The Ink Well Prompt #36: THE PIRATES' CEMETERY

INKwell36.jpg

The collage presented is of my authorship

I made it with royalty-free photos:

https://www.pexels.com/es-es/foto/foto-de-enfoque-selectivo-de-la-linterna-del-cementerio-720730/
https://www.pexels.com/es-es/foto/noche-oscuro-tarde-al-aire-libre-7737518/

https://pixabay.com/es/photos/barco-pirata-mar-luna-fantas%c3%ada-1719396/

https://www.pexels.com/es-es/foto/mujer-arte-vestido-joven-6658693/

The most important newspapers in England gave the news, on October 31, 1980, Peter Hallmarck died, an important businessman who commercialized everything related to silk articles. Although he was in life, an honorable and exemplary man, he had a dark past in his family. That past sometimes came to light when he least expected it. He was descended from pirates and sorceresses.

Stories, passed down from generation to generation, tell of pirates of the time who gathered north of Vietnam, in the Gulf of Tonkin, on an island known as the Pirate Islands. There, pirates of the Hallmarck family took over the silk trade through dishonest practices. Subsequently, a group of descendants became skilled and renowned merchants. In this way they tried to evade the distrust, everything would remain in rumors.......

Afterwards, many of them, with all the money they had earned and with the experience in commerce they had acquired, settled in different countries, among them England. This country was the seat of the Hallmark family.

Meanwhile, the men still carried in their blood the taste for adventure. When they came across beautiful sorceresses, they were captivated and fell at their feet. Peter's paternal family came from that branch.

Peter dies unexpectedly at the age of 55. His daughter, Sarah, still remembers being with him on his deathbed. There Peter says he finally sees his mother, Josephine, again. Sarah is confused with that attitude......Then, her father, before he dies, tells her that she has to meet Scheherazade. He gives her information on where she can find her and, he adds:

-Sarah, find her and do what she tells you. Promise me, promise me.

Sarah answers:

-Yes, Dad, don't worry. I will do it.

A feeling of immense peace pervades the atmosphere, Peter feels liberated. A smile appears on his lips. He closes his eyes. It is the end of him.

Sarah did not understand why, but decided to fulfill his last wish. Later she meets with her brother, Emmanuel, and her father's wife, Agatha, to tell them the news.

Agatha could not believe it, she was heartbroken, she only said:

-The curse was fulfilled, the curse was fulfilled-.

The son and daughter asked her

-What curse?

Agatha had to be faithful to the oath she had sworn to her husband. She could not reveal anything. That curse was inherited. All first-born sons, born of legitimate unions in the Hallmarck family, died at the age of 55. The curse was only revealed by the oldest woman of the Hallmarck clan during the funeral.

To evade the question, she feigns a nervous breakdown. The children call the doctor. Dr. James Kilder, a family friend, examines her and finds her well. He reassures them by telling them:

-It is a passing crisis. I suggest that you give her a sedative so that she can go to the funeral.

He says goodbye to them and leaves.

Emmanuel and Sarah made all the preparations for the funeral. They waited until the relatives who were abroad arrived.

On the day of the funeral, everyone commented that they never thought that he would receive the curse. Some said that Peter was not a first-born son. He had an older brother that his father, William, had had with Ingrid, a beautiful secretary who worked for him. Although William was single by that time, he never married Ingrid. However, William decides to register him as a legitimate son.

The elderly Margareth Hallmark, upon hearing them, says, "Peter is a legitimate son:

-Peter is a legitimate son and firstborn. The curse is fulfilled for first-born sons born in wedlock. That has always been true.

Everyone is silent. Some of the family members present had inherited certain gifts from the family's sorceresses........

At the moment they were lowering the coffin into the grave....... some women heard the sound of a raging sea, others saw how the pirates did their misdeeds...... They never commented anything. They placed the headstone with the caption that read:

-Here lies Peter Hallmarck, descendant of war veteran William Hallmarck -.

Thus ending the escort. Everyone left. No one noticed that Peter was buried next to another famous pirate descendant.......

Beginning in 1985, all members of the Hallmarck clan gathered to remember the deceased members of the family.
At one such meeting, they decided to find out more about the curse. They asked Sarah how she had escaped it. Sarah told them that the spell would last until the year 2022. Date that Scheherazade promised her.

Additionally she says:

-Scheherazade was a close friend of my father. Scheherazade was the daughter of Agnes. Agnes was forbidden to marry any man of the Hallmarck family. She was my father's forbidden love.

-Why?" asks the elderly widow Agatha.

  • If they married, Agnes would lose her gifts as a sorceress and die," Sarah clarified.

Everyone was stunned by this unexpected confession, but they continued to ask why Sarah and Emmanuel escaped the curse. They were intrigued.....

Again Sarah responds:

-Sherezade supplied us with some drinkings, prepared by her, to get pregnant only with females, that way we escaped the curse. And she confessed that Agnes revealed to her daughter, before she died, that the curse would end in the year 2022.

Years went by. The tombs of "the pirates" became famous...... some people watched and listened to the battles of the pirates, that fascinated them. People, who went to the cemetery, began to call it "The Pirates' Cemetery". Although no one knew when these paranormal phenomena would occur, it became a place of attraction for both locals and outsiders. No one had realized that these paranormal encounters only occurred on the eve of Halloween.

During one of these celebrations there were so many people that the cemetery had to be closed. The tourists, who could not enter, talked to the caretaker. They proposed to attend the cemetery at night.

The caretaker, George Wilcox, an advanced student of computer science and passionate about holograms, saw an excellent opportunity to practice with his holograms......... He told them to come back at midnight. They all left. They all returned happy at the appointed time. George excitedly set up his hologram and waited to see their reactions. The attendees were fascinated....... George, with that experience, decided to improve his hologram for the next year.....

The pirates' cementery © 2021 by María del Carmen Sánchez

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