Chapter 38 Ghost Ship

Everyone immediately turned their heads in a panic, not daring to look back at the dilapidated ship. I didn’t know what was going on, but in that kind of situation, I didn’t dare make my own decisions and just hurriedly turned my back like the rest of them. The woman was trembling as she said to me, “No matter what happens, don’t turn around. Even if something touches you, just pretend you don’t notice it.”

As soon as I heard this, I broke out in a cold sweat and said, “Don’t try to scare me. What could possibly touch me here?”

She rolled her eyes before heatedly whispering, “It doesn’t matter if you don’t believe me; you’ll find out in a second. Now hurry up and turn your head!”

Seeing how serious she was, along with the terrified expressions on the other crew members’ faces, I didn’t think that she was just trying to scare me. “Can’t you tell me what it is?” I whispered back.

She motioned for me to stop talking and said, “Shut up! These are the ghosts of those who suffered an unjust death. They’re here to take our lives!”

The more she talked, the more frightened I became. My neck involuntarily wanted to turn around and take look but I hurriedly pinched my thigh and tensed my neck muscles until they felt as if they were immobilized in a neck brace.

The boat rocked wildly in the wind and the waves and the deck was creaking so badly that it almost sounded like it was going to fall apart at any second. I grabbed two iron rings on the side of the boat and braced my legs while trying to keep my neck from moving, but my upper body kept following the rocking motion of the boat. I swayed back and forth like a roly-poly toy and nearly got thrown overboard several times. ⁽¹⁾

At this point, I could already hear creaking sounds coming from the so-called ghost ship, as if someone were walking around on the deck. I was already soaking wet from the seawater but now I was covered in a cold sweat, which was even more uncomfortable. “Why does it sound like someone is walking on the deck?” I couldn’t help but ask the woman softly. “Did you see wrong just now?”

The woman was so scared that she merely jutted her chin towards our boat’s cabin in response. I looked over at it and saw that the scene behind us was reflected in the cabin’s window—a fishing boat the same size as ours was getting battered by the waves.  As it got closer and closer to us, I could see it more and more clearly until I was finally able to make out a layer of white, powder-like rust covering it. Judging by the rust’s thickness, the boat must have been soaking in the sea for several decades. I couldn’t imagine how such a boat could still stay afloat on the sea, let alone how a light could be shining on it.

The ghost ships that appeared in novels were all very dilapidated but could basically still sail. This one, however, looked like it had come up from the bottom of the sea and could be completely scrapped. My mind was spinning as I tried to recall everything I had read about ghost ships before but nothing seemed to mention anything like this.

As the boat got closer and closer, I vaguely felt that something was wrong and said softly, “Miss, it seems like there’s no way out of this. That ghost ship looks like it’s going to crash into us. Why don’t you ask the captain to accelerate at full speed so that we can escape?”

The woman was also a little scared. Her hair was sticking to her face, but I was surprised to find that she didn’t bother shoving it out of the way. “The captain will decide when it’s time to escape,” she said to me. “Our two ships weigh about the same so it won’t be a big deal if we hit each other. Just focus on not falling off.”

I couldn’t tell from the tone of her voice whether she was warning me out of goodwill or just being sarcastic so I asked, “What if he jumps off the boat and escapes on his own? We won’t be able to do anything about it.”

The woman immediately became angry, “Stop trying to stir up trouble! This fishing boat is his livelihood; he won’t abandon it even if he dies. If you keep talking nonsense, I’ll push you off!”

I could tell by her angry tone that it wasn’t a good idea to keep talking so I focused on watching the ghost ship’s reflection in the glass instead. Based on its speed, I figured it wouldn’t cause much of an impact when it hit (I later learned that this was inaccurate thinking) and my heart gradually calmed down.

As the boat got closer and closer, I could clearly see that there was nothing on board. I had been expecting to see some horrible sights so I couldn’t help but breathe a sigh of relief when I didn’t see anything at all.

The boat was approaching so fast that it was almost touching our boat. I quickly closed my eyes and clenched my teeth, ready for the hard impact, but then all sound behind me suddenly disappeared. I waited for more than ten seconds but realized that we probably would’ve already been ten times over by that point. But there was still no movement behind us, which was a little surprising.

Then, I suddenly heard the sound of a creaking deck coming from behind me again. Feeling a little anxious, I secretly opened my eyes and peeked at the reflection in the cabin window. The ghost ship was already side-by-side with our boat but there was nothing behind me.

I breathed a sigh of relief and glanced sideways at where the woman next to me was also looking at the reflection in the cabin window. She looked frozen in shock, which made me think that something was wrong. When I took a closer look, I saw two withered hands resting on her shoulders. 

<Chapter 37><Table of Contents><Chapter 39>　　 　 

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TN Notes:

(1) A roly-poly toy is also called a round-bottomed doll, tilting doll, tumbler, or wobbly man. It’s a round-bottomed toy, usually egg-shaped, that tends to right itself when pushed at an angle. Info and pics here.

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Pdfs/epubs for the “Misc Extras” and “Southern Archives” have been updated and I made a pdf/epub for Vol 1 Part 1 now that it’s gotten Tiffany’s seal of approval. I kind of rushed through this chapter because I’m super tired so let me know if there are any glaring errors/typos and I’ll fix them after work tomorrow.