The Siren's Song

Epilogue

Nightmare sat with his legs dangling over the side of the ship. It was dangerous, but he liked doing it. Not like he could drown.

Many of his crewmates were stripping to their underwear, seeing as it was a blistering hot day. Like usual, the mermaid prince stayed completely dressed.

"Yo, Night, you sure you don't want to take your shirt off? We already know about the mermaid thing," Fell said. It had been a month or so since they learned about his secret.

"No thank you. It's actually rude to show humans one's tattoos," the captain denied.

"Chill babe. Let them see your tats." Killer rolled his eyes a little. He knew how much of a stickler to the rules Nightmare could be. They had sex only under the sheets, and with Nightmare wearing a shirt, for a year, because of this damn rule.

Nightmare huffed, knowing he couldn't win with Killer. He took off his shirt, to his boyfriend's delight, allowing them to see the tattoo he had.

A giant octopus was drawn into his back, with a jewel in the swirl of each of the tentacles. It had a small crowd to the left side of its head. As much as it was adorable, the humans had questions.

"What does it mean?" Error asked. "You said these tattoos had meaning, right?"

"I'm an octopus." Nightmare rolled his eyes. "And the jewels represent novelty, while the crown represents royalty. How hard can it be?"

"Ahhh," a few of the humans said in sync.

Nightmare face palmed. He forgot how stupid his crew was. At least he explained it in simple terms so they wouldn't get confused.

"How does an octopus mermaid work?"

"Like how me and Black are sharks, so we have shark tails and fins in our mermaid form, Prince Nightmare has octopus tentacles instead of a traditional tail," Lust explained.

"Like actual octopi, most of them stay deep in the sea, near the ocean floor. It's uncommon for people to see them." Black added, "Besides, most of them are also venomous, so anyone who has seen one died. Besides Killer."

Killer beamed a little, happy to be special.

Nightmare smiled. These were a bunch of idiots, but they were his idiots. He looked back at the horizon, knowing Hell could come to them at any moment. But he didn't mind knowing that. The unexpected was always expected, and a pirate could never have a dull life.