There is a forest near my home that I love to go walking in. I live in a quite remote area so luckily I never bump into other people because I love my solitude. There aren’t any set trails to follow so I just decide randomly on which direction to follow. I was out on one of my daily excursions when my foot caught on something jutting out of the ground and I fell face first into a wet pile of leaves.
I lay there cursing my own bad luck as it would take me an hour to get home and my clothes were now drenched. I pushed myself to my feet while cursing my own bad luck. It was then that I noticed the unusual piece of wood that was stuck in the ground.
I moved closer for a better look and stood there dumbfounded as it looked like a woman’s face had been carved into the wood. I knelt down on the ground beside it while ignoring the mud that sunk beneath my weight. I grabbed onto the end wood and attempted to pull it out but it refused to budge.
I marked the location on my phone and resolved to dig it out. Over the next few days I returned with shovels and other pieces of equipment as my obsession intensified.
It took me until the second week to realise that what I had found was the prow of a ship. The woman’s face was part of the prow that someone had spent a long time intricately carving into the wood.
I started spending nearly all of my free time digging, and only leaving to either sleep or get some food. It took me two months to realise there was an entire ship buried in the woods. I sat there in wonder after reaching the hull of the ship, as I couldn’t understand how it ended up here. We were miles away from the nearest river and the ocean was an hours drive away.
I returned the next morning and was about to start digging when I noticed that hatch that I was convinced hadn’t been there yesterday. I cautiously approached it and used my torch to shine inside. The torch barely made a dent as it was sheer darkness inside.
My brain screamed at me to stop but I ignored it and climbed inside. I instantly became light headed and I had to grab onto something before I fell over.
I waited a minute or two for my body to return to normal, but for some reason I was still unsteady on my feet. I sat down the floor and was confused as the floor seemed to be moving beneath me. It was as if the ship was moving in water which wasn’t possible.
My eyes slowly adjusted to the light and I looked around at a small cabin with very little furnishings. I jumped up and began pacing the room as I couldn’t find the hatch that I had entered only minutes before. The walls were now solid with only one door leading in.
I checked my phone only to learn that I had no reception. I resolved to search the rest of the ship and find a way out. I made my way towards the door and took a couple of deep breaths before pulling it open.
I recoiled in shock as an ocean breeze whipped across my face. I could hear seagulls in the distance and looked out at a clear blue sky. I inched forward onto the deck of the ship before making my way to the bow of the ship.
I held onto the sides for dear life as I looked down at the water that surrounded us on all sides. I heard footsteps behind me and I spun around to see almost a dozen rotting corpses advancing towards me.
My legs refused to budge as I tried to force them to run as far away as possible. One of the corpses pulled out a sword and time seemed to slow down as he swung it towards me. I felt an agonising pain in my left hand as the blade sliced through it. A look of confusion crossed his face as my hand was still somehow attached to my arm.
He swung his sword a couple more times but my arm was still unscathed. I was trying to hold back tears as my arm felt like someone had run over it with a lawnmower. I tried to flex my fingers but they were completely numb.
My gaze shifted upwards and I did a double take when I saw the skull and crossbones flag hanging above me. The pirates had retreated a short distance away and seemed to be discussing what to do while shooting me occasional glances.
I was about to jump overboard when I felt something launch itself at my face. I barely had time to react before it tore into my left eye. I desperately tried to fight whatever it was off, as it was tearing strips off my eye.
The attack lasted mere moments as the creature suddenly disengaged, leaving me weeping and curled up on the deck. I raised my head and with my one remaining good eye watched the corpse of a parrot land a small distance away. It gave me a spiteful look before starting to groom what few feathers it had remaining. It randomly called out “pieces of eight” before launching itself into the air.
I moved my fingers to my eyeball and was relieved when I found it was still intact. My left arm was starting to regain feeling and I prayed that my eyesight would fully return as well.
The pirates had obviously decided to ignore me as they moved around the ship, and paid me no attention. The one who had initially attacked me now stood at the helm with the parrot sitting happily on his shoulder. I can only assume by the way that people were looking at him, that he was probably the captain.
There was a cry from someone up in the rigging and they all started rushing around preparing for battle. I raised myself from the deck and vomited due to how wretched I felt. I ignored the nearby snorts of laughter and made my way back towards the side of the ship.
I almost fainted when I saw the giant wave fast approaching the ship. My initial thought was that it was a tsunami but then I noticed the movement beneath the wave. There was something coming towards us and it dwarfed anything I had ever seen before.
The wave suddenly subsided and the ocean went deathly calm. My heart was thumping in my chest as I tried to figure out where it had gone. The crew rushed about looking in all directions trying to find it.
The water below the ship gradually grew darker and darker and I came to the sickening realisation that it was below us. I turned towards the captain and he seemed to understand what I meant when I pointed downwards.
He began bellowing orders but his shouts were brutally silenced, as a tentacle the size of a giraffe smashed into the deck where he had been standing. The tentacle quickly withdrew back into the waves as his crushed body now littered the deck. The parrot had miraculously escaped the carnage and now flew around the ship, screeching at the top of its lungs.
The crew stood there in shock for a few seconds while coming to terms with the fact their captain was dead. They were shaken out of their shock when hundreds of small crabs began clamouring over the deck and began attacking anything that got close to them.
I let out a yelp as one of them began nipping me on the back of my leg. I tried to crush it beneath my feet but my foot passed harmlessly through it. Soon I was under attack by almost a dozen of these crabs and my lower legs were in agony.
The rest of the crew were having better luck than me as they had wiped out the rest. I jumped over the ones attacking me and watched in appreciation as one of the crew killed the ones that had been harassing me. His empty eye sockets locked on mine for a few moments before he turned and moved away.
I lifted my trouser legs and saw hundreds of small scars that hadn’t previously been there. We barely had time to catch our breaths when tentacles began smashing down on all sides of us. The crew member who had helped me out moments before was picked up and dragged overboard.
Within a minute I was the only person left on the ship as everyone else had either been crushed or dragged away. Tentacles began climbing over the deck as if searching for me. I had to move away numerous times as they got too close, but I was starting to be blocked into a corner.
I held my breath as one of the tentacles touched my foot. It moved away and I let out a sigh of relief which was cut short as the tentacles suddenly converged on my location. They used the suckers that covered every inch of them to drag themselves forward.
I relaxed for a moment as they initially passed harmlessly through my body. Their attack on me intensified and I flinched back as the first sucker somehow latched onto my skin. I began screaming as the sucker seemed to be burning through my flesh. The other tentacles quickly followed suit and my body was soon covered in hundred of tentacles.
I lashed out with my feet to fight them off but they didn’t even acknowledge my futile attempts. I looked around me and spotted the cabin door that I had come from earlier.
I launched myself in that direction and cried in joy as the tentacles were wrenched away from my flesh. I jumped into the room and slammed the door behind me.
The room was suddenly filled with a deafening thumping noise as the tentacles tried to force their way inside. The wood began to splinter and I knew it would only take a matter of seconds to smash the door open.
My eyes traversed the room and finally rested on the hatch that had miraculous reappeared. I ran full speed at it just as the door exploded inwards. The tentacles flew towards me as I dived through the air and into the hatch.
I awoke hours later lying on a bed of leafs on the ground. The ground around me was now empty apart from the few tools that I had left here. I gathered up everything and fled home.
It has been weeks since it happened and the doctors told me that I will probably never see out of my eye again. I have started wearing an eyepatch to cover it up, which is kinda ironic since I now look like a pirate. That wasn’t the only memento I got from that trip as another one showed up a few days after my escape. He now lies in a cage in my cellar, and I will occasionally go down at his rotted corpse and listen as he cries out pieces of eight.