It was like a switch was flipped on. Fatigue vanished, leaving only horror and shock. Those who saw the scene were either shrieking their lungs out or frantically searching for the shooter, while those further behind were shouting and squeezing to the front, trying to find answers.

“What was that?”

“Hey! Someone answer right fucking now! What the hell is going on?”

Ao watched the man tremble, his hands weakly clawing at the floor as if desperately trying to hold onto this world. 

Someone yanked her shoulder. “What are you doing? Stop standing there… Do something!” 

Ao swept the person’s hand away, his stupidity irritating her. She knew the man– No, the corpse– was too far gone to be saved. There was nothing to be done and it was extremely stupid to think otherwise. What did he expect her to do? Revive the dead? 

“So annoying! Can you whiny idiots just shut the fuck up?” 

Preach. Until Ao realised that she recognised the person who spoke, or at least, the person’s voice. Her mood soured. He was the last person she wanted to see right now, other than the fuckboy.

Atop a large beam, a man spun a shotgun with one hand. He wore sunglasses, a tacky tropical overshirt and flip flops as though he had just stepped off a plane from Hawaii. Despite his comedic appearance, the maniacal grin on his face as he circled his finger around the barrel tip silenced anyone who wanted to yell back. Even Ao was transfixed.

“You want me to shoot again?” He giggled. 

A delicate hand picked the gunner’s fingers off the barrel. “Not on my watch.” 

A woman emerged from the shadows, eying the crowd. She had on a typical butler uniform, prim and proper. In every single way, she contrasted the man beside her. 

“You ruin everything. I wasn’t actually going to shoot, I just want to scare them until they piss their pants!”

“I don’t want urine all over the floor that I just cleaned.”

“But it’s so easy to clean!” The gunner snapped his fingers and the corpse beside Ao disappeared. The crowd shrieked again while Ao could only quietly stare in shock. No thoughts ran through her head. Just pure, raw shock.“There, all the mess, gone! What’s so hard about that?”

The butler kicked the gunner’s shin. “You dumbass, you scared them. Because of you, I have to rearrange the schedule and push back…” She glanced at the clipboard she held and frowned.

“Good! They’ll be scared later anyways–” The man-baby gunner cowered at every kick thrown relentlessly at him. “Ow, stop it! I surrender, I surrender!”

He groaned. “You’re so cruel.”

And just like that, he vanished into thin air, leaving the butler ruffled and far from the elegance she introduced herself with.

Their unbelievably childish banter would’ve been much more unbearable if it weren’t for the information revealed. So there was a schedule with things planned for them… And what was that about being scared later? Whatever the truth was, Ao didn’t like it. Dread stirred in her stomach. 

“Now that he’s out of the way,” The butler straightened her glasses and cleared her throat. 

“How was the nightmare?”

An unspoken fear seized. Tension grew heavier by the second, lodging breaths in people’s throat. We all had the same nightmare? Ao knew she shouldn’t be shocked at this fact because, after all, everyone had emerged from their rooms in a similar awful state. It would be more surprising if they hadn’t experienced the same thing. 

Strange relief washed over Ao. Part of her was consoled to know that she wasn’t the only who went through that torture, and there were others who would understand. She glanced around at the crowd, hoping that the others were also relieved. But seeing their unease manifest in the form of tears and silent panic attacks, she wasn’t so sure. 

“I see.” The butler nodded and took down some notes on her clipboard. Then she looked back up with a cold gaze. 

“Enjoy yourself while you can sinners.” With that, she disappeared. 

A timer buzzed into existence on a large white wall. Bold numbers flashed blood red with every second that passed, ominously counting down. “6:56:32”, “6:56:31”,  “6:56:30”. 

“What is it now?” Someone in the crowd moaned. 

A chain reaction of fright sparked and people began to discuss feverishly amongst themselves. But while everyone else found comfort in each other, Ao found it more troublesome to stay. Her head hurt from the clamour. She silently took her leave.

The more Ao explored, the more she was certain that it was indeed a cruise ship, and a ginormous one at that. In fact, it was way too large. The communal showers she peeked into had hundreds of curtains partitioning hundreds of shower heads. Public bathrooms had even more, with thousands of sinks and thousands of stalls, pristine and unused. There were thirty levels but after taking an elevator and checking each one, Ao realised that most of them were just endless empty spaces. It was terrifying. But more than that, it was the worst use of space she had ever seen. No one in the right mind would build something so wasteful like this. So as Ao walked down the hallway that circled the main hall, she came to a conclusion:

“This ship is impossible.”

Two hands grabbed Ao’s arm and pulled her behind a corner. 

“You’re right."