When the knock comes at my door, I jump so hard I nearly hit my head on the low ceiling. Gasp catching in my throat, I wheel around automatically. The knock comes again, and a familiar, muffled voice slinks through the crack between the wall and the door.
“Charlie? Are you in there?”
Hurriedly, I rush over to the end table where Elena’s phone still sits, attached to the charging cord. With no service, her notifications have finally calmed down, and I free the phone from the charging port and gently move it into the drawer. Careful to not touch the dried blood, I shut the drawer, hiding the evidence from view.
Racing back over to the door, I open it to reveal Fiona looking anxious and tired.
“I wanted to check on you. See how you’re holding up,” Fiona offers, tucking pink locks behind her ear, eyes gazing over my shoulder, scanning the room. Her makeup is immaculate despite our situation. The layer of soft brown eyeshadow on her lids is perfectly blended, and the winged tip of her eyeliner is as sharp and crisp as a fall day.
I imagine her in her room, recording on her phone: “Here’s how you make a chic hurricane-ready look! Perfect for day or night! Even works for sabotage and murder!”
Maybe I’m being harsh. I don’t know that Fiona is involved with Elena’s disappearance.
“I’ve been better,” I admit when I realize she’s been staring at me expectantly for several seconds. “Want to come in?”
“Same.” Fiona sighs, glancing over her shoulder. “Okay, I’ll sit for a minute.” She moves into the room, hovering near the bed. Is it my imagination, or is she studiously ignoring the bathroom, refusing to glance over there?
I close the door to my room with a gentle snap, and before I can stop myself, I’m blurting it out: “There aren’t any…ghosts on board, right? Like you’ve never seen anything weird?”
Fiona crosses her arms. “This again?”
“I thought I saw someone who looked like Elena. Just now,” I say bleakly, keeping a close eye on Fiona’s expression.
Fiona pales, but shakes her head. “I’m sorry, Charlie. I’ve never seen anything like that onEmpress. Are you…okay? Are you sure what you’re seeing is, you know,there?”
No, I’m not, and that’s the problem. I first saw the…apparition in the crew quarters right after finding Elena’s phone, and now I’ve seen her again in my room. I glance over at the end table where Elena’s phone is hidden. Coincidence? Or somehow related?
“I don’t know,” I admit. “I-I keep seeing things.”
“Has that ever happened to you before?” Fiona asks, leaning against my bed.
“No. Kind of? I don’t know,” I ramble. “When I was working on the book I would see the characters so strongly in my head. I could picture them splashing in the water with us when we’d swim. But nothing like this. Nothing like what I’ve seen here.”
“Well,” Fiona continues, cocking her head and smiling tiredly at me. “Have you ever had a new job sprung on you, immediately moved in with a bunch of coworkers, and gotten trapped by a freak storm in the middle of the ocean?”
“Um, no. First time for that.”
She nods empathetically. “Exactly. And that whole thing with Sage; I’m sure that’s been weighing on you too.”
You can say that again, I think bitterly.
“You’re saying it’s stress,” I reply instead.
“I am,” Fiona confirms. “Give yourself a break. When I was days from being kicked out of my apartment, I thought I saw shadowy figures everywhere. Turns out, it was just my mind trying to cope with a high-pressure situation.”
Fiona might be right. I’ve never experienced anything like this before, and it would make sense if I was also having a delayed reaction to Sage’s death.
“I really thought it was real,” I whisper. “I saw Elena’s social media. She looked like her…”
Fiona sighs, steps closer to me. “Look, I know you’re curious, but there’s no story here. The day Elena left was hard for all of us. Even Trey and Carl. They were there too, and they both loved her. We all did. You can’t blame us if we don’t want to talk about it or dwell on it. Can’t you relate to that?”
“I understand,” I reply, but my mind snags on something Fiona said.
“Even Trey and Carl.”So everyone trapped on this boat right now was also there when Elena “left.” But did she leave? Or did someone kill her? There is dried blood on Elena’s phone. I can’t ignore that.
Everyone on board right now is a suspect.
I need to be cautious about what I share with people, even Fiona, who I like. I can’t let anyone know I’m suspicious about Elena’s disappearance.
