I'm getting something ready, just have to see when I'll be done tomorrow depending on available time, but this post is a reservation of sorts.
It won't be as thought provoking as some of entries so far, but I think it'll be fun.
EDIT (Apr 9th, 1am): Fair warning - this is a trashy pulp horror story (can't have enough of those, right?). Thank you for the extension, Tabata. Not that much time to rewrite, but personal stuff got in the way...and I was lazy.
Seems like a good turnout, good luck to everybody.
Greetings from the New WorldIt was clear skies and fresh winds of glory, that were promising fortune and fame upon our return. Months have passed since we arrived and I was looking forward to going back. Europe meant home, fame, families, paycheck, and I would probably be getting a promotion and finally some decent wages. Excitement was high among the crew, even during the long shifts while the cargo was being loaded. Sails were brand new and the whole hull was mended, almost as good as new.
I was finalizing my work as well. Captains's list of errands was getting crossed out fast and I was delivering the last of his papers to the port authorities when the ship's bell sounded off. The time has come to depart.
All was fine and journey might have been easier than the one we made from home. I fulfilled my duties as the captain's servant, brought him his meals, passed on his orders, kept track of the navigation and organized shifts now and then.
Then four weeks into our journey home, everything changed, everything started to go wrong. There was some commotion down one of the cargo compartments. Some of the crew were complaining about the smell, which was unusual among the sailors in itself. It was the part where we stored salted meat from rare animals that were hunted in the New world but not seen in our kingdom until now. But it did not smell right, it smelt foul and rotten. As we unsealed the door, the smell got worse. Door swung open rather easily andfew sailors and I went in. The hull creaked around us and the whole space shifted as the insides of ships do. The room was underneath the water level so no portholes were on the walls. The timid light of our candles left most of the room in the dark, even as we dweleved deeper in. The barrels were all empty, just dried blood traces that turned almost completely black. Now the look into the dark began to make my skin to crawl. Eyes were running on the shadow edges and then we saw it in the corner. It was not hiding, but feeding on the last piece of meat. The men drew their knives silently and carefully, it seemed we had a stowaway and they are going to have some fun tonight. But they would not even see the next time stars would fill the skies, they did not even have time to scream.
The thing fed on the remains of the three sailors that accompanied me and fear overcame my body. I ran for the door and shut it behind me. Putting the heavy lock back on them. And I grasped the key tight in my hand. Sweat moistened the cotton of my shirt and tears ran down my face. Next thing I remember was waking up in the captain's quarters. He gave me a cup of wine and started to question me thoroughly. As I answered his questions, more horrid truth came out into the open. Still the conversation repeats in my head.
Very little details were said by me. He mentioned her native clothes, her long dark hair, her small figure, the torn rope around her wrists and feet, things I was not even aware I saw. The thing, or as I found out, the girl, was not a stowaway at all, but was meant to be the captain’s future wife. He bought her of some wild men, some slave traders that roamed the New world. After they escaped the justice that awaited in Europe, the slate was clean on the new coasts, but that did not change their foul nature. The captain, although until then I thought of him as wise and fair man, was not that different from them. Passion, desire, fever he never felt before, he said. At first she resisted, but then she stopped, at first she cried, but then she just went limp and then he wanted her even more. Then she started to get sick, but she was different from the women back home, he said, he was going to take her to a proper doctor, make their “love” legitimate and confess his sins to the priest, and then it was all going to be right with the law and Lord. I could not believe what I heard.
We were so close to home, so close to being safe, this incident should not stop us. Next day, after a talk that I thought convinced him, the captain went down with a few men to kill the girl, the monster. An hour passed before I summed up the courage to go down below the deck myself, to see if it was done, to ease my mind. Alas the nightmare was far from over. As I went down the stairs the smell I smelt yesterday grew stronger, and I was not even close to the compartment where I locked the girl. Soon I saw the walls covered in blood. At first I thought the water started leaking, nothing but a few simple fixes, but then I realized it was all blood, it was all death. Shadows came alive.
As sun crossed the sky, storm gathered in the east, we were heading right into the eye of it. The crew tried to contain the growing number of these monsters, but it was a losing battle. Parts of the storage compartments and cabins have fallen into their grasp and soon, what once was a formidable crew of more than sixty strong, brave men, was now reduced to five of us trapped on the deck. We did not have a lot of time, doors and hinges were buckling under the monsters’ pressure.
Their thirst for flesh was primal and untamed. They were fast and seemed immune to pain. Even through the thunder and the sea I could hear the scratching on the doors, nails and bones breaking on the hard wood, without mercy, without mind. The men who were not eaten to the bone, soon turned into them and only thick oak protected us from the horde.
The storm was blocking our view of the land, but I calculated that we must be near. I looked around the group, but the only officer among us was sitting down and badly bleeding from his arm and screaming in pain. Hope has long dwindled and fear has found a nest in our hearts and minds, but then I saw it in the corner of my eye. A lonely sparkle and beam of light fighting through to the ship. The Northstar lighthouse. Nestled on the rocks just south of the harbour, saving whole fleets from certain wreckage for decades. A plan formed in my mind within seconds.
Might be too late for us, but this ship must not reach the docks in this state. The carnage and chaos that would ensue, if those beasts were released into the city…that must not happen. Into the rocks we must go. Sink a mile away from the harbour, the only way to at least save our souls if we cannot save our lives. But more sails had to be raised and course had to be corrected.
Two men held the door to give us more time, while one tried to turn the helm and, with our only blade, I climbed the mast to cut the ropes and release the sails to give us speed. I was exhausted, but each time I would lose my strength, the light from the lighthouse brought new hope.
Alas, hope is nothing without chance. Just as I was done, through the noise of the wind, I noticed the screaming from our wounded survivor was gone. The sailors supporting the door, never expected the monster coming from behind. Within seconds it left their bodies as a pile of bones and organs splattered and broken, and a trail of blood lead to the upper deck where the last sailor was struggling with the helm.
As the doors cracked, I was running back across the deck. From within the dark gut of the ship they came. Their thirst at it’s prime. The first I hit with blade. Some blood gushed as the steel went into where once was an eye. Another monster came behind it, but by now I felt teeth and nails piercing my skin on my legs and my back.
For a few feet I crawled even under the weight of them on me. Floor was sticky with blood. Even in the rain, the malice of this eve was not to be washed away. Before they tore me apart, I saw the light in the dark, still a strong and confident beacon, unaware of our cursed vessel. Then the light got muffled as the approaching piers offered theirs. Last I heard was the bow crashing and men shouting from the docks…
We were home.
