Swampamander

You’ve probably heard of the Whitby Museum in Whitby. In the summer you will hear the sound of children begging to get ice cream, the deafening sound of the waves crashing of the rockpools, children practically dragging their parents into the museum. But in the winter it is not so nice, the bitter wind blows over 20ft tall trees, the sound of the wind that would deafen anyone who is sensitive, or the mist that covers the sea and there is always a figure walking around. But it does not stop people from coming to the museum, but the locals say they should stay away when it’s winter.

Chapter 1

My name is Josh Harbor but most people call me Josh, I work at the Whitby Museum and I’m the cleaner. I take care of the fossils making sure they don’t decay, I clean the window so tourist can look at the giant fossils and all the other wonderful things and I make sure that everything is locked when it is closing time. Lots of people tell me that it must the most boring job in the entire world! But I disagree, I have my own room with an old TV the cuts out every hour, a fireplace to keep me warm through the harsh stormy winter and I have nice comfy memory foam mattress bed.

Suddenly when I was locking the door, a small scrawny girl taps on the window saying “please let me in, I don’t want to be left out here with it!” I could see she was so cold she looked like a vampire. As soon as I unlocked the door she run like the flash into the building jumping over the receptionist counter and hid. Quietly I walked over and asked “why are you hiding, what is it.” “you don’t want to know, just lock the doors and shut the curtains!”

Before I continue with this teeth chittering story I have to give you some back story about Whitby, there a tale so old the only a few people know about it. The tale says the one night in winter when a full moon shines and the mist covers the sea. A sea monster known as a swampamander and I walks the street of Whitby on that fateful night. Some say it walk round like an old woman trying to fish people in then pounce, some say it walks around trying to migrate to a new area, but some say it screams trying to find its lost child that was taking by the humans. When it howls it can be heard from 5 miles, and when they hear that mortifying sound, everyone locks their doors, shut the curtains and hid their children.

Some say that the creature walks about the street trying to find who took its child and kill them slowly. But if you ever smelled rotten fish and seaweed, there was no way you were getting out alive. 

I remember old people walking into the museum talking about this creature but I had never heard or smelled it. But when it’s windy I do hear strange noises and people do come in smelling like rotten fish and seaweed.

“Why do you need to hide?” I said quietly to her. “What is wrong?”

“I was in its presence and it saw me, and when it sees you it won’t let you go until you are dead!” Suddenly there was a massive thud, “Look sharp and draw the curtains!”