EBB AND FLOW STORY

Prologue: I’d never really believed in fairy tales, I’d never believed in magical creatures like vampires, werewolves and dragons, I’d never even believed in monsters, villains and superheroes. They simply seemed like rubbish to me (well, that’s a bit of a lie as I’ve always thought how much more interesting life would be if they existed but that‘s not the point). When I was young I didn’t want to be a princess and I was never really interested in the magical slipper of Cinderella’s or whether Snow White was the fairest of them all, I was the kind of child who assumed from the start that it was all too good to be true. I was taught at a young age that my life was just going to be like any other human life, no better, and no worse. I was basically taught how boring life would be! Had I carried on the way I was, I would have been one of those ordinary people who think there’s nothing more to life than living and dying. You know the ones? They go to school and get okay grades, go to university or college, get a job, get married, have 1.64 children and then die. I’m not going to be like that anymore, I don’t want to be. I know now that there’s more to life than just that and whilst everyone else is having an ordinary time, I’m going to find the hidden magic behind the simple world we see because in just a few days I learnt that our Earth is not what we think it is and that it holds far more mysteries than these average people with 1.64 children think it does. This is why I will tell you the story of the most extraordinary days of my life so far.

It was Tuesday 10th April, 2012 and I had a school trip that meant waking up painfully early. We’d been told that one hundred of us had been chosen to go on a history “voyage” for two weeks. Said “voyage” involved going on a “cruise” across the Atlantic Ocean, to New York and back, during which we’d be learning all about life on boats throughout history.

My school is one of those schools that likes to “enhance the knowledge of its pupils” by taking them on “educational adventures”. By this they meant that they couldn’t think of anything better than to teach us stuff on a boat, so this would have to do. Sounds different, right? I thought so, too. Most people were only going because it was free, a few days off school and their friends were going. I thought it might be interesting so I gave it a go and soon enough, I learnt that it was worth it.

Anyway, Mum woke me up at 2:00am (urgh!) so I had just enough time without rushing to shower, get dressed, do some last minute packing and grab my bags before James, my closest friend, knocked for me. He arrived at about three and I struggled to the door with my stuff. Like a true gentleman, James scooped most of them up for me.

“You ready, smelly?” he asked. I giggled and punched him jokingly on the arm.

“Shut up, you frog,” I stuck out my tongue then turned to call upstairs. “Mum, I‘m about to leave!”

“Hold on a second, Alice! I’m now coming, don’t leave yet! I want to say goodbye!” She called. She’s that kind of a mother, you see. Over-protective, worrying and hates to let her kids grow up. Bless her.

My mother’s footsteps could be heard scuttling down the stairs before she appeared in the hallway in a crimson red, furry dressing gown.

“Do excuse me, James,” She blushed and he nodded, rolling his eyes in a joking manner. I don’t know why she’s so embarrassed; she’s known James’ family since before he was born, for Pete’s sake. “Goodbye sweetie, have you got everything?”

“Yes, Mum.” I sighed.

“Have you got your toothbrush? Clothes? Underwear? Hairbrush? Soap?”

“Yes, Mum!” I was beginning to get impatient.

“Got your phone? Charger? Wait… Money? Have you got enough money? Did your dad give it to you?”

“Yes, Mum, he did! Don’t worry!”

“Your inhaler?” She was desperately dragging out her goodbye.

“Yes, Mum, but I have to go, bye!” I leaned in for a hug.

“Hang on; you’ve still got breakfast on your face!” My mother sighed dramatically, licked her finger and began rubbing my cheek with it.

“Mum! Get out!” I scowled but hugged her tightly, kissed her on the cheek then staggered toward the door.

“Love you, Alice! I’ll miss you so much. Make sure you stay safe, be careful! I love you! Bye sweetie!”

“Yeah, love you loads, Mum.” I smiled and grabbed my last few holdalls before nudging James out of the door and dragging them down the path.

“Text me!” She shouted frantically and I nodded. Awh, she worries far too much. It’s almost irritating.

When we got to James’ dad’s car, we pulled open the boot and shoved in all of my bags. I was thankful to see that he had about the same amount of luggage as me. James and Steve, his dad, and I waved to Mum as we scrambled into the car and drove away.

James grinned broadly at me and squeezed my hand, clearly excited at the prospect of two weeks on a boat without his parents. Despite the parent thing, he just loved adventures like this. For what it’s worth, I was quite keen on the idea of having two weeks of independence, albeit out at sea with teachers and rules and boundaries.

We drove for just a few minutes before arriving at the school a little while before we were due. This gave us enough time to haul our luggage out of the boot and join the slowly growing crowd of “cruisers” at which point we let Steve go home since he was beginning to get grumpy with tiredness.

The second the teachers arrived, they called out a register and we were herded onto the coach like cattle into a pen. Most people were starting to feel tired as we’d all been up since very early and it had come to about 4:00am by now. I sat next to James, of course, and the two us had decided jointly to keep a few pillows and a blanket with us. We were going on a coach ride from Ipswich to Southampton so we settled down against each other and slept for the most part of the three hour journey.

*

We arrived at the Port of Southampton at around 7:00am with just one toilet break on the way. Everyone ached and felt groggy. People slowly started to stir and the few that stayed sleeping were rudely awakened when the teachers shouted to look out of the window at the “lovely view”.

Excited calls down the aisle of the coach were heard when our ferry was pointed out to us and there were fascinated “Ooh”s and “Aah”s as we drove along a slightly bumpy road getting closer and closer to it.

Our teacher, Mr. Allport, explained to us how the ferry would have cost the school an awful lot to hire out however we were very lucky. The reason for us being very lucky was the fact that our head teacher, Mr. Matthews, had inherited a lot of money and a boat off his father when he died. His father had bought the boat so that he and Mr. Matthews’ mother could go on cruises and now that they were both dead, Mr. Matthews owned the boat and used his inherited money to keep it.

When he’d heard that we were doing about how ships had been used throughout history, he suggested we use his ship for free to have some proper experiences rather than just using boring textbooks. We all cheered our head teacher as we heard his opinion on how rubbish textbook-learning was. He wasn’t bad for an old man with a fluffy beard.

The ship was not the biggest in the port but it was fairly large considering it was only going to be holding around one hundred and twenty or so people. The lower part of it was a squeaky-clean white, as was the top. There was, however, a blood red strip round the middle and the name of the ship, ‘HMS Harmony’, was written in pretty, gold lettering along the side. There was what seemed like hundreds of silver-rimmed, sparkling windows around the outside.

‘HMS Harmony’ was bobbing peacefully on the murky brown water of the port and there was a silent sigh of amazement throughout the coach at the pure beauty of the scene. I simply couldn’t wait to get on to the ship and look out across the ocean. The thought of it was magical.

We drove up the ramp and into the ship and as soon as we were parked, we were told we could start un-strapping our seatbelts and collecting whatever we had on the coach. We all rushed to get off and stretch our legs and soon started retrieving our luggage and bags from the huge compartment beneath the vehicle. James helped me with mine. When we all had our bags, Mr. Allport explained what we had to do next.

“Could all of you get into groups of between two and four, please?” He shouted as I edged toward James. He gave us two or three minutes to get into groups then continued. “Good. Now, Miss Croft and I will give each group a number and that will be your room number so make sure you remember it! We will also give you some keys to your room and some rough directions. If you lose a key, you will be paying for it so make sure you look after it!”

James and I were given the room number 13 which had two bunk beds and one single bed and was on the right side of the boat when you were facing forward. We were told we were to share a room with a sweet but slightly strange girl named Samantha.

Samantha had glossy black, long hair. Her nails were painted black and she had piercing blue eyes that sparkled no matter what she was doing. Her skin was very clear and pale and the clothes she wore really brought out how beautiful it was. In all honesty, she was an absolutely stunning girl however; she had always been very mysterious. A silver pentagram hung around her neck on some black string and she always wore dark clothes. She never really spoke to anyone but she smiled broadly when she was told she was boarding with us.

The three of us walked to our room together and unlocked it. The room was nice. The bunk beds were to the left of the door, which meant they were up against the left wall with a huge wardrobe at their foot, and the single bed was to the right. The door to our ensuite bathroom was at the end of the single bed. The walls were a clean white and the accessories of the room were dark purples and blues, much to Samantha’s delight. The carpet was soft and black but a small window no bigger than my face between the two bottom-beds lit it up. There was a TV on the wall, next to the door and the bottom bunk and single bed both had bedside cabinets with lamps on.

“I want top bunk!” James climbed up the ladder and sat stubbornly on it, immaturely.

“Go for it.” I laughed, perching on the bottom bunk. Samantha just smiled and headed toward the single bed.

We all stayed pretty quiet for about an hour or two as we unpacked our stuff. We hung our clothes up in the wardrobe, shared the draws equally, put the necessary things on our bedside tables and filled the bathroom with our toiletries. Oddly enough, we’d all bought our own pillows, so those were put on our beds, too.

“Alice, James, would you mind if I put some ornaments on this?” Samantha spoke to us for the first time since we’d known her and it was only then that I realized she was Scottish. She had been gesturing to a small shelf above her bed. “They’ll bring us good luck, honest.”

“No, that’s fine! Of course you can!” I said, grinning at her. James had a shocked look on his face and he simply nodded as she climbed daintily onto her bed, her black dress swishing as she did so. Samantha pulled out a series of what looked like charms, candles, lucky ornaments and other mystical things. I noticed her scramble down and slide a Ouija board under her bed, too. James shot me a look of terror.

All of a sudden a tanoy came on throughout the boat.

“Students of Cherry Wood High,” Mr. Allport’s voice bellowed out, “As I’m sure you know, it is 10:00am. We will be having lunch at 12:30 in the lunch area that has been indicated on each of your maps. There we will discuss what we are going to do with the rest of the day. For now, you may do whatever you like. Feel free to explore the boat but only the areas marked in green on your maps. You could have a nap, if you want. Alternatively, you could sit in your dorms and study, ha-ha. Thank you.”

I went and stood next to Samantha’s bed in the hope to get a conversation out of her. She looked up and smiled before continuing to put lucky ornaments everywhere. Then, she dug deep into her bag and pulled out two chocolates in the shape of horse shoes and tossed them to James and me.

“Here you go.” Her voice was as pretty as the sound of a harp.

“Thanks!” I smiled and ate it. “Hey, James and I are going up the top, you wanna come?” Samantha shook her head.

“No, thank you,” she flashed us a black, battered book called ‘Voo-doo Majik’ and I got another terrified look off James, “I’m going to be doing some reading. Come and get me if we need to see the teachers!” I nodded and gestured to him to follow me as I walked out of the door.

“Do you really think Samantha…” James began, uncertainly.

“Shut up! Not now, let us get up on the upper deck then we’ll talk.” He tried to protest but my deep glare silenced him.

I pulled out my map and showed him which route we were to take up and as we walked through the light halls of the boat, there were few signs of life. A peer or two wandered past every now and again with a confused look as if they were lost and we saw Mr. Allport just once. He was sitting on a bench munching on a cookie.

“Having fun, guys?” called his muffled voice, spraying us with soggy crumbs, “How’s Samantha?”

“She’s fine, sir. We’re great.” I replied.

“Sir, who is she? We don’t know anything about her. I don’t know if I’ve ever spoken to her before and she seems so… Weird!” he just couldn’t help himself.

“I don’t really know, James. She doesn’t interact at breaks and I’ve never seen her interact when it comes to group work. If I’m honest, I don’t remember much about her, she seems so vague. I tried to encourage her to socialize by making her pick some people to board with and she was adamant it be you two.” Mr. Allport scrunched his nose and carried on eating his cookie, showing us the conversation was closed.

“See you later, sir.”

“Twelve thirty in the lunch area!”

James and I hurried on, up some steps to the upper deck. It was a lot of effort to climb all 42 of them but we finally made it to the top, panting. At last we were on the top of the boat and could look out at the sea. I headed toward the edge, where there were icy cold railings that I held onto.

It was a reasonably warm day and the sun shone down, glistening on the water. However, the wind was strong and harsh. The bitter cold air slapped at my cheeks, turning them a rosy-pink and large gusts sent my hair billowing backwards. I could feel the boat rocking gently beneath my feet as large waves crashed around it. I swayed gently with it.

There was a kind of salty, sea-fresh taste in the air that could be felt in my mouth and it had a smell to match. I could tell that the food for lunch was cooking down in the cafeteria of the lunch area.

The sounds of huge waves rising and falling on the rippling water managed to fill the air, almost drowning out the droning sound of the ship’s engine. Birds cried out and other boat’s horns were heard, muffled, somewhere far off.

In the distance, I could faintly see seagulls swooping through the azure blue sky, their shrieking caws echoing across the empty sea. The water was beautiful as rays of sun picked out the pretty ripples and the foamy water climbed up the side of the ferry.

The port of Southampton was now just a small fading blur the size of a paper clip and as we travelled further away, it became far more unrecognizable. All I could see in front of the boat was miles of sparkling water swaying with the world, it was an overwhelming moment to realize that there may be such adventures to come, but I liked it.

Finally, I rejoined James on the top of the boat and we sat on a bench closer to the centre of the upper deck. I could see in his eyes that he’d seen exactly what I’d seen and he had thought, too, of how powerful the scene was. I could also tell he wanted to further discuss Samantha. I sat in silence, waiting for him to begin.

“Who is she, Alice? We don’t know anything about her yet we’ve agreed to be shoved in a closed space for a while with her. She seems so witch-like and mystical… What is she?” he groaned.

“I don’t know, James. There’s nothing we can do, we’re stuck here now. I suspect she’s just a bit superstitious. We don’t know her past, we can’t judge her. Maybe bad things have happened to lead her to be so precautious? Maybe we’re just special… I don’t know, but we need to make the most of this or we won’t enjoy the trip.”

“But, what can we do? What if she starts trying to do spells on me whilst I sleep? What if she turns me into a frog?” he was starting to lose all seriousness in his voice, “Besides, what was that thing she put under her bed?”

“It was a Ouija board, James.” I sighed and checked to see if he understood, he didn’t, “It’s something used to speak to people’s spirits. It doesn’t shock me that someone like her has one, but I don’t believe in all that rubbish. It’s too good to be true, so I wouldn’t worry.” The look of unease on my best friend’s face swapped frustrated and confused but I hugged him and he sighed.

“Want to go for a walk?” I shook my head.

“No, let’s sit here for a bit, let’s just admire this.” So we did. We sat there for an hour or two simply enjoying the look of the ocean. At one point, I put my head on his lap and fell asleep as he stroked my hair. He was away with the fairies and still so tense about the Samantha situation but I knew it would pass if I kept his mind off it. Besides, we had a whole adventure ahead of us and we couldn’t waste time worrying.

*

The lunch hall was full of hungry, sleep-deprived children and we gulped down our lunch quickly before rushing off for another break. At 13:30, we were all put into a large room, in which we were put into groups and told to carry out a series of tasks. Some of them involved the commands “scrub the decks”, “look out for rocks”, “man the lifeboats”, “climb the riggings”, “walk the plank” and our favourite definitely had to be “man over board” in which we each had to find a partner and have a piggy back. As I jumped onto James, I accidentally kicked Samantha and her beautiful blue eyes flashed a blood-red. Luckily, James didn’t see.

Once all the boat “games” were finished, we had a nice “pirate” dinner of rabbit stew (beef stew), stale bread (bread and butter) and a drink of rum to wash it down (apple juice). It was alright for school food. It was alright for boat food, if I’m honest! Shame the rum wasn’t real, ha-ha.

The after-dinner’s entertainment involved watching Pirate of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest with sweets and ice cream. Then, we were told to go to our dorms and settle down for a nice long sleep before we started the hard work.

Samantha laid in her bed with her back to us. Every now and again, I noticed a flash of light sweep through the room but it was a rainy night and I put it down to lightening, for my ease of mind. Me and James sat on his soft bed, talking quietly and playing cards until we grew unbearably tired, at which point I climbed down and curled up in my bed.

I heard James begin snoring almost immediately but I lay awake for hours, wondering what was really going on with Samantha and if I was really safe. After a long while, I drifted off into a deep sleep.

My dreams were rather unusual. There were mysterious creatures cropping up and every now and again it felt as if someone were meddling with my head; I felt something brush against my brain and could “feel” someone there. As my dream began to scare me, I jumped off the side of a cliff and into nothingness, falling down and down, screaming until I hit the ground and woke up.

“Are you alright?” Samantha stared down at me, her purple eyes quickly fading to blue, “I don’t mean to pry, you just seemed so scared and you were rocking back and forth.” I noticed the Ouija board had moved and that she had some sort of book thrown onto her bed.

“I’m fine, I’ll be okay.” She sighed and went and sat back in her bed, but tensely this time. I rolled over but I heard whispers, and footsteps out of the room. I put it down to the boat sickness, maybe I should have known better, I don’t know. Maybe I just need to sleep peacefully without the fear.

*

The next day, I explained the strange occurrences of the night to James, leaving out the parts about the Ouija board, mysterious book, footsteps and whispering. He nodded throughout the story and before I could give him my opinion of the events, he started on a rant.

“I told you! I told you! I bet it’s something to do with Samantha. There’s something not right about all her charms and her Ouija board and her spell book and her ‘Voo-doo Majik’ and just her! She seems so odd. I bet she was doing something to you and then when you woke up she needed cover. Alice, she’s strange, I tell you, I bet…”

“James! No! I think it was just sea-sickness. It was messing with my head; I’m not good with boats you know.”

“Don’t lie; you’re just trying to pretend that she isn’t some maniac trying to kill us so you feel safe.”

“Shut up now, James.” I spat the words out and jerked my head toward Mr. Allport, who was slowly approaching our breakfast table.

“Something up, guys?” he smiled.

“Nothing, sir!” I grinned back.

“Well, today is all about what life was like on the boats for the Black African slaves that were captured and transported to work for others. It won’t be all clean and luxurious, I’m telling you. I hope you’re ready to wee in a bucket!”

We groaned and he walked away, leaving us to finish breakfast then run back to our dorms to prepare for this activity-packed, slightly gruesome day. The activities were fun, if a little over the top and sickening but me and James enjoyed our day. It was finished with a dinner of lima beans and bread (of course followed by a real meal) and the film ‘Amistad’.

That night, again, I had strange dreams and woke to Samantha leaning over me before she whispered something and left the room. I was starting to become very confused to I climbed up to sit with James for a bit before falling asleep. The reassurance of my best friend being there helped keep my dreams calm and me from getting scared again.

The following day was about life on the Mary Rose before it sank. It wasn’t as disgusting as the previous day but it was easy to see that the life of the sailors had been very hard. We spent the day learning about all the different people on board and what they did. This was followed by a meal of beef and vegetables followed by a dessert of plums and the infamous ship’s biscuit. Since the teachers were unable to find a film suitable to this, we simply watched ‘The Curious Case of Benjamin Button’.

I was very unwilling to sleep that night, sitting with James on his bed until the early hours of the morning in the hope that he would stay up with me and I would not have to go through the terrible nightmares again. Possibly one of the most daunting things about them was how vague my memory of them was. As soon as I woke up, I remembered nothing but the falling into nothing and complete darkness. James finally grew tired and I had to curl up in my bed, but he told me to wake him if anything happened.

I woke from my nightmares later than I had the previous two nights, and I woke with a Ouija board on the floor next to me but no Samantha in the room. I waited for her to materialize but she didn’t so I rolled over and slipped into a calmer sleep, knowing that no one would be watching me when I awoke.

*

Once again, these strange happenings scared James and he was adamant that I was going to end up dead if I didn’t do anything but I reassured him that she was just a young girl, what possible harm could she do?

We were informed at breakfast by Mr. Allport, that that day and the day after would be about the titanic. That day we were going to study what was special about the ship, what life was like for first class, second class and third class on the boat and then learn all about how it sank and what the problems were.

We spent time learning how to build a model of the ship and then each took rolls of people such as captain, third class person, etc. James and I loved the experience but it wasn’t until midday that we noticed Samantha was nowhere to be seen. That evening, of course, we watched ‘Titanic’ and had a luxurious first class meal but we couldn’t enjoy it, we were scared.

The two of us entered our room that evening very cautiously and, on the discovery that Samantha was still not there, we chose to do a bit of prying. Our investigations led us to identify the fact that a few of Samantha’s possessions had disappeared, including her charms off her shelves however her Ouija board was still strewn across the floor. We made the decision to find Mr. Allport and tell him.

“Samantha, who’s Samantha?” his puzzled face stunned us.

“The girl that was boarding with us! She has disappeared; we haven’t seen her since yesterday evening. It’s ever so strange, sir.”

“I’m not quite sure what you’re trying to say, you two were boarding alone. We don’t have a Samantha on the records, look.” He gestured towards his register and we saw that, indeed, she wasn’t on there.

“But, sir! You were the one who told us she’d be boarding with us! You said you didn’t know much about her and she picked to stay with James and I. How can you not remember this?”

“I’m sorry, guys, but I don’t know if this is a prank or what. I’ll speak to you in the morning if you’re serious but I’m not in the mood for silly jokes. It’s late and there was never a Samantha on this ship.”

So the two of us, shocked and confused, left Mr. Allport and went back to our room in silence. On our return, we noticed that Samantha’s pillows, clothes and toiletries were all gone. Her bed was made and her part of the room looked completely untouched. I pinched myself.

“Alice, what the heck’s going on?” James grabbed at my arm. I shook my head in disbelief, I needed to sleep.

“It’s the sea-sickness, it’s playing with our minds, don’t let it. Come on, bed time.” I pushed him toward our bed.

“Alice! How can you just brush aside the fact that…”

“Because I’m tired and glad she’s gone! Maybe I’ll be able to sleep! Maybe it is a dream! I don’t know!” he stared at his shoes like a naughty, little boy and climbed into bed.

“Good luck.” He whispered and put his hand out to squeeze mine. I smiled at him, put the Ouija board up on the shelf and walked over to the bunks before lifting my duvet to move in underneath. I snuggled in warmth and flicked the switch of my lamp.

“I’ll be up if anything happens, you know.” And then we both fell asleep.

My dream was much the same as usual, the fear in me, the feeling of meddling, the running, the jumping the darkness, the fall. I lurched into reality but it was morning. The dream had gone on longer, the fall had been further. The hitting of the ground was harder.

I scrambled out of bed and woke James, telling him the news. As I did so, I stepped on something. I knew without checking it was the Ouija board so my scream was not out of shock, it was out of fear.

“How did that move?” I questioned. But James stayed silent.

“I’m not sure what last night was about, guys, but we have a laid back day so you can sort yourselves out if it’s the tiredness and sea-sickness that’s getting you.” Mr. Allport said to us as we walked past him on the way back from breakfast, “We’ll be watching ‘Raise the titanic’, then have a picnic lunch on the upper deck then we’ve got our titanic remembrance ceremony that will be for a few hours, a few games then the day’s yours after dinner.” We smiled gratefully.

The film was good, the picnic lunch was fun and the games were… games. James and I’s minds were on Samantha the whole time. Every now and then I caught a glimpse of a girl with black hair or something in the corner of my eye moved and my heart flipped. The confusion and fear was killing me. The ceremony was about the titanic and how now, exactly 100 years later, people still remembered the tragic loss of life due to the mistakes made by a few.

When it came to our free time, I dragged James to our room. He knew what I was going to suggest and he, too, wished to explore the Ouija board.

“Can I help you?” Samantha sat on her bed as we entered the room. She whispered something I couldn’t understand and the door closed behind us. Her legs were crossed and on her lap lay the Ouija board, the indicator pointing to the symbol of night.

“What are you?” James glared at the mysterious girl.

“I am… Unexplainable. There’s no way I can describe everything I can say or do to you, so I’ll put it simply. If I say ‘Witch’ for now, you’ll get the picture. I came here for today. I moved to your school on Tuesday, no one remembered me but I edited documents. Mr. Allport hasn’t a clue who I am, but he felt bad that he couldn’t remember me in classes etc. so told you he’d never seen me involved in group work. Everyone’s been pretending, even you guys have to an extent, because you feared the worst from me. Now I’ve changed the documents and a few people’s memory, it’s like I was never here. You two will be simple to sort.”

“Why are you here? What did you want?” I edged closer to James.

“This.” Her dainty hands tossed me a book. The title read “Rise of the titanic.” and beneath the word “Spirit” was almost not visible.

“A lot of my family was killed in the titanic and I want them back, even if their bodies aren’t fully intact. This was the perfect opportunity. I’m going to summon them.”

The Ouija board threw itself across the room. Samantha stood in the middle of our black carpet and shut her eyes, mumbling. She raised one hand and the door flew open before a gust of wind was sent, knocking James and I over. “Are you coming?” she walked, almost gliding, to the door and disappeared. We followed as if she was the Pied Piper and she led us onto the upper deck.

The boat shook violently and I clung to a nearby pole as it slowly sank ever so slightly into the water. James screamed like a girl when battered bodies began emerging from the ocean and herding toward us.

“Come to me!” Samantha shouted as the long since dead people walked along the surface of the water and boarded the boat. The people from our school gathered on the upper deck behind me and James, all fearing for their lives. Mr. Allport looked at us, with a sorry expression on his face but no one did anything but stand and watch.

“I am the daughter of two people lost in the tragedy; my powers can bring my parents back.” I noticed a blue heart on a silver chain around her neck, “The heart of the ocean was retrieved by my ghost and put with my powers can raise my parents and their friends from the dead and bring them to me.” I stepped forward but Samantha hissed, her eyes going red.

“Samantha, this is not right! You can’t bring people back from the dead. Every human dies and we must accept that.” I took another step toward her and she screamed. Samantha turned around and swooped her right arm around, muttering what I presume were spells. Sparks began flying and a deep purple mist descended over the upper deck, lowering our ability to see.

“Alice!” James ran over to me and grabbed my hand as Samantha summoned more and more of the famous titanic-sinking’s victims onto the boat. We could hear our peers screaming and teachers running around trying to keep people calm when truthfully they were scared for their lives themselves. James pulled me toward Samantha, clearly knowing what to do next.

Slowly, the boat began sinking further and further into the ocean and pretty soon, icy cold water was splashing at our feet. The weight of hundreds of ‘zombies’ boarding the ship was becoming too much and we’d all die if nothing was done. The sky was rapidly turning dark and when I looked at my watched I realized time was going much faster than it did normally.

Suddenly, Mr. Allport hurled forward and landed on Samantha. He pinned the witch down as she struggled to break free.

“My parents!” she shrieked as two corpses rose onto the boat, walking heavily but still Mr. Allport held her. Me and James ran forward and just as she was about to throw a straining Mr. Allport off, I grabbed the necklace from her neck.

Instantly, the boat rose and zombies stopped rising from the ocean. As more and more of them slid off the deck and into the sea, the angry witch ripped the teacher from her and threw him aside. She ran toward me but I threw the beautiful piece of jewellery into the angry water and watched as it sank down out of visibility. Tears of blood left her eyes and she screamed, howling.

As if by magic, the boat started to correct itself: the water either ran off the upper deck or dried; the purple mist grew red and then transparent; each and every zombie disappeared in some way and finally the boat looked as it did the day we’d boarded.

Everyone sank into a confused daze and went back down below, with mutters of “It’s 1am! Why are we up here?” and “What the heck’s going on?” as they did so. This left only James, me, Samantha and a groaning Mr. Allport.

“Sir! Are you okay?” we ran over to find him sitting, rubbing his head.

“I’m fine, guys. We need to go and speak to Samantha. The second I came up here, my memory came back. It’s as if she fiddled with my mind.” We made our way over to the pretty young girl that was lying in a pile on the deck of the boat.

A puddle of blood-tears surrounded her and she sobbed. And sobbed. When she felt our presence near her, she raised her head and looked at us with scarlet eyes. I sat beside the witch, James sat the other and Mr. Allport crouched, facing her.

“I was meant to raise them, I want my parents.” She cried.

“No, Samantha, no you weren’t. How did you get your powers? And why did you mess with my dreams? Why did you erase people’s memory? And why did you raise so many of the dead? How are you still so young?”

“My powers were inherited but of course the heart of the sea helped. Everyone in my family is a witch but without my parents my powers are weak. I changed people’s memory to keep them from telling anyone, from fearing what I may do and after, if I’d changed their memory, everything would seem like a dream. I had no choice but to raise them all, I couldn’t determine which ones were my parents and which ones were just other victims. I’m young because I can’t get older without my parents; I need their power to help me become an adult. Without them, I’m forever a girl.”

“What about my dreams?”

“Follow me.” She led us to the edge of the deck.

“Why can’t I remember them, Samantha?”

“You can, they’re just undecided right now.”

“What do you mean?” but she’d jumped off the side of the boat. I squealed and leaned forward as the sky went black and I watched her, but she didn’t fall into the sea. She fell into blackness, she fell into nothing. Like my dream.

I stared at the girl for what seemed like hours as she simply fell, I looked all around but I could see nothing. I was surrounded by black nothing, everything had disappeared. I took one last look then closed my eyes and felt the hit of her having hit the bottom of nothing and I gasped. For a split second, I saw me falling. Then I was back on the boat.

“Alice! What did you see? Where did she go? She just… Jumped!” James hugged me.

“She’s gone.”

“And your dream?”

“I remember it now. It was undecided until she found out her fate. She was always going to fall, so I always felt it. But I couldn’t remember the rest because it was undecided. I dreamt the future.”

We walked back to our room in silence and left Mr. Allport to go to bed. Everyone else had no recollection of the events and didn’t need to. As I sat on the duvet, I noticed a box under Samantha’s bed, still uncollected. James and I headed towards it.

In the box lay photographs. As I went through them, I saw that the first few were normal, of a young baby into a toddler. Then, after the teenage years, the people in photo’s faces were black mists. Slowly, Samantha’s face faded on to the black mists and we watched as she changed into an adult on the photos. Some of the later pictures didn’t have Samantha in, I recognized the people in them. They were my great grandparents as children.

Once we’d gotten to the last one of her as an elderly witch, I noticed a blank piece of paper. I picked it up and ink began “writing” along the lines. It read:

The nothingness led me to my parents. When I hit the bottom, they were there waiting for me. They guided me and their power made it so I was no longer weak and I could grow up. When I was an adult, my powers helped me escape wherever my parents were and I had children with powers. As I’m a witch, I’m still alive, but you can’t see me. When you discover your powers, you’ll discover me once again. Thank you, Alice. James, you too will find your powers alongside her, good luck, Samantha ox

James looked at me and smiled, in confusion but also in happiness. He scooped me up and cuddled me. Then he leaned in and kissed me.

“I love you.” He whispered, and he put the heart of the sea around my neck.

TO. BE. CONTINUED…