The Bone Man

The Bone Man



He will come for me. I know this. I have known this since I saw him standing on the bow of the ship, the fog surrounding his form. He stood silent and still and I knew. The Bone Man will come for me.



Seven years I was sentenced. Seven years in New South Wales for theft. Me and my child both were to go. My child, my Victoria, my light and joy, she brought me hope during the darkest of days. Even when we were boarding the Venus Victrix, the ship that would become our grave, she was joyous. "A trip, mother!" she exclaimed. "It will be such a grand trip!"

Oh how I miss her. The loss of her makes my chest ache and my limbs numb. I wonder what he is waiting for. Why do you wait, Bone Man?

She grew ill on the second day. Her face was flushed and she grew feverish. I was too busy with my duties to help her - Captain Rathborn made what little life I had hell and he was happy to do so. He had a wicked habit of flogging women who were slow, so I was careful and quick. Still, he had his eye on me and I knew eventually I would slip up.

It happened when Victoria grew too ill to work. He would not force a young girl such as her to work with such a fever, but instead he made me take on her work as well, mopping and scrubbing twice the floors. There was no way for me to finish it and he knew - so at the end of the day, he brought me forth to a crowd. My back was bared and my wrists suspended beneath a tripod of wooden beams. My feet didn't touch the ground. Twenty-five lashes he gave me and he smiled throughout.

I should have been used to pain by then, but that was more than I could have bared. I passed out and when I awoke, I found myself back in my bunk, my back bandaged. Someone informed me that my daughter had shown up after I passed out, that she had pushed through her sickness and fever. She was the reason I was asleep - she had taken the work I had not yet finished.

Three days. Three days she worked my shift as I rested. Three days for the captain to corner her, to gleefully rip at her dress. Three days until she committed a sin against the lord and threw herself to the mercy of the sea.

On the fourth day, when I was told this, I rose from my bed and decided to mutiny. There were others on my side - they said Rathborn had become unstable these past few weeks. He had been yelling at them about some man he had seen on the ship, a stowaway dressed all in black, with a blank white face.

That was you, Bone Man. Did you cause his madness or did you merely take advantage of it?

At the end, when we stormed his quarters, he was huddled behind his desk, chanting about how the Bone White Man had found him, how the Bone Man would take him away. I took no pleasure in ramming a sword through his belly - such an act would not bring back Victoria, I knew - but still I did it.

We decided to change course, to sail to Tasmania. We would find work somewhere, even if we had to raid other ships. And that is when you showed up, Bone Man. That is when the rest of the crew saw you, one at a time.

What are you waiting for, Bone Man? An invitation? Why don't you come for me and be done with it?

The crew who were so bold during the mutiny quickled became cowardly and crazed when you showed yourself. "The devil is among us!" they yelled. "We have betrayed our captain and the devil shall bring us to hell because of it!" There were many suicides. Did you plan for that? Do you wait until we are weak and then prey on us?

In the end, the ones who didn't commit suicide went mad and I put them down. A flintlock under the chin was all it took. Better they died then went mad at sea and starved.

There you are, Bone Man. Come on then. I shall not resist. My heart is hollow.

I shall follow you wherever you go.