AncilNo one knew what it was and it didn’t seem to have done any sort of damage really. What the hell just happened? Besides a huge powdery mess, everyone was okay.
“I couldn’t detect all of the chemicals that were in the powder,” Ray Carter said. “But the powder seemed to have large amounts of Opiates, PCP and LSD.”
There was a stir among the people on the canoes. They all seemed really scared at something that was in the air. Dragons!! Large powder breathing dragons with as much as seven heads.
“This not fair dawg!!” Ravi shouted, annoyed. “They have dragons.”
Suddenly all around the ship a flurry of transparent humanoid-ghosts like figures whizzed past. Some got inside and scared the living daylights out of all us. They were Duppies. Duppies are ghostly characters in Trinidad and Tobago folklore that roam the earth at night. They flew through the air all around the city bringing a fright to anyone who laid eyes on them. The gunshots then began as citizens wildly began shooting at the duppies and dragons in the air. The gunshots seemed to do nothing to the duppies and dragons but the stray bullets began hitting unlucky citizens. Some people jumped in the water, drowning themselves in order to escape the Duppies and the Dragons. Things weren’t looking too good. I myself was being hunted by a few Duppies that I saw flying around and talking to me. I heard tormented screams in my head causing me to fall to the ground and beg for mercy. I heard everyone else in the ship screaming but I was too caught up to take any notice of them. The voices, the screams the incapacitation made me feel like I was going crazy. Then I heard a girl’s voice said, “Where my mommy?” It sounded familiar. I remembered the voice from the girl with no face at the top of the Red House. I looked up and it was the same little girl but this time she had a face. Her feet were still back to front though. I stared her in the face and I eventually recognized who she was. She was my little sister and she kept asking for her mommy.
I answered, “She died while giving birth to you. She was my mommy too.”
“For real?” She asked
“Yeah,” I answered. “For real.”
“And Daddy?” She asked.
“He’s gone too,” I sighed
The little girl fixed her face to cry but her face quickly morphed into anger. The girl let out a loud scream then ran towards me. She jumped into me again and as soon as she did, I zipped back into normality. It took me a second to catch my senses then I rose up to find all the lights in the ship off and the place completely quiet. Was I the only one alive? I looked at the time; it was 3:25 am. A couple hours had passed and I had no idea what happened. It had only felt like a few minutes.
“Are you okay Jed?” I heard Ray Carter ask me.
“I think so,” I answered. I was still seeing Duppies all around the ship. “Are you seeing that outside Ray?”
“I haven’t seen anything since the fog cloud. My motherboard got covered in that powder and it caused a lot of malfunctions. I believe that the things you all have been seeing were hallucinations.”
“Hallucinations?” I asked.
“Yes,” Ray Carter answered. “The chemicals affected everyone but it seemed to have affected you more. Maybe you already had the chemicals in your system from before.”
I began to think of the time I was on the Red House rooftop with The Midnight Robber and he blew the fog in my face. It is possible that my body was still recovering from my previous exposure to the chemicals.
“Where are the others?” I asked
“I don’t know,” Ray Carter answered. “Everyone was screaming and frantically running about. You were the only one who just passed out. A few of them ran out of the ship, some followed I think. I really don’t know. I lost track of them with all my malfunctions”
“That’s not good,” I said. “So they could all be dead then?”
“I’m not sure.”
I couldn’t really see anything in the ship. I needed a torchlight. Did I have a torchlight? No, I didn’t. But Ray Carter seemed to read my mind and flicked on a light from his ball to brighten the room for me. I began to explore the ship and I found myself walking with a small limp and a pain in my ankles. The pain wasn’t too bad but I had no idea what caused it. What the hell had happened? I made my way around the ship to try to find out but found nothing. I did however manage to find Cornell’s captain’s hat that was on the floor of the ship.
“You think I should put it on?” I asked Ray Carter who hovered at the side of me.
“I don’t know. Is it safe?” Ray Carter answered.
I lifted it over my head and said, “well we’ll find out.”
I dropped the hat on my head and I felt a surge of electricity enter into my brain as the earplugs clamped down tightly. It felt like a string of electricity was connecting the hat to my brain and it was really uncomfortable but I got accustomed to the feeling quickly enough. The lights of the ship quickly came on and all the functioning commenced as normal. I felt a small shake and heard a roaring sound as the engine came on but after about three seconds everything got smooth. Nothing in the ship looked out of place but the door was opened. So I assumed that the others must have left. I couldn’t believe that they all left the ship.
