[CONTENTID1] GREEN ROSE [/CONTENTID1]

[CONTENTID3]
She looked up at me, confusion lighting her physiognomy. “Run to where?” Is what I assumed she’d say, considering we could be killed any moment.

Instead I got a sad smile in response. She pushed her hair, revealing her shoulder, and frowned pinching her lobe.

Bemused, I paused when she searched for something frantically. “I’ve lost an earring,” she frowned staring up at me.

“You’re the girl with a pearl earring,” I teased, deepening her frown.

She removed the remaining one swiftly and coyly placed it into my pocket. “When I find the other one, I’ll go with you.”

I opened my mouth to protest when the clinking of a glass absorbed us. “Attention please everyone! This is your host Kim Taeyeon here with your favorite sisters Hwang Tiffany and Kim Seohyun. In a few moments we’ll be crowning the Belle of the Ball. And- Uh, excuse me please.” Taeyeon lowered her mike and shoved the small guy who was counting votes. Not knowing her mike was still on I snickered when she yelled, “Yah, Byun Baehyun, get a move on you little runt!”

The guy smacked his face right onto the desk and rubbed his now crooked nose. “Right away, my cherry blossom!”

I thought his remark deserved a bigger beating. Tiffany must have also thought so because she threw her mike at his head. “Taeyeon is mine !”

While Taeyeon nodded her head to affirm this Seohyun rolled her eyes. I’d deemed her the most normal one of the atypical sisters until she uttered, “I’m obviously the winner. Why count?”

To this, Tiffany slapped her and a fight commenced between all three sisters. It was grotesque and I could barely look through my fringed fingers.

“The winner is, Lee Hongin.”

I choked. Banging my chest, I stared at Hongbin who was immaculately dressed as a medieval Joseon scholar grooming all those tips he’d learnt through his devouring of all things drama.

“Well… This is awkward,” Hongbin chortled into Taeyeon’s mike. “Um… Thanks, I guess…” He trailed off and eyed Seohyun from the corner of his eye. “Would you like to dance with me?”

There was hooting as Seohyun flushed, clutching her cheeks, radiating all the aegyo she could muster.

Another fight between the sisters ensured, and this time it was a fight for who could dance with Hongbin. It was the stupidest thing I’d bore witness to since boarding this ship. I resisted the urge to scoff out all the things I knew about the guy those damsels were getting physical over.

The oddest part of their fight was that they never changed in position as if they were enclosed in a box out of which only their heads and arms were free to move while their legs were missing. This I kept to myself, knowing how icky things could get if a woman’s appearance was commented on.

It was only when the girls tumbled that my eyes almost fell out of my sockets. They had no feet, nothing, well they had tentacles but that wasn’t the point. The point was that they weren’t human and also, I gulped, they were conjoined!

I stared stupefied as they used ‘teamwork’ to push up their body after which Seohyun latched herself onto Hongbin’s arm. The only thing utterly ridiculous about this ‘dance’ proposition was that Seohyun was the sister in the middle with Taeyeon and Tiffany on either side.

Hongbin was forced to dance with them. After all, a man had to keep his work. I snorted derisively at his misfortune wishing I had my phone to record this whole event.

I turned to Krystal to make a snide remark. Krystal wasn’t there. I ruffled my hair trying to recall if she’d said anything.

A nervous Mingook came into my vision. He was running frantically with features crumpled. No one paid heed. It made me boil to see him ignored. Raging enough to tap the person nearest to me, I inquired if he knew of the boy.

The griffin sniffed, exhaling ash, and turned up its nose in disgust. "What ya taking 'bout, freak? The water not enough for ya? Ya want a fight, don't cha?"

Avoiding the cranky fire-breathing bird I decided to take matters wine my own hand and confront him. Whether others could see Mingook or not, I could and I couldn't allow the child to snivel by himself with swollen, puffy eyes and red cheeks. I wasn't that heartless.

Not having an idea of what to say to the boy, I patted his shoulder in sympathy.

"You h’ve to run ‘way." The child clutched onto my trouser with his grubby hands. I sensed the urgency but didn't fathom it.

As if he could read my thoughts he released me and ran through the heavy wooden doors, rendering me to follow when immediately the lights went out. The lack of sight brought a flurry of ravings:

"Aww man, not again!”

“The hell? I thought all the live ones died at Bermuda’s Triangle?”

“We’re cursed for another century?"

“I’ve been here longer!”

"Where the live ones? I’ll give ‘em a piece o’ my mind.”

Someone tugged my sleeve. It was Hongbin. "Let's get outta here."

I nodded wanting to take Krystal with us. I scoured the vicinity for the maiden with locks as black as coal and an exuberant complexion, wearing a blue gown that suited her every aspect. Whichever idiot presented her with glass slippers did a shoddy job. It wasn't midnight but she was gone.

In my haste I brushed against someone whose hair cut me. Wincing I pushed away the torn fabric and was met with oozing crimson.

And then, all eyes were on me.

“Do you know what you’ve done boy?”

“I won’t let you go. You’ll rot here with us.”

“What to do with him?”

“He must die!”

“We’re back in the Triangle. Look your tentacles are showing.”

“I say we leave him for Blackly. Save our own.”

“Haha, Blackly it is then.”

I backed away slowly raising my arms in defeat. "Can we be civil about this?" I wanted to ask, but those ravaging gazes told me they wanted to rip my insides and shred every remaining fiber of my being.

I was tackled to the ground by Siwon who took the liberty of twisting my arms behind my back. I thought they'd snap off. Bone crunching flanks,  ambushed me. I tasted blood. I saw my own. I saw a frightened Mingook crying again. His tears were as unnoticed as my own.

I thought they'd kill me. I thought I'd die. I saw peril. My life flashed there and then. Adrenaline rushed. I floundered, fidgeted, kicked, screamed. I was angry, agitated. Why was I being attacked? For being alive, I was not sorry in the least.

I managed to haul to my feet. Scratched, bruised, bleeding, I screamed, "Let me go!" A fighting spirit possessed me.

There were too many of them and only one of me. They took turns to fight. Each fight incurred my loss. I couldn't keep up with strikes. Despite their attempts I wasn't out just yet. Until the bitter end I swore not go throw in the towel.

-

Half awake, the sea was salty on my tongue and foamy against my skin. The dark sky crackled menacingly. It was cold. The type of cold that robbed the sense of touch leaving behind an unpleasant biting frost.

Tied to the mast, there was no escaping its teeth of ice. Vulnerable, I stared at nothing. I was alone to atone for my sins. The sin of living...

'The Night's Watchman' is what they called him. He was said to blow a whistle before unleashing wrath. What kind of evil? I wasn't sure. But the demons upon the doomed vessel feared him. Those beastly creatures that could give nightmares from a single glance, were afraid. How well would I fare?

They were offering me up as a sacrifice to that thing. I wasn't fazed. How could I be? I'd never seen it. Perhaps part of me was dreaming all of this.

Stuck in eternal darkness, the enchantment of the Green Rose was fading. It's brilliance withered like curling autumn leaves in the face of winter's coming; the suave deck being reduced to uprooted planks and ripped sails replacing technology. It shredded and stripped until nothing of its previous state was recognizable. The term 'green' referring to moss and fungus instead of squalor.

Old age hacked at the ship until even the calmest roll of waves threatened to topple it. It made no difference to the inhabitants who were bound for as long as the touch of malice gripped the ship.

Only one thing jeered those beings. The Bermuda Triangle, a location whose effects did not just reside at Bermuda but changed position. I'd learnt that from the demons who were somewhat human until the ship swerved into the Triangle's waters, transforming them into hideous beasts.

"Where