Oops. But anyway, no choice but to run with it now.
Man I am just incapable of writing any spooky story right now, that doesn't end with AND THEN DAVID PUMPKINS JUMPED OUT OOGA BOOGA BOOGA.
I've watched that, what now, four or five times? Never gets old. Oh my goodness... I'm laughing right now, just thinking about it. It's the new "I got a rock!" of Halloween!
Between that and spending my time on graphic design homework, I don't have any spooky story of my own for you. Instead of posting my own spooky story this year, then, I've gotten permission from my former mission companion David Rose (who is awesome) to post a spooky story he's written. It's called, What a Monster Looks Like.
Enjoy.
WHAT A MONSTER LOOKS LIKE
It was a calm night. The ocean waters lapped playfully at
the rough bay stone as they towered above, rising sharply out of the sea,
leaning this way and that. The air it’s self was still and quiet beyond any night
of that year, though it was still only early summer. Indeed, all on the surface
was mild and pleasant from one end of the passage to the other, and though this
night was exceptionally nice, it had been much the same for months now. Yet,
something was not right. Ships hadn’t been getting through, and though the
passage was narrow, and the cliffs the lining it steep, the ships claimed by
the straight never seemed to leave any alive to tell the tale of it misfortune.
No life boats, no helpless sailors clinging to the rocks for dear life, no
bodies at all for that matter. Many of the seafarers had come to believe the
place haunted by some dark force or another. For this reason, the ship on the
horizon had come no closer than the captain thought the man in the boat they’d
let to sea could row.
The captain had tried to warn him. Had told him all the
stories, named all the ships he knew of that hadn’t made it, but the man simply
nodded, smiling that ever present sleepy smile which seemed to be the only
expression he had ever permitted himself to wear.
“I have business there.” Was all he said, stepping into the
long boat, and shoving off before anymore objections could be formed.
Once he made it past the passage mouth, he put the oars
away, allowing the ever slight current to pull at his little vessel instead.
Softly, he began to sing. It was an old song, about a wayfaring sailor who’d
met a fair maid at port, but chose the sea over her. It sounded sad if you just
said the words, but somehow when it was sung, it seemed lighthearted, whimsical
in a way, as though it was something whomsoever wrote the song had done time
and time again. After a verse or two, he would stop and row a little further,
then sing some more.
As he did this, he took a moment to pause and enjoy night.
The stunning full moon hung, curiously over him as it were, shimmering from
time to time as if trying to get a better look at the stranger below without
being noticed. The water lapping about the rock like a bunch of children trying
to stack atop each other, but each seeking to be at the top. While admiring the
serenity of his surroundings, quite suddenly, he found himself no longer alone.
Parting the water next to his vessel, poking barely above
the boats side was the face of a young lady. He turned and bowed slightly in
acknowledgement of his visitor.
“You sing nicely.” She said, grabbing the boat’s rim and
drawing nearer, resting her chin between her hands.
“I thank you kindly for your good words lass, the daughters
of the sea are less easily impressed I’m told.”, the man said swaying gently in
the boat.
“We’re not as hard as all that to earn the favor of.” She
said, pushing back for a moment, stretching her arms. She had on a vest of what
looked to be seal leather. It was tight, but thick, going over her shoulders
and down as far as the man could see.
The man blinked in surprise. “Is that so?” he said tiling
his head a little. “Why then has it taken half a night to find myself in the
company one such as yourself?” There was only mild curiosity in his voice as he
posed the question.
“We are a shy bunch. Cautious around things new to us.” She
said, pulling close again. “What of you?” She raised herself up a little so
that her moth could be seen. “Why have come you out here, all on your lonesome,
in the dark?” She draped her arm over the side as she spoke, resting her head
on it, causing the boat to tip ever so slightly. “Have you come looking for one
of us?”
“I should have thought that obvious.” The man said smiling,
almost in pity of the sea creature’s apparent lack of deductive skills.
“Why?” she said playfully, lurching off side, splashing a
little. “Did you come to see what we look like?” The water starred about her
when she said this, and a large green fin rose out of the water behind her,
sliding noiselessly back below the serf after a moment.
The man did not so much as look up at this, but continued to
meet the gaze of the girl in the water with his own soft smile. “No lass, I’ve
not come for that.”, he said calmly, “
The mermaid, as she had just proven herself to be, pulled
both her arms over the side, folding them in front of her. “Then why?” she said
resting her full weight on dingy, causing it to tilt again. It did not however
tip very much. Doubt and confusion flited across her face for just a moment.
She quickly regained her mischief smile however, batting her eyes at the man in
the boat to make up for her laps in character.
The man lowed his gaze for a moment, shaking his head and
chuckling softly. “You feign innocence well lass.” He said looking up, his kind
expressing still intact.
The ocean dweller slid off the boat and grew a look of
confusion. “What are you implying?” She whimpered in a hurt voice. “Have I done
something that would make you think ill of me?”
“Here and there, but mostly I can see it in your eyes
m’lady.”, he said, relaxing a little on his seat. “There’s not much one can do
to hide what they tell, so that is where I look, and yours are quite telling
little one.”
The sea creature stretched her arms out again, dawning a
pouty expression. Swaying a little in the water. The man, unfazed by her try
for pity, continued, “You don’t smell of blood though, so I’m guessing I was to
be your first.” He turned to look out to sea as he said this, taking in the
moon light glistening across the water.
“First? What do you mean first?”, asked the daughter of the
sea, shifting a little to try to catch the man’s eye. “First what?”
“Catch” he said distractedly. The mermaid grew a puzzled
look at this.
The man turned towards her. “You asked me why I came looking
for one of you, did you not?”
“Yes, yes!” she said, moving in beside the boat again, her
playful nature rekindled. “Why?”
“I’ve come to see to it, that this passage be safe again.”
He replied. “I’ve come to ask you and whatsoever other monsters are working
with you besides to move on.”
The mermaid turned a little, pursed her lips and lowered her
head just a little. “Do I look like a monster to you?” She asked innocently.
Something about the man changed. His expression was the same
as before, so too his posture, yet there was a difference, you could feel it.
The air around him seemed warmer than before, the water immediately around the
boat became more agitated, the very moon light seemed to shy away, and the
silence became so think it felt like it was sticking to you. The mermaid looked
around a little nervously, but did not shy away.
The man began to speak, still using that calm voice as
before, but it seemed hold more power than before.
“I have seen a wooden chest leap forward of its own
volition, clamp shut on a man so hard as to divide him asunder just above the
waist, then sprout teeth, a tongue, and a single eye from within the key hole,
and come for me, fangs bared.”
He began to lean forward as he spoke now. “I have watched a
child’s doll rise up from its place on a shelf, produce such wicked claws at
the ends of its stubby patch work arms as to rake a man’s chest deep enough to
cleave through the heart and lungs in a single slash.” The boat shifted oddly
as his body bent nearer, as though he were much heavier than he appeared.
“I have witnessed a music box pull the life from all but one
of a party of seven, dragging to out through their mouth with its malevolent
melody and into itself, fueling its infernal springs and gears off of their
collective souls. I have slain a creature in the guise of and infant girl which,
in its time, stole the flesh of all a village in a single night, and then
tortured it until it did its bidding.” A sickening aura permeated all around
him, as though his memories were reliving themselves behind the unchanging
visage that was his face, seeking the recognition his calm expression denied
then.
He continued, “I myself had every bone in my body removed by
a humble quilting needle, and then watched as it was crafted into thread on an
ivory spinning wheel.” The man’s short white cape flapped behind him once,
though no detectable breeze graced its folds.
“So, you tell me,” He said, now inches from her face, his
voice lowering for the first time since he began to speak, “What does a monster
look like?” A crack of thunder pounded the stone walls of the channel,
lightning ripping every direction across the otherwise vibrantly clear sky from
on visible source, leaving the man’s silhouette looming, soulless, cold, and
ominous over her, eyes gleaming with the same light racking the stars overhead,
his skull showing through his skin in the brief moment of the intense glare
from above, glinting dull gold color before fading back behind his flesh when
the moon was once again the only light to be had.
“Now, I ask you once more to move on. Know that I will be
watching this area, and if there are any more disappearances, I’ll be back, and
I won’t ask so nicely next time.” He spoke as cheerily as one might if they
were inviting a friend to lunch in the park.
“Run along then, hmm?”, he flashed a slightly wider smile at
his visitor once he’d finished speaking.
The world felt frozen to the poor merchild. Wide eye terror
held her fast as she cowered behind thin wooden wall of the man’s vessel.
Desperately she tried to pry her fingernails free from its wooden railing as
they had become embedded in it so tight had her grip become while he’d spoke.
Once loose, she slowly sank beneath the now deathly still waters, trembling at
the sight of whatever horror sat on the surface above her.
When she was gone, the man began rowing once more, singing
softly once again as he did.
From that day hence, all ships venturing through the
straight made it un hindered, but many of the sailors which have gone through
that place in the night will tell you, it feels more haunted now than it did
before the stranger came.
