LITMIR.BIZ

      Chapter 1 – Last Resorts

      Panting, and cursing the stupidity that had possessed me to call the Hell Ride, I pushed myself into an upright position. I put my weight on my left forearm instead of using my shredded hands, the searing pain along my right side making me wonder if I’d broken a rib. I’d never had a broken bone in my life so I didn’t know what it felt like. But as I moved the pain receded into more of a sharp ache, and I was able to draw air into my chest, so I figured I was only badly bruised.

      I seemed to have landed on the deck of a massive, badly weathered wooden ship. A broad, heavy mast rose from an elevated base several yards away, towering high into the black, starless sky above. Its spindly arms stretched out to either side with what was left of their tattered sails hanging off of them like withered flesh. The shapes of ragged clouds sped by overhead, adding to the eerily shifting shadows teeming across the surface of the deck.

      An abandoned captain’s wheel stood forlorn and motionless between the spot where I crouched and the stairs leading up to the mast platform. Dark, bulky shapes lined the sides of the ship and another platform rose behind me as the bow of the ship narrowed, making me feel trapped within the shallow pit between.

      I winced as I pulled out some of the larger splinters that were biting into my palms, identifying them as bits of the deck’s dark timber planks. My hands were bleeding and, although it was dim, I could see that I would have some work to do with tweezers later to get the rest of the splinters out.

      A scratchy whispering rose up around me, making my skin crawl. Already tense, I jumped when an eerie, high-pitched cackle rang out. A low rumbling growl sounded in response, like taunting laughter rolling up from the bowels of the ship.

      I heard a scuttling sound, like tiny claws scampering along the surface of the deck. I cringed, overcome by the creeping feeling that I was surrounded by unseen creatures scurrying through the shadows around me. The scuttling grew closer, a rapid pitter-pat that set my teeth on edge, and I felt a sharp pinch on the tender spot above my right elbow.

      “Ow!” The sound left my throat on an indignant scream of fear. I struck out in panic, whipping around to fend off my attacker, but nothing was there – only the quickly receding sound of claws clicking against wood. The whispering grew louder and a chorus of laughter broke out, a mad tittering interspersed with dim chuckles and cruel giggles.

      I rubbed at the stinging ache above my elbow and my fingers came away wet in the darkness. Apparently I had been right about the claws … or possibly teeth. I stood shakily, struggling to get my feet beneath me as fast as I could.

      It might have been my fevered imagination, but for a moment it seemed that a figure loomed up out of the dimness behind me, mocking my attempt to gain protection from my height. I spun in a circle, my eyes darting wildly between the thick puddles of shadow spilling across the planks. I thought I caught other glimpses of movement as well, but every time I whirled for

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