The Ghost Ship

It was a dark stormy night when I snuck onto the cargo ship. It was my last chance to escape the bloody
war which had taken my family. My plan was simple: I would sneak aboard the ship, hide among the
boxes, and then would get out during unloading. If I knew what was about to happen that night, I would
have never come on the ship.....

I settled among the boxes and ate a little bit of my meager store of food, and then, using my pack as a
pillow, went off to sleep, listening to the steady drone of the engine. Suddenly, in the middle of the
night, the ship shook. I woke up with a throbbing knot forming on my head. I heard shouting above and
heard someone shout ‘Ghost ship’ and decided to hide in one of the boxes. I swiftly but stealthily
opened one of the boxes, climbed in, and just as I was shutting the box, I heard footsteps coming down
the stairs. I sat in the box, frozen in fear. What ghost ship? Was I about to meet the same fate as my
family? After about 15 minutes, the box was lifted and carried somewhere.

After a few minutes (they felt like hours), I was put back on the ground.

Then after some time, a man opened the box and gawped at me in shock. He pulled me up using my
jacket’s hood and all heads turned towards me. There were about twenty men, all clothed in black.
Then one of the men said in a coarse nasal voice “Well, well, well, what do we have here?”

I squeezed out some tears, which was quite easy since I had lost my family two days ago and was
scared, I clutched my pack tightly and in a trembling voice said,” Please leave me, don’t do anything to
me ghost ship pirates.” They all started cackling. One of them snatched my pack away from me and cut
it open. Out fell my family’s photos, a bottle of water, a cloak, and a packet of dry fruits. They started
pushing me towards the gangplank. Then the captain said,” Wait!”

He said,” I give you a choice-Die or be a servant”. It was a difficult choice but finally I settled on the
latter. They made me do menial work and treated me like the filth on their leather boots, it was
disgusting. As I kept working, I realized that the pirates had to go down.

I learned about the ship. Canons from other ships won’t work because this ship has a force field around
it, the pirates were very rich as they had been plundering other ships for years. They caught other ships
by shock and lived on the rumor of a ghost ship that contained the spirits of drowned souls. I had seen
it happen. It was creepy but impressive. When they were going to plunder a ship, they painted it(their
ship) a ghostly white and put red dye in the water around the ship so that it looked like blood was
coming from it. This gave it an eerie look. I was tied up and gagged when this happened. 

Like this, I suffered days of misery. But I was observant and my mind had not been idle. As I learned
the secrets of the ship, I realized that no outer source could destroy this ship. I started by spreading
rumors and setting things up. The pirates were quite stupid and got into frequent fights. One night, a
full-fledged battle broke out. Soon all except the captain were dead. When realization dawned on him,
he attacked me. I picked up a fallen sword, pointed it towards him. As he kept advancing, I backed
away towards the edge of the ship. He finally cornered me. He said,” You broke my crew, now I break
you.” With that he plunged. I wasn’t fast enough as I slipped away. He wounded me badly but I still,
got a last burst of strength. I went behind him and pushed him into the water. 

 I then died.

However, I haven’t been able to leave the ship. Hence I decided to complete my Ship. I assembled a
crew of drowned souls and my ship roams in the water. My ship has no name, my crew does not speak.
If you saw my ship in the water then it was already too late.

(Storytelling with music in the background)