Cursed Treasure (story)

Soma, a heroine who is currently on vacation after finding herself unable to do her job because of her insomnia problems due to constant nightmares she has, nightmares in which she always ends up turned into some kind of object or toy, now spends her time enjoying time with her friend Jenny on an abandoned island paradise. Both friends may have preferred to vacation somewhere much quieter and closer to home, but they simply could not pass up the opportunity of that vacation package that a strange woman with black hair, red eyes and glasses who sells vacation packages to paradise islands offered them a very generous 70% discount to an untouched island in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean.

However, even though the vacation offer on that virgin island seems to have been a bargain, the truth is that, even though the place is very beautiful and they have a cabin with all the services and food for a month's vacation (and a boat is supposed to pick them up on the last day in the morning), it still seems to be a very boring place with nothing else to do but sunbathing on the beach or making sand castles, and now they have to stay on the island for a month, Soma and Jenny think that maybe deciding to have their vacation there was a very hasty decision, besides Soma did not have a good impression of that timeshare saleswoman, Soma feels that she has seen that woman once but could not remember where she met that saleswoman, who is also so insistent and with that strange way of looking with her bulging eyes and her way of blinking rapidly, as if she was overly full of energy or had ingested a lot of sugar.

Then Jenny, while playing with a coconut, asks Soma if she doesn't want to go inspect the whole island to kill the boredom, while Soma is lying on a beach chair getting a little tan. Even though Soma might not be as bored as Jenny who is more hyperactive and can spend more time resting lying under the sun while sunbathing, Soma agrees to accompany Jenny after Jenny insisted so much on it. Anyway, since Soma and Jenny are supposed to be the two of them what's the worst that could happen but haven’t, they both noticed the presence of a third person on the island, Alicia, a former rival of Soma's, who looks hidden behind a palm tree waiting for the perfect moment to play a dirty trick on Alicia.

[Drawing 1]

A few minutes later Soma and Jenny find themselves walking towards the interior of the island, which hides an extensive and paradisiacal jungle. On the one hand, the guide who was driving the boat that left them on the island warned them that it could be dangerous to go into the interior jungle of the island without him or any other trained guide who knew the terrain, however this did not seem to matter so much to Soma and Jenny, since both are usually experienced adventurers and are not afraid of some snakes or wild animals, although of course, without really knowing what kind of dangers they might face if they go into the interior jungle of the island. Meanwhile, Alicia is following them both stealthily a few meters away, far enough not to be heard, but not so far as to be able to keep watching where Soma and Jenny are going, who are not even remotely close to discovering that someone else is on the island and is following them, especially since Soma and Jenny are talking while walking, both being distracted from their surroundings at that moment, something that could be problematic especially considering that they are entering the inner jungle on a deserted and virgin island full of dangers.

And that is precisely what led them to make their first mistake on the island, as they both did not realize that, already several hundred meters into the jungle, they have reached a floor that feels soft, until they both fall through a hole in a cave.

Fortunately both have fallen into a small aquifer inside the cave (which has cushioned their fall), plus the cave which is full of entrances and exits apparently, as the sun enters the cave's interior through several holes in the cave's ceiling and on its sides, but that is not the only thing they noticed once looking around the cave to recognize their surroundings: in front of them there seems to be a bottle with a rolled up paper inside, in addition to there being several old pirate hats and some swords and other accessories lying around the bottle, which was partially buried in the middle of a mound.

[Drawing 2]

Then Soma, now increasingly intrigued by her adventure upon finding such a find, digs up the bottle and pulls the old sheet of paper out of the bottle. Said sheet appears to be a typical treasure map as it seems to project what that deserted island looks like as it is and shows a path from those caves to the other end of the island where Soma and Jenny are staying. Soma and Jenny are not sure what they should do in this situation, maybe they should go back to their hut to try to call the guide on the radio and have him return to the island so that they can deliver their findings to the guide, which would be the most responsible thing to do, or at least that is what Soma thinks.

On the other hand, Jenny sees in this opportunity, in case it is authentic, a way to become rich before she gets old and be able to retire young, imagining how much ancient gold can be in that lost treasure and thinking that it will surely be worth many millions. Jenny then tries to dissuade Soma from searching for the treasure, something that Soma is not sure she will accept, but finally, after a few minutes, she gives in again at Jenny's insistence.

Later, finally, after several hours, Jenny and Soma arrive at the place where the map marks an "X" where they believe the treasure should be. However, all they find is an old-abandoned ship. They both wondered what could be on that ship, so they set out to enter, or so they planned to, until the sky quickly clouded over and a thunderstorm began at a moment's notice. That's when a specter appears and claims, "OHH WHO DARES TO DISTURB MY DREAM AND TRY TO STEAL MY TREASURE FROM ME, THE GREAT PIRATE UMIKO!!!?"

Then Soma and Jenny, frightened by how the situation has evolved, get ready to flee, even though it was already too late for that, as they are fulminated by a lightning bolt thrown at both of them by that great and powerful specter.

This is how Soma ends her days, somehow and once again, as she suffers in her nightmares, immobilized forever. Meanwhile the abandoned ship, which now appears to be a ghost ship, speeds away from the island, but taking Soma with it, transformed into the ship's figurehead, a beautiful ivory statue with golden details and an unearthly glow. Although for the ghost pirate Umiko, both girls were nothing more than other opportunists added to her treasure list (as she usually turns her victims, all the people who dare to steal her treasure, into coins from her treasure chest, this time she was so impressed by Soma's natural beauty that Umiko considered that the best place for her was as the figurehead of her ship instead of a simple coin.

[Drawing 3]

However, Jenny was not as fortunate, as she has now been turned into just another coin among Umiko's treasure. In the first instance Jenny had a moment of relative tranquility as she was put away in a case after being turned into a coin, but shortly after that, it was finally time for Jenny to homogenize with the rest of the treasure, as Umiko drops the coin into the pile of the other coins inside the chest and proceed to close it.

[Drawing 4]

It would seem that Soma and Jenny would end their most recent misadventure alone until Alicia finally managed to enter the ship, as she clung to it just as it was about to set sail. Alicia thought that Soma and Jenny might have managed to make the ship work to escape with the treasure, but she was not very pleasantly surprised when she saw Umiko, the ghost pirate, see her judiciously, as a stowaway on her ship.

Finally, before Alice could run away or do anything, the last thing she saw was the blinding white splendor of the lightning from the ghost's hand, as she was turned into a beautiful golden statue ready to be added to Umiko's treasures.

[Drawing 5]

Finally, the last day of Soma and Jenny's month of vacation arrives, so the guide arrives in his boat to take them away, but to the guide's surprise, neither of them was already on the island, and no one saw Soma and Jenny again, while they would spend eternity as part of the ghost ship and its treasure.