Do you like scary stories? How about monsters and things that go bump in the night? If you do, then I have the collection for you. This is an anthology of short scary stories, all of which are original; with more being added as time goes on. If you...
The SS Delphi was out for patrol on a foggy night in the Eastern Atlantic. It was a time of war, and the possibility of the enemy sneaking into the country had become serious. That night was colder than most, and a thick fog had settled over the dark water. It was close to midnight, and their patrol almost finished, when the ship picked up a distress signal a few miles away. The Captain ordered his men to steer the ship towards the SOS. A little while later, they arrived to see another ship dead in the water. The ship was called the Meridian, and aside from a few dents along the side of the vessel, the ship seemed none the worse for wear.
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
The Captain brought the Delphi next to the Meridian and had his men board the ship. They went from room to room, checking for whoever had sent the SOS. They didn't find anyone. In fact, as far as they could tell, the ship had been abandoned. There were meals half eaten and clothes lying in crumples on the floor. Cards had been left at tables and sinks were left running. Whatever had happened to the crew was sudden. Several times, the crew of the Delphi thought they heard men and women screaming in the distance, but no matter how hard they looked, they couldn't find anyone.
Just when they were about to leave, one of the crew men heard a baby's cry. The crew began combing the ship for the child. They finally looked in the cargo hold and found a baby wrapped in rags. Having pity on the Meridian's sole survivor, they took them aboard the Delphi.
The Captain then ordered the crew to turn the ship around and lead them back to port.
The fog, however, was thick. The ship sailed headlong into it but were no nearer to port than when they started. This went on for hours, until the night should have ended and port should have appeared just ahead. But the night didn't end, and the fog continued to stretch on, seemingly forever.
The crew grew superstitious and fearful. All the while, the baby sobbed and sobbed. It wanted its mother, but she must have been taken with the Meridian, the Captain thought. The crew began to take shifts of who would sleep and who would steer the ship safely back home.
When it was the Captain's turn to sleep, he did so, fearful of the dreams he might have. The Captain did not dream however. When he woke, he expected to find some glimmer of hope. What he found was an empty ship. There was no more crew, only the crying of the baby.
The Captain went up and down the ship, checking for his crew. There were none aboard. Meals had been left half eaten, and tasks half finished, just as it had been aboard the Meridian. The Captain could hear whispers of voices somewhere in the distance, as though they were muffled by invisible walls. He tried to convince himself that he was dreaming, only he couldn't.
This was really happening!
Finally, the Captain decided to check on the child. Its sobbing had only grown louder, to the point that it sent waves of panic through the Captain. When he reached the cabin they had put it in, he was expecting to find it in its cradle. However, he found someone tall and dark standing over the crib. The figure looked like a woman, but she was impossibly thin, with waxy skin that had been stretched over thin bones. Her long black hair was dripping with sea water and her fingers were like the legs of a spider crab. When she looked at the Captain, a pair of milky white eyes settled on him.
"Shh..." The woman said, voice half drowned in salt water. "You'll wake the baby."
The Captain ran from her. He ran and hid in his room aboard the Delphi. He locked and barred the door, too terrified to leave. He could hear the muffled voices of his crew crying out for help, and then the silence that would follow after they mentioned seeing a woman approaching them. He wasn't sure how long he stayed there, but days must have come and gone before he heard knocking on the door. By this time he had grown weak and thin. The knocking sounded distant and very muffled. It reminded him of the screams he had heard aboard the Meridian.
Finally, half delirious with thirst, and starving, he decided to answer.
There was no one at his door, though now he could hear their voices more clearly. People were looking through the ship just as his crew had done with the Meridian, he realized. But the Captain was hidden from them, and they from him. He called out to them and pleaded for help. They would sometimes ask if they heard something, but then would continue on into the ship, ignoring his cries.
The woman didn't ignore his cries, however.
She came down the ship's hallway, all bone and waxy skin. Her wet feet made plopping noises across the floor.
"Can't see you. Can't hear you. All alone." She said in her gurgling voice.
The Captain ran back into his room and barred the door again. The crying of the baby started once more, echoing all over the ship. He could hear it no matter how much he covered his ears. It drove him mad.
The woman beat on the door. Over and over. She kept saying, "All alone. You're all alone. So close and yet so far."
Soon all the Captain could hear was the crying child, his screaming crew, and the woman's knocking. He finally screamed as well. He screamed until his throat was raw and he could barely breathe.
He screamed until his voice quit, and he finally died of dehydration.
The Delphi was forgotten. When the lost ship came into port a few weeks later, it arrived with the tide, drifting from within a bank of fog. No one recognized the name of the ship and no one remembered the crew. It was a ghost ship that shouldn't exist; just like the Meridian before it.
Meanwhile,another vessel had gone missing. Yet it too was being slowly forgotten, and ifanother ship came to its aid, they would find nothing more than the crying ofan abandoned child...
