Hippocampus
By Adam Nevill, first published in Terror Tales of the Ocean
The crew aboard a freight ship are gruesomely murdered in a sacrificial and ritualistic manner.
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A freighter is traveling through black waters during a hurricane. The ship’s rooms are empty. There is food prepared in the kitchen. A human scalp is in the sink. Several items from the cook’s workstation are missing. The bedrooms are unmade and look as if people hurriedly left the beds. One of the beds has bloodstains. In the bathroom, a foot extends from a shoe without the rest of the body. Two small, petrified bodies are found laid out in the captain’s area. There are three crates in the cabin area. The petrified people appear to be from one of the crates, and another petrified body with a missing foot lies in the other. The contents of the third crate appear to not have been disturbed. There is a drawing on the wall of people who look like the remains laid out on the table. The figures are snouted and have tails. Below them are more figures along with pyramids. There is a depiction of a sacrificed individual who has his feet cut off. The mess continues into the canteen whereupon two long tables, long reddish shapes are spread out. The bodies are 12 carcasses that have been stretched out and gutted. Their innards are placed on the surrounding chairs. All the feet are amputated. Two misshapen shadows flicker in a joyous pattern upon the far end of the wall. The ship is drifting towards a small harbor. A crew member is strapped to the prow; his body has been cut open and his heart is cut out. His feet are missing, and his legs are bound into a tail. His scalp is gone. Nails have been hammered into his skull.
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