Halloween...a time known by many for dressing up and getting your candy. What if I told you that there was another twist on Halloween night? A tale that all but a few have forgotten.
Let me tell you the story of Old Phantom Jack.
Let this account be a warning to those who wish to test the seas... and fate.
Phantom Jack and his crew of pirates were very well known across the vast seas. The stories of the ruthless nature and their relentless pursuit of great riches and king’s treasure were legendary. If you saw their flag flying it was almost always too late for the crews of the ships he plundered. Except for one soul. That was his rule - to always leave one person alive to tell the tale and to instill fear in the future sailors at sea.
One day, after a particularly lucrative plunder, Phantom Jack and his crew made port to enjoy their stolen riches. Jack sat drinking his mug of rum, planning his next pillage on the shipping route to pilfer the ship of his next victims, when a stranger, wrapped in a strange deep red cloak, sat at his table and started speaking to him. He told Jack he had been watching his unholy deeds and simply told him, "If you do not change your ways, your next voyage will be your last. The sea itself will swallow you whole."
Thinking this man was trying to intimidate him, Jack took his pistol, aimed it at the strange figure and said to him, "I am not afraid of some fool's threats!"
The stranger rose from the table and said, "You wish to seal your fate...very well. You shall be cursed for your actions. The sea will swallow you and your crew whole and your greed will never be quenched. You will suffer for all eternity on the very tides you sail."
With a blast of wind blowing out the candles in the tavern, the figure was gone, leaving no trace but a terrible smell of something rotten and burnt left behind.
Little did Phantom Jack know that he had just spoken to Death himself, and that fate was against him and his entire crew. He was an arrogant man and foolishly thought nothing at all of it.
That night, Halloween night, Jack and his crew set out from port to plunder ships in their usual hunting grounds. The Hunter's moon was gleaming high in the sky, the sea shining brightly below, for what would turn out to be their last voyage.
The ocean below began to boil, the waters turning white. The winds blew like a hurricane and the sea opened up into a maelstrom, sucking the ship down into it's depths. The crew attempted to fight the very sea herself to escape. But it was all in vain. With one final look up to the sky, Phantom Jack and his crew were swallowed by the waves.
It turns out that Death was real, and so was the curse. Phantom Jack and his crew would suffer for eternity on the dark tides.
Once a year on Halloween night, Phantom Jack and his condemned crew rise to sail on the cursed tides of the Hunter's moon. Formerly raiding ships for treasure, the captain and his crew now hunt for the souls of mortals they find on the seas and across the coasts. They seek to rejoin the living from the specters they've become.
Jack still follows his rule of leaving one person alive to tell their tale. So be warned, reader, that if you see his ship on Halloween night it may be YOU…
