Skip to main content

[FICTION] Tales from Port Astor | News Articles from the Port Astor Gazette

This is part two of the annual October series. Read part one if you haven't already!


GHOST SHIP!

By Valerie Kimpton

    A long-missing vessel, THE EASTERN GLOAM, has resurfaced in Port Astor Harbor. While the city is under quarantine, few but the Coast Guard were able to try and dissuade this revenant from landing here in our plague-stricken city. Our official source, Lt. Boyle, said no one was left aboard after the boarding team explored the derelict from bow to stern. Out of abundant caution, Lt. Boyle said that the ship was to be towed out of the harbor, and eventually scuttled.

    When we asked residents near the Astor Docks, however, we learned that there might be more to this story. One resident, under a condition of anonymity and speaking only through a closed window said that she spied a lone soul leaping from the drifting ship, then swimming to shore. Once upon land, our source continued, he simply vanished. Did our "valiant" serviceman lie to us when he claimed that there were no survivors? Were they simply unaware?

    Should anyone be able and willing to identify this person, or provide their whereabouts, please contact the Port Astor Gazette, and we will promise complete confidentiality.

--------

Update on Gloam

by Edward Baumgarte


    A number of weeks back, we published a story regarding the-since scuttled ghost ship, The Eastern Gloam, and a potential mystery survivor. This week, deposited in our office mailbox, was the paper pictured in this article. If there is someone that can shed more information upon either the ship, this message, or information regarding the disappearance of our Valerie Kimpton, please contact us. We promise complete confidentiality, and reward for the safe return our staff member.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

[GUEST WRITER] Healer/Weapon by Nico

  General content warning: This is a piece about the crossroads of our current socio-political landscape, through the lens of the author’s upbringing and life experience.  Mentions of emotional and physical abuse, rape, religious trauma, gun violence, school shootings, racism & hate crimes, and others. Topics and themes touched on are handled respectfully, but told unflinchingly.                                         W H e a l e r       p              o                      n It’s 2005. I am being raised to be a weapon.  I’m ten, or so. They split the boys and the girls off...

[Guest Writer] Gemini by Brian Rydquist

Editor's Note: This is a content warning for those sensitive to certain topics; self-harm, child loss, graphic descriptions of violence.            Sylvia bent over the lifeless bodies of the newborn infants she had just spent six hellish hours delivering. Screams of anguish poured from her diaphragm, blood soaked her nightgown from the waist down. Her husband William knelt beside her, stroking her shoulder in a futile attempt at comfort. The midwife, an elderly Inuit woman, knelt on her otherside. “Please miss,  you must lay down. Your body has suffered incredible stress, the birth was not a good one.” “My babies, my babies, this can’t be!” Sylvia shrieked, deaf to the woman’s words. “Shh, shh,” William was muttering as he rubbed her shoulders. “Maybe it won’t be, I have already sent for the spirit leader of my tribe. He should arrive any moment.” “Don’t be a fool! How dare you give my wife this false hope! You can clearly see the babie...

[FICTION] Tales from Port Astor | The Loamy Gloam

      During the lockdown, a ghost ship came into the harbor of Port Astor. With so much of the city in chaos or silence, few at the time even noticed its arrival. More did bother to pay attention, however, when word got out that an entire Coast Guard  boarding team vanished after boarding the vessel. When they sent the second team, no traces of the original crew of the ship, or the first boarding team were found.      The name of the ship was The Eastern Gloam, which was seen over a decade ago leaving for the Far East, with a crew of scholars and academics. And the only trace of anything they found aboard the ship was a carved phrase on a bulkhead: "LOAMY GLOAM".     Fearing another illness, the ship was towed out and eventually scuttled. Since then, however, a number of disappearances have been tied to the return of the ship, with the phrase "RETURN TO REST WITHIN  THE LOAMY GLOAM" showing up again and again over the years, and then us...