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Journey to the Hades-part 2

by Naseema Musthafa
(Shoranur, Kerala, India)

I moved to the porthole, and looked through it, there was nothing other than rough sea; I stood there perplexed, I was moving on board? Suddenly a mysterious figure gazed at me from the other side of the porthole, a phantom form. I cried out and stumbled backwards two steps frozen with fright.

What in God’s name was that? I heard a deafening shrill cry evidently and a peculiar whimper between the low grumble of beakers. I thought it’s better to get out of the cabin as fast as possible and race to the exit, it was better to be cooked; but the door was jammed and braised shut. I tried the door pushing with all my might, but the tilted knob was immovable. More haunting was the memory of what I had witnessed through the porthole, a wolfish and grotesque face – red and swollen with anger, eyes dark with bloated nostrils, lips drawn back from teeth in a feral snarl, every feature contorted with rage. The haunted-cabin from a wreck or a haunted-ship itself was not the one to encounter with the guts, I need to escape and it’s not fair I had survived the hardest days on sea, just to be gobbled up by a monster? The terrific appearance jerked me from my thought, growling softly next to my ear, blowing stinking cold breath to my face. With a swift move I dashed to the next corridor and followed the head of the stairs further into the darkest corner of the room. Blow me! I had no positive chances of escape there, I realized.

Throwing open doors and windows I trotted through the area to a wide exit; I halted immediately, when the door in front of me crashed inwards, and the beast snarled. Without glancing at him I fled through the opposite side to an open window and forced myself into it, unknown, where it landed or figuring the depth of the fall. I wondered it was better to kill myself than getting into his claws. Praying for some miracle to happen, I closed my eyes and dropped in and landed on the brink of the roof, but clung there for a moment. I dropped and landed on the cove. Just then I was brought down by the phantom from behind, pinning my face to the hard surface. I kicked, wriggled forward, flailed with my hands, screamed and pushed the enormous thing with the utmost force, but it was late, the wolfish face opened its jaws and tugged it right to my throat, pinching the blood. I felt the ticking sense and pain throbbed through the nerves ……………

******

‘Ah…...’ I screamed at the top of my voice, turned all over my bed and landed on the floor, fighting with the sheet and reeve them through the legs. I was exhausted, unwilling to open my eyes, frightened that I was dead, flown away like a feather to another world where pain, emotion, sufferings and other decrees of life had no value. Slowly I did regain my senses, but kept telling myself that no such things exist, unbelieving that it was just a dream. I tugged my blond hair into a pony tail and slowly opened my eyes.

I’m here all alive in my cabin. Graham was not surprised, but confused. He was used to my dreams. It’s the third time I’m having the same nightmare, since we started to sail to Africa, to celebrate the Christmas there. I could not believe that I had been so foolish to develop a character so very fierce to my imagination.

Eliza, my daughter, annoyed by the sarcastic trauma I had created, moved slowly to my side and curled in my lap. She was uncharacteristically silent, harder than my mate. I feared death and it’s because I found life so bleak, tragedies and just pain changed throughout my life after my parent’s death. I was nearly dead on a voyage to Burma, when the ship collided on a rock, 253 dead including my parents, and the only survivor Ileana, and that’s me. Since then I always dream of aliens or phantoms.
******

In between the silent move, there was a sudden collision, roars and cries rose through the air, the sailor boat had dashed to a hidden rock under water and a giant hole had formed on the base. ‘God, save us, I swear, I never travel on water again’.

Few moments of destruction, I lost everyone as before; Graham and Eliza along with the others on board were thrown out into the sea, and ‘Blue-Waters’ sunk into the depth, I had settled crouching on a flag-pole on sea…………I guess, I could get away from the terrible island………

The End

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