New Story Contest: To the Rescue - Rachel R. - 07/29/19

Contest: Winners

New Story Contest: To the Rescue

Submitted by: Rachel R., age 14, Goodlettsville, TN

Rescue at Sea

I gripped the ship’s wheel tightly, trying to keep the ship on course as the storm raged around me. I had just gone for a sail in Tempest Bay. How could I have been so stupid as to go sailing alone—in the stormy season!

I cringed as a jagged bolt of lightning split the sky, illuminating the dark shape of a rock right in front of me. I yanked the ship’s wheel to the right, but it was too late. I heard a crunching sound as the ship’s hull hit the rock with a splintering crash. The ship listed to the left, and a huge wave sent water sloshing across the deck.

I was about to give up hope when the silhouette of a ship much larger than mine appeared not far away. I shielded my eyes from the sheet of driving rain and peered through the fog. It was a ship and it was coming toward me.

The larger ship pulled up alongside mine. I spotted a girl my age leaning over the ship’s railing. She wore a long, white gown, and held a rope in one hand. “Catch the robe!” she called to me over the roar of the storm.

She threw the rope across the gap between our ships. I caught it and leaped off the deck of my ship. I climbed, hand over hand, up the rope and over the railing. I was soaked with rain and seawater, but I was alive.

I watched my ship disappear below the waves. Then I looked around my rescuer’s ship and noticed a couple of things I hadn’t before.

The sails were torn and ragged, hanging in ribbons that flapped in the wind. There were several holes in the deck, and the mast creaked and groaned as it swayed in the wind. I shivered as I realized where I was.

I was standing on the ghost ship that had haunted Tempest Bay for the last century. I turned to face my rescuer, but she was gone. I searched the ship from bow to stern, but she had vanished.


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