The sea was unnaturally still the night the Astra Maris appeared. Fishing boats along the eastern coast had already returned to shore, their crews uneasy about the strange fog rolling in from nowhere. It wasn’t the usual coastal mist—it was thick, almost oily, swallowing sound and light alike. Even the waves seemed to hold their breath, its too silent than normal ocean.

Harry first saw the ship.

He stood alone on the broken jetty, camera in hand, hoping to capture long-exposure shots of lightning far out at sea. But there was no lightning. No wind. No movement—except for the silhouette that slowly emerged from the fog.

A massive vessel.

Old. Too old.

Its structure resembled a colonial-era cargo ship, but its hull was blackened, as if burned and rebuilt from ash. The masts stood crooked, ropes dangling like lifeless veins. No lights. No crew. No sound of engines or sails.

Yet it was moving.

Straight toward the shore.

Harry’s fingers trembled as he adjusted his lens. “This… this isn’t real,” he whispered.

He zoomed in—and froze.

Figures stood along the deck.

Dozens of them.

Still. Silent. Watching.

By morning, the ship had vanished.

No one believed Harry. Not even his closest friend, Susan, who had joined him on many of his late-night photography adventures.

“You probably caught a reflection,” she said, sipping tea at a roadside stall. “Or maybe some cargo ship passing through fog.”

“No,” Harry insisted. “This wasn’t modern. It looked… dead.”

“Dead?” she smirked. “Ships don’t die.”

But that evening, everything changed.

A fisherman named Hoseni was found unconscious near the shore. His boat had drifted back empty, nets torn apart. When he woke, his voice was hoarse, eyes wide with terror.

“I saw them,” he kept repeating. “They called me… from the black ship.”

The villagers grew restless. Old stories resurfaced—stories whispered only during storms.

A cursed vessel.

A ship that sank a century ago during a violent cyclone, carrying not just cargo—but prisoners. Pirates, criminals, and rebels. According to legend, they were left to drown as punishment when the captain abandoned ship.

But the sea had not claimed them.

It had kept them.

Harry couldn’t ignore it anymore.

That night, he convinced Susan to return with him to the jetty.

“If it’s real, we’ll document it,” he said. “If not, I’ll drop it forever.”

The fog returned.

Thicker than before.

Even Susan felt it this time—the suffocating silence, the strange heaviness in the air.

Then came the sound.

A low, dragging creak.

Wood against water.

And out of the mist…

The ship emerged again.

Closer.

Much closer.

Susan grabbed Harry’s arm. “Okay… I see it now.”

The Astra Maris loomed before them, impossibly large, its hull scraping lightly against the edge of the jetty without making a ripple. A rotten rope ladder dropped slowly over the side, swaying gently.

An invitation.

“No way,” Susan whispered. “We’re not going up there.”

But Harry was already moving.

“This is history,” he said. “Proof.”

Before she could stop him, he grabbed the ladder and began climbing.

“Harry! Stop!”

He didn’t.

Reluctantly, heart pounding, Susan followed.

The deck was colder than the night air.

A faint smell of salt and decay lingered everywhere. The wood beneath their feet felt damp, almost breathing.

“Hello?” Harry called out.

No response.

The figures he had seen before were gone.

Or so it seemed.

They moved cautiously across the deck, their footsteps echoing strangely, as if the ship itself was hollow.

Then Susan noticed something.

“Harry… look.”

Footprints.

Wet. Fresh.

Leading toward the captain’s quarters.

“But we just got here…” she whispered.

The door creaked open on its own.

Inside, the room was frozen in time. Maps scattered across a desk, a rusted compass spinning slowly, though there was no wind.

And in the corner—

A man stood.

Facing away from them.

His clothes were torn, soaked, and covered in dark stains. His skin looked… wrong. Pale, stretched too tightly over bone.

“Excuse me?” Harry said, voice shaking.

The man didn’t move.

Susan grabbed Harry’s sleeve. “Let’s go. Now.”

But it was too late.

The man’s head twisted.

Not his body.

Just his head.

Slowly. Unnaturally.

Until his hollow eyes met theirs.

“You came,” he whispered.

His voice sounded like it was coming from underwater.

“We’ve been waiting.”

The door slammed shut behind them.

Suddenly, the ship came alive.

Footsteps echoed across the deck. Dozens of them.

Scratching. Dragging. Crawling.

The walls began to drip—not water, but something darker.

The man stepped forward.

“We were abandoned,” he said. “Left to rot beneath the waves.”

More figures appeared in the room. From the shadows. From the walls.

Their bodies twisted, broken, as if crushed by the ocean’s pressure. Eyes empty. Mouths open in silent screams.

“They promised rescue,” another voice whispered. “But no one came.”

Susan screamed. “We didn’t do anything!”

The first man tilted his head.

“But you came aboard.”

Harry’s camera slipped from his hand, hitting the floor with a dull crack.

The ghosts moved closer.

“We need replacements.”

They ran.

Bursting through the door, racing across the deck as the ship groaned around them. The fog thickened, wrapping around their legs like claws.

The ladder was gone.

“No no no—!” Harry panicked.

Behind them, the figures emerged, crawling, limping, dragging themselves forward.

Susan spotted something—a lifeboat hanging loosely off the side.

“There!”

They rushed toward it.

The rope snapped as they climbed in, sending the boat crashing into the water below. The impact knocked the breath out of them, but they didn’t stop.

“Row!” Susan shouted.

They paddled desperately, the ship looming above them.

And then—

It vanished.

Just like that.

No splash. No sound.

Only the fog.

They reached the shore just before dawn.

Neither spoke.

Neither slept.

By midday, the sea looked normal again.

Too normal.

Harry checked his camera.

Every photo he had taken was gone.

Except one.

A blurry image of the deck.

And in it—

Two figures stood among the others.

New figures.

One holding a camera.

The other reaching out.

Days passed.

Then weeks.

Harry stopped going out at night.

Stopped talking about the ship.

But sometimes, when he closed his eyes, he could still hear it.

The creaking wood.

The whispers.

“You came…”

Susan wasn’t the same either.

She avoided the sea completely.

But one evening, as the sun dipped below the horizon, she received a message from Harry.

Just one line.

“I think it’s calling me back.”

She rushed to his house.

Empty.

His camera lay on the table.

Still warm.

That night, the fog returned.

And far out at sea…

The Astra Maris sailed again.

This time, with one more soul aboard.

Watching.

Waiting.

For the next visitor.

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