{"id":710,"date":"2026-07-31T08:45:41","date_gmt":"2026-07-31T08:45:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/insidemayasmind.com\/?p=710"},"modified":"2026-07-31T08:46:26","modified_gmt":"2026-07-31T08:46:26","slug":"the-fate-of-the-hapet-chapter-5-a-song-from-the-depths","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/insidemayasmind.com\/?p=710","title":{"rendered":"The Fate of The H\u00e5pet – Chapter 5, A Song from the Depths"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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The foul stench was the first thing to hit me. A putrid mix of stagnant bilge water and the pungent tang of rancid whale blubber stung my nostrils. The deck pitched upwards into a scene of devastation. Huge blubber-vats had split open, spilling their congealed contents into thick, grey sheets across the shattered planks. Snapped ropes and frayed rigging lay tangled and the mainmast fallen, having dragged the mizzen down with it and crushed the quarterdeck.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lonely, monotonous clang of the ship\u2019s bell vibrated through the damp oak beneath my feet. But through that din, the muffled voice of a song drifted up from deep within the ship.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My hand tightened around the rough shaft of my pick.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s coming from the midship,\u201d I said with a glance back at the Larson twins. They returned my gaze with wide-eyed stares. \u201cCome on.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They didn\u2019t move. They just stood there, looking at me, their breath misting before their faces, their boots shuffling on the frozen deck.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019ll not go in there,\u201d Johan\u2019s voice muttered. \u201cIt\u2019s\u2026 unnatural.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A flare of irritation surged over me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNonsense!\u201d I barked, but the men didn\u2019t budge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With a grunt, I pressed on alone, my hands grabbing the coarse hemp ropes and broken timbers for support as I scrambled up the listing deck and towards the steerage companionway. The heavy wooden hood was cracked, and the hatch thrown open.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From the dim depths, I could hear it clearly now. It wasn\u2019t the rasping of one of the damned, but the voice of a living man. His voice choking and wheezing as he dragged out the hoarse notes, his English words sounding heavy and awkward. But the tune, I recognised instantly, even if the words meant nothing to me. A Mighty Fortress is our God<\/em>, a song I\u2019d known since I was a child, a song sung in every church from Troms\u00f8 to Oslo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHello,\u201d I called down.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Instantly the singing stopped.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Slowly, step by step, I descended into the gloom, my hands gripping the tarred manropes as I went.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHello?\u201d I called again, my voice booming between the low square beams of the half-deck.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Silence, save for the bell, which down here seemed louder, amplified through the very carcass of the vessel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hunching my shoulders, I bowed my neck so as not to crack my head on the low, rough-hewn ceiling. Letting my eyes gradually adjust to the eerie light, a scene of carnage took shape around me. The heavy mess table had been torn from its deck bolts and lay smashed against one of the bulkheads. A small cast-iron stove sat cold and dead, its chimney broken and its coals scattered across the floor, glinting like black jewels in the colourless light from above.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The air hung thickly, my nose twitching with the acrid stink of rotten wool, stale sweat and human waste. The bunks, gaping holes of pitch black, lined the berth, deserted. The compartment was littered with the contents of toppled sea chests, tattered blankets and straw mattresses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A ship like this would, at full complement, usually be bustling with the life of fifty crew members. Yet here it was, cold, silent and empty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kicking aside a worn, leather-bound book and a piece of whalebone, half-carved into the form of a woman, I stepped deeper into the belly of the ship. The heavy, frozen wool of a discarded frock, crunching underfoot as I moved.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHello?\u201d I called out again. \u201cIs anyone down here?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There was no answer, only the maddening clang of the bell on deck.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then, just as I was about to take another step, I heard a faint, rasping rustle behind me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Spinning on my heel, my foot slipped on the thick frost which covered everything in this cramped hole. My elbow struck the hard floor first, sending a sear of white-hot pain up my arm and jolting my collarbone. With a metallic clatter, my ice pick spilt from my hand, spinning across the wooden boards and well out of my reach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With my good arm, I pushed myself up, my eyes frantically scanning the dim, icy space for the source of the sound.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then I saw them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two white eyes, staring out from the inky depths of a bunk I\u2019d assumed empty. Its skeletal face twitched, pale white lips drawing back in a silent snarl to reveal yellowing teeth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wrapped tightly in heavy blankets, a thin, bony hand gripped a black book to its chest; the other it thrust towards me, the dull glint of the heavy blade of a rigging knife pointed directly at my throat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The blade quivered in the creature\u2019s grip, its knuckles white. Its breath, a slow, dry rattle in its chest, like dead leaves skittering across a winter deck.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My own breath hitched coldly, as if the ice covering this ship had settled in my lungs. Stiff muscles cramped painfully, locking me in place. My mouth fell open, but the scream hung trapped in my throat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The draugen didn\u2019t move. It just looked at me, its small frame trembling in the damp, biting cold.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The world narrowed around me, twisting and warping into a dark tunnel. At the end of it were those eyes boring into my soul, clawing into my mind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Its lips twitched again as it muttered incomprehensible words at me, the knife handle rattling against the bones of its hand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Its mouth twisted into a grotesque grimace, and a tear ran down its cheek.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The recognition suddenly slammed over me, not a draugen but a boy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Clutching his worn Bible like a shield and a knife like a desperate animal, he watched me, his eyes wide and unblinking. Fourteen years old, perhaps, fifteen at the most, only a year or two older than my eldest son.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The ice in my lungs melted, thawing into a deep pity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cEasy now,\u201d I said, stepping forward with my arms outstretched, palms open.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cGeh bak\u2026 doan tochme!\u201d<\/em> the boy screamed at me, his English words meaningless to my ears.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFriend<\/em>,\u201d I said softly, trying to draw the few fragments of his foreign language from my memory. \u201cSafe.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The boy hesitated for a moment, his eyes scanning over me wearily like a seal pup trying to decide if I was about to feed it or club it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Long moments passed slowly, but eventually the boy let the knife slip from his grasp. The bone-handled blade falling soundlessly onto his mattress. His chest heaved, and tears began to cascade down his cheeks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHep ma bro-that!<\/em>\u201d he pleaded in a broken voice. \u201cHep ma bro-tha, peac!<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My head cocked to the side, straining to decipher the words he seemed so desperate to tell me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHelp<\/em>,\u201d the boy repeated slowly, \u201cmy brother, please<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Until then, I\u2019d taken the shape for nothing but a bundle of blankets. But now, just about visible through the coarse folds, and pressed up to the side of the boy, was another motionless form.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

His dark, frozen eyelashes stood out starkly against his marble-white skin. His blue lips were parted slightly, but there was no trace of the warm breath that misted so heavily from his brother\u2019s mouth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHep ma bro-tha.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The foul stench was the first thing to hit me. A putrid mix of stagnant bilge water and the pungent<\/p>\n

Continue readingThe Fate of The H\u00e5pet – Chapter 5, A Song from the Depths<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":670,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[34],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-710","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-hapet"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/insidemayasmind.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/LPcover-JPG-1.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/insidemayasmind.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/710","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/insidemayasmind.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/insidemayasmind.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insidemayasmind.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insidemayasmind.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=710"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/insidemayasmind.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/710\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":711,"href":"https:\/\/insidemayasmind.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/710\/revisions\/711"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insidemayasmind.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/670"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/insidemayasmind.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=710"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insidemayasmind.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=710"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insidemayasmind.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=710"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}