The ship

It was a brisk Autumn morning, and trees swayed as wind’s cold hands flooded through them. Luggage slammed the trunk of the grey beaten down car. Zoe’s cold breath filled the air as she opened the drivers side car door. Corey, Anna, and Ethan all piled  in the backseat after her. Brad, in hopes of getting back together with Zoe, helped himself to the the passenger seat. Zoe arranged a cruise for all of the friends to get away from this frigid weather. Ironically enough, they live in North Dakota--one of the coldest states--but they all hate the cold weather.

Zoe snaps her head to the backseat, “Please tell me you all have your tickets.” They all groan yes.

“Zoe, you have asked us that five times. You need to stop being so worried about this trip! Even though I don’t know how to swim, and I have never been on a boat before, i'm sure everything will be fine!” Anna says with a chuckle.

Brad grabs Zoe’s arm, “Babe, everything is going to be okay. Trust me.” Zoe sighs and starts the car, gently rolling out of the driveway.

“What’s the address to this dang ship? I’ll put it in my maps. Never mind I just found it on google. Oh my god, it’s seven hours away?! Zoe that’s so longgggg!” Ethan moans as he sticks his head in between Zoe and Brad in the front seat.

“Ethan if you don’t knock it off I'm pulling this car over right now and making you walk there!” Zoe snaps.

“Dang crabby pants. Brad, what’s up with her today man, did you guys get into a fightttt?” Ethan says, laughing as he falls back into his seat. Brad turned around and punched Ethan straight in the arm.

“Dude, I'm going to kill you.” “Okay quit it all of you. I am moving to the trunk to take a nap!” Corey blurts loudly.

Ethan snags the aux cord while plugging in his phone to play music. “This is going to be a fun drive,” he says sarcastically.

While on the highway, Zoe stays at a steady speed of 95, stopping about seventeen times for everyone to go to the bathroom and pick up food. Zoe and Brad sit in silence staring at the road while everyone sleeps in the backseat.

“We only have forty five more minute till were there. I think we should talk.” Brad says, looking at Zoe with wide eyes.

Zoe keeps her head straight on the road “There’s nothing to talk about, you flirted and messed around with other girls, we’re over. I’m only tolerating to be with you right now because we’re in the same friend group.”

Brad doesn’t say anything for a minute. He touches her hand that is gripped tightly on the steering wheel. “I am so sorry. I didn’t mean to. I will make it up to you soon. I promise. I love you Zoe.”

Zoe purses her lips together, not speaking for the rest of the forty five minutes. She has to remind herself to think of something happy like her baby sister, which is the only thing that keeps her  from not flipping the car. They arrive at the dock where the ship is parked, each one of them jumping out of the car, grabbing their bags frantically. Zoe walks up to the check in desk and they give her 5 key cards.

“Oh and ma’am your room number is 630A, however it doesn’t have the room number hung up outside the room, so you might have some trouble finding it.” the check in lady says eerily.

“Wait that’s weird why is that?” Zoe says confused.

“You will see soon enough.” The lady says staring straight at Zoe smiling.

Zoe walks away confused, telling everyone what the lady had just said.

“Hahaha that’s so cool, maybe the room is haunted!” Anna says while sprinting to the room.

Corey slides the keycard in the door and slowly walks in. “Dude this place is creepy I'm not even going to lie.” Corey says hesitantly as he sets his bags on the bed.

They all pile in the room at once. Ethan and Anna sit down on the couch that is across from the bed. There’s only one bed in the whole room. Cory, Zoe, and Brad sit on the bed, laughing and talking to Anna and Ethan on the couch across the room when they hear faint screams.

“Who the heck just screamed? seriously.” Brad says, glaring at everyone.

“Dude, I heard that too. that was none of us.” Ethan says while looking around the room.      

“Wait shh no one make any noise for a second.” Zoe says. A minute goes by of total silence, the lights start to flicker for a second then they go out. Total darkness. They all scream, terrified. Anna and Ethan run through the dark to jump on the bed. Suddenly the lights flash on abruptly. Terrified,

Zoe clutches onto Brad. “GUYS WHAT IS THAT?” she screams as she is frozen still staring at bloody handprints on the wall besides the bed. Corey gets up to go look at the prints.

“Okay that was a funny joke, who just did that?” “Bro, not one of us literally had time to do that just now.” Ethan says backing away from the wall.

Anna starts to freak out, “Guys, I do not like this one bit. I’m actually scared. I think we should go.”

Then, the sink water turns on and then off. Not one of them were even close to the bathroom.

 “That’s it. I'm calling the front desk to see what the heck is going on.” Brad says as he picks up the phone. The lady at the front desk tells Brad that everyone knows this is one of the most haunted places in the United States. They also happen to be staying in one of the most haunted rooms on the ship. In fact, someone just died in that room last week.

Brads mouth drops as he drops the phone to the ground. “I know you guys just heard what she said.” Brad stood with his arms crossed now.

“Guys let’s all chill, I say we stay this might be fun. I’ve always wanted to talk to ghosts. We already paid for the room anyway.” Ethan says while laughing.

Zoe, getting annoyed, says loudly “Honestly I don’t even care at this point. I'm not wasting $600 to leave now.” They all exchange concerned looks but decide to stay. It’s 1 o’clock now, they decide to play a game to pass time. Anna gets out the go fish cards she had randomly found at the bottom of her bag. They sit in a circle on the bed all facing each other. Anna deals out the cards evenly.

“Guys I do not feel good at all, my stomach hurts so bad. I'm not even joking.” Corey says with a sour face.

“I bet it was that Steak n Shake you had earlier, just go to the bathroom man.” Ethan says jokingly.

Brad jumps off the bed so fast everyone is confused. “Something literally just pushed my back, on everything I love I am telling the truth!” Brad says out of breath.

“What? What are you talking about Brad?” Zoe says looking at him with a confused look. In the corner of the room, Corey crashes to the floor, passing out. Everyone rushes to him, looking at him frantically as he lays on the floor.

“What just happened omg we need to go get help! Is he hurt?” Anna screams. The lights flicker, causing the friends to flinch. “This isn’t right, something’s wrong with this room, it’s making us all act weird.”

Corey opens his eyes and sits up. Everyone asks him if he’s okay all at once. Corey stands up and starts to get his stuff together. “Man i’ve had enough of this, this is too weird. I’m out of here.”

They try to stop him but he storms off anyway. He opens the door to the hallway but before he could step out, it slams in his face. “OH my god what the heck was that!!!!” Corey shrieks as he runs back to the bed.

Just as he reaches the bed, the dresser drawers to the right of the bed all start to slam. Before the friends had a chance to react, Anna is swept off her feet and thrown against the wall then slamming the ground.

“EVERYONE GET OUT OF THE ROOM NOW!” Zoe screams as tears flowed down her face.

Brad and Corey quickly pick up all of their stuff and throw it into random bags. Ethan scoops Anna up as she is lying unconscious on the floor from where an evil entity had thrown her. Corey runs to the door to hold it open as each of them fled out of the room screaming and crying in fear. Zoe, crying the hardest, leads the group through the halls and up on to the main deck. They all run so feverishly, they drop a few clothes behind them that had fallen out of the stuffed bags. They sprint all the way to their car parked in the parking lot, never looking back.