Fate Is Fear

• Lisa Macdonald, Grade 8
• Short Story
• 2013

The old ship creaked and groaned, it looked ghost-like against the grey horizon. The battered sails fluttered like ghosts dancing in the wind. I stood in shock as I saw cobwebs sewn into every corner of the eerily abandoned ship in front of me. The wind howled in pain as the ship seemed to float on the waves. I grabbed my nose as the smell of rotting meat and mould hot me. I heard the ship creak again, almost as if it was calling out for help. Begging the already doomed to enter another deadly world. The wheel stood alone, slowing moving as if the howling wind was steering the ship. There was an eerie quality about it and I could taste my own fear; feel the beads of sweat on my forehead. I watched in fear as the ghost ship stopped - looming over my boat. It was then that I saw the boarding plank start to move... pushed by invisible hands.