The heart is closer to the center of the chest than most realized. It cowers behind the sternum, beating away in its cage of bone as though it believes itself encased completely in steal.
Marion kissed his dearest friend. Armel's beard scraping along his chin, his hands on Marion's hips, his heart thumping steadily inches from Marion's own. He let the moment linger. His hand traced down Armel's side, over the bulge of his fat belly and down to the breadth of his thigh. Armel tilted his head, Marion pulled the stiletto dagger from its sheath on Armel's hip.
A treasure fit for a king, the thing they had been searching for since they were just boys playing make believe on their home shore, they had a map now. Its exact location still burning behind Marion's eyelids.
Hearts were seen as a symbol of courage, not for their stubbornness, but for the bravery it took for them to continue to beat inspite of their frailness.
Armel gasped against his lips, Marion clung to him as the blood gushed between them. Armel's weight turned to dead stone seconds after the stiletto pierced up through the thick muscle Marion had praised so often before, under the guard of the sturdy bones that seemed to never break, and into the heart he knew was his completely.
Marion was hot with Armel's life drenching his front. His friend, his lover, his brother of circumstance dead in his arms.
The treasure was fit for a king, but they weren't noble men. Armel would have struck if Marion hadn't done it first.
Marion dragged him to the ships railing, kissed his cheek one last time, and dropped him overboard with the map still tucked down his shirt.
Marion would never forget it's illustration, he never forgot anything, with it destroyed and Armel gone he wouldn't have to share a single coin.
The ocean far below embraced the body of the heart torn fool. The waves balming a spirit still too shocked to so much as grieve his own death.
A storm brewed far above.
The ocean pulled the fool deeper and deeper, it's siren song filled his untethered mind.
The waves began to crash against the ship's hull.
The ocean cared not for the betrayals of man, but it adored the ruthless who carried its spirit.
Thunder rumbled.
The ocean called the fool kin, and offered him an exchange it knew he would accept.
The rain began to pour.
A heart torn monster surged in the ship's wake. Cold and dead and hunting as lightning struck the deck.
