What better way to celebrate Halloween than at a pirate-themed party on an island that was rumored to be haunted?

That was the theory. Claire’s problems began when she went to pick out a costume.

The guys had it easy. There were lots of pirate costumes available. They could get anything from a historic pirate outfit to a Captain Jack Sparrow costume.

There were a lot of pirate costumes available for girls, too but they were all “sexy pirate”. “Captain Hooker” was more like it.

Historic costumes didn’t help. There weren’t many women pirates. The couple that existed disguised themselves as men. Claire could always go as a regular woman from the period but they wore a lot of clothes. A good looking outfit from the period was expensive and uncomfortable.

That left “sexy pirate”.

It wasn’t that Claire wouldn’t look good in one of these outfits. She was gorgeous. The problem was that half of them looked like they were never meant to leave the bedroom and the other half would have made her look like a whore. She wanted something sexy but tasteful.

So she looked around for something compatible. After a lot of searching she decided on going as a mermaid. It was a sea creature and there were mermaids in the 4th PotC (Pirates of the Caribbean) movie so she could justify it. It was even something that she could make herself. There were variations that she could make. One commercial pattern was a tight skirt to the knees with some green netting below that. It would be comfortable but many people might not even realize what she was supposed to be. She decided on a full-length version with a floppy fin that would go in front. The only drawback was moving around. She could make a velcro slit in the back that could be opened for walking and closed when she was sitting but she would still be in a tight skirt with part of it hanging in front of her feet. No dancing in that outfit. At least she would look good.

She found some blue-green fabric for the tail. It contrasted nicely with her red hair. She ran the fabric through her sewing machine multiple times, making diamond patterns that gave the impression of scales.

She also made over a fancy bra to look like sea shells. After applying some green eye makeup, the effect was striking. She looked sexy without looking cheap.

It was a warm night for October but just in case Claire had also made herself a shawl for warmth. It looked like seaweed so it added to her costume.

A water taxi had been hired to ferry people over to the party. Claire shared it with four other women, all of them dressed as sexy pirates. Walking was just as much of a problem as she expected so she took her time getting from the boat to the party site. She was one of the last to arrive.

There were a few dozen people there. There were some PotC characters - three Jack Sparrows plus a woman dressed as Jack who might have been playing Penélope Cruz’s character when she was dressed as Jack. One of the Jacks was wearing glasses and looked like Johnny Depp between takes. There was also a Blackbeard who was a suitably impressive six foot plus and a Captain Morgan.

A couple of guys were dressed as skeletal pirates and a couple of others were pirate zombies. There was one guy with an octopus on his head and bat wings. The outfit seemed familiar but Claire couldn’t place it.

The rest of the guys were either historic pirates or ren fair ones.

One woman was dressed as Tia Dalma. A pair were dressed as men. Claire guessed that they were Mary Read and Anne Bonnie. The rest were either sexy pirates or 18th century ladies.

The party was taking place in a clearing with a bonfire in the center. Coolers filled with drinks were off to one side.

Claire found a log to sit on, she closed the slit in her skirt and draped her tail across the log. It didn’t take long before she started attracting attention. In fact, it didn’t matter that it was hard to walk. There was always someone to offer her a drink or some food.

‘Being helpless has its advantages,’ she thought to herself. The only problem was that she couldn’t dance. Her dress made her too clumsy for even a slow dance. Too late she realized that she could have made the tail part of her dress detachable.

Maybe next year.

“What’s that?” someone asked.

There was a glow in the distance. It looked like another bonfire - a bigger one than theirs.

“I thought that we had this island for the night. Is someone else having a party?”

“Let’s check it out.”

Suddenly Claire found herself alone. Everyone else had gone to check out the other fire. She opened her tail and followed as quickly as possible.

When she finally caught up she found everyone crouched behind some bushes, peeking through. She took a look for herself.

There was another fire. A dozen women were dancing around it. And they were naked.

Wiccans she realized.

“Whoa, look at that one,” one of the partiers said.

The wiccans heard him and stopped their dance.

“Who’s there?” one of them asked. “Show yourselves.”

The pirates walked out into the open.

“Voyeurs? You want to see some real magic? Try this... By the power of Hecate, as you are dressed you shall spend the night until you stand before the dawn’s first light.”

‘Did she just do what I think she did?’ Claire wondered then cursed as her legs gave way. She fell to the ground, trying to move her legs.

Except she no longer had legs. She had a fish tail. She had been transformed into a real mermaid!

She lay in the grass, cursing. The head wiccan walked near and picked up a robe. She had bright red hair and a cute body. Claire realized that she seemed familiar.

“Ashley?” Claire asked. The woman turned and looked down.

“Look at you Claire. You’ve turned into the Little Mermaid. You’re adorable.”

“Ha, ha. Change me back!”

“I can’t. The spell has to take its course. Don’t worry, it will wear off at dawn.” She put an arm into her robe.

“What happened to the three fold rule and not doing harm.”

Ashley put her other arm into the robe but somehow the first one slipped off, “It was a neutral spell so the rule doesn’t apply.”

“You better hope it was neutral. It looks like you got caught in the backwash.”

Ashley was still trying to keep her robe from falling off, “What do you mean? I wasn’t even wearing anything... Oh, that’s why I can’t get this robe on. I was skyclad when I cast the spell so I have to stay naked until dawn.”

“It looks that way.”

“At least I didn’t turn into a mermaid.”

“What about turning into a pirate? Maybe it wasn’t such a good idea transforming a bunch of drunken students into drunken pirates while you are naked.”

“Oh!”

Even in the firelight Ashley looked pale at the realization of what she had done.

Their conversation was interrupted by a gunshot.

Of the four Jack Sparrows two were fighting over which one was the real Captain Jack. The female Jack Sparrow was arguing with two other pirates. It appeared that she expected them to take her orders.

The final Jack Sparrow thought he was Johnny Depp and was trying to contact his agent.

Blackbeard and Captain Morgan were arguing about who was in charge. Blackbeard had emphasized his point by firing one of his six pistols in the air. He drew another and pointed it at Captain Morgan. Morgan drew a sword and stabbed Blackbeard who grunted and hit Morgan with the barrel of his gun. Morgan collapsed and the various Jack Sparrows surrendered. Claire knew something about historic pirates and remembered that the real Blackbeard had been shot and stabbed without effect. His duplicate seemed equally hearty.

The pirate women were all screaming and taking cover.

“Do something! Fix this!” Claire shouted at Ashley. This was a mistake since it attracted the attention of the pirates. Ashley was seized and her hands shackled behind her back then her ankles were bound with rope and she was hogtied. Claire’s hands were tied behind her back.

“Hogtie her, too” Blackbeard ordered.

“Why?” someone answered. “It’s not like she’s going to run away or anything.”

"Haw! Alright, just be sure her hands are secure.”

Blackbeard ordered the other wiccans to be found. This wasn’t difficult. None of them had thought to run and their naked bodies shown in the firelight making it hard to hide.

Several of the ren fair pirates carried shackles and these were used to secure the prisoners. There were not enough for all of them so they improvised. They found a long, low bench with legs set deeply into the ground. They chained pairs of wiccans together with their wrists below the bench. It was too close to the ground for the women to squeeze under so they were stuck. This kept ten of them them in place. They chained the wrist of the last one to one of the other wiccans.

Claire whispered to Ashley, “We’re lucky Blackbeard won. He didn’t let his men rape captives. Morgan did.”

The woman dressed as Tia Dalma had also changed into a copy of the real thing so they tied her hands behind her back but they took her with them.

The pirates ignored the other women. Instead they began making plans to sack the mainland. They left the helpless captives and went down to the docks.

One of the pirate women came over to Claire, “What’s going on? Why is everyone acting so weird? And are you really a mermaid?”

“Jan! You are still you. Everyone else turned into whatever they were dressed as. Why didn’t you turn into a pirate?”

“I guess it’s because I’m not really wearing a costume. This is just stuff from my closet.” Sure enough, Jan’s outfit of a black corset over a white blouse and knee-length ragged skirt seemed familiar.

“You turned into yourself! Great. Untie us.”

“You aren’t going to turn into one of those scary mermaids like in Pirates 4 are you?”

“No. I’m just a generic mermaid. I guess that’s why I’m still myself. I didn’t dress like a specific character.”

By this point Claire and Ashley were untied but Ashley’s hands were still locked behind her back. None of the other wiccans could be freed either.

“We need to stop the pirates before someone gets hurt,” Claire told the others. “Any ideas?”

Jan just shook her head. Ashley said, “Hey, I’m still naked and handcuffed. I can’t do anything like this. If all of us were free we could try some more magic but we need to make a circle.”

“What about Tia Dalma” one of the wiccans asked. “She was just tied. If she was really turned into the movie character then she should have some powers that could help.”

“They took her with them,” Jan answered.

“Then let’s move,” Claire ordered.

This was easier said than done. There was no easy way to move Claire. Her tail was longer than her legs had been and she weighed considerably more than normal.

Finally they got a couple of the sexy pirate women to help with promises of money. The girls’ costumes hadn’t changed much but their personalities were completely different. They acted like whores with British accents.

While she was being carried Claire took stock of herself. Her legs were not just covered with scales. They were gone. Her anatomy was completely different. She still had hip bones but her spine continued past it and down the length of her tail.

She also noticed that her bra was now an actual pair of seashells. They were smaller and her breasts were, if anything, larger so the shells strained to keep her contained.

Fortunately the island was not large. They found cover from a high point overlooking the dock.

Most of the pirates were gathered on a floating dock. A small party had taken the water taxi to go steal a boat large enough for all of them. Tia Dalma was sitting at one edge of the dock near the water.

“Perfect,” Ashley said. “Someone can swim up, free Tia, and help her swim to freedom.”

“Someone?” Claire asked.

“You know, someone like a mermaid.”

“I don’t even know if I can swim with this tail,” Claire protested.

Jan moved back a step, “Don’t look at me. I’m a terrible swimmer.”

Ashley turned to show her hands, “I’m still cuffed. You are all we’ve got.”

“Ok, help me into the water.”

There was a small creek bed nearby. They carried Claire to the top of the bank. She was able to sit on her tail and work her way down the hill. The stream was too shallow for her to float but it helped her get to the ocean. She eased herself into the water until she was floating. With a flip of her tail she was moving.

She was swimming but it felt like flying. She was fast and agile. It felt totally natural. In the thrill of it, she almost forgot why she was there. She wanted to just keep swimming.

In her excitement she had gone far past the dock. She turned and swam back, surfacing close to the dock and pulling herself partway out of the water.

“I’m here to help,” she whispered in Tia’s ear. “I’m going to untie you and pull you to safety.”

Tia nodded silently to show that she understood. While Claire worked on the ropes the raiding party returned with a large boat. Taking advantage of the distraction, Claire acted.

“Here we go!”

Claire put an arm around Tia’s chest and pushed herself backwards. The pirates were taken by surprise and they were lost in the darkness before they could react.

“Take a breath,” Claire warned Tia then dove beneath the water and made a right angle turn.

They came up at the mouth of the creek. Jan and the sexy pirates helped Tia and Claire out of the water and under cover. By now the pirates were all on the large boat and were searching for Tia, expecting that she was still alone.

“We have to do something about the pirates. Can you help?” Ashley asked.

“Dis is not the Caribbean. My powers are not as strong here. If you can get them back on the island I can do something but not while they are on the water.”

“Don’t look at me,” Claire warned, “I’m not taking on a boat full of pirates by myself.”

Tia pointed to Jan, “Maybe her friend can help.”

“Bob?” Jan asked. I haven’t even seen him since we changed.

“What was he dressed as?” Ashley asked.

“I didn’t understand it. He had an octopus costume on his head.”

“And wings,” Claire added.

“Goddess!” Ashley exclaimed. “Cthulhu!”

“So in addition to pirates we have to worry about a mad god who devours souls?” Claire asked. “And where is he?”

“He is where he should be,” Tia explained. “He sleeps beneath the waves.”

“I say we leave him there,” Jan said.

“Him is the reason I have no power over the sea,” Tia exclaimed. “Him is the only one who can stop the pirates. If you want them stopped you need him.”

Claire shook her head, “I get this but I he eats souls for God’s sake!”

Ashley looked thoughtful, “No. He isn’t really Cthulhu. He only has power from our spell and we don’t have that power. He’s big and strong but he isn’t really an ancient god.”

“So it’s up to me. Again.”

Back she went into the water but the thrill was gone. There was a monster in the water and if she wasn’t careful it would eat her.

She did have time to marvel that she was immune to the cold and could see through the murky depths.

It wasn’t hard to find a creature that massive. He was curled up on his side and it almost looked like he was sucking his thumb (tentacle). How he grew so large without anyone noticing him was puzzling.

It was almost disappointing that she could swim so close to the monster without waking it.

“Hey, sucker-face!”

“Wake up you big pile of sushi!”

It opened a yellow eye the size of her head.

“Who dares?”

“I do. Well, it wasn’t my idea. There’s some magic pirates upstairs and they sent me down here to challenge you.”

“Challenge me?”

“Yeah. For control of the channel. They say it’s theirs and you need to move out. You’re a navigation hazard.”

Both eyes were open by now and Claire decided that it was time to leave.

“Pirates? Damned nuisances, interrupting my sleep. I’ll sort them out quick enough.”

Claire swam as fast and as far as she could. She paused to catch her breath and looked back.

Cthulhu broke the surface in front of the pirate’s boat. They didn’t have enough time to turn and ran into him but bounced off of his rubbery flesh. He raised an arm to smash them but created a wave that pushed them away. They jumped overboard en mass as he brought his fist down on the boat, smashing it.

The pirates dragged themselves on shore. Cthulhu laughed and sank beneath the waves again.

Tia Dalma held her hands together, blew into them and cast some bones on the ground.

The pirates had gathered well away from the water when the remaining five appeared - three skeletal pirates and two zombies. The living pirates drew their weapons. Some of them were dry enough to fire but were useless against the undead.

Under Tia Dalma’s direction, the undead pirates quickly disarmed the others and herded them back to the bonfire. Even Blackbeard was cowed.

“Great. Now who has the keys to these shackles?” Ashley asked.

“No. You caused enough trouble tonight. It better if you stay like that.”

“What?” Ashley stamped her foot but was otherwise helpless.

“If you not happy, me could give you to the pirates. De like you like dat.”

“No. I’m sorry.”

By now the pirate women had helped Claire back to the bonfire.

“You did it,” Ashley congratulated her. “Now there’s nothing to do except wait for dawn.”

“Ashley?” Claire asked. “How do I change back?”

“It will end when the dawn strikes you.”

“But when you cast the spell you said ‘stand’”.

“I guess I did. I was improvising and I needed an extra word to keep up the meter. So?”

“I don’t have legs. I can’t stand.”

“Oh. I didn’t think of that. I’m so sorry but I don’t know if you can change back.”

“I guess I’ll have to wait to find out.”

“What about Bob?” Jan asked.

“Oh Jeeze. He went back to sleep. Ashley, what will happen if he stays down there?”

“I guess he will stay a monster. No way dawn will touch him down there,” Ashley shook her head. “I really made a mess of things.”

“Claire, isn’t there anything you can do?” Jan asked.

“What, I’m supposed to wake him up again and ask him to come up on dry land? So that he can change back when I can’t?” Claire was feeling a little bitter.

“Why can’t you change back?” Jan asked.

“I have to stand in dawn’s light. No legs so I can’t stand. Weren’t you listening just now?”

“Why don’t you stand in the water. You know, like Flipper?”

“Who?”

“It’s an old tv show with a dolphin. Here, let me show you.”

Jan pulled out her phone and brought up a Youtube video. Sure enough, it had a dolphin balancing on its tail in the water.

“That could work. Get me back to the water.”

“While you’re there...”

“Ok. I guess I owe you.”

The sky was growing light by the time they got back to the shore. Claire eased herself into the water and swam down to Cthulhu.

“Hey Squid-face!”

He woke easily this time.

“Now what? More pirates?”

“No. That was a lie that Tia Dalma had me tell you.”

“The witch? What does she want?”

“With you sleeping down here she lost control of the water. She was hoping that the pirates could kill you.”

“She was wrong.”

“So she sent me back with a direct challenge. You control the water but she controls the land. Just try to fight her.”

“I see that the only way I can get some sleep is to eat her. Or maybe her messenger.” He reached for Claire but she darted away.

“Sorry Squidly but the only way you will get any sleep is if you beat Tia Dalma first.”

Cthulhu had already roused his massive body and was making for shore.

‘I hope I timed this right,’ Claire thought to herself.

Cthulhu rose out of the water and stepped onto the shore. The earth shook with each step.

Then the sun broke over the horizon and Cthulhu shrunk. Tia Dalma had enough time to laugh in triumph before the sun struck her.

Back in the water, Claire dove down then swam straight up. She broke the surface and beat her tail rapidly, balancing on it.

And then her tail was gone and she was trying to tread water in a tight skirt.

She was not a strong swimmer but she made it back to shore and made the long shuffle back up the hill.

Everyone was back to normal and most of them had only hazy memories of the night before. Unfortunately that meant that no one knew who had the keys to the wiccans’ shackles so they were still chained up and naked.

“You do realize that we still have our powers and we will get loose eventually,” one of the wiccans pointed out. The key was quickly found after that.

They were still stuck on the island. The water taxi had been left on the mainland and the boat the pirates had stolen was wrecked so they had to wait to be picked up.

Ashley, now fully dressed, stretched her arms. After a night in shackles her shoulders were still sore. She sat down next to Claire.

“You did good last night. Without you things would have been a disaster.”

“Thanks,” Claire smiled. “It wasn’t all bad. Swiming as a mermaid was fantastic. I just wish I had been able to enjoy it without pirates and monsters to worry about.”

“That can be arranged.”

“Oh?”

“I warned everyone else to burn their costume. Except Jan, of course. But you should keep yours. It won’t take much to re-enchant it so that you can become a mermaid any time you put it on.”

“And I’ll change back the next dawn?”

“Yes. I’ll just be extending the original spell. I won’t even need the rest of the coven. I can do it as soon as you find something else to wear.”

“Why not now?”

“But you would turn back into a mermaid.”

“Exactly. Just let me get to the water first.”