SCATTERED PEARLS ☆ KIMCHAY AU

☠︎︎ 1. The Bay of Sorrows ☠︎︎

"I couldn't tell her no. It was stronger than me."

"Stronger than your will to live?" the oracle asked. Her sharp ocean-blue eyes were replaced by sheer whiteness. Her body trembled. Her hand wrapped around Kim's own, so tight, the blood in Kim's veins was slowing down.

The voice, void of any emotions, hollow, and bleak, came from the depths of her stomach. The words brought Kim nothing but more questions. More confusion in the godforsaken life of a phantom of a pirate.

"There will be a boy

a pretty one, indeed

he will be your demise

you will be kneeling at his feet.

The siren has woven a pretty gift

Death is ready for its shift

Escape you can't, escape you mustn't

He is waiting for you, but knowing it, he doesn't."

Kim shook his head, watching the necklace around his hand. Shiny pearls. Ruby Red in the middle. He wanted to let go. He wished to let go.

But he couldn't do it. The necklace, having the power over him stronger than any treasure ever had. Kim would die before letting that necklace slip his fingers. Die at sea. Die at the land. It didn't matter as long as the necklace would be in his hand kept.

"What does any of it mean?" Kim asked when the oracle's eyes turned back to blue, and her hand around Kim's gentler stayed.

"You are focused on the wrong thing, pirate. It's not about the necklace. It's about who's neck will bear it in the future."

"No one! It's mine!" A guttural scream left Kim's body. But it felt as if it didn't. It couldn't be him who made that sound. Who screamed like this. Who felt his heart being torn apart just by the mere possibility of the necklace ever belonging to someone else and not him. Kim was going to live forever! He was going to find a way so that he could be the only person to ever possess such beauty.

"You came here for the answers, Kimhan," the oracle calmly said. "The answers you are getting. Sirens can't make us fall in love with objects. It's humans we desire. The necklace is just a means for you to get to your future."

"It's a love spell?" Kim spat out, rolling his eyes. "Miss me with that bullshit!"

"Love spell can't work if one of you isn't alive," the oracle placed her hands on a crystal ball in front of her, closing her eyes. "Hmm, it is indeed a peculiar situation. It's not a love spell. It's a map from you to him."

"Him?"

"One has to die. One has to be born. Different times. Different world. The times of us will be long gone. The time of him had only just begun."

"Too many rhymes, matey," Kim groaned.

"Too many rhymes, but they can save lives," the oracle replied, kissing the crystal ball. A cloud of black smoke covered the ball. A smoke hand reached towards Kim's heart—its bony fingers with their sharp nails digging into his chest, curling around his ribcage.

"Death is coming, little pirate. Death is bleak, no scarlet," the oracle laughed, squeaky and sharp as Kim abruptly stood up from his chair, trying to keep a distance between him and the hand of the smoke.

"You are no oracle but a liar! Death will come, but when I say. Only when I say!" Kim stormed out of the shack, his clothes immediately getting drained with the pouring rain. When did it happen? When did it start? Kim didn't know, but the rain was heavy, and his crew, tired... But they had to. There was no choice; sailing out of the Bay of Sorrows they must tonight, before tomorrow.