• It was a dark night, and a fierce storm raged on the seas. In the middle of the Gulf of Mexico, a lone, shadowy ship struggled through the winds. It was made of wood, and the boards creaked and groaned in protest of the waves and wind. On its side were the words “Realistic Tours from the early 1800’s.” It was rocked back and forth, thrown around and battered by never-ending waves. One particularly big wave splashed over the top and soaked everyone on deck. The sailor’s cries could be heard below deck, where a group of children, all teens, were staying for the voyage.
    Below, the small group of people slept uneasily. They tossed and turned; they were feeling very sick and their dreams were very, very real. One of them, a teenage boy with brown hair, sat bolt upright in his bed, panting. He looked around him. It was the same as his dream. He was in a ship, and the ship was rocking. It was dark one moment and then a large flash of lightning would illuminate the doors above. A small pool of water had collected itself underneath his bed. A miniature waterfall came flowing down the stairs underneath the door to the upper deck.
    He opened his mouth and spoke in a shaky, forced-calm voice. "Robyn? Are you there?"
    A small, muffled groan answered him, and a small shape sat up in the darkness. She stretched and rubbed her eyes. "Yes," she said in a small, chiming voice. "I'm fine."
    The boy breathed a sigh of relief, and then relaxed into the rigging that created a wall two feet thick between him and the raging ocean. His bunk was made into the wood, it sat hanging from a board lodged a foot into the rigging itself and reinforced by chains hanging from the ceiling. It was connected to Robyn's bunk, separated by a small headboard and multiple pillows. The room smelled of barnacles and the old sailors, who lived one deck below them. A small lamp rested inside of the wall above them.
    Robyn reached up and turned on the light, making the boy yelp in surprise. He vigorously rubbed his eyes, trying to adjust to the new light.
    Robyn giggled, "Sorry, Tony."
    "It's fine," he said. "I'm adjusted now." He glanced over at his friend, who sat with her brown curls flying upward at the bottom. Her brown-green eyes glittered; she looked much different than normal with her glasses off. Her glasses were hanging from a hook just above the beds. She wore a gray sweatshirt, and blue sweatpants, as was her wont when she went to bed. A kind smile adorned her face. She was quirky, with a wild side that confused anyone who thought the stereotype that she had none due to her calm demeanor.
    "Okay," said Robyn, sitting up and placing her pillow underneath her. She returned the stare that Tony was giving her. He smiled in a crooked way. He sat with his long brown hair that went to his shoulders and brown eyes that gleamed with intelligence. He stared abstractly, as if he was bored. Underneath the blankets, he wore a blue T-shirt with gray cargo pants. Tony was one of the most paranoid people Robyn had ever known, and that made him all the more fun to talk to.
    A loud crash of thunder shattered the temporary silence. Tony shuddered and hugged his pillow. With a smile, Robyn took it out of his hands and placed it in his lap. "It's okay," she said soothingly, putting one hand on Tony's shoulder. "It's just thunder."
    He nodded quickly, shivering a bit at her touch. His eyes flew back and forth, uneasily glancing at the small waterfall, then Robyn, then the waterfall again. Breathing slowly, he closed his eyes and gulped.
    Tony was rarely like this, and it was only when thunder and lightning complimented each other when it rained that he showed any sign of fear toward anything. There had been only one time when he had been afraid, and that was when he had been at Boy Scout camp with his friend Kevin. A bear had been outside of their tent. It had smelled some of the food that the scouts had been cooking earlier that day, and it made the journey to find out what the wonderful smell was. They had eventually chased it off, but not before it collapsed Tony and Kevin's tent and attacked the cooler with all of their food. They had gone home early that week.
    Now it was the thunder and they being on a wooden ship that offered little protection from the rain and elements that scared him. He was tense, and that was never a good sign.
    The door on the other end of the room opened, and the sound of splashing water became apparent. The two looked up and saw their friend Kevin, quickly followed by his former girlfriend, Helena. Kevin, his long, dark brown hair black in the low light, sat in one of the chairs on the wall. Helena, her brown-blond hair flowing behind her, sat as well. Her green eyes looked scared. They glanced back and forth fearfully. Kevin, who also had green eyes, sat with a shining, happy smile on his face. The room seemed brighter just with him in it.
    "Hey, guys," he said cheerfully, his feet bare in the freezing water.
    "Hi, Kev," they said, happy to see their friends. "Hey, Helena."
    "Hi," she said in a soft voice. She waved slightly with one thin hand.
    "So, what do you guys think of the trip?" asked Kevin.
    Tony shrugged, "It's alright, I guess . . ." thunder crashed and he shuddered, "but I could do without the storm."
    "Ditto," said a voice from the other door leading to a different room. The others looked around in surprise. Tony stared at the doorway and smiled. "Hi, Serena," he said, "did we wake you?"
    Serena walked into the room. Her bright blue eyes were fixed on Tony, and a smile adorned her face as well. "No, you guys didn't. I couldn't sleep," she said quietly. "What is this? A party?"
    Kevin laughed, "No, no parties here!" He looked across the room twice in a suspicious manner.
    "Sure, Kev," said Tony sarcastically, "this trip is nothing like a party whatsoever."
    Serena giggled. "So why is everyone in one room and there's water on the floor?"
    "I think the water's from the storm," said Helena slowly, wincing as thunder crashed outside of the ship. "Waves must be crashing over the top of the boat."
    "Yeah? Well, this baby is incapsizable!" said Kevin defiantly, patting the wooden hull lovingly. This made everyone laugh. Kevin beamed at the attention. He had always been an attention hog.
    "Well, Kev, you still have that strange sense of humor," laughed Robyn.
    "Yeah," said Kevin, "I-"
    The sound of footsteps frantically pounding on the wooden deck above interrupted Kevin's words. They were making for where the stairs that led down into the teens' rooms. They stopped for a second, and were followed by a very loud thump and a muffled curse. Finally the footsteps descended down the stairs. Just as a man came into view, he slipped on the wet stairs and fell headlong into the ankle-deep water.
    He pushed himself up, coughing and spluttering and very red-faced. "Cmon, kiddos, we need to abandon ship!" he cried in between gasping pants. "We're in a hurricane and it's a bad one! I reckon a mag. 7 or higher!"
    Upon hearing this, Tony and Kevin were gone in an instant, Tony into Serena's room and Kevin into his and Helena’s. They appeared back in about thirty seconds. In Tony's hands were Serena's sketchbook, her fanny pack, and his bulky backpack. In Kevin's arms were his backpack, Helena's shoulder pack, and a waterproof container carrying his journal. Robyn grabbed her pack from the end of her bed, and pulled her glasses on. Each wordlessly prepared to abandon the ship.
    "Good job, guys," said the sailor. "Now, we have to get the heck outta-"
    Before he could finish, a deafening roar sounded on the deck above and suddenly the mast of the ship itself, still on fire from the lightning and still attached to its sails, fell through the ceiling. It crashed into the floor, landing directly on the sailor's head and opening up a large crack, cleanly splitting the ship in two.
    Water flooded in, drenching everyone in the room. The ship began to slant, first slightly, then violently. Robyn, Serena, and Helena screamed, and Kevin's heart leaped in fear. In a frantic move, Kevin and Tony grabbed hold of anything that could keep them out of the freezing water. The girls attached themselves to the boys just as the ship went fully vertical. Tony could not hold on, and he fell into the water, where he thrashed, weighed down by his forty-seven-pound backpack. Serena called his name, but nothing came up from the abyss.
    Kevin was holding himself, Serena, and Helena up. Robyn was hanging from her bed, which was cracking off from the wall. With a huge, cracking, splintering sound, it broke and plunged Robyn into the merciless ocean. Kevin looked up at what he was holding onto. It was the door to his and Helena's room. He felt something struggling in his arms. It was Serena. He pulled her closer. "Stop moving! You'll kill us all!"
    "No!" she screamed, struggling harder, "I have to go in after them!"
    She pried Kevin's hands off of her side, and fell with a scream into the water. Kevin stared at where she and his friends had disappeared, not believing they were actually gone. A loud cry came from the room, now a deadly slide, which he was now hanging from. Just as Kevin looked up, he saw a black-brown-haired boy fall. He was clawing desperately at anything in reach. Once, he managed to catch a post, but it snapped and he fell again.
    The boy’s legs smashed into Kevin’s shoulders, dislodging Helena from his grip. With shuddering gasps and a look of pure terror in his eyes, the boy grabbed Kevin, wrapping his arms around the other boy’s neck. With the added weight and the fact that he was shivering, Kevin was forced to relinquish his hold on the door. They fell away, screaming in unison. Kevin tried desperately to grab hold of something else, but missed and slid into the water, which was much higher up now that the ship had been sinking for a full minute. Underwater, he could feel the waves churning, throwing him about as if he were in a giant blender. He couldn't reach the surface; he couldn't breathe.
    Just before he lost consciousness, he saw Tony and Serena swimming in a blue pool of water, brushing shoulders and laughing silently. A cloud slowly grew over his eyes, and bubbles came out of his now-open mouth. He smiled, and found that he was there too, and so was Helena. It was so pretty. He closed his eyes and let his consciousness go.