The Treasure of Captain Bloodeye
They say that if you follow the Moon past Skull Island, and don’t lose your way in the in the twists and turns of the reef, you’ll find yourself at Captain Bloodeye’s last resting place… and his treasure. But beware! He took hundreds of lives in life. And in death? He’d hardly be the type to let that get in the way of protecting what’s his.
That’s the story that the Gimble brothers heard the first night at Happy Skull’s Sleepaway Camp, where they had been sentenced to spend their summer.
The second night they’d stolen one of the camp’s boats and canoe’d under cover of darkness – lit only by Max Gimble’s phone’s flashlight function – to Happy Skull’s Sleepaway Camp’s famous Skull Island. It was silhouetted by the moon, an ominous, almost living, shape in the darkness.
“Careful, careful,” said Max to his brother Trevor, “we don’t want to run the boat up on the rocks.”
“I am being careful! Do you know how hard it is to steer a canoe?”
“No! That’s why you’re steering it,” said Max. He reached out to snag an outcrop of Skull Island – the entire ‘island’ was little more than a postage stamp in the bay – and held their canoe in place.
He handed his cellphone to Trevor. “Check which way the reefs are from here.”
“Can’t we just follow the moon like it says?” asked Trevor, fiddling with the map function on his phone. Its satellite option gave him a view of the bay from above, and from there he could see the treacherous reef. The compass rose on the app was spinning as it processed which way the phone was pointing.
“Idiot, the Moon moves!” snapped Max.
Trevor muttered something rebellious and the phone dinged. “Okay, we need to go this way,” he said. He handed the phone back to Max.
“This is going to be amazing,” said Max. “We’re going to come back from camp rich.”
“If Captain Bloodeye doesn’t kill us,” said Trevor quietly.
“iF cApTaiN bLOodEyE dOeSN’t kILl Us,” repeated Max mockingly. Trevor went totally silent.
Aiming the phone like a searchlight, Max set them towards the reefs. Luckily for the two boys, the sea was calm and the canoe was sturdy. By the time they came to shore on the obscured shoal – impossible to spot unless you were directly in front of it, even during the day – the canoe was still in one piece and the boys remained undrowned.
A sweep of the phone’s light revealed a small cave-mouth, overgrown with vines.
“Here!” said Max, and moved the vines aside to reveal the entrance.
“I’m not gonna do it,” said Trevor, crossing his arms. He’d taken one look at the dark, wet, small cave and that was enough. “I’m not going in THERE.”
“Don’t be a baby!” said Max. “You’re always such a big baby. I can’t believe you were born five minutes first since you’re too afraid to do anything else first.”
“Not doing it,” said Trevor. “I’m waiting in the canoe.” And he went in and sat, shivering even though the night was nice and warm.
“Ugh,” said Max, and he went inside the cave.
He had to crouch at first, but soon the cave opened up and he was able to stand. And right there, right there just as the legend said, in the middle of the cave there was a pile of pirate treasure.
“Screw you, Trevor,” Max muttered, “I’m getting the new Nintendo. Not you.” He reached for a coin.
“WHO THE FECK’S TOUCHING ME FECKING TREASURE!” a voice ripped across the cave, making Max’s bones vibrate.
“ME TREASURE, ME FECKING TREASURE!” screamed the voice again. “I’LL HAVE YER EYES! I’LL HAVE YER FECKING GUTS! ME FECKING TREASURE!”
Max let out a yelp and yanked his hand back before it touched the coin and raced out to Trevor. “Go! Go!” Trevor was already paddling and Max had to jump in to not to be left behind. The canoe rocked, the boys shrieked, and with furious paddling they fled the wrath of Captain Bloodeye.
And in Captain Bloodeye’s cave, the ghost of a parrot sat on the head of a pirate hat wearing skeleton and cawed to itself “Me fecking treasure! Awk! Me fecking treasure!”