a tint of bright blue as the inside lights of the boat.

Walking up the stairs, the wind was no longer hot. In fact, it was frigid. Pushing his arms together for warmth, he watched as his breath made fog before him.

As he crept up the stairs, the alarming noise of metal striking metal haunted him. It was light, but it filled the air. Reaching the top of the stairs, he saw a man in black, sitting in the seat behind the steering wheel, tapping his mask with his right index finger.

Wearing a black trench coat that reached his boots, which were just as morbidly dark, the man bore a shining silver mask, which made seeing his face impossible. The mask was a laughing face, straight out of a drama play.

He stopped tapping his mask, and signaled Michael to sit in the chair closest to him, just as he did when he was with Vincent. Michael complied and sat down, looking at the man.

As he sat, the man stood, and the sky darkened as if a cloud had just covered the sun.

"You've been here before. Your master's version of what you call home." the man said with a soft, yet disturbing voice.

"Panthalassa. Who are you?" Michael responded curiously.

The man circled around, until he was behind Michael, out of his sight.

"I don't have an exact name, unlike you. I trust you'll find out soon enough."

When he finished speaking, he put his hands on Michael's shoulders from behind. Instantly, he felt as if he was covered in hands from behind. Holding his head still, his arms, and wrapping around his stomach to make sure he didn't stand up. He couldn't see it, but it was a nightmare.

"You'll find everything out eventually, if you just play along."

Before he could respond at all, Michael heard the sound of thousands of whispers coming from around the boat, drowned out by water. Gradually getting louder, it was impossible to make out what they were saying.

Before it could escalate, he heard an odd noise, interrupting all else. There was no wind around him, but it sounded as if he was inside of a thunderstorm. When the wind-like noise came to an end, the sensation of arms stopped. The whispering halted. The sky immediately went back to the dark shade of purple it originally was.

"Halt your tricks. This is about higher business." a deep, dronelike voice said.

Michael instantly stood and turned to see if his suspicions were true. Behind him was Mendes, towering over the masked man. His skeletal cervine head looking down on the figure. His body covered in black robs which reached the floor, only his head and hands showed, both constructed of bone.

Michael instantly fell to his knees, in a show of respect.

"Mendes, I thank you for coming into my presence once more. Whatever you command, it shall be done!" he said, ecstatic to see his master.

Mendes broke eye contact with the masked man, and walked around the seats, until he was right beside Michael.

"It is not what I want. You may break the formality."

Michael rose to his feet instantly, back full erect, yet still dwarfed by over three feet by Mendes.

"It is about what Ereshkigal wants." he continued.

Ereshkigal had been a part of his life for as long as he could remember, Mendes as well. Though he always saw Mendes as his lord, he could never forget that Ereshkigal was above even him.

The masked man shook his head as if to mock the name of Ereshkigal, walking down to the side of the boat, letting out a snarky laughter.

"Anything at all, my lord." Michael said.

"It is Ereshkigal's prophecy, his choice, that you, the most trustworthy and obedient servant to both of us, be his architect."

He was honored, and could not contain his excitement.

"What will I build?" he questioned.

"The facility in which he will bring forward a new test. You will also build an icon, which will be used to summon either Enki or myself to a given location immediatly. The final piece, a mask, which his exicutioner will wear, once selected."

"When will this start, once I return?"

"You have a test to assure this plan will be set in motion, yourself, Michael." Mendes added, almost like he expected Michael to know of the test.

"Of course, anything!"

"Sacrifices. Bloodshed."

Micheal thought about it for a while, before the idea clicked in his head.

"Anyone on this planet but them, Mendes. Anyone at all, and I'm on it!"

"This will prove your devotion. Severing all loose ends, before moving on."

"I.. I just don't know if I can do this to them. Sh- they have been there for every mome-" he tried to force out, not wanting to deny his lord's wishes, especially not any wishes of Ereshkigal.

"She, will be fine. She will be allowed to live, Michael Collins. The other two must go. That's your trade. Otherwise, the man in the mask, for lack of a better term, will kill all three. Those lines must be sliced."

He instantly agreed to the idea, with Melody's safety being assured.

"It will be done, my lord. Tell Enki that I agree to his terms. I request time, though. Please, let me do this at my own pace. It will be done, but Melody will not be harmed." he said.

Mendes waited a while, before responding.

"Agreed." he said, as he began to fade away in a small breeze, forming into pitch-black smoke.

Turning around, he could see the masked man standing at the edge of the boat, arms stretched each way. After a second of jogging, he reached the man, putting his hand on his shoulder, and spinning him to look him in the eyes.

"Who are you? Why are you here?" he demanded.

The mask appeared to show nothing but darkness on the other side. The man only raised his hand and pointed to Michael, letting out one word.

"Eventually."

He then turned Michael's attention to the water. The sound of bending metal echoed over the water, as massive waves began to form and push in different directions.

A large, dark shadow which seemed to resemble a monstrously sized squid was heading towards the boat, only a few dozen yards away. The boat began to shake, as Michael fell on his ass.

The man simply looked down at him, before the world went black. 