Tis the season to be scary

 Morning exercise and teaser. Because, as you know October and all that...


Captain Ross winced as he heard the shot. They were trapped, dead men. An hour ago they had collided with something as they breached the thermocline. What it was, Ross did not know. A whale? Some piece of debris from an earlier wreck? In any event, the leak and fire had killed most of his crew and sent HMS Revenge to the ocean floor. They had struggled for hours to effect repairs, till long, long after it was clear that they were doomed. Grimly, Ross had handed out pistols from the armoury to the fifteen survivors. He had given no orders, there was no need. The men had just nodded and taken the weapons, one by one.

Ross looked down at the weapon. Slow or fast? Did it really matter? Now? He thought of Joan. What would she think if he, no, it didn’t matter. Nothing mattered anymore. He looked at the pistol beside him and picked it up.

“I’m already dead,” he said.

“That’s right you are. So do yourself a favour and don’t spend eternity without the back of your head,” came the voice.

Ross looked up. In the cramped cabin was a corpse. Still wearing an old Royal Navy uniform the skull looked at him. Its jaw was missing and so was the back of the skull. In each empty eye socket, a blue light flared. He immediately brought the gun up to point at the apparition.

“Don’t be daft. What’s that going to do? Kill me?” said the corpse. It then laughed. The laughter bounced off the walls of the cabin, hollow and empty of mirth. “I came here to give a bit of advice. Don’t blow your brains out. They’ll dissolve and rot away no time flat. A skull on the other hand, now that’s a different story. Trust me. In another thirty years when you can still tip your hat, you’ll thank me.”

“Who are you? What are you?” said Ross, the pistol had not moved.

“Blast. Where are my manners?” said the corpse. It then saluted. “Captain John Phillips, HMS E-16. Extended Service.”

Ross saluted back, “Captain James Ross, HMS Revenge.”

Man and corpse then nodded.

“So now I’ll be betting you’re wondering why I’m here. Truth is we saw you go down and decided we'd get you up to speed, warn you of the dangers as it were,” said Phillips.

Ross just stared, “Up to speed? Warn me of dangers? Like you said I’m dead, how could it get worse?”

Philips leaned in and laughed again. The eye sockets flared brightly. “Oh captain, you have no bloody idea.”

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