Sackville's Nightmare

Chapter 1

It was a peaceful, quiet night onboard the HMCOCS Glacier. All the sailors were fast asleep in their beds, seemingly undisturbed. Suddenly, Sackville started to grunt and twitch about in his sleep, knocking himself around. He began to have a nightmare.

Sackville slumbered on the surface of the sea, when the waves suddenly began to roughen up with an icy mist. He felt seafoam bubbling up beneath his body, lifting him into the air, as though somebody was picking him up from under his arms. Only this person wasn't human at all, as Sackville realized when a tower of seafoam stretched out in the shape of an arm and starting tying Sackville up in impossible knots, almost choking him. Sackville wriggled about, staring out in terror. It was a seafoam monster!

Sackville jolted awake, gasping and breathing heavily as his eyes darted across the room. Some of the other sailors awoke, especially Oromocto, who looked at him concernedly.

"What's wrong, Sackville?" asked Oromocto.

"I... I had a t-terrible n-nightmare..." Sackville stammered fearfully, his duvet pulled up to his chin, shivering.

"Well, tell me about it in the morning, okay?" Oromocto told him. "Go back to sleep now."

Oromocto fell back asleep, but Sackville couldn't, not after that terrifying nightmare. He tried desperately to stay awake for the rest of the night.

The next morning, a sleepless Sackville shuffled up on deck to Oromocto and Aulac, who were carrying out the daily cleaning duty. Hearing his rough steps, they turned around to him.

"So what was your bad dream about, Sackville?" asked Oromocto, and Sackville took a deep breath.

"I was sleeping on top of the sea. Then the waves became rough and misty and lots of bubbles were foaming around me. It was like someone was picking me up, but this someone was tying themselves around me in un-untieable knots and I nearly choked. I was being tied up... by a seafoam monster!"

Sackville's baggy eyes widened in horror as he concluded his retelling of last night's frightening dream, as did Oromocto and Aulac's. "A seafoam monster?" they repeated together.

"Yes! A seafoam monster!" Sackville exclaimed again. "It was like the height of two sailors standing on each other's shoulders! Or, no... three sailors standing on each other's shoulders!"

Oromocto and Aulac both gasped out loud. "Shouldn't he tell the Captain about this?" Aulac murmured to Oromocto. "Yes, I think so," Oromocto agreed, and he turned back to Sackville. "Sackville, why don't you tell the Captain about your bad dream? Maybe he could find out what it means."

Sackville thought about it for a moment. "Okay... If it'll clear anything up for me..." he groaned, shuffling off to the Captain's office while Oromocto and Aulac got back on to cleaning the decks.

Slumping in the chair in front of the Captain's desk, Sackville began to explain the events of last night's terrible dream. "...It was a seafoam monster!" he exclaimed, throwing his arms up in the air.

"...a seafoam monster?" the Captain reiterated, staring with eyes wide open at Sackville, unable to comprehend what he had just heard. He made a note of it in the crew log. "Yes! It was taller than a cliff! Or, or, or two cliffs!" Sackville spluttered.

The Captain sat straight back up in his chair. "Sackville, don't get so anxious. It was only a horrible nightmare. Seafoam monsters are just a myth that some sailors like to recount. Try to sleep normally tonight, and the morning will come faster than you know it."

Sackville slumped off towards the door. "Must... try... to... sleep..." he droned in an almost hypnotic manner, dragging his tired body back out onto deck to help with the cleaning, or as much as his sleepiness would allow.