Below

Daniele

Everyone was now looking out at the fog, their eyes straining to see the slightest sign of movement in the thick swirling mist. The braying sound had now changed to an ear-piercing shriek like that of a banshee. It was a sound so haunting that it literally chilled your insides to ice. None of us could distinguish what direction the sound was coming from. It would sound like it was a few hundred yards behind us, to our left or right or directly in front of us. The feeling, I could only describe as being circled by some kind of predator.
Hicks was now on his feet. He had a handgun which he gripped with two hands. Chef was holding his oars tightly looking like he was ready to use it as a weapon at the first signs of danger. I myself was gripping my own oars, ready to brandish it like a weapon. Milman had pulled out a knife from one of the supply bags and Bree held a loaded flare gun in her hands. Marawah was cowering beside Bree, her eyes wide as she looked around her in all directions.
"What is that?" whispered Milman.
"Shhhsssh!" went Hicks pointing the gun in all directions.
The next few moments passed in stony, tense silence and then we heard it, a sound faint at first but growing louder with each passing second. The sound of splashing water, as if someone or something was walking on the surface of the water towards us. That could not have been possible as the water itself was quite deep having been in it myself, but we could all hear it as clear as day, someone treading the water towards us.
Those tense moments felt like an eternity to us. You could almost hear a pin drop and my heart was beating so fast it felt like it was going to burst from my chest. The sloshing sound continued and this time I could swear it was a few feet behind us. From the thick sheets of swirling mist I could just about make out a shadowy, misshapen figure walking its way towards us, and then, it was gone. The sloshing sound was now a few feet in front of us. Everyone's attention was now aimed directly in front of us, and again, we all thought we saw a figure of sorts, some misshapen sack, but then the fog consumed it and the apparition was gone. We then suddenly heard what sounded like a cackling sound directly a few feet high above us followed by the sound of flapping bed sheets. I looked up, my eyes trying to pierce the thick sheets of mist. Then I saw it for a brief second, some palid, waxen face with bright yellow eyes that came straight at us. Hicks immediately fired off several shots from his gun. Chef brought up his oar at the ghostly figure, but neither action had any effect. In a blur of confusion, Hicks was nearly knocked overboard from his boat and Chef's oars was thrown several feet away from him. Milman was pushed backwards and I myself felt something swipe at my face. I heard Marawah scream out and shout, and then it was gone. We were all knocked down on the boat, the boat itself rocking uncontrollably as if it was going to capsize.
"Is everyone okay?" Bree asked, her voice shattering the silence.
Hicks moaned as he sat upright, the gun still in his hand. Chef looked dazed as did Milman. Marawah was shaking in fright, and Bree herself looked as white as a sheet, almost as if she had seen a ghost.
"What the hell was that thing?" Milman said, shaking the cobwebs from his head.
"Beats the hell out of me," I replied, feeling my face, and noticing small spattering's of blood. "I did not think these waters could be haunted."
"Has it gone?" Bree said.
"Think so," came Hicks. "I'm down two bullets."
I was about to say something when another sound pierced the silence around us, a heavy splash like some gigantic boulder had been dropped into the water. We all looked in the direction we heard the sound and Bree fired off the flare in her gun. It shot off several feet in the air and we could almost follow its trail, the surrounding fog being illuminated in a pinkish glow by the fire emenating from the flare. We we could just about see it land a few yards ahead of us, and for a brief few minutes, the waters were lit up by the bright light coming from the flare.
We all looked across at the calm, still waters, looking for any sign of movement. Hicks had the gun pointed outwards. I noticed his hands were shaking, his eyes blinking rapidly. Bree loaded up another flare in her gun and as we watched the flare slowly fade out, the waters directly in front of us stirred as if something was about to surface. A small patch of water began to bubble, and now my heart was beating fast again, beads of sweat running down my forehead causing the scratches on my face to sting. What I saw next nearly had me screaming in fright.
The thing, whatever it was came out from the water, puckered, covered in mud and silt, seaweed draped across its body. It looked like the rotting corpse of a woman in a dirty, tattered dress. Her skin was a blotchy blueish-pink colour with flakes of flesh falling off her and her hair hung down her like black roots. She looked at us with milky white eyes and opened up her tar black mouth, uttering out a scream that sounded more like someone retching. With her arms outstretched she came at us, gliding across the waters towards out boat.
Hicks screamed and fired off several shots at the horrific apparition that was coming straight for us. The bullets fired from his gun though did not slow the wraith like creature one bit. It just glided towards us, jerking slightly, its head rocking back and forth like it was some obscene puppet on strings. Hicks fell backwards in fright rocking the boat and nearly capsizing it. The only thing that saved us was Bree with her flare gun. She fired off one flare at the creature and it exploded on the apparition, knocking it backwards. We could hear its ear piercing shriek as it retreated back into the fog. I could see its vague, shadowy outline and for a moment, I could swear it changed shape, becoming almost serpent-like. That's what I thought I saw. The long slithery outline of the thing sank back into the water and once again, silence descended.
Nobody said a word, everyone was in shock at what they had just scene. I just simply could not make sense of it at all, whether what I had just seen was a ghost or something else entirely. Hicks had a tankard of whisky which he had kept in his coat pocket and he was drinking excessively from it, his hands shaking as he tried to take in a mouthful from his drink.
"That couldn't have been her," he muttered. "That couldn't have been her."
"What are you talking about?" Bree said.
Like everyone else on the boat she could see that Hicks was in a state of shock, his eyes wide as if what he had just seen was something from a past long gone, a dark memory he had tried to keep buried until now.
"It couldn't have been her," he muttered again.
"What was that thing?" Milman asked Hicks. "Did you recognise that...ghost?"
"Long ago, when I was ten, I lived in the small seaside town of Quaylans Cove in California," began Hicks, his hands still shaking, his voice quivering slightly. "People use to talk about an old lighthouse that had been abandoned for over a century and a tragic event that had occurred decades ago...."
"Go on," encouraged Bree.
Hicks cleared his throat before continuing.
"There was this tragic event that happened that people in my old town use to talk about," he began. "Back in the fifties there was this gal, real pretty, called Daniele Davies who had her heart broken on the eve of a prom night by some jerk who left her for another woman. Thing was, Daniele had a history of mental problems and she was so broken hearted she went up to the old lighthouse, climbed to its very top...and...um...threw herself off into the sea...Since that day, people began reporting strange sightings of a woman in a tattered white dress haunting the area, looking for the man who abandoned her all those years ago."
"What a sad story," Marawah said. "You saw this ghost?"
Again Hicks cleared his throat as he tossed the tankard aside.
"They say she wasn't a pretty sight if you saw her. And if you were alone, you would never be seen or heard from again," replied Hicks. "You see, there had been dissapearences in the area. Two teenagers who tried to spend a night around the area of the lighthouse, a backpacker and some old vagrant who use to use the lighthouse as a shelter. One night, me and a friend of mine dared to spend a night around the area where Daniele died. We wanted to prove to ourselves what tough guys we were. So....there we were one night around a campfire, drinking ourselves silly with beer and smoking hash and weed. We were really that far gone when we heard something in the fog, a sound like that of an anguished cry. God, it was enough to freeze your insides to ice, I mean, we just froze, and that's when we saw her, coming out of that fog, tattered dress, pale, waxen face, dark sunken eyes, screaming at us...."
Hicks buried his face in his hands, looking like he was going to sob, but I could see that he was trying to fight back the tears.
"It must have been a frightening experience," Bree commented. "But you really mean to tell us that what attacked us just now was the ghost of Daniele?"
"Doesn't make a lot of sense," said Chef. "Spirits are always usually confined to a certain place where they died. They don't just travel great distances."
"I tell you that was her!" insisted Hicks. "I never forgot what I saw that night."
"But it doesn't make sense," Bree said. "Nothing in this place, wherever the hell we are, makes sense."
"Maybe things are not what they appear to be," I said, speaking up.
Everyone turned to look at me.
"When the thing that looked like a ghost went back into the fog, I thought I saw her change..." I mentioned to them all. "I know it sounds silly and doesn't make a lot of sense, but I swear she turned into something that looked like a....snake."
"Maybe being in the sea has rewired your brain," came back Hicks. "You mean to tell me that was not a ghost?"
"Maybe it was something else," I said to them all. "If this is another place that is beyond the world we know, then something else is here with us, the same thing that attacked the cruise ship. What if we are dealing with some kind of dark, supernatural intelligence that knows what our fears are and is using them against us."
Bree looked at me and nodded as if agreeing.
"Our ship was attacked by a creature of some kind," she confirmed. "The question is what exactly attacked us..."