The Twilight glides effortlessly along the spectral waters. The Gold Passengers were enjoying their trip as the crew went about their tasks and duties. "Chief Murillo! Ma'am, excuse me, ma'am!" A crewman runs after a middle-aged woman wearing an officer's uniform.
Chief Murillo, a housewife and cook, lived a life filled with love and plenty. When she passed away, her culinary skills landed her the role of Chief Cook. Next to the captain, she served the longest amongst the crew and knows the captain the most.
"What do you want?" she turned to face the crewman.
The crewman trembled as he handed a tablet. "Ma'am, this is the list of new crewmen. I need your signature before I give them to the reapers." Chief Murillo gestured to the crewman to turn around, and he did. She then pushed the crewman's head down to force him to bend over and used his back to sign the list.
"Go, take this list as well to the reapers for binding, then bring it to the Captain," she instructed the crewman before turning around and walking away. The list made its way to the reapers, so they could bind the souls to the Twilight for the next fifty years.
"Helmsman, steady as she goes," The first officer ordered. Reynaldo Bustamante, an imposing middle-aged man, is the Twilight's chief officer. He was a sea salt when he was still alive; he lived by the sea and died at sea. A beard and mustache added to his face's rugged features. His maritime knowledge and wisdom were the reasons that the Captain handpicked him to be his first officer. Despite his intimidating visage, he was beloved by the crew because he was gentle, soft-spoken, and caring. Chief Bustamante is one of only two crew members who could question the Captain if the need arises.
"Aye, aye, Sir. Steady as she goes," Helmsman Martinez repeated the order, a wide grin plastered on his face as he guided the liner over the waters of the Kasanaan River. One of the youngest members of the crew, his boyish charms and playfulness brighten any seemingly dreary atmosphere.
"Chief Bustamante?" A crewman called and approached the first officer, "Sir, Chief Murillo sent the list of the new crewmen, the reapers have already bound them to the ship, the captain needs to sign it."
Chief Bustamante perused the list. "Where is the captain?" he asked.
"He just went into his quarters," replied a member of the bridge crew, their voice barely registering amid the gentle humming of the machinery.
An eerie silence blanketed the bridge; the mere mention of the captain's quarters sent shivers racing down their spectral spines. Who could face a realm shrouded in darkness and stripped of warmth? Inside, where only a solitary chair awaited, alongside a glass that filled itself with liquor as if possessed by a dark enchantment. The room was a gallery of sorrow, adorned with the wailing portraits of all the past ferrymen.
Chris occupied the solitary chair; he was acutely aware that in less than two years, his two centuries of service would conclude. And when that happens, he too would become one with them, nothing more than a wailing portrait in the abyss. Such was the grim destiny of the ferryman.
Chief Bustamante scanned the nervous faces of the bridge crew; it was obvious no one wanted to go near the captain's quarters. With a deep sigh and a disappointed shake of his head, "Fine! I'll take it to the captain," he repeatedly clicked his tongue as he went out of the bridge. "Martinez, the bridge is yours." The helmsman sat in the captain's chair once he was relieved of the helm
As he stood in front of the door to the captain's quarters, with his posture straight, he knocked on the door and announced his presence: "Captain, First Officer Bustamante here. I have the list of the new crewmen."
He stepped away when he heard the door creak open; his senses were assaulted by shrieks and wails that were emanating from the room. Captain Chris got out, straightened his mariner's coat, and took the list. "What is this, a joke?" his voice boomed. Everyone who was going to walk past the quarters turned around and walked away. "This name... It's not written in the book!" The book of life and death, the tome that records all births and deaths. To which every ferryman has a psychic link.
"E-excuse me, captain?" Chris gave the tablet, pointing at a name that should not be there, 'Cecilia Amparo Bermudez'. "It's impossible, Sir, this person is still alive!"
"Tell them to recheck the list and don't bind these names yet." Chris was about to enter the recesses of his domicile when he noticed his first officer still standing there, and though he was already a ghost, his face was paler than usual. "What?"
"Captain…these names have already been bound to the ship," his voice trembling, afraid of the captain's reaction to a blunder as big as having a living human being get bound to the Twilight.
Chris's eyes widened. The thought of binding a living being to the barge of the dead was taboo. Imagine a human being traveling to a realm they are not supposed to see or witness until they are dead. Then, bringing that experience and knowledge to the living world, he can't fathom the chaos that it would bring to the mortal plane. "Call those damned reapers and WHERE IS CHIEF MURILLO?"
Chris marched to Murillo's office, but before he could reach the chief cook's domicile, they saw her running along the corridors of the ship with panic-stricken eyes: "Captain…a living human being…a living human being stowed away in the ship!"
"How can you let this happen? The selection of the new crew was your responsibility!" he barked. "All of you...find the stowaway! FIND HER NOW!" He radioed the bridge and issued an order, "Martinez, turn the ship around…return to port!"
The crew scrambled searching for the stowaway, barging in on the passenger's private quarters from the gold deck, combing the engine room, not leaving any corner unseen on the gray deck. But alas, there was no sign of the intruder; the stowaway could not be found.
Chris was inspecting the starboard side of the ship, looking over the rails, when he heard one of the crew yell, "I found her! She's on the observation deck." He quickly looked up and saw a woman climbing over the rails, trying desperately to escape the crew.
"I don't think that girl would be stupid enough to jump," Chief Murillo said, her voice shaking from all the tension.
Oh, but they were wrong, dead wrong! In the blink of an eye, the girl leaped from the observation deck and aimed for the icy waters.
Chris quickly leaped over the railings of the gold deck, extended his arms, and caught the stowaway by her hands. With lightning reflexes, he grabbed onto the railings of the ship, saving the two of them from a fate worse than death. They both groaned from hitting the h of the ship; their shoulders felt like it was going to pop out of their sockets.
Recovering from the initial shock and hearing her savior groan like she did, the stowaway looked at the face of the being that caught her. "You're human?" her tone laced with shock and disbelief.