Judgment

Something is wrong here.

I am not familiar with this place.

Its dark… and wet.

My fingernails scrape cruddy damp filth off the long boards I sit upon, I am leaned up against something, a tall round pole of old lumber. There are numbers and names cut into the pole, all the way up it, at least as high as my vision permits me to see in the low light. The floor under me sways back and forth a bit, causing my vision to spin as I lose my balance, pressing my body back into the poll for a moment before raising my eyes to look at the grime encrusted rails and stairs, the long deck that stretches for hundreds of feet in every direction.

I am on a ship… a very large ship.

I have never been on a ship before.

I groan as I pull myself to my feet, stumbling slightly, causing my leather boots to clunk and clap against the ancient boards. This ship looks like it should be at the bottom of the sea, yet I can hear the water slap against it, the wind whip at the torn sails, I can hear a wheel creek back and forth behind me, far behind me.

My head no longer swims as I turn and begin venturing across the deck in the direction of the wheel, surely I cannot be the only one here.

“There he is!” a cheerful voice cry’s across from somewhere in the dark.

“Where am I” I croak out, becoming aware of the dryness in my throat.

“You’re on a ship, and a rather large one at that my friend, come now, join me at the helm” the voice called back out.

Steps creek loudly and I slip, banging into the side of the ship, covering the sleeve of my dirty shirt in more of the damp crusty filth that seems to have intruded upon every inch of the god forsaken vessel. The man that had called out to me comes into view a moment later as my head peeks over the top stair, he’s tall, a long red greatcoat, a grey beard, and not an ounce of flesh on his bones.

Fear does not pump through me, because nothing pumps through me, and I feel as cold as the ice plains I was born on. This is all so wrong, but I make my way up the last few steps anyway, there is nowhere to go.

“There he is” the man growls, as he turns his skull to look upon me.

“I’m dead, aren’t I” I question, knowing the answer.

“You’re a quick one, boy, nasty business, you took quite a tumble” the skeletal man responded, his boney jaw moving into what might have been a smirk.

“I fell!?” I exclaimed in a frustrated tone.

“Aye, but you’ll have plenty of time to hear about that later” He exclaimed and then continued on, “do you recall the time you swatted that beggar, the one you hit with your cudgel”?

“I do, I had no coin and he smelled like a rotten bag of onions” I answered defiantly.

“Watch your lip boy, that was rude, as was what you did to that poor man, and you have no place to judge or command down here” He stated in rocky tone.

The air shifted, the dark grew cold and hateful, closing around us like we were the last two men on the earth. I shivered, I did not think a dead man possessed such a human trait, it was unsettling I knew yet my chest was empty. The beggars face shown in my mind, gaunt and pock marked, a beard so long he often tripped over it, dirty rags hung off him covered in mud and filth and piss.

“He’s alive yet, ya know, begging yet, but alive while yore down here… what we do with this life means everything boy, what you do to a man with nothing means more than one with a crown and harem of beautiful women. When we make landfall, I suggest you keep that in mind, your legacy, ask yourself if your presence in the plane of life made it a better or worse place” The captain growled out in a low tone as he gazed off into the vast black sea around us.

“Where are we” I whispered to the skeleton.

“We are where men are judged, where those not bad enough for the pit did not do enough good to walk through the gates, and please don’t start praying its far too late for that boy” He responded, turning his gaze back to me with a smirk and a nod.