Empress of the Seas (Story Prompt for Friday : Haunted cruise ship)

Source (The Image has been altered)

Simrita awoke in the middle of the night with a start. She wasn't sure how she had fallen asleep, as slumber was so hard to come by. She figured her mind and body were just exhausted enough for her to fall asleep. She dragged herself out of her bed and stared out of the small window.

The sea raged as it had done since their first night on this ship - The Empress of the Seas. How long ago was that? A month? Two months? A year? She really had no idea.

She and five of her friends had won tickets to a cruise. Was it a competition, or a lottery? Simrita could no longer recollect. This ship seemed to be deleting her memories somehow. She could hardly remember her life before she boarded this vessel. Her family, her friends were now little more than blurs. As if they were someone else's memories.

Their first few days in the Empress of the Seas had been incredible fun. They partied, they tried different kinds of cuisines, met interesting people. But once the ship was out in the high seas, things began to change.

Simrita and her friends woke up in the morning to find that the ship was eerily quiet, and save for them, empty. There was food and in the pantry, but all communication devices were unworkable.

Over the next few days, or perhaps it was weeks, Simrita's friends began to disappear. Radhika was the first to go. She went into a restroom, and just didn't come out.

Soon, the others too vanished without an explanation.

Simrita was completely alone, and often found herself wondering if this was hell.

In time, she came to a horrible realization. Her friends were still on the ship. Only, they were now a part of it. After Rohan went missing, she searched for him everywhere. He had gone into his cabin, so she went there. It was empty.

Just as Simrita was about to leave, she noticed the tapestry on the wall. Something about the embroidery....

On taking a closer look, she realized she could see Rohan’s face in the intricate patters of the silk threads.

She then went to each place on the ship where she had last seen her friends. The restroom where Radhika had gone, had a soap that looked like her, the pantry had potatoes with Kavya and Anil's faces, and in one of the restaurants, she could see an ice sculpture that looked like Vikram. Strangely, the ice just didn't melt.

Simrita then realized she could see people's faces wherever she looked. All of these people whom this cruise ship had.... absorbed, somehow.

Knowing that this would soon be her fate, she broke down. She screamed at the ship, begging it to just kill her. But recieved only silence and that cold sense of dread as a response.

Now, as she sat in her cabin and stared hopelessly at the desolate sea, she wondered why she was still alive.

Just then she heard a noise.

"Ms Simrita!! Ms Simrita! Are you here!"

People. Several of them.

Simrita ran out of the cabin and through the hallway. In the lobby, she saw several men and women in military uniforms. A rescue team!

They were here to get her! She would be saved!

Tears of joy streamed down her face as she ran to them.

And she ran to them.

And she ran to them.

The gorgeous oil painting in the lobby, the one of a field of flowers, now had a new addition to it. A beautiful young woman running. She was smiling, even as tears poured out of her eyes. The cruise ship continued her merry voyage.

So come summer, we invite you to come aboard the Empress of the Seas for the experience of a lifetime.

You'll never want to leave.