The Pain of Immortality

This illustration, by Matt Curtis, is from chapter 16 in book #3, “The Saeshell Book of Time Part 3: Paradise Lost”. In this scene, Paul25 is showing someone the memory of him being a 1600’s sailing ship cabin boy to prove he’s been alive for one-thousand-years. His captain, who he was been taking care of, was dying of Tuberculosis. Here is an excerpt from book #3 of the story surrounding this illustration. Do you like this?
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The scene changes and the captain is sitting up against a mooring post of the dock in the deserted darkness, gasping for breath. A little finely made wooden box is next to him. Paul25 is sitting on the ground, tearfully wiping the captain’s forehead with a damp handkerchief.

A rough-looking man walks up to the captain. “Let me see whatcha got in that there box.”

“Be off, ye scoundrel” yells the captain, gasping and coughing afterwards.

The man pulls out a knife; Paul25 points his finger at the man—a lightning bolt with the intensity of the core of Zeus burns its way through the air, plummeting into the assailant’s heart. His body erupts with thousands of tiny sparks, sizzling and crackling like the hairs of death; he wails in a cracking voice as the terrified child within dies in a searing fit. He leaps into the air, slamming the ground, and begins to flop around like a freshly caught fish until the stillness of the North Atlantic cold overtakes him.

“I’m dun fur lad,” groans the captain, in agony. “Now I know why ya been such a good cabin boy. Ye’s a sea fairy. I always hoped I’d see one. When I’m dun, ye take my box. Git some good man to show ya how to use it. You can sail the seas. I’d know you’d be a good captain, you would.”

Paul25 says, “You can’t die here now, alone.”

The captain takes Paul25’s hand with his shaking hand. “I’m not alone. Ye’s always been me faithful sea fairy. Ye’s the best cabin boy I’d ever have. If I’d a married some fine wench, I’d wish I’d have a son like you.”

Before the captain can get another sentence out, he collapses, coughs one last burst of blood, and is dead. The link ends and Paul25’s eyes are wet. … is just standing there staring at Paul25. He looks at … with the tears of a begging child—a child begging not to be soiled by the public revelation of his grim deed of reaping. He doesn’t want to be known as ‘the Paul that killed’.

“He was a really nice man,” sniffles Paul25. “I didn’t want him to die. It was so terrible. He had no family, no one. I had to stay with him. He would have been so lonely.”
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