Keith spoke. "I've never expected meeting all of you tonight. Let me first share my side of the story with you."
All of them where mesmerized by the subtle change in his appearance, it reflected in his comportment with a cold tone. 'Is he possessed by a demon?'
'Is that real? That's some cool ability.'
'He's hella creepy!' Again, their thoughts were different, but none of them needed to flee. Nothing could reach them.
He added. "You see, not all curses can be lifted. It seems you managed to stay in this world way longer than me with yours, to what cost? Let's compare shall we? You killed for gold, and so you need to protect it now. I did not thought I deserved my curse first. But with time, those corrupted thoughts of mine made me understand I was cursed because I lived. Before I was even conceived, my parents asked my now great master, to make a them life-giving couple."
He saw three tilting their head in confusion. "I mean they wanted children of course. Their obsession lead them to a remote place in Eastern Jin. Where they sacrificed... Their first-to-be-born. Me, I was to be the price of their new ability. But years later, the second one was to arrive, and the price had yet to be paid. Both my parents were unwilling to make such sacrifice!"
One by one, all of them sat cross legged to listen to the story as the waves smashed against the walls.
"My master's curse, the one that helped them through their newfound life, was now cracking their brain, their ability to think properly lessened and soon, violences became daily. It doesn't looks like it, but I've been tortured by my dear mother." He touched his arms, remembering his old crevices where the deepest scars were.
"My mother's instability made her lose her unfinished 'second project'. She hid her loss by cooking it in the most refined dish I had ever seen. Few gulps down, nothing was left in our plates. She had done it, she cursed with the price of another life. I have encountered my master, whom followed me until now, he's different from me, and from you. Maybe he'll introduce himself to you some day. He's here with us, and like you, he can't be seen."
'Will you make your entrance? They can't betray your presence, just talk between each other.' Keith asked. 'Only because it'll help you being believed, that and your dark glare.'
The shadows in the barrack were generated by the moon's glow, entering the room thanks to the wide gap in its roof. They suddenly started to widen, as if the few amount of light was gradually being expelled of the room.
From under the kid's feet, a black smoke extended, emanating from the cloak, the gigantic monster emerged. Its many hands landed as if they were feather touching the ground, but their real weight made five planks next to the kid crack, or break. The half crumbling house made the crew panic a little. The fact it could interact with the house meant the thing emerging was real.
Indeed it couldn't be seen, but it was by no mean a ghost.
Once everything stabilized as nothing moved and the wood stopped breaking, Show spoke, his growling voice made the water stagnating in the room vibrate.
"Nice to meet you all. I'm the one who cursed the little one." He put one of his hand on the kid's head, messing up his hair. "I can't promise you to get rid of your curse, as I'm not able to get rid of his yet. I do have a few questions that'll help me find a 'cure'." He said as many hands made a quotation mark.
Ardi stood up and spoke first. "Fine, but please don't break our home. We don't want to share a new one with living beings."
"First. Why are you all here, yet I see no gold?"
One after the other, they rose a hand in the air and answered without talking at the same time. "Ours remain in the city, they are being guarded by livings, preciously. We check it once to twice a day."
"How are you supposed to do if it vanishes during your absence then?" Said Show, turning most of his body toward Ardi.
"We can see people's greed, as we call it. It shines like the coin, with a skull shaped ounce of gold. Though it's the first time I've seen someone stealing the coin for the curse itself and not the money it is worth. Else, we can rely on a line, a golden one that lead us to our coin."
'A golden line? Seems like we're not just having hallucinations. Our silver ones must be death's tail.' Thought Keith.
"Has any of your coin been destroyed?" Show asked.
Three pirates stepped forward. "Our coins have been melted a century ago together to make golden chain. We're still among the crew, we brought back the jewel in the city sixty years ago, with the bad news." The first said, and the second continued, with sad face. "Even thrown in a volcano, I doubt it'll magically dissolves."
The monster tilted when he got a new idea. 'Dissolve? What a nice idea!'
"Last question. Who wants to be the first to experiment his final death?"
It felt both like a relief and as a sanction to them. Their last acquaintance would be their last, but it'll end their solitude. It took them a full minute of silence to have one stepping forward.
The man was a little crooked. His low stature made it laborious to walk straight. He was the one who had the hardest time bringing back his skull coin. Each time he came back from his decade-long trips, he would tell how hard it was to retrieve. "I'm tired. I want it to end. My coin is thirty houses away, I'll guide you."
The gigantic monster vanished behind the kid, leaving behind marks of his hands on the rotten planks. The night parade begun, leading the way was the old looking man. All of the ghost stepped up their efforts to divert the citizens. Their procession was wider than the alleys, as it wasn't difficult for the ghost to pass through everything.
Finally they arrived in front of a brown house. Its wooden pillars were full of holes because of the termites. Keith spoke to the old ghost.
"My master will steal the coin, we'll keep a low profile that way." He leaned against the house's structure and felt the temperature of his shirt changing. Once. Twice. Show was back just after a minute with the newly acquired treasure.
'And now what? What's the plan?' Asked Keith. A small amount of heat emanated from the coin which was being bent under the kid's coat. The tissue deformed and flapped and soon, the coin was bent in a U shape.
'You swallow it.' The monster said, making it barely appear along the kid's sleeve.
In a gulp, the coin descended to the kid's stomach under the old man's confused glare.
All of the pirates looked at him in awe.
"Perfect! Now we're two to have to follow him around! Luckily he didn't stuck it into his throat." Said Ardi, crossing his arms because he was not happy with the manner to deal with the curse.
"Give it a little time to work. I told you I can't promise much."
In the kid's stomach, the metal's surface started to bubble. First, every impurities that time stuck to it vanished in the black tar. The dark acid begun to attack the metal. A new spectacle started. The old man, unprepared to feel pain after five centuries twisted his face and rubbed his arms, legs, all the skin that itched him. His appearance deteriorated in front of them as he started screaming.
Few minutes in, the skin he had on the back of his hand let the tendons and the muscles under appear. The man's detaching skin bubbled and the sizzling pain increased on each square centimetre of his body as it darkened, visibly rotting away under everyone's gaze.
Keith burped a few times. The small smoke circles exiting his mouth had a strong smell, enough to have a stinging in his eyes, as for the passer-by, few accelerated after crossing the kid's path.
The ghosts touched their friend to see if they'd feel the pain too, and once they were sure to not feel anything, they dragged him to the shore, trying to drown him, to free him from the tormenting pain.
Alas, their long lost body couldn't even touch the water, it only managed to lessen the loud screams of the man. Under the waves, only a blurry figure remained fighting against itself.
Even when only the skeleton remained, it kept moving a frantic way, ghost could harm themselves, but the curse keeping them away from the underworld built them back every time. Seeing tens of blackened bones still moving with the rhythm of the sea, none of them knew if their friend's soul still suffered.
It lasted three hours. The pirates often plunged their head underwater to check the advancement.
Indeed it worked. Once the last fizzling bubbles ceased coming up to the surface, the crew's world crumbled under their feet.