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One cold October afternoon six friends from high school were driving to the coast of the St. Lawrence River where the river met the Great Lake Ontario. Tony was driving the SUV as it was his idea to take his friends to the Haunted House Barge of the Great Ontario. He was a senior who had been there last year for the grand opening; his friends were all juniors under him except for Andrea who was a sophomore.
They were in a line of traffic to the parking lot as he turned off the music. Scott rolled a window down, “Look at the size of that barge, and the Lake is amazing! This is going to be sweet.” Andrea nodded and looked out past the barge. She said softly, “There are a lot of islands.”
Nick was looking down at his phone when she said that; he looked up and said, “Yea but you don’t want to go out there. You should read some of the stories of these islands, scary stories, stories of death and people disappearing.”
Rylie shook her head in the back seat, “You are so full of crap”. She looked to Elliot next to her who shook his head and laughed. Tony slowed down as traffic seemed to stop and turned back towards everyone, “He’s not entirely wrong; my grandfather used to take me up here all of the time as a kid and he told me about a lot of people who said to never go out on the water at night. It wasn’t just the gales, Nick look up Ludwig Faulkner and the Concierge.”
Nick started smirking as he looked it up on his phone; he read for a moment and then looked up, “Wow…. That’s, this is real?” Everyone looked back at him anxious as he read, “This is a local site; The Concierge was a cargo ship built in 1890 that transported minerals and ore but was converted in 1912 to host up to 50 passengers. The ship was half industrial transport and half luxury liner. In 1915 the ship was boarded by pirates in the Atlantic Ocean as it neared the St. Lawrence Seaway. The pirate ship was a local Ontario crew of outlaws that looked to steal wealth from the ship and leave the passengers without their massive diesel engine. A local native to New York, Ludwig Faulkner, boarded The Concierge round trip with the purpose of stalling the engine for the pirates to board. However, when the passengers were rounded up and while the pirates loaded the loot, Ludwig gunned down the entire crew and all the passengers. The pirate captain meant to leave Ludwig on The Concierge for his deviation from the plan, but the pirate captain’s daughter, Marissa Talo, assassinated her father in mutiny to be with her lover, Ludwig. After the pair gunned down the pirate crew they took the loot back down the St. Lawrence Seaway where they were to dock in the fog and transport everything. After they unloaded the riches Ludwig betrayed his lover by knocking her out with a pipe, chaining her to the ship, and igniting explosives as he swam to safety. He had successfully stolen most of the loot and killed 123 people; Ludwig had a wife in the area that he went into hiding with after the events took place. The pirate ship was recovered from the water but The Concierge never was seen again. The only things found from The Concierge were a few gold bars, clothes, and a single bottle of wine with the name of the ship engraved into it with a note inside that read, “My dear Marissa, welcome to Lake Ontario.” The locals have said for over a hundred years that if you go out to the islands of the St. Lawrence Seaway on the foggy nights of October, The Concierge still wanders the waters of its destination… but she and her crew are not so happy to see the locals. Many people have disappeared in the area over the years in October and although most people blame the October weather the locals insist The Concierge has taken these people away to take revenge for Ludwig’s horrible crimes….”
Nick looked up as everyone was frozen from the story. Tony put the car in park, “We’re here; out!” he laughed as he shut off the car.
Everyone got out of the SUV, Tony in a leather jacket and jeans while Scott was in a hoodie and jeans. Andrea also had on a hoodie with her long black skirt and a bag that she had some supplies including flashlights. Nick had on a costume resembling some kind of fighter or boxer with a headband around his bald head. Rylie got out in her somewhat revealing vampire costume with her long black hair blowing in the slight breeze. Elliot had on a car related hoodie and black pants that had been stained with oil.
The group walked towards the massive haunted house barge. They saw moving lights outside in dark red, blue and green colors with images of ghosts and screams heard throughout the large parking lot. At the large rusty entrance gates stood a small team of security people. Tony casually walked to the back of the massive line that stretched what seemed like a quarter mile long. The rest of the group complained of the immense line; Nick was still reading on his phone, “They must be having everyone sign waivers; that’s what’s taking so long.” Rylie looked confused, “Really?”
“I don’t know, I’ve never been here before” Nick said as he shrugged; the group sighed. Andrea looked out at the vast body of water barely visible through the growing fog, “Do you think this barge is safe?” Scott put his arm on her shoulder, “I don’t know, why don’t we ask old Ludwig and see?” they laughed as a small breeze blew Andrea’s skirt a bit.
After an hour of waiting the group finally got to the gate where a security person asked them, “Alright, everyone here at least 18?” Tony answered promptly, “Yeah we’re all exactly 18”.
The security team let them go through without questioning them; giggling and expressing short excited jumps they laughed their way into the haunted barge attraction. The barge seemed to rock with the waves and had a whole host of smoke machines on hand. They had been guided through as strange creatures grabbed at them, jump scared them, screamed, and threatened them. A half hour into the experience and they had ghouls chasing them, other people from other groups of friends walking around drenched in blood and people being tortured on medieval looking equipment.
The group kept together as they had reached the back of the barge where water was visible through the windows. Upon hearing a chainsaw starting behind them the group scattered quickly; they were being chased into an open area through a door onto the outside of the barge where tables were set up with corpses positioned as if dining. The barge shook as the smoke machines lined the entrance of another door leading back into the barge.
A large gust of wind shook the barge abnormally when suddenly the lights flickered and eventually went out. The chainsaw man behind them had stopped his pursuit and they were left in the dark. Tony yelled back through the fog that was now moving over the barge, “Hey, you guys okay? I think the power went out.”
The only response he got was from Andrea, “I’m okay! I don’t know where everyone else went but….” As she said that the barge moved violently and she shrieked. She had been thrown by the jolting of the structure. Tony quickly reached out and grabbed her arm as he himself slid and struggled to gain balance. He looked at her for a moment in relief and pointed at a door with a faint light. “Quick, let’s get back inside before we get hurt.” Tony held Andrea’s arm as they quickly ran through the door.
There was a surprising musty smell around them and not a lot of visibility. The violent motions had stopped but there were now a lot of creaking sounds around them. Tony turned his phone light on and shouted, “Hello?”
“Oh, hold on” Andrea said as she dug through her purse and pulled out a skinny flashlight. She turned it on to see that the hallway they were in was long, the metal frame was rusty, and the floors were dirty. Tony guided her forward down the hallway, “I guess the power really did go out. We’ll just have to find everyone. I’ll text Elliot and see if he’s with the others. They probably ran through here as fast as they could.” He had a smirk knowing Andrea was uneasy.
The only sound that could be heard was the floor creaking beneath their feet as they reached a huge room with crates. There was a lot of debris from steel, wood, and paint that had chipped from the walls. Andrea handed her flashlight to Tony and grabbed the spare from her bag. The two of them slowly scanned the room as they walked. The place looked old, some of the panels of the room appeared rusted out and the metal floor had scratches and stains.
There was a whispering sound followed by a gasp.
Tony turned to Andrea for a second and then guided her towards the end of the room. They faced a large bay door that had fallen off the tracks at the top of the frame. He stepped carefully through the opening and helped Andrea through. When he shined the flashlight ahead of them he saw a huge staircase going down to their left, gauges and levers to the right, and an open way leading out past broken windows to the outside. They heard some banging noises coming from below deck so Andrea walked over to the gauges. Tony tried to shine the light down the stairs but then heard Andrea say with a shaking voice, “Um….” She held a packet of papers up, a memo that had hand-written words that said Standard Procedure Revisal for Fuel Efficiency Documentation of Diesel Engines. Tony came over to look at it; Andrea flipped back a page and the haunting words stood alone on the page THE CONCIERGE.
Andrea gasped and dropped the small packet. She took a step back when she heard soft violin music coming from the large storage room they had just come through. From the stairs, they heard another bang followed by a very distant voice shouting.
Andrea screamed.
Andrea turned to Tony as she had a slight quiver and got mad, “Did you plan this?! Do you think this is funny?! You just happen to mention this story on the way here and suddenly the barge is named The Concierge?!” She was frustrated and scared.
Tony tried to respond but no words came out of his mouth. He looked at the packet one more time, then back to Andrea; he grabbed her hand and began to walk back towards the storage room they came from. She hesitated but followed his lead as he hastily muttered, “This isn’t happening. We have to get out of here.” As he said those words and shined his light past the bay door they came through he saw someone standing in a bloody suit. The figure looked back at them with a decayed face and a blood-soaked mustache. The man disappeared almost instantly but the two still heard footsteps in the room.
Tony jerked Andrea’s hand as he turned around and ran through the open doorway. He never said a word but pulled Andrea along with him as he ran through a large hallway of windows with broken out glass. At the end of the hall they broke through a door that led outside; they looked on from a small outside ledge section overlooking the enormous deck of the ship. The ship was rusted, beams had fallen, and the railings were all broken. Tony pulled Andrea along the ledge that ran outside the large stack on the ship. He stopped for a second and looked back.
The two stopped to catch their breath as nothing seemed to have followed them.
They jumped as they heard music again, but Tony soon recognized it and pulled his phone out. “It’s Elliot!”
He answered the call and put it on speaker phone, “Hello?!”
Tony was relieved to hear a familiar voice, “Hey, I just got your text man where are you at?”
“We’re… well, I’m with Andrea and we’re kind of lost”. He responded.
“Well that makes two of us, the power went out and I didn’t see where you guys went so I tried to get back to the door we came out of.”
Tony nodded, “Listen man, this is kind of hard to explain but…. We’re really lost – “Andrea shouted into the phone cutting off Tony “Elliot you have to help us, we were pulled off the barge in the fog and we’re on The Concierge!” her words were frantic as Tony looked at her with a bit of disbelief but reluctance to intervene.
Elliot paused for a second before they heard him again, “So… that’s the thing you two, and this is weird to say, but I’m not feeling too good about where I’m at either. I mean you said it first so maybe I’m not crazy but I could swear to you that I’m walking on the same ship right now. It’s huge.”
Tony was stunned, “Wait, I’m going to shout and you tell me if you hear me” Tony muted his phone and shouted, “Elliot! Elliot!!” Soon enough he saw Elliot on the deck below him waving. Tony perked up a bit, hung up the call, grabbed Andrea’s hand and moved towards a ladder that led down to the other level. The two of them climbed the ladder down to the next deck level where they could easily talk down to Elliot who was about 6 feet below them.
“Hey, we need to find the others; this is beyond freaky and we need to make sure everyone is okay. Why don’t you call Scott and Andrea why don’t you call Nick and Rylie? I’ll call 911 and then we’ll try to get down to you.” Tony said down to Elliot.
As everyone reached for their phones Tony dialed 911 but the call just kept ringing. “What?!” Tony redialed the emergency number multiple times but to no avail. Frustrated he turned to Andrea who looked disgruntled as well. “Can you try to call 911 on your phone?” She nodded and dialed the number but all she heard was the phone ringing over and over continuously.
Tony shouted down to Elliot, “We aren’t having any luck up here man I don’t know what gives; both our phones just keep ringing.”
Elliot looked visibly frustrated like they were; he shouted up to them, “Listen I don’t think anyone is on this ship except us. Our phones still work between us, right?” He said as he successfully dialed Tony’s phone again.
Tony shook his head, “Great, we are so screwed man there is some weird stuff happening on this ship. We need to head back towards the stern and get back onto the barge.”
Elliot nodded, “I agree, let’s just get out of here and never talk about this again.”
Tony looked around before he grabbed the ledge. “Alright, Andrea I’ll help you down and you just drop down to Elliot and Elliot make sure you catch her alright.”
Andrea looked down, “I… I’m not sure I’m comfortable with this”. She put her flashlight into her bag and grabbed the ledge letting out an audible sigh. She took a breath to gather her courage and then climbed over. The railing was cold but stable. She held the railing tightly before grabbing Tony’s arms. Tony seemed to back her off the ledge and hold her easily. He dropped her down as far as he could hold her and then dropped her down, about a 5 foot drop into Elliot’s arms where he caught her. She let out a sigh of relief as she was now down on the deck.
Tony swung his legs over the ledge, put the flashlight in his pocket and looked down, “Alright, welcome to Lake Ontario Concierge.” He started to jump down when the entire ship shook similar to hitting a large wave on the barge. The shake was enough that it threw off Tony’s balance and he fell back off the ledge. He hit the wood of the deck with a large thud while the other two cringed.
“Are you okay?!” Andrea quickly asked.
“Yea, I’m okay. Just a little banged up; bad timing.” Tony said reassuringly.
Andrea spoke softly in response, “It’s like the ship is alive.” She looked at Tony for a second as he started to stand up. He brushed himself off for a second and then hopped. “Alright, I’m okay, everything is alright, we’re all good.” Tony said with half a smile right as the wood beneath him broke. He plunged through suddenly reaching for Andrea’s hand and grabbing it just in time. She held him with all her strength, whimpering as she tried to pull him up.
Elliot quickly jumped in and helped lift Tony back to safety. Panting, Tony nodded to both of them. He turned to look at the hole where he had almost fallen through, “That’s, ugh, a long drop…. Aw, crap! My phone.” He felt his pockets as he panted. “I think it went down.” He sighed and clenched a fist, “And so did the flashlight.”
Elliot looked down the small hole in the deck, “Well, no going back for those now…. Let’s go over to the edge here…. Oh, and let’s all watch our step on this old wood.” He cautiously proceeded towards the side of the large ship. While he carefully walked across the wood he looked down at all of the debris that seemed to be from rocks, dirt, old glass, steel, and broken wood. Finally, he reached the side where guard rails were spotty across the ship, some broken and gone and some rusty and bent. He looked over to see the waters shifting against the hull of the ship and he looked out at the dense fog. Taking a quick step back he yelled back, “Guys, I think we’re in trouble! We need to get back to the barge quickly because the waves we are feeling is due to the ship moving!”
Andrea began to fidget, grabbing the flashlight from her bag, the light moved sporadically with her nerves. Tony took a deep breath and tried to use a commanding voice, “Alright, we’re heading back towards the way we came let’s just go around the outside of the ship and avoid going inside. We’ll jump back on the barge, come on Andrea.” She offered her hand again as he guided her and together the group sorted through the debris with their feet to get to the outside railing of the ship. They hugged the inside walls of the inner structure of the ship as they shimmied along the ship.
Finally, they reached the back of the ship again as they emerged past a small set of metal stairs leading up and past the door they originally came in. Upon reemerging, they were all surprised for there at the stern of the ship stood Nick and Rylie.
Andrea cried out, “You guys! Oh my god!”
Nick and Rylie looked back in amazement, Rylie reached out and hugged Andrea, her younger friend, as fright seemed to lift from the group. Nick put his hand on his heart and looked at everyone, “You guys have no idea what we’ve just been through.”
Tony shook his head, “I’ll be happy to compare stories of this horrible place but let’s get off of here first. Where is Scott?”
Nick stopped him, “Tony there is no going back man. We just got back here because we were up there” He pointed at the stairs. “This place is horrible. The barge we were on, the power went out. Shortly after that there was a bunch of smoke and before we knew it we were on this old rusty ship. You don’t think it’s….”
“The Concierge” Tony interrupted. “Yea, it’s real man. We found a paper earlier that said it. It was old, really old.”
Nick trembled a bit, “We have to find Scott; he ran in to find a radio up there but his line went quiet for some reason. We heard some laughter – “he turned to Rylie, “And ran for our lives when we heard it, it was like a little girl and we saw something moving. We looked for Scott up there but couldn’t find him. We tried calling him again but it just rings until it goes to voicemail. And the barge man, the barge is gone! The ship went who knows where, we’re out in the middle of the water.”
Elliot looked back towards the stairs, “Well, that’s farther than we got; our calls just keep ringing…. We came here to jump off this ship.”
Rylie held her phone up, flashlight on, “We tried calling 911 and that’s exactly what it did.”
Tony waved his hands downward, “Alright everyone listen, we have to get someone’s attention. What is up these stairs?”
Nick stuttered a bit, “It was, uh, you know like a command post, like we could see the sails, the exhaust stack thing, there wasn’t a radio though.”
Tony asked, “Was there even radio back then?”
Elliot interjected, “You said earlier the ship was built in like the 1890’s, I mean it would be close, radio was new.”
Tony calmed everyone, “Ok. Ok. Let’s do this. We went through this door and found a room with a bunch of gauges and stuff. Let’s go through here and see if there’s a radio in here. I think the engine room is through here too and they should at least have flare guns somewhere on board if we don’t find any radios… Although those may have been taken a long time ago.”
The group nodded in agreement and hesitantly moved together through the first door Tony and Andrea went through in the beginning. Andrea was shaking, Rylie trying to hold her to keep her calm as her flashlight trembled and the group had their phones out with lights on.
Elliot led everyone through to the cargo room from earlier, Tony behind him.
Nick asked, “Tony where is your phone?”
Tony looked back at him, “It’s gone, way gone….” He said as he noticed behind Nick, the last one in their line, was a small girl in a blue dress. He stopped suddenly, “Jeeze….” The group looked back but there was nothing. Tony defended, “I thought…. Never mind, let’s just move.”
One by one they squeezed past the bay door with the broken tracks and moved into the gauge room from before.
Elliot started looking around, “Alright, this looks good. Let’s find something.” He began searching across the desks and gauge clusters.
Tony and Nick started looking around as well, the room filled with levers and broken gauges.
Rylie looked at the staircase for a moment and spoke with a questioning voice, “This might be a bad idea but didn’t you say this led to the engine room?”
Tony responded while he was looking under the desks, “Yea I think so, I didn’t go down there.”
Elliot stood up, “You’re right, that is a bad idea. Tony, why don’t you and I just go down the stairs and look around?”
The group hesitated together.
“Yea, we won’t go far let’s just take a look.” He held his hand over to Andrea, “Let me have the flashlight.”
Andrea handed him the flashlight, “Be careful.”
Elliot and Tony slowly descended the large metal stairs. One by one, click, click, click. Their shoes clanged against the stairs until they reached the bottom. Tony shined his light and Elliot shined his phone’s light on what appeared to be a large engine almost the size of the massive room.
“The engine is here guys and it’s big!” Tony shouted back up the stairs. The two walked forward a bit to see that they had yet another set of stairs leading to walkways around the engine and ultimately ladders from the walkways down to the engine.
Elliot looked along the left and right walkways they had to choose from; he descended the next set of stairs and looked upon the massive engine. “It’s amazing, this is like one of the earliest diesel engines, look at the crankshaft on that thing it’s the size of a house.”
Tony shook his head as he got off the stairs, “You and your engines man, maybe later I’ll let you….” He stopped as he heard music playing; he shined the light beneath the stair case. “What the….” He had found Scott’s phone laying there ringing.
Tony picked up the phone with Elliot looking on confused; Tony looked at the now-broken screen, “Unknown…”
He answered the call. There was a muffled static sound. More static as it seemed to get louder before he finally heard a slight breathing. Tony was starting to tremble as he spoke, “… Scott?”
The voice he heard was a whisper of what sounded like a young girl, “Welcome…. To the Concierge…. Tony… turn around.”
Tony’s eyes were open in shock as he turned around with the flashlight. There he could see that there was fresh blood on the floor. He looked to Elliot for a moment and then walked to the guard rail separating the left and right walkways leading to the engine. He looked over the rail to see a chain that was hanging from the rail.
He shined the light on the chain to see a hook at the bottom. Hanging from the hook was Scott’s lifeless bloody body, about 6 feet below them hanging.
In the gauge room, the girls and Nick were still looking around when they heard screams, loud screams from the men. They started looking at each other in a panic as footsteps raced up from the engine room. Emerging from the stairs were Tony and Elliot panting and in a craze. They both rushed to talk, trembling as they spewed profanity. Nick stopped them, “Guys get it together, stop, stop! What is going on?”
Tony finally took a breath and spoke, “This ship, this freaking ship! It killed Scott it’s awful, I… can’t, it’s just.” He stopped as he seemed to have trouble trying not to vomit from what he had just seen.
Everyone started talking all at once, disoriented words filled the room.
Nick shouted again as the voice of reason, “Alright listen everyone! Just be quiet! Let’s… let’s go back and just jump off this freaking thing.”
Andrea, hysterical from the unsettling news, spoke, “No, no, no. We’ll just drown. The ship wants us to die it’s just a matter of time. If we jump it will just be a cold merciful death. I…. I don’t want to die”
Nick pointed at Rylie, “Get her under control, we need to think. We can find an emergency boat, a raft, something that will help us. Worst scenario we just jump, we can swim it right?”
Elliot finally calmed himself down a bit, “We jump, we die man. That water is too cold and besides we have no idea where we even are. For all we know the water took us out into the middle of the lake.”
Tony interjected, “I’m game for swimming it, screw it why stay here and die?”
Andrea wiped her eyes and spoke, “I can’t swim.”
Tony looked at her, “What?”
“I never learned how to.” She admitted.
Tony paused. “Crap… guys listen maybe we are just being too rash about this, what if someone is on board this wreck of a vessel. Someone who killed Scott.”
Elliot spoke, “That wouldn’t make sense, I mean none of this does but… why would a murderer be on board.”
Nick responded, “He’s right, what if that is what is going on. Some sick freak, some crazy mental. I say we get out of here and try to get a cell signal. This ship might not even be the old Concierge it could be just a scare tactic.”
Tony shook his head, “No… this piece of garbage is The Concierge. I… I got a phone call on Scott’s phone right before we found him. It was… I know it’s crazy but it was a little girl who said, ‘Welcome to The Concierge’. I know it sounds weird but I think I made the ship mad when I said something about it earlier.”
Rylie looked at everyone around her, “Alright, maybe that is true but how do we know the murderer isn’t just screwing with us?”
Tony walked around for a second, “Alright, let’s try to get a cell signal.” He motioned for the group to follow him into the hallway and out onto the metal ledge from earlier. Along the way they were all trying calls on their phones. Tony led the group, shaking Scott’s phone, “Come on already. This is where we jumped down earlier to get to the deck but the deck is unstable.”
He looked to his left as he saw a ladder leading up on top of the walls next to them. He grabbed the ladder and climbed. When he got to the top he turned back down to everyone, “Let’s get up here by the exhaust stack, there is a good view of everything and I think it’s our best chance at getting a signal.”
One by one the group began climbing the ladder; Rylie, Elliot, Nick and last Andrea who waited because of her skirt. She noted that Rylie was in a short skirt and even though it was dark Andrea felt bashful. She grabbed the ladder and took one step when the vessel shook violently. Once again, a wave plowed into the ship and shook it; the ladder wobbled as it was loose causing Andrea to lose her footing. She slipped back off the ladder and onto the rusty rail behind her. With one quick scream, she felt the rail come loose. Tony ran over to the edge and looked down as he saw Andrea falling backwards. “Andrea!” He shouted with an ear blistering scream.
Andrea fell backwards off the ledge and down onto the deck below and as quickly as she hit, her body fell through the wood and disappeared. Tony screamed again with profanity.
Elliot and Nick grabbed Tony as he shouted, “Calm down man, she’s gone! You can’t go down there!” Tony desperately tried to dial Andrea’s number but it was useless. He clenched a fist and hit the metal below him. Finally, Elliot looked along the panels of the rooms they were now on top of. Above them were a few more rooms and a large wooden post from one of the sails that had fallen and split. There he saw a box on the side of one of the walls.
He climbed up quickly along the ladders and pulled until the door busted off of the box. There in the box was a flare gun. “Yes!” he said. Quickly he pulled the gun out, took off a small safety on the trigger and aimed it high. Everyone below were still trying to get their senses about them when they all saw and heard the bright light fire from the gun straight into the foggy sky above them. Barely visible the flare burned up quickly.
Tony shouted up, “Dude, seriously?!” the group looked on in hope and disappointment. Elliot grabbed a few matches that were in the box and climbed back down to rejoin the others.
Tony now spoke, “Okay. Okay. Here’s what we do. I’ll go down with Nick and find Andrea, you two stay here and wait for someone to come by boat to help.”
Nick opposed him, “No man, listen we might have a deranged freak around here and that flare will scare him off if he thinks people are coming. We can’t go down there, it’s too dangerous, the ship is unstable and we might…”
Tony stopped him, “Listen man! I told her I would keep her safe if she came with us tonight. We are not going to leave her down there to die. End of story, I’m going down there whether you are coming with or not.”
As the two debated Elliot spoke up, “Listen guys that flare barely went above the stack. I have another idea; I’ll take Rylie with me and we can go back into the instrument room from earlier. I can go down to the engine room… as much as I don’t want to see that again, and try to start the engine. Really, it’s in good shape and it’s an old diesel so I won’t need any electricity to get it started. I’ve been putting together the pieces of history here; this ship was retrofitted with this diesel engine way after it was built but not long after that it was boarded by those pirates. That means this engine barely has any use on it. I really think we’ve got a shot at starting it and getting this ship under our control. We try to steer this thing towards land in any way we can, any land at all, and we can get off this thing safely.”
The group paused for a moment before Nick spoke. “Alright… Elliot you’ve been thinking clearly versus the rest of us, I think you’re right. You have some experience with this stuff so I say you’re right. I’ll go with Tony and find Andrea, you and Rylie go watch for help and get this engine going.”
Tony agreed as Elliot spoke, “Right, we’ll get this freaky ghost ship under our control and be out of here in no time. Rylie, you stand watch in the instrument room in case help does arrive and watch out in case anything happens to me down there. I’ll let you know.”
The group agreed once again as they parted ways.
In the instrument room Rylie sat down on a desk as Elliot took his hoodie off and swung it over his shoulder. He descended the stairs quickly with his phone light on and followed the stairs down again. Without looking back at what he knew was the nightmare behind him he walked across the walkway. He grabbed on to the ladder and dropped down to the wet engine floor and began looking around. He inspected the parts and noticed toolboxes nearby. “Alright, I have the tools but it looks like the ship was taking on water at some point. I hope that doesn’t mess with the fuel or anything else I’ll need to pull this off.”
Tony and Nick had walked across the deck and opened a broken door. They followed a musty hallway down to more stairs, descended the stairs, turned back around and were walking through what looked like guest rooms. “Andrea!” Tony shouted.
Nick looked through room after room. “Man, this is creepy… all this luggage still in these rooms like, UGH!” He closed a door after he saw two piles of bones from corpses laying on the floor of a room with a rug that had aged and rotted out.
Tony kept shouting for Andrea, “I have to find her. This is a nightmare. This… this ghost ship of horror, you will NOT take Andrea.”
Nick calmed him, “Tony, you are losing your grip. Just stay mindful, look at how Elliot was analyzing everything while we were freaking out.”
“Andrea!” Tony shouted. “You’re right, and I know it. But I don’t know what is going on around here.”
They proceeded to walk out of the hallway, down the stairs, and to another row of guest rooms. Behind them were two doors that had hinges to open either direction. Nick opened the doors and looked around, then turned to Tony. “It’s the kitchen, I’ll look around in here and you check the guest rooms. Don’t go far, meet back here when we’re done looking or shout if we find her.”
Nick walked through the kitchen doors and began walking through the relatively preserved stainless steel counters where food was prepared. “Wow, this place still looks alright… Andrea!” He shouted with no response. “This place is still creepy.” He shined his phone’s light around until he saw a man standing there appearing to cook. Startled, he dropped his phone. Elliot quickly picked up his phone and shined the light again but saw no one.
“…. you won’t scare me ship…”
He walked through the kitchen when he smelled something fresh compared to the usual musty smell. “What the….” On the stove, with no flame, was a large pot of what appeared to be recently boiled water still steaming. He walked up slowly and looked inside. It was a dark red and brown colored liquid with a ladle still inside. He hesitated. “how…” He put his hand next to the pot and realized it was indeed hot. He grabbed the ladle.
Down the hall Tony was searching every room, one by one. “Andrea!” he yelled with no response. He opened a door and there in the room was a hole in the ceiling. He pushed aside some debris on the floor, opened the door fully and walked in. The room was vacant of life but behind him he heard a creek. The large wooden closet behind him had opened its own door. Tony shined the light from his phone and looked; there were a bunch of papers lying at the bottom. He walked over and saw they had faded except for two. One with red ink and one with black ink; he read the black ink one to himself, “… I fear this vessel has been seized by men with malicious intentions. As I have avoided them I fear that my daughter Alison has been discovered as she was not in her hiding place in the kitchen. The woman pursuing me has no morals….” He read past where it had begun to fade, “…. should this find its way to authorities know this woman is responsible for deaths… murders… and she and her pirate father must meet justice.”
Tony put the letter down and picked up the letter with red ink; the ink looked like it was written on newer paper than the others, “Justice comes with a price.”
Tony took a moment to think, “Wait… woman? I thought Ludwig was the murderer… that’s what history says, but…” as he said that the ship seemed to move again, but this time it had a steady rumble throughout the vessel.
Nick was in the kitchen vacillating in his efforts to pull up the ladle. He felt the entire ship start to shake suddenly; the liquid in the pot had a slight vibration on the surface. “What the… is that the engine?! Did he do it?” He muttered to himself as he pulled up the ladle. On the end of the ladle was a partly decomposed hand. He quickly dropped the ladle back into the pot and stepped back in disgust. As the kitchen shook some of the kitchen utensils began to fall and underneath the stove a thin stainless door slid open and out a small body rolled out in a blue dress. The bones still had some blue and green colored wrinkled flesh on it. Nick resisted screaming but quickly moved backwards as the kitchen seemed to be falling apart. He turned and slipped on water from the floor and fell backwards hitting his head hard on the floor. He let out an audible shout and started to lift himself, now touching the corpse he had found. When he looked up there stood a little girl in the same blue dress from the corpse, but with vibrant colors. He trembled as she pointed above him where he saw a woman in a long black dress pulling the pot off the stove. He screamed as the dark water flew through the air at him, steam visible in the air and the woman’s green eyes looking down at him.
There was a horrible scream from the kitchen.
In the engine room Elliot stood up with oil and rust over his cloths. The engine was moving slowly and making large creaking noises. “Rylie! We’re in business! When Ludwig stopped this engine over a hundred years ago he stalled it out and left it with the fuel and compression needed!” he licked his lips quickly and stretched his arms. “This whole place feels like it’s coming down though. Jeeze. Alright, I’ll head back and tell them to try to steer this thing while I keep the RPM’s up so it doesn’t stall out again. This thing is so awesome.” He started to go back towards the stairs with his phone in hand when the light went out. “Oh, what the…” He checked his phone screen as the logo flashed and his phone went off. “Crap… Rylie! My phone died, I’m coming back up… slowly!” He started feeling his way around for the ladder again. He grabbed the ladder and climbed up and started walking along the walkway. With the sudden shake of the entire room he lost his balance, “What the heck, Rylie! Rylie! I need light, ah crap!” he shouted as the walkway started to become dislodged. It shook violently and the whole walkway came unhinged. Elliot shook around back and forth as he tried to keep his grip. He held tightly to the rail of the walkway when it suddenly came dislodged and he was hanging from the railing alone. Elliot started to swing his leg up to step on the walkway and climb back up. He looked up and there stood the faint image of a girl holding his hand. He was panting and panicking when she whispered, “Welcome to The Concierge…” His eyes widened as his hand lost grip under a sharp pain. He looked down to the massive exposed piston rod and screamed.
Rylie was standing in the instrument room going through the desks as the ship shook. She muttered, “He must have gotten it started, maybe I should go down there.” She continued to look around the room and found a locked drawer. She pulled and pulled, then took a step back and kicked the desk. The drawer fell hard and hit the ground with gold coins falling all over the floor. “What? Is that… gold?!” She picked up the coins. “This is incredible!” she looked at the old coins when there was a sudden massive crashing sound and she lost her balance and fell. The engine noise she heard before had stopped.
Rylie stood back up and grabbed her phone; she proceeded towards the stairs and descended. “Elliot! Are you okay down there!?” She looked into the dark and saw a fire deep within the large room. “Oh my god, Elliot!” she ran down and saw that the walkway had collapsed. The engine had stalled; the room had taken significant damage from the abrupt force. She looked down with her light and saw that the room was now filling with water. “Oh crap, oh crap oh crap this isn’t good. Elliot! Elliot!”
Rylie turned around and ran up the stairs; when she got to the instrument room she saw dials moving and the hallway out to the ledge from before was now full of even more broken glass. She turned back towards the storage room and ran. She ran through the storage room and all the way back out towards the enormous stern. She rounded the corner and ran up the stairs that she had earlier climbed to find the command room. As she got to the top she looked upon the entire vessel that seemed to be bowed now and creaking loudly. The exhaust stack was smoking with black smoke and wobbling. She looked down as the ship had gained significant movement while the engine was running and though the engine had seemingly stalled the ship was moving.
Rylie stopped as she heard music; violins and glass chiming was emanating in the distance. “Where is that?!” she turned around and gasped as behind her a little girl stood in a blue dress. She pointed behind Rylie who turned around and froze in disbelief. She heard a huge metal buckling sound as the exhaust stack swayed back and forth. She turned back to the girl who seemed to close her eyes and waved to her gently. Rylie turned around and screamed as the massive exhaust structure buckled and came at her. She opened her mouth and screamed as it crashed down into the room…
Andrea came back into consciousness to her own coughing. She rolled over to her side slowly as she felt the ship shaking violently. Shortly after the crashing feeling, the ship went limp once again. Andrea started to sit up and cried out in pain; she looked down at her ankle to realize she had been badly hurt by her fall. She sat up with tears in her eyes and screamed, “hello?! Is anyone there, please!” She looked around and saw her flashlight lying across the room. Andrea crawled over ignoring her tears and moans as she reached out for her light. She sat up and looked around the room. The room was full of old wine bottles and crates. She continued looking around until she stopped and found herself breathless. A man in ragged clothes stood holding a pistol to the head of a man in a nice gold trimmed black suit. She heard an echoed voice as if the voice was underwater. “I never leave the captain alive”. Andrea closed her eyes and looked away as a sharp shot sounded. She looked back and saw no one.
Andrea stood up; she limped across the room towards the door; she moved the iron door with what little muscle she had to offer. She shined the light up and once again stood the little girl in a blue dress. Andrea gasped as the girl pointed down the hall to her left. Andrea wiped her tears away and began limping down the hallway.
She looked around the hallway that appeared rotted as if the ship had a large amount of water within it at one point. She kept walking until she reached the end of the hallway where one lone door was open, a large metal door. She stepped over a small lip in the door and went inside; she looked around the room and saw ragged clothes from the man before on the floor. She was appalled and turned around to see the little girl standing in the door way. Andrea trembled as she looked upon a lone desk with her flashlight. On the desk was an old picture of a small crew of people. In the center was the man from before wearing ragged clothes holding up a bar of gold and he had weapons all around him. Beside him on the floor was the man in the suit that had just been shot, lying in his suit stained with red. The picture had holes poked through where the man’s eyes were and standing next to him with an arm around him was a woman in a black dress, green eyes and red lipstick stuck out among everything else about her. Andrea turned the picture around and on the back, was a message written in red ink. “To a wonderful father; I cannot wish you to continue, but I wish you well Mr. Talo.”
Andrea dropped the picture and stood back, “That’s… oh my god, that’s the girl, Marissa, from the tale.”
Andrea turned around but the girl was gone. She began to limp out of the room as she soon realized what horrible things had gone on here were more than old tales.
Tony was walking out of the room when he felt a massive shift in the ship; the whole ship felt like it had just collided with something. He quickly started running back towards the stairs, “Andrea! Nick! Hello?!” He got back to the stairs but no one was there.
Tony walked into the kitchen where he smelled a horrible smell. “Oh jeeze, the heck. Gross” Everything was coated in blood, it looked old and decayed. The stainless steel was dull and stained with old brown and red. He walked through with his phone and looked through some smoke. “Hey Nick? Fighter man, where are you? I thought we agreed to meet back over by the stairs… I found something in a room back there that…” He shined his light and saw the body of his friend Nick lying there with exposed flesh across his face, wilts and burn marks across his shoulders and even a body below him that had melted flesh now in a puddle around the bodies. Tony stepped back and coughed, through his shocked profanity and threw up in the kitchen. He stumbled through the kitchen back towards the door and ran out. He ran up the stairs, back through the hallway screaming and out the door. There he stood on the deck where he was frantic and breathing hard. He struggled to find his composure as he started to hear music again.
“Oh, come on, what now?! What now Concierge! What now!?” He looked around as he smelled exhaust in the air. Panting he looked to his left and saw that there were large wooden stairs leading down below the deck. He started to walk down towards the violin music he was hearing. As he reached the bottom of the stairs he saw that there were two broken glass doors leading to a large dining room.
Tony chuckled for a moment and walked over more debris to get through the doors. “So, I’m supposed to go through here, huh?!”
He walked through the dining room with what seemed to be a stage to his right and a dance floor in the center. Across the dance floor were clothes, bones, bodies, and even the stage had skeletons lying next to violins. Tony stepped back, “Ugh, jeeze” He coughed up a bit more when he heard a noise.
It was a door; he regained his footing quickly and looked over to see that the door to the back room was quickly opening. He was frozen with fear as a light emerged from the door. He suddenly said, “Andrea?!”
Andrea responded, “Tony!?” She was standing across the room. Tony quickly ran over to her, “Andrea, are you okay?!” He looked at her face, tears had been running down her cheeks.
Andrea hugged Tony as she struggled to keep her footing. She looked up at him, “My ankle.”
Tony bent down and picked her up, “I’ll take you back up; Andrea, I’m so glad to see that you’re okay. I thought….”
Andrea held the flashlight up and gasped before Tony spoke, “A lot of bad things happened here. It’s all true.”
Andrea responded, “I saw… I saw a picture. It was Marissa, she killed her own father. The tale, it’s true. Ludwig, he…”
Tony stopped her, “I saw horrible things too… Andrea I think the tale is wrong. I think Marissa did all of this, not Ludwig. This ship, it’s vengeful towards everyone from the area. The ship itself was killed by Marissa; all of these people. I don’t care if I have to swim you to safety we are getting out of this nightmare.”
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