Together, Forever

alvinauh (69)in #writing • 6 years ago

Certain aspects of the plot and its characters are related to the first and second part of the story.

Naim received the call when it happened. The Senopati Nusantara had sunk and they were calling in all available rescue personnel to assist in the rescue of survivals. Naim was one of the best, he had spent a few years in the Navy before retiring. He was a trained rescue diver and has been working with the Indonesian Coast Guard for some time now.

When he arrived at the scene, he joined the other rescuers to help search for survivors. His search area was near an island and the moment he dived in. This area was known for many shipwrecks before this. As he passed by a few shipwrecks, he spotted something moving in the distance. Under the faint moonlight, he saw a man, a figure that was being dragged into the deep sea. The figure was struggling, trying to break free of.. something. Naim swam towards the figure and tried pulling what looked like a man, to the surface. As he tried to pull the man, he felt a force pulling the man down. He pulled out his knife and tried to cut what resembled hair. Naim thought that it must be his eyes playing tricks on him.

When Naim boarded the rescue boat, dragging the man onto the ship, he immediately performed CPR to resuscitate the man. Upon waking up, the man started struggling, screaming in fear. As the man is taken to the sick bay of the rescue ship, Naim could not shake the thought of the circumstances in which the man was found. He was being dragged under, that wasn't exactly common at that depth. The hair-like seaweed also was rather odd. Never had he seen something like that before. It reminded him of the old Hong Kong ghost stories, one of his favorites was a vengeful spirit that came out of the sewers and took revenge on the people that wronged it.

Image source

Naim felt a tap on his shoulder, one of the crew told Naim that the storm was picking up again. They had to cancel the rescue operation and change course to the nearby island of Ternate to wait out the storm. When they arrived at Ternate, the survivors were moved immediately to a nearby hospital. As the storm grew stronger, Naim and some of the crew decided to take shelter in the hospital as well.

As Naim lied down on one of the hospital benches to sleep, he was rudely awakened by a loud screams. Some of the survivors, patients at the hospital were screaming in agony and some were laughing hysterically. The nurses were terrified. It was a mass hysteria and Naim, with some of the crew members tried as best as he could to calm as many patients and survivors down. As he was doing this, he noticed blood stains on the floor.

Following the trail of blood, he came upon a nurse. She was sprawled on the ground with blood flowing out of the many stab wounds. On top of that, the nurse had her scalp sliced upon. Someone had separated all the hair from the nurse's head. Naim immediately called for a full lock down of the hospital. He and some of the crew members went to check to see if any of the survivors were missing.

Everyone was accounted for except for the man that Naim pulled from the sea. One patient pointed out that the man was actually one of the pirates who caused the ship to sink. Naim gathered all the patients in an easily defensible position while he went to look for the pirate. He only had his diving knife with him, which was more than enough to handle a pirate. Before he left, a nurse grabbed Naim and pulled him to a corner. She asked him to be careful and that the hysteria was not a coincidence. She said an evil spirit was lurking nearby and she believed that it was the doing of one. She claimed that for generations, her family had the gift to see spirits. As the survivors arrived, she saw a woman with long hair covering her eyes entering.

Image source

Naim thought that it was a joke and left to look for the pirate. He heard a noise coming from the toilet and upon entering found the pirate. Something however, was off about the pirate. For one, he did not look like someone who was out for blood. He looked terrified, curled up in a corner, holding a surgeon's scalpel in his hand. When Naim neared him and tried to coerce him to put the knife, he felt someone grabbing him from the back and hurling him towards the wall. He was dazed for a while and opened his eyes to see a woman with long hair slowly walking towards the pirate.

The pirate raised the surgeon's scalpel yelling that he is not afraid. Naim stood up and tried to charge the woman, to his surprise before he could even get near, she grabbed him at his throat with one arm and stared at him. She smelled of the sea and death. Her eyes looked lifeless but was filled with dread. The woman pulled Naim close and said...

I don't want you, I want him. He has to pay for what he has done.

She smashed Naim into the wall and drew near to the pirate. The pirate was trembling in fear. Naim only managed to catch a glimpse of the woman grabbing the pirate by the throat before everything went black.

Naim awoke to the morning sun. The pirate was standing upright, eyes dazed while staring in the mirror. The police arrived and took the pirate away. As the police and the pirate passed the survivors in the hallway, the nurse whom Naim spoke to earlier, gasped. Naim approached and asked what was the matter.The nurse asked if Naim could see 'it'? Naim shook his head.

The nurse went on to point out that the pirate was not alone and that the woman with long hair will now be with the pirate forever. When asked how, the nurse replied that the woman was now sitting on top of the pirate, signifying that she will be together with him, haunting him forever.