The 04:17 Voyage

It wasn’t raining… yet the air carried that rotten, damp smell left behind after rain.

Theodor sat on a rusted bench at the very edge of the harbor, staring into the black water. There were no waves. The sea lay still, like a living creature holding its breath. Behind him, the sign of the travel agency he had once run flashed in his mind—back when he sold people

“escapes.”

“Set sail for a new life.”

How absurd that sounded now.

The company had collapsed. Debts, lawsuits, empty offices… His phone had been silent for days, though he no longer had the strength to answer even if it rang. He had sold hope to others for years, and now he felt like he belonged nowhere himself.

Then someone sat beside him. Quietly.

A man in a long black coat. His face was blurred in the fog. His fingers were unnaturally pale. In his hand, he held an old, yellowed ship ticket.

He handed it to Theodor.

“The final voyage for those who wish to escape,” he said in a hoarse voice.

Theodor let out an involuntary laugh.

“Funny.”

The man didn’t respond.

On the ticket, there was only a time:

04:17

No ship name. No destination.

Theodor stared at it for a few seconds… then slipped it into his pocket.

Maybe this was what he needed. A few days away. To clear his mind. To run from himself.

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The next night, just before 4 a.m., he returned to the harbor. The fog was thicker than before.

The world felt drained of color.

Yellow harbor lights drowned in the mist, their glow never reaching the water. The harbor was empty. Not even the sound of chains echoed anymore.

Then, from within the fog, the ship appeared. Silently.

It didn’t sail across the sea—it seemed to crawl out of the darkness itself. It was ancient. Very ancient.

Its black hull was peeling, its wooden planks rotten in places. Faded letters lined its side, but the name was unreadable. No smoke rose from its chimney. No engine sound.

The silence of something so massive made Theodor feel sick.

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No one greeted him on deck.

Only passengers standing in distant corners.

They wore old-fashioned clothing—long black dresses, high-collared coats, antique hats… as if they had stepped out of the 1800s.

And they were all staring at him. None of them looked away. A woman smiled faintly. Her lips were dry. An old man lifted his hat. As if they knew him. Theodor found it strange but tried to rationalize it. Probably some kind of themed voyage.

He pulled out his phone. No signal. Not even a single bar. As the ship left the harbor, Theodor looked back one last time. The fog swallowed the shore. And in that moment, an unexplainable dread rose inside him.

As if he already knew he would never return.

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That night, he went down to the dining hall. A faint waltz played from an old gramophone. The passengers ate in silence. Only the sound of cutlery filled the room.His meal was a grey, fibrous slab of meat, covered in dark oil. It smelled like iron. Theodor took a bite and almost vomited. The taste was wrong. Rotten. Nothing like meat he had ever eaten. But what unsettled him more… was the way the others watched him eat. As if they were waiting to see whether he would finish it.

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He couldn’t sleep that night. Sounds echoed through the corridors. A woman crying somewhere far away. Sometimes the sobs approached his door… then drifted away again.

Once, he saw a shadow under his door. He didn’t open it. By morning, there was no one outside. Only wet footprints.

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Days passed.

But the ship never docked. His phone never regained signal. Time itself began to malfunction—hours sometimes moved forward, sometimes froze. The passengers grew stranger. Conversations stopped when he passed. Some of them even called him by name, though he had never introduced himself. One night, on the upper deck, an old woman leaned close and whispered:

“You’re one of those trying to escape too.”

Her breath smelled like rotten meat. Theodor stepped away quickly.

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Eventually, he decided to find the captain. The stairs to the bridge creaked. The corridor was dark. Yellow lights flickered overhead. He opened the door to the wheelhouse.

No one was there.

The wheel turned on its own. The compass had stopped. And the ship… kept moving. On the desk lay an old passenger list.

Dated:

October 17, 1891

Theodor frowned.

“Probably part of the decoration…”

Then he found the journals.

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October 17, 1891 — Scribbled note behind passenger list

The captain said the engine failure in the third day was minor.

It was a lie.

At midnight I went down to the engine room. One of the boilers had exploded. Steam had peeled the skin off two engineers. One of them was still alive.

The next morning, the compass stopped working. By noon, the fog came. By evening, we had no direction.

And the ocean…

The ocean was not silent.

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November 3, 1891 — Engineer Arthur Hale’s journal

We have no water left. At first people stole from each other. Then they fought. Then they prayed. Eventually, no one spoke at all.

Today, meat came from the kitchen.

We have been starving for weeks. We all know the storage is empty. But the cook was boiling something.

No one asked what it was.

Because we already knew the answer.

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November 7, 1891 — Anonymous note

“Mr. Wilfred died last night.”

“No,” said the captain.

“Mr. Wilfred is helping us stay alive.”

After that, food was distributed.

Some cried.

Some refused to eat.

But by nightfall, those who refused were the ones screaming louder.

None of them survived until morning.

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November 15, 1891

The ship no longer moves. The engines are dead. No wind. No waves. As if the ocean has pinned us in place.

A woman tried to hide her child last night. People watched her in silence, starving, hollow-eyed. No one spoke.

At dawn, she disappeared.

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November 19, 1891 — Arthur Hale’s final entry

Today… I ate.

God forgive me.

I vomited before the first bite. My hands were shaking. But my body was too empty to resist.

The meat was cold.

Salty.

And the terrifying part… after a while, it started to taste normal.

Now when I look at people’s faces, I no longer think of their names.

I think of how long they will last.

________________________________________

unknown date

I don’t know what day it is anymore.

I don’t know how many of us remain.

Something crawls through the corridors. People have stopped walking. Some eat raw flesh. Some hide at the sound of human voices.

I looked in the mirror today. Part of my face was covered in someone else’s blood. I didn’t even consider cleaning it.

If anyone finds this ship, do not go below deck. What comes from there is no longer human.

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Theodor’s face turned pale as he read.

The ship had vanished at sea years ago…

People had turned to cannibalism…

Madness had consumed everything.

And at the end, one line remained:

“Now when I look at people’s faces, I no longer think of their names.

I think of how long they will last.”

Theodor felt sick.

The meat in the dining hall. The crying in the corridors. The hollow faces of the passengers. Everything suddenly made sense. Because they were no longer human.

And he was trapped with them.

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After that night, the ship changed.

Or perhaps Theodor finally saw its true face.

Screams mixed with the crying. Doors were being slammed all night. From some cabins came the sound of cutlery… then bones breaking. He tried to escape. But there was no exit. Lifeboats had rotted away. The sea outside was black and infinite.

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Then one morning… the fog lifted.

A harbor appeared ahead.

Theodor almost cried.

He was saved.

The ship docked slowly. Ropes were thrown. He ran to the deck… but when he tried to step off, something stopped him.

An invisible wall.

He couldn’t cross.

Behind him, passengers stood watching. Smiling. And then he saw him.

The man with the ticket.

04:17…

And Theodor understood.

The ship was not traveling across the sea.

It was collecting broken people.

Those who wanted to escape.

And now…

He was one of them.

A new passenger.

The ship’s horn screamed like a long, broken cry.

And the fog swallowed the harbor once again.

Theodor… and a new traveler.