Haunted

Nights aboard the Sexy Foxy were usually dead silent. But not tonight. A strange banging and wailing had kept the crew and its captain awake already for a good twenty minutes, and no one really knew what was causing it. Most of the crew had already escaped into Foxy's room, where they were currently holding a meeting under some giant, makeshift bedsheet.

"It's like this," Foxy said as a candle was illuminating his face. "We'll wait for several more minutes. If it has stopped by then, you will all leave for good so that I can go back to sleep."

"Po poh... What if it's not?" Hamburg asked, pretending he wasn't scared at all.

"Well, then we will certainly go and finish this 'ghost'," replied Foxy, gritting his teeth. He really was sleepy as hell, but in reality, he too was a bit bothered by this whole situation.

The whole crew looked at him in admiration. "Really? Wow, how brave!"

"Tha-that's right!" Foxy declared, straightened up and crossed his arms. "Foxy the Silver Fox can't be afraid of one measly spirit!"

"Boss, sorry I'm interrupting, but...," Capote said suddenly, "don't you think it's a bit too quiet in here?"

Everyone stopped talking and were completely silent. After a moment of listening they realized that except for the sound of waves outside there was no sound whatsoever, not even muffled. They relaxed visibly and looked at each other with relieved expressions.

"Well, there you see," Foxy said confidently. "Show's over. Now go back to sleep, shoo," he added, motioning with his hands for them to leave.

Members of Foxy pirates started to come out from under the sheet, many were talking to their friends in a relieved voice. "I knew the sound would stop sooner or later!" and "It was only a good thing it stopped, otherwise it would have felt Boss's wrath!"

Big Pan, who had been waiting nervously out on the dark deck, finally smiled when the door of Foxy's room opened and the first members stepped out, but then, suddenly, to everyone's horror, the wailing and banging started again. It made every pirate who had made it outside run back under Foxy's sheet in the blink of an eye.

"W-w-what? Did it start again?" Foxy asked, now in clear panic.

His crew just nodded vigorously back, shivering.

"W-what are we going to do now, Boss?" Pickles asked, looking worried.

"Poh poh... moron. Now he's going to go finish up that ghost," Hamburg stated smiling lazily and very satisfied in himself.

"E-eh?" Foxy's eyes almost popped out from his head. He put his hands up in defense. "Listen, it was just a joke... I didn't really..." But now every single one of his crew was looking at him expectantly, their eyes shining. Deciding he just simply couldn't betray them, Foxy gave up and stood. "Very well then... Let's go find out where the sound comes from and show it what we Foxy pirates are made of!" he said in a declamatory voice as the crew cheered.

After a moment the pirates were gathered into a tight group on the deck, Big Pan included. Group leader Foxy was holding a candle that he was constantly about to drop because he was trembling so much.

"A-all right, let's go," he said more to himself than to anyone else. Hmm? he thought. Now that I'm here on the deck I can hear the sound better... "Hey," he said to the others, "doesn't it sound like it's coming from Porche's room?"

"Oh, you're right," Capote noted. "But why?"

"Maybe the ghost's controlling her...," Pickles said gulping. Hamburg laughed and earned a hard stab on the side from Pickles.

"Bah! Don't talk nonsense, Pickles!" Foxy scolded. "Let's just move forward."

When they had reached Porche's room, they could clearly hear how the sound, or more specifically, a ghastly moaning and furious banging, came right from the other side of the door.

"O... okay, Boss!" Capote encouraged. "Open the door!"

"Uh... on second thought, could we leave this here? We can continue tomorrow," Foxy stuttered and tried to escape, but his crew caught a hold of him and pushed him back right in front of the door.

"Just do it, Boss!" was heard from the crowd. "Don't worry, we believe in you!"

"You guys...," Foxy sighed, defeated. Then, slowly, he lifted his hand and placed it on the door knob. Everyone gasped. Then, just as slowly, he started to press it down. Everyone held their breaths as Foxy threw the door open with one push. What they saw made them utterly terrified.

Porche was on her knees on her bed, banging the wall with her fists and crying like a fountain. "Choppyyy! Oh Choppyyy! Where in the world are you? I miss you!" she sobbed.

"Po... Por...che...?" Foxy asked, completely puzzled.

Porche stopped crying, turned to look at the doorway and saw them. In that instant she had already rushed to Foxy's side and grabbed him by his chest, which made all the others behind Foxy jump and back away. "Boss, oh Boss!" she cried. "I have got to have Choppy right now! I can't live without him! Do you remember how cute and lovely he was? How furry and fluffy and small and round? And the horns! Oh, the horns! He was so cute, Boss! How could you let him go? Now I feel so lonely all the time that I'm even seeing hallucinations of Choppy! Look, there he goes now!" She was pointing at a trash can.

Even though the other members were relieved that there was no ghost after all, just a crazy Porche haunted by Tony Tony Chopper, and even laughed, Foxy wasn't pleased. "So it was all just about this?" he raged and almost threw the candle he was holding on the floor. This was why he had been so scared? This was why he had had to act brave in front of his crew? He wouldn't even have had to act brave if he would've known what was coming! All this just because of some stupid talking reindeer! Of course he had been quite adorable in Foxy's opinion too, but this was downright exaggerating already. "Well you could've at least come talk to me if you felt lonely! I'm your captain, after all!"

Porche let go of Foxy's clothes and pouted. "You obviously aren't cute enough."

A dark cloud was gathering on top of Foxy. He flopped on to the floor on all fours, filled with desolation. "Not... cute... obviously..."

Then the other Foxy pirates said good night to Porche as they began dragging their depressed captain back into his room.