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Swallowed Whole
Swallowed Whole

Swallowed Whole

On a day of summer heat, a crew of pirates were out at sea, they had information of an abandoned British merchant ship's location so that's where they were headed, the wind was so strong so their journey had already started on a good note.

The crew consisted of Captain Aiken, first mate Birch and Sailing Master Newman; these three had worked together for very long and had survived many storms and battles, while the rest were hired crewmembers who had some experience in doing the rest of the duties of a ship. 

After two weeks of sailing they were almost at the area where the abandoned ship was last seen, though the sea was now angry, beating the pirate ship with massive waves while the stormy sky rained heavily upon them.

After hours of bracing the storm Newman sees a ship in the distance and calls a crewmember to announce the news to the rest so they can adjust the sails for that direction and be ready to board over. Upon hearing this, Captain Aiken knew it was the ship they were looking for, the signs were consistent with the stories he kept hearing, vicious storms and a feeling of dread the closer they got to it...

When they got close enough to board, Aiken gave the order and he along with Birch and Newman got on first with the rest following their lead. The ship was completely empty as if no one had ever been there, still everyone was on edge but they started looking around for where the valuables must have been, after a few minutes of searching a scream pierced the silence from the lower deck, the men rushed down the stairs to see what happened but when they arrived there was no one down there. Aiken and Birch started searching around, guns raised while the rest observed them nervously.

Suddenly out of the darkness something grabbed Birch's leg and tore it away leaving him screaming in agony falling to the floor while firing blindly in the darkness, everyone rushed to his aid, two men pulled him away while the rest were aiming their weapons where that thing grabbed Birch. Aiken asked for a torch from the men and threw it in the darkness, but the torch simply vanished as if entering a different dimension, the men all looked confused, another man threw his torch in the same spot and that too vanished confirming what they all had seen was true. 

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Newman yelled for everyone to leave the lower deck and get back to their ship to tend to Birch's wound, the men rushed out in panic while Newman and Aiken backed slowly towards the stairs while looking intently at the darkness. At one point Newman froze in place, resulting in Aiken yelling at him to move but he wouldn't, Aiken rushed to pull him but when he touched Newman it was as if he was turned to stone, his body wouldn't budge no matter how hard he pulled. Aiken didn't want to leave without Newman so he stepped forward and screamed for whatever was there to show itself while pointing his gun where Newman's frozen gaze was staring.

Out of the darkness, Aiken started hearing whispers, his heart dropped to his stomach when the darkness started inching closer, in a last attempt he screamed at Newman to wake up while once again pulling with all his strength at his body to no avail. He had no option but to back away leaving Newman there. When he reached the stairs he turned around one last time witnessing his friend's body be swallowed by the darkness.

Fear like none before had taken over Aiken, he stumbled to the deck of the ship before stopping dead in his tracks at the sight before him, in front of him now stood Newman only this time he didn't seem frozen, he simply stood there staring at Aiken. Aiken could feel something was wrong but he still yelled out to him, no response. He approached Newman and shook his body asking him what happened but Newman didn't react at all, he continued staring.

Aiken looked around when he realized his ship was sailing away without him, he rushed to the edge of the ship screaming for them to turn back with all of his breath until aboard his ship he saw, himself and next stood Newman, both smirking at him from the distance, Aikens confusion and fear led to anger, he turned around raising his gun, this time the body the unresponsive body that was once his friend was right behind him, he fired a shot between it's eyes and while it pierced through it didn't stop it from grabbing Aiken by his neck and slowly dragging him towards the stairs. Aiken struggled to release himself from its grasp but he couldn't even make it's fingers budge, hopeless he stopped struggling and just stared up, as if he was questioning the world while it slowly pulled him in the lower deck and soon the darkness swallowed both, leaving no trace of anyone once more.

THE END

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