The Sailor Who Can’t Hear The Song

NOTICE: this spoils the entire backstory of the character Sawyer in Skin Deep. If you want to experience the comic and discover all the secrets there, then come back to this when it’s discovered in the comic!

CONTENT WARNING: heavy loss, depression, peril, death, dark imagery

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"Dad? You wanted to see me?" Sawyer says walking into the navigation room.

"Yes, I wanted your opinion." His father, Hudson, is standing over a large table with a map spread out. "Tacenda Trade has blocked off these waters, claiming them for only commercial trade." He marks out the spot on the map while Sawyer gets a closer look. He traces the red dotted line marking their old route with his thumb while examining the issue.

"How did you find out?" He asks, studying the map.

"Some sailors who already got kicked out warned us."

Sawyer sighs in frustration. Their ships have been working harmoniously with the trading ships around the country for decades. Why change now?

"What route are we going to take then?" Sawyer asks.

"That's what I wanted to ask you. There’s a path though these rocks, I just don't know that area well. As navigator, I wanted to know your thoughts."

"Is this a route that other ships have gone though?"

"Not that I'm aware." Hudson sighs. "It's risky. I don't know if we should put the crew in danger for a delivery trip."

"Its not like we can just turn back. We need the deposit."

Their sailing company was loosing customers due to the success of Tacenda Trade. They are faster and have lots of accessible items, but the quality is less than decent. If they can't keep the company running they will loose their land to Tacenda Trade and have no place to live.

"Damn the trading company." Hudson curses.

"I don't think we have a choice here."

"You're right. We don't."

Admitting defeat, Hudson goes to reroute the ship. Sawyer stays, looking at the map. He takes the pen on the desk sitting in red ink and draws their new route, along with marking down what ocean is inaccessible. Once finished, he puts the pen back he goes out to the deck to look for his brother Davy, who's on lookout, to let him know about the change of course.

As a sailor, the first rule is always keep your head up, or you risk getting hit by ropes, masts, or people swinging down. Sawyer knows this well but Davy like to challenge his attentiveness. Hidden in the mast, he jumps off the lookout perch and tackles Sawyer to the ground. He squirms to get out of Davy's grasp, but despite being only a year apart, Sawyer was much smaller. Davy picks him up and he sacks him over his shoulder. Walking to the rails of the boat, Sawyer is cursing him out and threatening him. Just as he got close to the edge, Sawyer breaks free and runs. He grabs one end of a rope and quickly ties a slip knot. He climbs up the mast, leaving the knot on the ground. As davy runs towards Sawyer, he steps in the knot, and sawyer jumps, pulling the other side of the rope down, and causing the knot on the other end to grab Davy's foot and suspend him from the air.

"I think thats one point for me" Sawyer grins.

Davy swings back and fourth, trying to grab his brother. "I just wanted to tell you that dinner is ready"

"Oh okay." Sawyer starts to walk away.

"Ahem? Aren't you forgetting something?"

"Oh right!" Sawyer says turning around. "I just wanted to give you a heads up that we changed our route. When you can check out the notes I made in the wheelhouse. See ya!"

He runs away leaving Davy to get down on his own. The loud thump was enough confirmation for Sawyer that he got down well enough, and works his way down to the kitchen where he found the rest of the crew sitting down.

"Sawyer!" One of the deckhands called while tossing him a roll of bread.

"Hey Jones, good to see you." Sawyer replies while catching the bread one handed. "The sailing life treating you all right?"

"Nothing particularly interesting. That's how I like it. It means nothin' gone wrong!" Jones shouted and slammed his cup on the table. Sawyer smiles and gives a half hearted laugh as he walked into the kitchen.

"Hey mom. I'm getting dinner to go. We are changing our route. Did you know about Tacenda Trade claiming ocean for themselves? Those selfish… mom?"

Sawyer looked around and noticed she wasn't there. Giving a massive sigh, he turns around and goes back up to the wheelhouse eating his bread along the way. Knocking on the door first, he enters and finds both his parents talking.

"Oh, sorry am I interrupting?" Sawyer says with his mouth half full of bread.

"No, no." Hudson replies. "I was just filling your mother in on the situation."

Sawyer enters and sits on the ledge by the large wooden wheel. "So?" He starts. "What's the report. Have we entered the new area yet?"

"We are close" Hudson replies. "Rhonda, can you get Jones and Davy on watch? Sawyer I want you to stay here with me and help navigate."

She gets up and exits the room. Sawyer turns his body to face the window. Looking out he could see rocks in the distance. They where closer together than he had anticipated. Perhaps his father was right to ask for a co captain for this venture.

An hour passes and they are slowly traversing though the rocks. Sawyer is now seated on the couch making notes on their path, marking down the way they went, and making captain logs, a tradition with his family. They like to look back on adventures they had, and its a good reference if they need to trace their steps, or if their ship goes down. The book might reach someone who can use its information. Once finishing his page, he stands up to stretch his legs, and properly see the rocks up ahead. The sun is going down and Hudson expresses his concern on sailing though the rocks in the dark. Sawyer looks out, seeing the rocks don't seem to stop. They might need to pause their trip for the evening and resume when its light.

"How plausible is it to anchor in and stay here for the night. It seems calm enough." Sawyer suggests. He doesn't respond right away, letting his mind work though the possibility’s, then coming to a sigh and concluding this would be the best course of action. He walks out of the Wheelhouse and in a booming voice, commands the crew to dock here. Confused but compliant, the sailors sunk the anchor and shut the masts. Hudson issued out various jobs, Sawyer volunteered for first look out shift. He wasn't tired and wanted some time to himself. Once everyone had their task, those who had a break went to sleep, and those working started on their job. Sawyer went up to the head of the boat and sat down. Taking a deep breath he let the salty air fill his senses. It was a stressful day and this is how he unwinds. It wasn't even cold. He lets his eyes rest while he lets go of his thoughts. It was just him and the sea.

.

.

.

He's unsure how much time he's spent out here now. He opens his eyes to the dark sky and water. Through the dark he spots something glowing. He gets up, getting a better view of the object. It seems to be moving closer to the ship. Its a blue light, getting brighter and brighter. Its surfacing. But its not just 1 blue light. It multiplies, more and more coming closer to the surface. Sawyer backs up getting ready to wake up the crew, but he also can't take his eyes off the light. He doesn't know what it is, but he's afraid to look away. It feels like its under his control while he looks at it. The light now exits the water and he sees a human like shape in the water. Various unnatural hair colours float in the water attached to their heads. Then, without warning, a ear piercing sound rings though the air. Sawyer decides he should wake up the others and runs to the bunkers. Davy flys past him and Sawyer stops and turns around to see where he’s going. Maybe they already saw them? He chases after Davy and more of the crew follow. Davy goes to the head of the boat and jumps in the water. There was no hesitation. No worry. No warning. Sawyer cries after him, then gets trampled by the other sailors following his brothers direction. He curses under his breath as he finds his footing, then looks around to find his mom pulling at his dad, restraining him from going in the water. He runs over to help her but before he can get there Hudson breaks free and jumps off the deck. When he reaches her she looks at him with a look of surprise.

"Sawyer! Are you alright?" She cries while cradling his face

"Mom what’s going on? The crew… they… they just plummeted into the water! I saw Davy run in. He didn’t even look back! We need to go to rescue-"

"Wait… you can’t hear their song?" She steps back in disbelief.

"What song? I just hear this ear piercing sound!"

She doesn’t have time to react. The boat shakes with this loud crack. Their heads whip over to where the sound came from, and see these creatures bringing down this ship.

"Sawyer, get the paddle boat ready."

"What about Dad and Davy!? Our crew! We can’t abandon them!"

The ship sinks further into the black water. These creatures are strong. Strong enough to manually sink a boat within minutes. Sawyer and Rhonda loose their balance and start sliding down the deck. The creatures start climbing up the boat and grab Rhondas ankle. She screams and Sawyer lunges to grab her hand. They are so close he can see what the light source was. Crowning their thick hair was the esca of a angler fish, skeletons of various sea creatures, and octopus arms hanging off a thick band of seaweed like a twisted charm bracelet. With the blue lighting its hard to tell but sawyer could see that their skin was almost translucent. Except for these dark marks on their ‘skin’. It was darker than the sky, the ocean, and everything else around it. Their hands where covered in this darkness like gloves, and their faces had large scars of it as well. They had a human form, except for the legs. It was replaced with one large muscle, starting off as a bright colour, but then seeping into the darkness that is on the rest of them. It resembled a fish tail. No. It was a fish tail.

Sawyer tries to pull his mom up but the creatures started getting closer to him too. He avoided their attacks but Rhondas hand slipped from his grip. She slid down the boat while sawyer cried out to her. But he couldn’t get to her before she plummeted into the cold sea. The creatures that where still on the boat lunged at him. They reached for his face, scratching him. Sawyer cries out in pain. It stung worse than anything he felt before. He manages to shove them off as he stands up. He sprints to where the life boat is, but takes a stop at the wheelhouse. He sees his fathers stuff. He grabs his satchel and stuffs as much as he can. The map, journal, his fathers glasses, and other such things of his fathers. As he’s rummaging he finds his parents wedding rings in their box. Because of how much a ship moves its safer to take the rings off and put them in a box for safe keeping while they work. He puts the rings in the bag. He next finds his fathers captains jacket and pants. Mostly here for decoration because he always found it to be too formal. Realizing it won't be long for the creatures to find him, he decided to change into his fathers clothes, and toss out his into the water. That way they will think he fell into the water and he can sneak away. After putting on his fathers clothing, he makes sure he has everything of value to him and opens the door facing the higher angle of the boat. He throws his clothes where they would see it and they lunge at it, and bring it down into the sea. He waits for a moment. They don't seem to resurface. He grabs the paddle boat and gets it in the water, and jumps in. He paddles away as fast as he can. His mothers wish was for him to get out of here. He can’t save them, so he may as well do one thing she asked.

He exits the rocky seas and finds another boat. It was well lit, letting him read the lettering on the side. In bold letters it said TACENDA TRADE CO. They seem to be getting closer to him. With no option left, he paddles close to them and he hears someone shout,

"OI! You there in the boat! You are in private waters. We need to see your permit to continue in this area!"

Sawyer looked up at the ship, bleeding, wet, and shaking. He made eye contact with the person shouting at him. He looked shocked then turned around to his crew.

"Boys! Get the ladder! We got a stranded lad out there!"

The crew hauls a ladder over the side and it unravels. Sawyer rows his boat over to it and clings on with his satchel over his chest. He will be abandoning the last remaining part of his parents ship, but like his mother said, he needs to save himself. He attempts to climb the rope ladder but his vision starts to go blurry after standing and almost falls in the water. The sailors, seeing his struggle, all begin pulling him up on the deck. When he gets over the railing, he falls to the ground coughing and bleeding on the deck. The crew all surround him, asking if he's alright, what happened, and who he was. Sawyer tries to tell them what he saw but he only spits out a few scattered words, before passing out on the deck.

He wakes up in a health facility. He doesn’t know how long its been sense he found that trading ship. Sitting up in the bed, he immediately looks for his belongings. There, resting by a desk in the room was the brown satchel he took. Sawyer, without thinking, hastily stood up to grab it. As he gets up, he sees the rooms spinning and he looses his balance. He falls back onto the bed and he waits until his vision cleared. Standing up more slowly, he stumbles his way to his bag. When he reaches the desk, he grips the edges of it for support. He looks up and realizes he is in front of a mirror above the desk. Looking back at him was a bandaged, broken boy. His eyes where tired. His face and neck where wrapped in clean bandages. His hair was messy, salty, and knotted. He almost thought it was someone else. Sawyer touches the bandages. He remembers getting scratched up pretty badly. He peels away the bandage on his cheek to see the damage. Instead of red blood and bruises, a sharp clean strike was left. It was the same darkness that those creatures had.

He wipes away his tears. This was all of his fault. Because of his decisions, his actions, and his guidance, his family and crew had drowned. He thinks about Davy and his Father. They both willingly jumped to their deaths. They seemed happy. He thought of his mother. The fear and shock she had when he found her. When she talked about a song.

What song.

He doesn’t understand. If he heard the song would he have died too? Did his Mom not hear it? What happened that night…

He goes back to his bag. Sitting on the floor he opens it and looks at the contents. Looking at these things made his tears come rushing back. This is all he had to remember them by. He finds the small box he grabbed. Checking it, he gives a sigh of relief as he sees 2 preserved wedding rings. They where identical to each other, with the only difference was the inside had 2 different engravings. His fathers ring said the guiding light, and his Mothers said in the darkest storm.

He put both rings on his right hand.

When he was released from the health facility, Sawyer became the owner of the Admentos Sailing Company. His first rule as owner was no one will ever cross those waters while he's in charge. The crew can only do business with near by harbours.

The crew that wasn’t on the ship that night noticed Sawyer had changed. He didn’t talk much to others, just mumbling to himself. The playful boy was replaced with a cold and angry person. No one dared to talk to him if it wasn’t work related.

Sawyer didn’t sleep much either. He spent long nights on the water staring into the abyss. On the nights when he did, nightmares filled his head. Memories of what happened that night, or a future where he met them again and they pulled him down. He didn’t understand what he saw that night. Sometimes it seems like he made the whole thing up. But he knows what he saw. He would make trips to the near by village that had a large library, determined to find evidence.

"There is a children’s fairytale about this far away land where mermaids, a human with a fish tail, would bless the waters and give life to the sea. If you got close, a heavenly song would ripple along the water. Following that song, you would be blessed by the mermaids.

What I saw that night was no mermaid. It was something sinister. It was a siren. Very few stories tell of their existence. They are mermaids that have been corrupted by this dark force. They then live in spite of the mermaids and stop sailors from getting their blessing. After all, light cannot exist without dark.

That night, the sirens took the lives of the crew, and my family… but they took my life away that night as well. Now I pass though time without a purpose. Theres no purpose. Just drifting along until something happens. But nothing will happen. Thats what happens to some people."