Vincent Blackshadow, the Zombie love of Miss Blimey's past, had been brooding over her sudden appearance and disappearance for the past 4 months. Ever since she had shown up in his village unexpectedly. He couldn't seem to get her out of his head and was once again under the spell of the love for her he had felt so long ago.

It was a brief encounter, with Vincent hurrying Miss Blimey and her first mate out of town to protect them. Hatred of the living ran strong in this place. His home of Myrmidon. The Zombie folk who dwelt there would not hesitate to destroy any living they encountered. At the time Vincent had longed to follow Miss Blimey to the Raven and the freedom of the open seas, but he was kept in the small town of Myrmidon by the same misfortune that kept the other villagers captive. By a strange twist of fate it was the very soil of the town kept the zombie inhabitants in a state of suspended mortality, causing them to re-animate after they had been buried there. This soil possessed some strange magical properties that had not only brought the dead back to life but then allowed them to stay that way. If any of the zombies strayed outside the perimeter of the town then their life force simply left and they died for a second time. Vincent had cursed his entrapment here every day since Miss Blimey's return, but it did not seem there was a way around the rules. Until now.

Vincent had been thinking, night after night, of a way around this dilemma. How could he leave but still stay "alive" and harness the power of the towns earth? Eventually it came to him and he went to the local blacksmith with a strange request. What Vincent wanted was an amulet, cast in steel, but with the soil of the area smelted into it, running through it like veins. Vincent believed that this would give him both the freedom and power he needed to track down his former love. The blacksmith was both alarmed an intrigued by this request, and he saw in Vincent's face the signs of a man who will not rest until he has conquered his demons, so the amulet was made. Vincent placed the amulet, shaped like a star, around his neck on a strong silver chain and walked to the border of the town.

At the border Vincent stood, breathing heavily and with a great fear weighing on his broad shoulders. What if this should not work, and he should finally perish? What then? Vincent had no answers, and only his life to loose so he stepped over the border and into foreign ground. He stood paralysed for several minutes unable to move, only able to stare at the stars in the sky and wait for oblivion to grab him by the throat and pull him down, but nothing happened. Vincent had accomplished the impossible, what no other Zombie of Myrmidom had been able to do. He had gotten out. Now all that remained for him was to gain passage on a ship somewhere and find Miss Blimey. It seemed simple enough. However Vincent did not count on what he would soon find out on the open seas......

Continued in Part 2