He is awoken by an abrupt, hard kick of the bench where he's been sleeping. The captain looms over him, seemingly even madder than before. His parrot is conspicuously absent from the man's shoulder. Could that be why?

"On your feet. We've arrived at your destination."

When they reach the outer deck he notices two things: the parrot perched on the deck railing, and about a dozen metres off in the water, the duck statue, floating on the gently bobbing waves. When they reach the parrot it makes no acknowledgement of either of their presence, just keeps staring off wistfully at the giant floating duck.

The captain clamps a firm hand on his shoulder. "Now that we're about to be rid of you there's just one last item to attend."

Next to the parrot is one of those giant curved vents that you see on ships - he doesn't know what they're called. The captain leads him over to this vent. The rank smell from within is like some sort of mixture of sulphur and feces and blood. He tries to recoil but the captain holds him firm at the opening to the vent.

The captain leans in close and hisses hot whisky breath into his ear.

"You're going to apologize to my parrot for insulting him so grievous last night. And this time you're going to mean it. Or so help me you're going down this hole."

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Nineteenth chapter in an ongoing serial based on @mariannewest's daily #freewrite writing prompts. Here are the previous chapters listed below:

Chapter One>Chapter Two

Chapter Three>Chapter Four

Chapter Five>Chapter Six

Chapter Seven>Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine>Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven>Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen>Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fifteen>Chapter Sixteen

Chapter Seventeen>Chapter Eighteen

And here is Chapter Twenty.

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Written in five minutes from the writing prompt, "the smell from within" as part of the #freewrite exercise. Image is also by me. You can view the prompt here and check out the other entries; plenty of ripeness but not a stinker in the lot. Thanks to @mariannewest for creating and running this invigorating array of evocative scents and fragrances

WEEK TWO OF THE "WRITE FROM MY MUSIC" CONTEST IS UP

Check out my new contest where you listen to an instrumental piece of music by yours truly, and then write your own story inspired by that piece. You can join the contest here.