By dawn an infamous ship that carried the name Scarlet Siren had left the safety of a port located on a grand island, called Weeping Rock. The vessel had sailed to the great waters, no particular destination set, and the crew was like a pack of hellhounds, waiting for another ship to come by so they could attack and take whatever they wanted. And their cruel and sadistic captain, Asher Moongazer, was the worst of the bunch. He seemed to possess an odd ability to read the moon, something no one else could understand. Quite often Asher Moongazer led his crew to strike at other ships during the night when the moon was shining brightly. It appeared as if he was almost invincible whenever moonlight blessed Scarlet Siren, and it was rumored that the moon's beams also made his crew mad – more mad than usual – and they would become devils. Pirates were something honest sailors feared in general, but the crew of Scarlet Siren was so brutal and ruthless that even other pirates were afraid of them. How men could turn into such horrible beasts, no one knew. Maybe they had escaped the confines of hell itself.

For a couple of days Scarlet Siren had been sailing across the sea without encountering any other vessels. The waters had been calm and the winds fair, and so Scarlet Siren had been able to move forward with a steady pace. The whole ship was wrapped in a serene moment and the men played games and drank to occupy themselves. But they were merely waiting for the call to load the cannons and grab their swords and guns, so they could shed blood once more. In their simple little minds, they considered themselves as free men, while in reality, they were bound by their bloodlust. They had built their own cage that had no key.

Just like the days, the nights were peaceful as well. The moon had conquered its place in the starry sky many times and shed its bright silvery light, and of course, captain Asher Moongazer would stare at the great orb and study its mysteries. He could keep looking at the moon for hours, however, he didn't reveal any of its secrets to his men. Maybe there was none to be shared. But the men trusted that their captain would speak if there was something significant enough to tell them, it's how things had been for years.

But what about when something disastrous is going to happen, but the moon won't warn the pirate captain beforehand? For his whole life Asher Moongazer had remained loyal to the moon, praised its brilliance and bathed in its light as if it could wash away his sins, but then it occurred one night that the moon didn't speak to him. Asher Moongazer tried and tried to call out to the great silvery sphere, but in vain. The silence of the moon was just the beginning of the horrors that would take place that night.

The waters had remained calm and Scarlet Siren had glided through the sea without difficulties. However as the darkness fell, the winds were getting weaker, notably slowing down the ship's speed. For an experienced crew something like this was an ordinary thing, so they didn't think much of it. Their drunken singing and laughing blared through the night air while the rest of the world had gone silent. And still the captain tried to communicate with the moon, his eyes fixed at the sky. Nevertheless, he got no response, and then the sphere disappeared from his view, completely veiled by the dark clouds. A sensation that something was wrong crept into his black heart and he shifted his gaze away from the sky, looking at his intoxicated crew.

One of his men had drunk too much that night and he stumbled towards the rail to throw up into the waters below. He made disgusting noises for a while as he vomited out the contents of his stomach. But after he was done, he kept staring into the sea, and eventually he yelled: “Captain! There's something in the water!”

In order to verify this claim, Asher Moongazer made his way to the rail and looked at the dark waters. The sea had remained calm all this time, but still, the pirate captain didn't notice anything out of the ordinary among the tame waves. He was about to blame it all on the man's drunken state, seeing things that weren't really there, but when he was about to turn his stare away, he did catch a glimpse of something below the water's surface. Asher Moongazer took a better look at the water, trying to understand what he was seeing. It looked like a sea animal, however, nothing stranger than that. It seemed to be about the size of a human, but that wasn't anything weird, either. The sea was a home to many creatures, some of them much larger than a man. Whatever the thing had been, it soon disappeared from sight, diving so deep that Asher Moongazer couldn't follow it anymore. He didn't think much of it and walked away from the rail.

Scarlet Siren continued to move forward, although slowly. Asher Moongazer had decided to join his men, snatching a bottle of rum. He took a few swigs from it and tried to enjoy the moment as carefreely as his crew, but couldn't ignore the nagging feeling that things were wrong somehow. Occasionally he would look at the sky, to see the moon again, but it remained hidden behind the clouds. There was nothing he could do, so he kept drinking.

Until the moon finally revealed itself. But it appeared as a stranger to Asher Moongazer, he had never seen it liked that. For a moment he thought that he had drank too much rum already, even though he hadn't even finished his bottle yet, because of how the moon looked like in his eyes. The familiar, safe and pure silver was gone and it had turned crimson, like if the moon had been drenched in blood. It definitely was a bad omen, even Asher Moongazer's men could see that. The blood red light was shining upon them and the sea, and the whole crew of Scarlet Siren had ceased whatever they had been doing and looked at the crimson orb.

“Captain, what does this mean?” one of Asher Moongazer's men asked, his voice barely more audible than a whisper. It was a question that all the men had in their mind at that moment, but only he had been able to open his mouth and say it aloud.

The pirate captain hoped he could have answers. But he didn't. He could just stare with wide eyes and confusion in his heart at the moon he didn't recognize. It seemed so hostile now, like it hated him. However, Asher Moongazer didn't have time to lament this, when an ominous sound traveled into the ears of all of Scarlet Siren's crew. It chilled their very souls and they all could immediately tell it was something unnatural. It froze all the men and they could only listen how the sound was getting louder and more haunting. It was like the wailing of the dead, but they had been forgotten by the world for so long that they didn't remember how to form words anymore. And the more Scarlet Siren's crew listened to those eerie voices, they started to sound familiar somehow, like they had met them in the past, although the pirates couldn't exactly remember them.

While most of the crew remained stationary, captivated by the haunting voices, a few of those who were close to a railing noticed something alarming in the sea. For the second time that night, one of his men yelled: “Captain, the water!”

Asher Moongazer stepped towards the rail once more to look into the waters, and so did most of his men. In the cursed gleam of the blood red moon, the water around the ship looked like it was boiling. It was strange, it was unnatural. It was at this point when most of the crew of Scarlet Siren became certain that they were in the middle of a horror story, these things didn't just happen. The men kept staring at the abnormal water phenomenon, only to witness how the next chapter in the horror story unfolded.

The crew saw how various body parts began to emerge from the water, but they couldn't really comprehend what they were actually seeing. It was a jumble of human limbs and various parts belonging to different species of sea creatures, such as sharks, jellyfish and squids and some others the crew couldn't identify. It was all so strange, it defied logic. It looked like these abominations were decayed human bodies that had somehow merged together with marine animals. They had surrounded the whole ship, moaning loudly like their whole existence was nothing but agony. Just seeing these things appearing from the sea was horrifying alone, but then the creatures started to climb the hull of the ship with their slimy limbs.

Asher Moongazer was able to react to this quickly. “Shoot them! Don't let them get to the ship!” he commanded and grasped his own gun and started to shoot at the crawling monsters.

His crew wasted no time and all of them were in arms immediately, trying their best to fulfill the captain's orders. The loud banging of the guns filled the night air, drowning all the other noises. For a moment it seemed like that the pirates managed to keep the horrid creatures at bay, the bullets appeared to harm them and left holes in their disgusting bodies, and after a few shots they would drop back into the water. But they couldn't prepare for just how relentless these monsters could be. After falling, they would soon start to climb again, their appearances now mangled by all the bullets, making them look even more horrible now. Eventually the pirates would run out of bullets while these nightmarish creatures would keep trying to invade their ship, their dead eyes shimmering ominously in the light of the crimson moon.

When there were no more bullets left, Asher Moongazer took a hold of his sword instead. “Take your swords and send them to hell where they belong!”

His men obeyed this new command and defended their vessel with swords now. The blades reflected the bloodred light as they struck at their victims, but oddly, no matter how much the sharp blades cut the flesh of the creatures, they didn't shed blood at all. It was just one more horrifying detail, whatever they had been first, they definitely weren't living beings anymore. The pirates were still able to hold them off for a while, but then it started to seem that more creatures were rising from the sea, and the fight was getting overwhelming. It didn't matter that the pirates were seen as devils by the world, they were still mortals with limits. Eventually exhaustion started to take its toll on their bodies and the increasing horde of monsters were able to conquer the ship, slowly but surely. Still the pirates found motivation to fight, even though their situation didn't look good; the first wave of monsters had already reached the deck. They were crawling or walking hauntingly, depending on how much they resembled a human, and although it's widely believed that there's nothing behind the gaze of a dead one, these things, on the other hand, their eyes reflected one of the strongest desires: revenge.

How can you beat an enemy that seems to be immune to weapons? And their numbers kept increasing. The situation didn't look promising at all to the pirates. It was inevitable that they started to lose men, getting strangled by tentacles, being torn apart by powerful jaws, their intestines spilled on the deck and their blood would dye the wood red. And whenever a man would fall dead on the deck, one of the creatures would snatch their sword and use it against their comrades. It was a horror show. And Asher Moongazer, he didn't see a way out of it. He didn't want to accept the fact that they were doomed, but he had no idea how to defeat a foe that defies logic.

A very loud high-pitched sound pierced the air, similar to a whistle, but this one invaded the heads of the men and it felt like it had punctured their brains. It was painful, but luckily they heard it only once. But something strange happened after the sound faded away; the monsters had stopped moving. Asher Moongazer and his men were so baffled by this that they stopped fighting as well, but glared at the monsters, ready to begin cutting their dead flesh again.

Then some of the creatures moved, not hostilely, but like they were moving away to give space to something else. A narrow path was then opened in the middle of a mass of abominations and soon the pirates could see how one of those things walked on this path, heading towards Asher Moongazer. The creature was a man fused together with an anglerfish. He had a dead grey skin and still had feet and one arm that was holding a spear-like weapon, but the other arm had disappeared somewhere inside the fish, and so had most of his body. His head was badly crooked, sticking out from the side of the fish. As this entity was walking closer, the esca of the fish was bringing a haunting green light, like a lantern of the dead, and the tormented features of the man could be seen more clearly thanks to it. There was so much suffering in the eyes of the man, but there was also vindictiveness; it was the same look all of the creatures possessed.

The anglerfish man stopped in front of Asher Moongazer. He eyed the pirate captain with eyes of hatred and he opened his mouth to speak: “Do you remember me, Asher Moongazer?”

His voice was raspy and sounded old, like it hadn't been used for decades. The pirate captain looked at him defiantly.

“I don't”, Asher Moongazer responded, his voice sounding so much stronger than the monster's own, but the difference was to be expected; one was a living being while the other was a dead one.

“I didn't expect that you would”, the dead man said, his words dripping with hate. “You have slaughtered so many people during your years as a pirate captain. But I remember you. We all do. We couldn't possibly forget you. And that memory of you has kept us bound to the sea, to these waters. We're nothing but remnants of your past deeds, but you can't run from your sins no more.”

The monster made a sharp and swift motion with his hand, the tip of his weapon pointing at Asher Moongazer's head. But the pirate captain didn't show fear, he just looked at the creature with disgust.

“So, what are you planning to do?” Asher Moongazer asked arrogantly.

“We've been trapped in the depths for so long, not able to pass on because of our desire for vengeance. Our bodies and souls were rotting away, but death wouldn't come, and we latched onto the animals of the sea, like parasites, sharing our miserable existence with them.” The anglerfish man's eyes wandered among his brethren for a bit before he focused on the pirate captain again. “We have lived a cursed life. Do you know what it's like? No, of course you don't. The hatred for you has been growing inside us all these years. We've been here, waiting for you to make the mistake of coming to these very waters, for this is where you killed us. Ever since that day, we have waited for your return so we can take our revenge.”

It seemed that the fate of the pirates was sealed. But even when facing death, Asher Moongazer remained proud, refusing to show any signs of weakness. He glared at the anglerfish man in front of him and it was clear that the hatred was mutual. Asher Moongazer thrusted forward with his sword and it sank inside the monster, piercing him through approximately where his torso would have been. The creature was utterly unfazed by this.

“It's time. Let's see what you like to be cursed.”

The creature mimicked the pirate captain's motion and thrusted his spear at Asher Moongazer. The blade hit him in the eye and went through his head, instantly killing him. His crew watched horrified how their captain's blood was running from the fatal wound to the spear and from there, it was dripping onto the deck. As his lifeless corpse fell against the bloody wood, it marked the end of the crew of Scarlet Siren. The monsters were merciless, showing the pirates the same level of cruelty as what they had once done to them. No one was spared and they all met a brutal demise. Their blood stained the vessel and most of them weren't in one piece anymore, just a mangled mess of different body parts. The sight was abhorrent, but in the eyes of their victims, this was justified.

But the creatures didn't leave them to rot on the deck. They took every little piece of flesh and threw them into the sea. Once there was nothing else but blood on the empty deck, the monsters returned to the waters as well. Scarlet Siren was completely abandoned, and so it would drift alone in the sea, its fate unknown.

The crimson moon had witnessed this horrendous bloodshed. But it is the keeper of both curses and blessings, and as its red light shone on the waters, the curse of the sea monsters was lifted. They bathed in the moonlight and felt how the pain they had suffered from for years would finally end. They could finally open their hearts to other feelings than hatred and vengeance, they could finally feel like a human again. Their movements in the sea were graceful, it resembled dancing even though their forms were still monstrous. And they danced for the moon, which then gradually turned silver again, as if it had shed its skin of blood. The light purified the sea creatures and they were able to regain their old forms; not all of them could even recall what they had looked like, the desire for revenge had completely corrupted their minds. But now they were humans once more and able to pass on, something that should have happened decades ago. They were free to travel through the waters and search for a gateway to the afterlife.

What was left of the pirates kept sinking down, deeper and deeper, being weighed down by their sins. Marine animals would feast on their flesh, but a different fate awaited their souls. They would keep sinking, to the very abyss which was absent of light. It was like they were chained by an anchor, unable to traverse back to the surface, no matter how hard they would try to swim. In the darkness they would wander for eternity and wail, however no human being would ever hear their tormented cries. Asher Moongazer would never see his precious moon again; he was condemned to stay in the abyss along with his men. Such a cursed existence, devised by the pirate captain's dearest moon.

No one knew what happened to the dreaded crew of Scarlet Siren. They just disappeared. This, of course, inspired many tales about the mysterious disappearance. Some say that they clashed with another group of pirates and were defeated – a number of pirates even tried to take the credit for this deed. Some say that they were simply captured by law and got hanged. But of course, the stories that excited the imagination the most were the famous ones. Such as that they encountered a huge monster in the sea and were devoured by it. Some said that Scarlet Siren sank in a violent storm and now its crew would sail the seas forever, as a ghost ship – there were people who claimed that they had seen the ghastly apparition of Scarlet Siren. Since nobody was aware of the truth, these stories would spread and change over the course of time.

Maybe one day somebody would discover the drifting Scarlet Siren. However, finding it in the state it was left in would probably raise even more questions about the fate of its crew. Asher Moongazer and his men would remain a legend, for sure, but just like all legends, they all will eventually fade. There will be a day when nobody remembers them, while they would remain in their accursed state, doomed to suffer for their horrible deeds, forever.