Blackbeard's Curse

BLACKBEARD’S CURSE
By ARTIST-SRF

Long ago, there was a man named Captain Edward Teach. Better known as Blackbeard! With his long braided beard, and slow burning fuses under his hat, he was considered the most feared and most vile of the pirates throughout history. He plundered and pilfered every ship, and town he sailed across on his ship, the Queen Anne’s Revenge. It seemed likely that he was unstoppable until that very day… Blackbeard came across British Navy. In the middle of the battle, it is said that Blackbeard was struck with 20 musket balls and six cutlass wounds. Yet none of this slowed him down. Is there something about that cutthroat that we didn’t know about? Then, he was shot twice in the heart; and his head was cut off and tied to the bow of the British frigate.
As for his treasure, no one has found it until now. When a team of scientists and explorers found the Queen Anne’s Revenge sunken near the Gulf Coast of North Carolina, they also found a map in a bottle, which lead to his treasure, buried on the island of Ocracoke Inlet. As soon as the followed it, they of course found where all the treasure was located and dug it up. It was a huge stash of treasure chests from French slave ships and Spanish galleons. They gathered every last chest, and then brought the stash to the North Carolina Maritime Museum, where they also held pieces of the Revenge.
The Museum was owned by a greedy and selfish “Scrooge” of a man by the name of Joseph Baxter. He had no interest in history whatsoever; he just got the job after the passing of his father, the first museum owner. Some say that he spoiled the poor bastard half to death. When he had all of Blackbeard’s treasure displayed, greedy old Joseph took all the credit and gave each of his employees only half their payment, like usually. And they worked so hard in finding that stash.
As it was nearing closing time, he Joseph was about to exit the museum, he was blocked by a frightening figure of a man. He was a big, tall man in a fisherman suit. He had a long and shaggy grey beard that covered his chest, and a dark blue raincoat.
“The treasure is cursed!” he said in a dark voice.
“Who the hell are you?” Baxter demanded, “And what do you mean the chest is cursed?”
“Who know whose chest you stole it from?”
“Stole? That guy was a pirate, he stole that treasure first. Besides, he’s dead. What’s he gonna do, haunt me?” he scoffed.
“Aye, he who takes the treasure and keeps it all to himself, shall suffer his wrath!”
“SECURITY” Baxter turned his head, “WE HAVE A MENTAL CASE RIGHT HERE!”
But by the time he looked back at the stranger, the fisherman was gone! It was as if he had disappeared without a trace! Could he have been a figment of Baxter’s imagination? Who knows? All we know is that, Baxter was momentarily puzzled by it. Rather than dwell on it, Baxter ordered the security guards to keep an eye out for the mysterious fisherman, in case he shows up to steal the treasure. While the greedy man drove off, there was something that occurred with the guards that night.
An unnatural weather was taken place all over the town, including Okracoke Inlet. Dark clouds covered the full moon from sight, creating a thunder and lightning storm! Rain was pouring, and the wind was fierce! But how was this unnatural you ask? Well the weather forecast said that it would a warm night, full moon night, but it seemed that there was something unearthly happening in the area. Like something you’d see out of a horror movie or a Scooby Doo cartoon.
While guarding the treasure exhibit, the night watchman scanned his surroundings with his flashlight. Suddenly, he thought he heard the sound of a ghostly cackle! He quickly turned around but his flashlight picked up nothing. Not a trace of a body or shape anywhere. Just exhibits. Did he really hear that sound?
“AVAST, YA LAND LUBBER!” shouted a seemingly disembodied voice.
The guard turned around again, but still there was no sign of any intruders. In a panic, the watchman pulled out his gun and said,
“Alright, come on out, joke’s over--”
Just then, someone or something impaled him through the gizzard from behind! With what appeared to be a cutlass from the 18th century. As he groaned in pain, blood came spurting out of the guard’s mouth, and then something kicked him right to the ground!
Then he looked up, coughing out the blood, the guard saw what looked like a man in a pirate costume, and a realistic one at that. Like something you’d see out of a pirate movie. But that wasn’t all; the figure also had a gunshot in his right knee and rope markings on his neck. As if he somehow survived being hung at the noose. Or did he? You might have known this mysterious figure as Blackbeard’s right hand man, Israel Hands. To put him out of his misery, the apparent pirate ghost shot the guard right in the forehead with a pistol in his hand!
The sound alerted two security men and two women who just stormed from other rooms, nearby. All they found was the dead watchmen on the floor. It seemed that the pirate who killed him had also disappeared like the mysterious fisherman. As they searched his corpse, one of the male guards tried to get help on his walky-talky. But there was no response from the chief. When he tried calling again, but still it was quiet. Before they could run to investigate the security room, they immediately found themselves surrounded by hundreds of men in piratical attire of the period, laughing at their outnumbered victims.
Half of them were Caucasians, while the others were Africans, just as history described Blackbeard’s crew, along with most pirates of that period. Some of these pirates had gunshots to head, the chests, and the limbs, while others had slash marks and other forms of cutlass wounds. Most of the crew members had rope marks like our first one, Hands, who had also appeared right in front of them, like magic. Could they also be real ghosts? Without hesitation, the guards watched each other’s backs as they opened fire on those gruesome looking “pirates!”
Meanwhile, out on the road, greedy old Baxter drove through the rain, with the windshield wipers on.
“Crazy old sasquatch,” he said to himself. “How stupid does he think I am? Next he’ll be telling me that I’m Jack Sparrow.”
He seemed to be doing just fine out there in the storm, when all of a sudden; a mysterious figure appeared in the middle of the road just the lightning flashed! It looked like big, tall man wearing a long red coat, a brace full of six pistols, a large three cornered hat, braids, tied with red ribbons on his big, long dark beard that covered his chest, and burning fuses under his hat. But if they were burning, then how come the rain didn’t put the fire out? And more importantly, how is not one bit of him, getting wet? Could he be the actual ghost of…Blackbeard himself…?
Extremely shocked by the sight of it, Baxter quickly hit the brakes, which stopped the car three feet away! But by the time he reached the figure, the apparent ghost seemed to have disappeared from sight. He quickly looked both ways, but there was no trace of a body of any other life form of some sort. This of course, caused our greedy man here, to face paranoia, confusion and the sense of fear. Baxter then put his hand on his forehead, and shakes it, doubtfully. He thought it might have been just his imagination running away with him, as a result of stress at work mixed with the old fisherman’s warning.
Just then, Baxter smelled something very odd… Like something burning coming from the back of his seat. When he looked over his shoulder there was nothing there, and there he was! The legendary pirate captain in the backseat! Baxter panicked as he quickly pulled a handgun out of the glove compartment, and then fired at point blank range! But when the bullet flew right through him, it hit the window instead…! Even more frightened by it, Baxter dropped the gun, and knew that this could only mean one thing….
“I warned you, mate,” said the mysterious fisherman.
By the flash of lightning, the fisherman quickly changed into the pirate captain he just saw on the road. He could even see several, bloody gunshot wounds, and many cutlass slashes around his torso. As the ghost slowly unsheathed his sword, Baxter quickly unbuckled his seatbelt, and ran out into a nearby forest. The frightened man ran as fast as he could, but he could still feel the phantom on his tail. He didn’t bother to look back, and fortunately there was nothing for him to trip over. True, he might have slipped on a few wet mud puddles, but he managed to get back up, and continue the pirate’s little game of cat and mouse. He almost felt like he was a horror movie, an almost clichéd one at that. Suddenly, he saw another one of Blackbeard’s men popped out from behind a tree, armed with a cutlass of his own.
“Ahoy there, me hearty!” he cackled.
Baxter was forced to take the left turn, but then he saw another pirate swing from branch to branch, crossing his path.
“YO HO!” he called out.
Again, Baxter was forced to take another turn through the forest. It was as if these pirates were playing some sort of game with him.
“HELP ME!” cried the poor victim, “HELP ME!”
But no one heard him, but the spirits, so Baxter kept running as the ghosts’ hideous laughter could be heard echoing through the trees.
“SOMEONE, ANYBODY! HELP ME!!!”
All of a sudden, the laughing stopped. From that, Baxter stopped running, hoping that those piratical phantoms had finally disappeared. He checked his surroundings, and so far, there again was no trace of a single specter of any kind in the area. Just then, a gunshot was heard and something seemed to have stuck him right in the chest! It was so powerful, that it landed the frightened man flat on his back! He looked at his chest to see that he was in fact, shot in the chest and started to bleed. Then, he felt someone grab him by the hair and lifted him off the ground. It was that ghostly pirate captain and by the fact that smoke came out of pistol, it looked like he was the one who fired that shot. He then sheathed his pistol and then switched back to his cutlass.
“No,” Baxter coughed, “NO!!!!”
With one swing of his cutlass, Blackbeard sliced the helpless Baxter’s head clean off!!!
The next morning, all the security men and women that night were found dead. Each were brutally slashed, shot, stabbed, and strangled to death with ropes and bare hands. The chest was gone, but in its place was the severed head of Baxter himself. The police found no trace of any forced entry, footprints or finger prints of any kind. The police investigated footage from the security cameras, but what they found appeared to be wispy spirits of those murderous pirates slaying the guards on that night. This made them including the local media on a debate of whether or not it was some kind of computer effect made to look like that. The police interrogated each of Baxter’s employees, but they of course claimed that they were already home when it happened that night. They had plenty of witnesses at home to prove their innocence.
The fisherman obviously was never found, nor was the treasure. But that wasn’t the only thing that was missing, pieces of the Queen Anne’s Revenge was gone too. Where could it have gone? It is said that the ship could be seen sailing anywhere out in the open ocean, as if it was repaired by that ghost pirate and his crew. Who knows when that ghost pirate would appear again?