Ghost Island

• Jasmond Wong, Grade 7
• Poetry
• 2010

The burgundy seas howled with fury and hatred. Large waves rocked the wooden ship. Hay-lin tossed and turned in her sleep. The sound of the sea lashing at the boat reminded her of the brutal torture that she had long ago suffered from her father. That’s all in the past now, she reminded herself time and time again, but still she couldn’t help but remember.
Abruptly the boat rocked with tremendous strength. Hay-lin heard the terrified families. Hay-lin got out of bed to see what was going on. The boat shook even more fiercely and Hay-lin was flung onto the ground. Pain suddenly coursed through her body and then everything went black.
When Hay-lin awoke she was still on the boat. Slowly she got up. Last night felt so real yet it had a dream like quality to it because it felt like she was suffering the brutal tortures that she had long ago passed. She went to the bathroom to brush her teeth and take a quick rinse. When she got out of the boat, she was not on the stone streets of China that she had expected, but she was on a little island.
Others followed her receiving the same shock she had when the mysterious and magical island before them. After the captain had seen the island he sent half of the large group to examine their new home while the other half would forage for food and firewood. At eight pm the whole group gathered at the fire eating a few large lambs that a group of men had hunted down.
The group boasted about their amazing hunt and about the waterfall, lakes and valleys that they had discovered. Odd thought Hay-lin. Since when did lambs frolic amongst mysterious islands? From then on, day by day, night by night children and adults began to vanish. A week after the shipwreck occurred a large number of people were gone and the numbers were still dwindling. Soon animals began to overpopulate the island.
Two weeks later everyone except for Hay-lin had disappeared. That very night a young boy that looked lost appeared to Hay-lin. He led her to the very heart of the island. It was there that he turned into a small and malicious devil like creature with large wings, two horns and fangs. It was also there that Hay-lin was turned into a lamb.
A little too late had she realised where she was. She was on Ghost Island. ‘Ghost island appeared every millennium’, her grandmother had once told her,’ It is possessed by demons and vengeful spirits. Every time it appeared it would draw in a ship and then turn all the shipwrecked into animals. Then it would disappear. Nobody knows why or when this began but it is an event that still occurs’.
It was too late now!