(I’m a huge fan of Poe, so I was inspired to try my own personal version. Enjoy.)
Captain’s Log. Date? Unsure. Time? Early. Much too early.
Screams! Screams, like the sentries of hell’s gate, penetrate my slumber. It can only mean one thing. The vampiric cherub demands to be sated again. Since this creature emerged from my wife not even two weeks ago, it has been sucking her life force dry. I mustered up my resolve and peeked into the galley. It has begun again. I pray the monster finds no taste for me; I can see my wife struggling to stay awake. Surely she cannot remain like this, weakened from the dark magic. Like a wildfire in a dry forest, the small, yet formidable invader consumes, never satisfied.
Incredibly, the attack abates and my wife retreats, leaving me to my own devices against this puppetmaster. Each cry and grunt makes the entire crew dance to her whims and wishes. For the first time in nearly a dozen tries, my efforts win the struggle and it sleeps. Exhausted, I contemplate celebrating with my crew around a keg of grog…but they lay in deep and comatose states, wiped out from the ordeal. I closed my eyes to thank the Creator for this victory, but the will of the Fates is cruel. My guard down, a sound emerges from Stygian depths! It was not defeated, but rather, brewing up a foul and noxious elixir so formidable it breaches both the inner and outer defenses! Our finest engineers’ work is laid to waste as the mustard poison stains and soils everything it touches. The screams! Screams again penetrate my mind and my wife, unable to resist the siren’s call, is forced to do this little one’s bidding. Will the cycle of horror cease? I am cast into the lower decks to scrub all signs of the assault from my breeches, but the stain remains. Who knows what lies in wait at high noon. I fear we will not survive this day.