Curse of Hell's Rose

Prompt: Write a curse; detailing what will happen to someone who opens this pirate treasure chest without permission.

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Hell's Rose plundered many a ship

Captured countless gems, jewels, and gold

The women aboard soon all net their end,

By illness, childbirth, murder, and accident

Whomever fool enough to open this chest,

Will soon learn first-hand the brutality of their ends.

__________ . __________

Victim #1: Jaclyn Shepard, Age 25, Toronto, Ontario

Spring Break. The time of the year when students go wild. Most of the people on campus travel during those few free weeks but I like to stay behind and relax with Netflix and the whole campus to myself. 

It's not that I don't have the money. Ever since we all discovered the treasure of Hell's Rose. The famous ship run completely by women; Jane "Peacock" Ramsey, Betty "Red- Eye" Scott, Gloria "Magpie" Fry, and Maize "Salty Dog" Ramsey. Between Daniel, my former boss, Summer, my former boss's boss, and Emily, my former fellow intern, we'd each gotten enough treasure so we never had to work again. Although I chose to continue going to school to get my journalism degree.

Tonight I was lying on my bed, binge watching Orange is the New Black on Netflix, when I felt the sudden urge to go clubbing. I never go clubbing; I hate drinking in any fashion. But I get up, put on a really tight dress and heels and drove to one of the local clubs.

The music was blaring and sweaty bodies danced close together on the dance floor. I made my way to the bar and ordered a shot of vodka . Then another and another and another. After I lost count I started dancing. I don't know how long I danced for but I know I stopped when I got a phone call; it was Daniel.

"Emily's sick. Caught something in Europe," he said quickly. With the sound of the music pounding in the background I tried to make my way towards the door, stumbling into many people and tables on the way. "Are you drunk?" Daniel asked, surprise in his voice.

"Maybe" I replied, dragging out some of the letters to make it sound longer then it was. Opening the front door a small breeze brushed past my cheek, making me shudder. "Did you say Em's sick?" I asked. Emily was the person I was closest to out of the four of us. After we found the treasure and split ways, we stayed in touch via snail mail.

"They don't know what it it yet, all they know is that it's deadly." I closed my eyes, that wasn't good. "Summer and I are flying out tomorrow. She's at Hospital de I'Hotel-Dieu in Paris, France. Get there as soon as possible!" He said rather loudly. 

"No need to shout. I'll be there in a couple of days" I replied. Hanging up I shook my head and walked towards the road; I needed to get back to my dorm as fast as I could. Stumbling across the wide sidewalk I walked onto the road, in between the parked cars. Sticking my hand out at the taxi coming towards me I stepped out too far and it crashed into me. I watched the sky sailing past above me before everything went black

Victim #2: Summer Moore, Age 35, Paris, France

Airplanes always stress me out. After almost a decade of flying experience and I wasn’t any closer to being remotely comfortable on one. The way I can even remotely get through a three-hour plane ride is with Gravol.  I have to take it a half-hour before boarding the plane in order to settle my stomach. Even with the pill it takes my husband, Daniel’s hand to keep me calm during takeoffs and landings. Now we were on an airplane, on our way to visit our friend Emily in Paris.

After we’d discovered the treasure belonging to the pirate ship Hell’s Rose, she had decided to travel the world; starting with Europe. Jaclyn, being her school driven self, made up her mind that she would go back to school and work for the rest of her life. With the amount of money that we all gained from finding the treasure, this was an absurd thought to all of us. My husband and I had retired early and bought houses in New York, Los Angeles, and our hometown of Wichita, Kanas.

A few days ago Daniel had gotten a call from a hospital in Paris, it was Emily. Her voice was hoarse and she coughed quite a lot. She told us that she had come down with something while exploring the Catacombs beneath Paris’ streets. The doctors had informed her that what she had picked up was very serious and was most likely life threatening. She had called us to ask if we would fly there and be with her when she got the final news. Then Emily said that she had tried to call Jaclyn first but had received no answer; Daniel called her right after hanging up with Emily.

Now we were clutching each other’s hands as the plane touched down in Orly Airport, a little less than a half hour drive to the Hosptial de L’Hotel-Dieu. Getting our bags we ran to the front of the airport and hailed a taxi. Taking out my cellphone I called Jaclyn’s number to tell her we arrived safely but I got her voicemail. I hung up the call and shook it off, she must be sleeping off the major hangover she would have had after the night of drinking she had. After Daniel told me that Jaclyn had been drunk I was honestly shocked, she is not a drinker. Right after I hung up I called Emily’s room number and informed her that we were almost at the hospital.

Emily doesn’t have any family so she considers Jaclyn, Daniel and myself her surrogate family. That’s why she called us with the news. Emily and her parents were in a car crash when she was young and after that she was bounced around from foster family to foster family until she was 18; that’s when she met Jaclyn. The joy in her voice put a smile on my face when I told her we were only a few minutes away.

As soon as we were at the hospital we practically threw the money at the taxi driver and flew through the doors and into the elevator to Emily’s floor. Slowing our pace as we entered her room I immediately sat down in the chair by the door. Being eight months pregnant can be horribly tiring at times and seeing Emily looking so sick and weak just made it so much worse. Her once beautiful, shiny brown hair was now thin and dull, pulled back in a loose ponytail. Emily’s face was paler than usual and she looked so sickly.

Daniel stood next to her, holding her hand when the doctor entered the room. He placed a hand on my shoulder and walked to the right side of her bed. I managed to stand and walk over next to Daniel.

“We just received a call from Toronto, Ontario. It was about a woman named Jaclyn Shepard. The policeman said that one of our patients, a Miss Emily Walker, was her emergency contact.” He took a moment and look down at Emily. “I’m very sorry to say this but she’s been involved in an accident.” Tears formed in Emily’s eyes and fell down her thin cheeks. “They said she was trying to get a taxi and went too far into the road and was hit by a car.” He stopped and placed a hand on her shoulder, trying to comfort her. “I’m so sorry” and with that he nodded at us and left.

“She’d dead?” Emily whispered. This made the realization of the news hit me in the face. I grabbed Daniel’s hand and started balling. I just remember not being able to stop crying and then the pain started. The baby was coming; it was early. With the stress of Emily’s condition and the news about Jaclyn I figured helped with the pre-mature labor.

The doctors figured an emergency C-Section was better than to do a natural birth. Everything was fine until I heard them start scrambling around; the doctor preforming the surgery and all of the nurses were grabbing what seemed like a lot of gauze. Daniel could see the panic on my face so he started trying to calm me down, telling me everything was alright but I knew it wasn’t.

After hearing that Jaclyn had been involved in an accident and knowing that she had been drunk clued me in to the treasure. When we’d found the chest, inscribed on the top had been a curse of some sort. It warned that whomever opened the chest would either die of illness, childbirth, murder, or accident. Of course, there were four of us, one person for each mod of death but like anyone else, we didn’t take it seriously and had opened the chest. Now it seemed as though it was coming true.

Jaclyn had died in a drunken accident, the same way Maize Ramsay had died. Now Emily was sick with a life threatening illness, just like the ship’s captain, Jane Ramsay had. I was having a baby and there seemed to be something wrong so I knew, I just knew it was my turn to die just like Betty Scott had; delivering her baby. And that meant that my sweet Daniel would die by someone else’s hand.

Not too long after the panicking had started it soon stopped. I assumed that everything was alright when I heard my baby crying. It was a lovely sound; it’s how you know they’re alright, when they start crying; it means they can breathe. That’s the last thing I heard before I felt really faint. My head was a light as a feather when I closed my eyes. The best thing to hear as the last thing you hear.

Victim #3: Daniel Moore, Age 33, Paris, France

Both of them were dead. Jaclyn in a freak accident and my poor wife Summer while bringing our gorgeous baby boy into the world. Both of them died in the way the curse had said. It was always on my mind; the curse. Between me and Summer, I was the worrier in the marriage. Ever since we found the treasure and saw the curse I kept bringing it up. I could tell it had been annoying but my mind couldn't stop thinking about it.

Jaclyn went first, just like the drunkard Maize Ramsey. Emily was sick, really sick, just like their Captain had been. Now Summer was dead and I was next. Murdered. That’s what the curse said.

Slowly, I pulled the chair by the door, the one Summer had been sitting in only a few hours ago, over to the left side of Emily’s bed and sat. Looking over at her asleep I sighed. Only two of us left.

“I’m going to go get food. Hospital food always sucks” I say in a whisper, trying not to wake her. Emily’s head turned towards me. “Go back to bed. I’ll be back in a little while.” I stood up and made my way towards the door.

“Be careful out there. You could be next” Emily croaked. Smiling, I turned and nodded. My heart was already racing. I knew the possibility of it happening now was extreme.

Exiting the hospital I made my way around the corner of the block. The sky was pitch black as I passed many buildings. In-between each building was a small alleyway. Into one of them I was pulled. Someone grabbed my jacket as I walked past. They shoved me against the wall of one of the buildings. The lack of light made it hard to see the person but I heard him speak to someone else.

Then I felt a sharp pain in my lower abdomen, then another, and another. It took a whole for it to register that I’d been stabbed. My knees felt weak and they soon crumbled underneath me, causing my body to fall onto the ground. My vision was starting to get fuzzy when I felt hands in my pockets. Muggers. The last thing I remember was footsteps running away from the alley.   

Victim #4: Emily Walker, Age 25, Victoria, British Colombia

They moved me to Victoria General Hospital in Victoria, British Colombia just after Summer and Daniel died. At my request of course. I wanted to be in my hometown when I died; be close to some of the people I grew up with.

Jaclyn was the closest thing I had to a sister, and vice versa. We both were only children when our parents died and we met in a group home at the age of seven years old. After that we bonded fast and had made sure that they put us in the same foster homes; sometimes turning homes down because they only wanted one of us. We made sure the other stayed safe and sane.

Summer and Daniel were the strongest couple I’d ever known. They’d been together for twelve years and married for eight of them. I’m so heartbroken that they’ll never be able to watch their baby boy grow up.

Whoever is reading this might know the story of the four friends that died within a week of each other. Although you might not. Depends on what happens when I die.

Jaclyn died in a car accident on March 8 2014. Summer died during childbirth on March 9 2014, the day after Jaclyn. Her husband, Daniel, was mugged and killed in an alleyway outside the hospital I was in on March 9 2014, only a couple of hours after Summer had passed away. And now, within the next few days, I will die from the unknown illness I caught in Paris.

We all died because we were greedy for pirate treasure. The curse stated that whomever opened the chest would die by murder, childbirth, illness, and accident. The curse of Hell’s Rose had come true.