Thank you all for an incredible year of writing (and previous years at @vssghosttales.bsky.social and #vssHauntedHouse).

We're having a year off, but already have a theme for 2026. In the meantime, stay safe out there everyone.

Much love,

The (G)Hosts of #vssGhostShip

📸k_yasser/unsplash

#vssGhostShip
Sailors have sea chests. Not one will own the name Davy. Superstition and rum are the beloved amulets of those who survive a voyage, any voyage. They know the perils and have witnessed mates sink in the briny to the call of Davy Jones and his locker.
#prompt

In Davey Jones’s Locker
Never more to rise
Millions of forgotten souls
Forever trapped inside

#vssghostship (thanks for the prompt. It was one of my faves)

A schism is dropped on you - drops you into the sea. A crew offers you a chance to start over from the abrupt, unfair tear. Life's a strange dream. Language you can barely understand. But you get it when others see those lost to 'Davy Jones' locker.' You're jealous.

#vssghostship #satsplat #vss365

There was more to the story, but some things had to remain secrets even this far removed. For any day, that old ship could return to the bay and finally claim me as it would be right to do so. I still see those ghosts every night. And always will.
#VssGhostShip

Even as we realise that our hull is breached, we're sinking and on the way to Davy Jones' Locker, we'd like to thank you for playing this year.🖤❤️🖤🏴‍☠️👻

Please tag #vssGhostShip.

Our fifty-second and final #prompt is #Davy_Jones_Locker. (#52) 🖤🏴‍☠️👻

📸NOAA/Unsplash

When it’s my turn to #depart this mortal coil I want to do it Viking style. My grandfather was born and raised in Sweden which makes me think we have Vikings in our heritage. I would like nothing more than to float away on a magnificent ship in full blazing glory!
#vssGhostShip #depart (51)

The Black Siren’s song tugged at his soul,
a force so haunting he felt his very will depart.
Yet as the waters claimed him, he smiled—
the Siren’s curse freed him from
the captain's iron chains forever.

#vssGhostShip #prompt #51 #depart #writingCommunity #writersCommunity #amwriting

Far travelers, don't try to prepare to #depart your world.
Gather all the #tranquility you may,
But it will never be enough.
You cannot hold a stable course through the passages that lie Beyond.
Just. Let. Go.

#vss365
#vssGhostShip 🖤🏴‍☠️👻 (51)

Our penultimate prompt... and we made the right choice. Back aboard, make ready to #depart this cursed isle. They'll never believe us back home...

Please tag #vssGhostShip.

Our fifty-first #prompt is #depart. (#51) 🖤🏴‍☠️👻

📸kathymac/Unsplash

A cloud of premature mourning entombs my heart. I watch your ship depart until it crosses the horizon. You will never return and I will never forgive myself for keeping you landlocked. The god of the sea is unmerciful. #VssGhostShip #Writing #prompt

You always depart for the sea on #holidays.
Holidays make more sense when all they are is a song that can (or should) only be so drunken on a ship, only so 'happy.'
Lighthouse in view, you hear a mournful song on deck ...
The singer looks so happy to see you, then vanishes.

#Satsplat #vssghostship

When I #depart this world,
my head will be filled with memories
of places & people
strange & different
sails flapping in the wind
Ships floating idly by
sea gulls calling
the sight of a dolphin
playing amongst the waves
my final resting place
remote & serene

#vssGhostShip
#photo Francis H Powell

Shanghaied, what choice did I have? My future as a clerk, with a wife and a tidy little house crushed in one night of drink near the docks. Fated by my ignorance I linger eternally at the bottoom of the sea.
#VssGhostShip

#writing

#prompt

There are no stars anymore
& the moon hides its face.
The water scries frightful
shades of black,
crowding heavy in an unholy sky
& refracting my heart
in splintered shards
of broken wishes
scalpel sharp & deadly.

#Fromoneline #vssghostship #NAlove #gothicvss #reevesroses #poetry #poem #writing

Your choice to get on the Axolot, sure, but it's the ship that can repair a broken hull with enough time. It just wasn't designed for constant Drake Passages, for a lack of 🤎 in the crew, so you got lost. The crew let you be lost, & they're never glad to see you now.

#satsplat #vssghostship #vss365

The Golden Triangle - where the ocean floor is full of drowned treasure & the waters guarding it are dangerous to greedy mortals. Jac smiled. He was no mortal. He'd grow fat & powerful devouring the anguish of the choice souls, & pull up their treasure for dessert.
#VssGhostShip

He figured it out at the same time I did. We were meant to awaken this thing, not put it back to sleep. One or both of us were meant to die here. And that was unacceptable.
"Think we can make it back out?"
"After all the trouble I went through?" Phorcy's voice spilt the room like ice
#VssGhostShip

pirates drinking

I might be a drunken wretch
a slave to that devil alcohol
but I'm any man's equal
Don't count me out
give me that mocking look
Cos when dice rolls
tumbling my way
It's me who has
the last laugh
Given the choice
let's make this ship
move slowly away
#vssGhostShip #poetry

Seaweed-draped skeletons worked the tattered sails.
"Time to get the hell out of here?"
"No! I need to get closer, to gather more data to correct my model."
"Well, that's certainly a #choice." 🧵2/2

#vssGhostShip #vss365 #MicroFiction #AmWriting

Look! A treasure chest... finally! Want to see what's inside, or shall we just keep running? They're nearly upon us...

What a #choice...

Please tag #vssGhostShip.

Our fiftieth #prompt is #choice. (#50) 🖤🏴‍☠️👻

📸DaYsO/Unsplash

After weeks of torment by the #phantasm, I returned to the scene of my crime. If I destroyed her remains, perhaps it would end. I took my #shovel and dug. Deeper than I remembered leaving her. Too deep.

#Unholy light filled the pit.

And soil rained down on me.

#vsscreative #vssdaily #vssghostship

We are cursed. Your orphans will sing your loss. They won't know it was you who brought the curse. You introduced the unholy trinity of a woman, drink and greed. #VssGhostShip #writing #prompt

The ship needs to depart but the weather is unholy, according to the preacher.
It's temperate.
'We're to wait?' you ask.
'Colder weather, less ghosts,' says the preacher.
'Sure...'
The preacher steps aside, and you shiver as chills go through you.
'Now you may depart.'

#satsplat #vssghostship #vss

NO GOD AWAITS YOU IN THIS ROOM.
The voice came from everywhere, filling my bones like before. Yet it seemed to be in my mind.
"You do not belong here! Go back to sleep and take your damned island with you!"
"You dare to speak to the Great Priest?!" The voice of our captain screeched.
#VssGhostShip

An unholy din broke through the fog, as if somehow a vessel neared, though the sea was still as glass, & the air with it. Those crewmembers not consigning themselves to the known embrace of the dark waters prayed fervently on deck without shame of showing fear.
#vssGhostShip

From Hell’s heart, Ahab stabs at the whale, but, despite his unholy devotion, his pursuit remains futile, for the whale swims different seas in the afterlife, clear seas, free of blood and harpoons, which are far out of reach from depths of the pit where Ahab’s soul resides. #vss365 #vssGhostShip

People often assume that devotion to the Old Gods is somehow unholy, but these beings predate our simple notions of sacred and profane.
The Old Ones were. The Old Ones are. And the Old Ones shall be...

#vss365 #vssGhostShip

"The #devotion you have for this infernal beast is #unholy," the priest pointed at her possessed child.

"How can you say that?" she replied.

"It caused you to lose your job."

"But I found a better one."

"It killed your husband."

"And my life is better off because of it." #vss365 #vssGhostShip

Old Man McKinnon isn't one to believe in a God, but even he thinks those ghost pirates chasing us are #unholy. Let's get out of here - quick!👀

Please tag #vssGhostShip.

Our forty-ninth #prompt is #unholy. (#49) 🖤🏴‍☠️👻

📸Lan Gao/Unsplash