The Undead Captain Takes No Living - Chapter 2

Chapter 2

The Ghost Ship was more like a walking tomb than I had imagined.

The hull was black wood, with seawater seeping through the gaps in the planks.

What hung from the mast was not a sail, but layers of old burial shrouds.

When the wind blew, the shrouds billowed, as if many invisible people were standing on them.

As soon as I stepped onto the deck, someone tied a white thread around my wrist.

That person was a girl of about thirteen or fourteen.

Or rather, she looked that age.

One side of her face was swollen and pale, but her eyes were very bright. She tied a knot with deft hands.

“Don’t untie it.”

I asked, “What happens if I do?”

She glanced at me.

“The ship will treat you as cargo.”

I looked down at the white thread.

“What counts as cargo?”

The girl pointed to the end of the deck.

There was a row of wooden crates lined up there.

Each crate had a name attached to it.

I saw a hand sticking out of one of the crates.

The fingers twitched, grasped the edge of the crate, and then were dragged back in by something inside.

I closed my eyes for a moment.

“Okay, I won’t ask anymore.”

The girl smiled slightly.

“You’ve got nerve.”

“It’s an act.”

“I can tell.”

She spoke without any courtesy.

That actually made me feel a little more at ease.

When you’re scared, you tend to feel closer to someone who is normally sharp-tongued.

She led me toward the cabin.

“My name is Gloria. I’m in charge of the living cargo.”

“I’m not cargo.”

“You are now.”

She pushed open the cabin door.

The air inside was heavy with moisture.

On the wall hung a row of brass bells, each with a name beneath it.

I scanned them quickly, but didn’t see Leon.

Gloria shoved me into a narrow cabin.

“Don’t come out before daybreak.”

I grabbed the doorframe.

“Where’s the Captain?”

“Why do you want him?”

“To ask about my brother.”

Gloria’s expression turned a little strange.

She quickly looked down and tied the other end of the white thread to the door latch.

“Don’t go claiming family on a Ghost Ship.”

I seized her sleeve.

“You know Leon?”

She shook me off.

Water droplets from her face splattered onto the floor.

“I don’t.”

The words came too fast.

So fast it seemed like she was afraid that slowing down would give her away.

I stepped forward.

“Gloria.”

She glared up at me.

“Don’t get so familiar.”

I took out the shell.

“He sent this to me.”

When Gloria saw the shell, her face changed instantly.

She retreated half a step, as if she’d seen a venomous snake.

“Put it away.”

“Why?”

“Put it away!”

Her voice rose a little.

Suddenly, all the brass bells at the end of the corridor began to ring.

It wasn’t the wind that set them off.

It was as if someone was shaking them one by one.

Gloria spun around.

“Oh no.”

She pushed me into the cabin and slammed the door shut.

“Don’t make a sound!”

Footsteps scrambled outside.

I pressed myself against the crack in the door to look out.

The mist in the corridor had thickened.

Beneath those bells, the names began to ooze black water one after another.

Gloria ran over, trying to silence the bells.

It was no use.

The ringing grew more and more urgent.

I heard a laugh from deep within the ship.

The laughter was soft, wet, as if the throat was filled with water.

“A living person.”

“There’s a living person on the ship.”

A chill ran up my spine.

The white thread on the door latch suddenly pulled taut.

Something was pulling it from outside.

Once.

Twice.

Three times.

Exactly the same as the knocking inside the shell.

I held my breath and gripped the small knife.

A puddle of water seeped in under the door.

A shard of shell floated in it.

I bent down and picked it up.

There were words on the shard.

Tiny words, written in my brother’s handwriting.

Only two.

Don’t trust.

My head buzzed.

Don’t trust who?

Gloria?

The Captain?

Or this ship?

Outside the door, everything suddenly went quiet.

So suddenly quiet that it was even more terrifying.

The next second, the door was pushed open from the outside.

I stabbed out with my small knife at once.

My wrist was caught.

The other person moved fast, but he didn’t twist my arm.

He only knocked the blade aside.

“It’s me.”

The Captain stood in the doorway.

Cold mist clung to him, and water still dripped from the edge of his cloak.

I saw a fresh wound on the back of his hand.

Black blood was running down along the edge of his glove.

“What’s happening outside?”

“The ship is leaking.”

I stared at him.

“Do you think I’m that easy to fool?”

He was silent for a moment.

“It’s not water leaking in.”

“Then what is it?”

He lifted his eyes to me.

“Living breath.”

I froze.

He released my wrist, his gaze dropping to the shell fragment in my palm.

“Who told you to touch that?”

“My brother.”

“Leon would never let you bring this aboard.”

“You know him.”

This time, I didn’t ask.

I stared at him.

“You know my brother.”

The Captain did not deny it.

Gloria’s voice suddenly came from the end of the corridor.

“Captain!”

Something was dragging her, her nails scraping across the floor with an ear-piercing screech.

I rushed out.

Half of Gloria’s body had already sunk into the black water.

The puddle was bubbling up from the cracks between the floorboards, like a wide-open mouth.

I lunged forward to grab her.

The Captain was faster than me.

He drove his knife into the water.

A scream rang out from within the black water.

He yanked Gloria free, and she crashed heavily onto the floor.

She coughed up a mouthful of seawater.

“The cargo hold… someone opened the cargo hold.”

The Captain’s expression went cold.

I asked, “What’s in the cargo hold?”

No one answered.

Gloria struggled to her feet, and the first thing she did was look at me.

“Where’s your white thread?”

I looked down.

My wrist was bare.

When the door had been slammed open just now, that white thread had snapped.

At the same time, the copper bells in the corridor stopped ringing.

In the next instant, every cabin door opened.

The sound of wooden crates dragging over the floor crawled up from the bottom of the ship, scrape by scrape.

Gloria cursed in a language I didn’t understand.

The Captain pulled me behind him.

“Don’t move more than three steps away from me.”

My thoughts were still in chaos, but I couldn’t help asking, “Will I die if I do?”

He looked toward the end of the corridor.

“Not necessarily.”

“Then what happens?”

“They’ll mistake you for Leon.”

My whole body went rigid.

At the end of the corridor, a soaking-wet figure slowly stood up.

He was wearing the old blue robe my brother had worn the day he left home.

On the cuff was a tiny embroidered word: “Tang.”

I had secretly stitched it there when I was twelve.

He raised his head, his face deathly pale, and smiled at me.

“Lia.”

My eyes went hot at once.

But the Captain pressed down on my shoulder.

Hard.

“Don’t answer.”

I looked at that face, identical to my brother’s, my voice trembling.

“Why?”

The Captain said in a low voice, “If you answer, he can go ashore.”

Fake Leon stood in the fog, smiling exactly like my brother.

“Lia.”

“Your brother is cold.”

“Take your brother home.”