Young Writers Society

Jack nodded and appreciated Eliza giving him a rundown of the situation. Another woman spoke up reiterating that the power was down, though that was fairly obvious given that they can barely see each other. He had no way to gauge how old these people are or what they looked like, although based on their accent, he knew they were American or Canadian.

"I'm Jack," he said after Eliza introduced herself. He had no idea what else to say, honestly. Olivia always told him he was terrible at first impressions. This spa trip was supposed to be a way to relax from all the socializing he did today, and frankly, this was already draining the energy he recuperated from the unfinished massage.

He craned his neck to look towards the glass door exit that lead out to a hallway full of windows. It was late afternoon, yet the hallway was dark like the sun had turned its power off with the rest of the ship.

Just like Eliza, Jack suddenly got a bad feeling in his chest, like he knew something was not right at all.

He heard the attendants ushering something in the corner and pressing buttons like they were trying to get landline phones to work, although it didn't sound like they were able to reach anyone.

"I'm an electrician," Jack blurted out. Well, that was sort of a lie; he was a jack-of-all-trades with technician work, and simple electrician tasks fell in that umbrella. It was just simpler to say he was an electrician, though. Plus he wanted to feel like he was contributing to something here; it made him uneasy that he felt like something was wrong but he couldn't do anything about it. "Maybe I can help?"

Week 2 -- Post 3/5 -- 292 words

Susan heard the man who'd come out of the room introduce himself as Jack before going silent and peering about the room. He seemed to be focused on trying to figure out what was going on. She looked around for the attendants.

The attendants had all gathered in the corner and it looked like they were trying to phone someone on the outside, with little success if the frustration on their faces were any indicator.

She turned away from the attendants. It was only going to make her feel worse about the situation. The fact that they were starting to show signs of not knowing what was going on meant nothing good for them. If it was something that would usually happen on board the ship, the attendants would have been trained a thousand times for it and not be running around looking confused. Add to that the fact that they are told to look calm in the face of danger, if even that training is starting to slip that means they must be getting scared now.

As her mind came to this conclusion, a shiver ran down her spine. There didn't seem to be any option besides hoping for the best and waiting for the attendants to tell them to do something. Not like whatever is causing all of this will vanish just because I return to my room. Its probably not safe to be out on the deck anyway. If the darkness hadn't been enough of an indicator, the phone lines being down indicated that the ship was about to get hit by something serious. It'll all be fine Susan. She closed her eyes, hoping for the best.

Week 2 --- Post 3/5 --- 283 words

After the attendants struggled to call on the phone, one of them sighed.

"If you think you can help, sir," she said. Jack nodded and walked over to them, and the worker showed him the wires.

Eliza abandoned the bathrobe on her chair and retrieved her purple shawl. She tightened it around herself. Her grandmother had knitted it for her before Eliza left for her first year of college. Her grandmother had died two months after, and Eliza had felt very close to her, so she brought the shawl everywhere with her.

The power still hadn't returned, and the heat was leaving very quickly. Eliza bounced on her heels to keep warm. The wind howled under the dark clouds.

"It's going to be a very bad storm," Eliza said. She wondered how far they were in the Bermuda Triangle. Disappearances happened in the Bermuda Triangle: ships...boats...people.

She shivered. What if they became a mystery too? What would happen to them? A spark of irrational excitement spiked in her chest. She would know what happened. She would solve the mystery that plagued people for centuries.

But she would never see her family again. Eliza released the breath she didn't realize she was holding.

She noticed Susan looking very nervous, so Eliza placed her hand on the girl's shoulder and squeezed it.

Week 2--- Post 3/5--- 222 words

As the moments seemed to inch by, the power wasn't coming back on. And the storm was only getting worse.

Moira, unable to focus, turned the massage chair off.

She looked around. It was now so dark outside now that she could only make out the outlines of people.

Once, on a flight to Orlando to visit her sister, they'd ran into what the pilots had called "rough air"-- a designation which Moira hated-- and things had been bad. But eventually, it had passed and they'd landed safely.

No doubt this was the same situation.

She sat on this thought for about a half a second before the spa attendant approached her with a lifejacket.

"Put this on," said the spa attendant. The other attendants were handing out lifejackets to the other passengers in the spa.

Moira did as she was told vaguely remembering how from their abandon ship drill their first night, before they left port. Still, it was definitely thundering outside now, and Moira was growing scared.

"What's going on?" She asked.

"Just keep the lifejacket on, m'am," replied the attendant.

Week 2 -- Post 3/5 -- 182 words

Jack walked over to the circuit breaker box and immediately tried resetting it, but when nothing happened, he opened up the panel to inspect the wires. He stared at it for some time, but he didn't notice anything out of the ordinary. Everything looked like it should be working.

"Nothing's wrong here," he mused out loud, scrunching his eyebrows and staring at the breaker box some more, hoping the answer will magically come to him. The fix was obviously not going to be from this room; perhaps transformers were down, or maybe the distribution had gone awry, or maybe something was wrong with the electric source.

Suddenly one of the three spa attendants were passing around life jackets.

Jack frowned, staring at the life jacket being handed to him. "Why would—"

"Please put this on," the attendant interrupted with a demanding voice laced with uncertainty.

No no no. What was going on? "Something bad is happening, isn't it?" he said.

Panic crept up at the back of his throat.

First, it was in the form of anxiety.

"Why are we just standing here? We need to evacuate, or leave, or do something."

Suddenly it dawned on him: Olivia wasn't here.

Then, it was in the form of alarm.

"My wife," he whispered, no longer bothering trying to rationalize anything. "I need to..." He couldn't find the words to finish the sentence, but his legs started to move on their own, instinctively heading towards the exit.

"Sir, please put on your life jacket and stay back—"

The spa attendant seemed to want to continue talking, but she never got to finish her sentence as the ceiling crashed down right on top of her, crushing her to death.

And now: hysteria.

Jack fell over from the crash as it happened right in front of him, unable to process what just happened. He couldn't move, he couldn't talk, he couldn't think. All he could do was be on all fours on the ground, looking up at the rumbling cement and foundation from the deck above them, blocking the only exit in the room, and killing a person in the process.

He didn't even notice that a glass shard left a deep cut on his leg or that his lungs were burning from wanting to cough from the resulting dust.

All he could focus on was that he was in a dark room, with strangers, wearing a life vest, without his wife—all while witnessing a growing pool of blood in front of him from the corpse underneath the rubble.

This was the beginning of the end.

Week 2 -- Post 4/5 -- 432 Words

Susan gave Eliza a small smile as she gave Susan's shoulder a squeeze.

"I think it is," she blurted out, nervousness forgotten as the adrenaline started to pump around her body. "The phone lines being down means something big must be covering the entire ship."

She looked towards where the person that had introduce himself as Jack, had proceeded to ask the spa attendants if they needed help and was now fiddling around the circuit breaker box.

On the other side, the woman was starting to lose her concentration on the chair, the fact that the power didn't show any signs at all of coming back on probably being the reason for that. She sat up in her chair, looking around the dark.

Susan turned her attention back towards Jack. He seemed to have tried to reset the entire thing, and was now prying it off to look at the wires inside, probably scanning for any signs of damage. The slightly confused look on his face was not helping Susan calm down.

He looked at it for a while longer before shaking his head and muttering a "Nothing's wrong here." That was extremely bad. If the wiring to the spa was not broken, it meant something was wrong at the source. Are the engines damaged? No. That's not possible. Cruise ships are built to survive much worse storms.

Then a spa attendant was walking up to her, holding two life jackets. One was offered to Eliza, while the other was offered to her.

"Put these on miss," said the spa attendant, clearly trying very hard to sound reassuring and calm although the attendant's eyes told a very different story of fear.

"But...it can't be that bad?" asked Susan, "its just a..." She trailed off, her breathing getting faster.

"Its just a precaution miss. I'm sure everything will be fine, but protocol must be followed. You know what they said at the drill," she replied.

"But..." began Susan, cold fear now starting to overtake her heart, as if the blood inside had turned to ice.

"No buts, miss, please just keep it on. You remember how to put it on right?" said the attendant.

Susan nodded, her hands shaking as she slipped it on as quickly as her panicking brain would allow.

"My father..." she began as a massive chunk of the ceiling crashed down, throwing chunks of cement everywhere. A piece grazed her cheek but Susan barely noticed as she stood still in shock unable to process what had just happened. One of the attendants had been standing right under it and she had just vanished. She couldn't have been. No. This isn't happening.

A pool of blood was forming from under the rubble. She opened her mouth to scream but there was no sound. Its just a dream. Its just a dream She desperately pinched herself. A sharp pain spread from her fingertips. She could feel several smaller cuts all around her face and body.

It was all very, very real. Susan's mind went blank. Cass. Daph. Mom. Dad.

Week 2 --- Post 4/5 --- 514 words

Moira watched helplessly as the attendant got crushed by the ceiling, killing her instantly and blocking their exit.

She'd already been nauseous from the way the ship was rocking back and forth, and the shock of what she had just witnessed made her vomit. Most of it hit the floor, but some pooled on her skirt.

Just then, a voice came over the PA.

Passengers and crew of the SS Anastasia. This is your captain speaking. Please make your way to the boat deck now. This is an order to abandon ship...

This couldn't really be happening.

Moira thought of her friends. They were probably relaxing in their suite. And of course, ever since Titanic, there were always enough lifeboats for everyone on board. Ships were one of the safest ways to travel nowadays.

It would be okay, wouldn't it? But there was as a problem. Moira and the three other customers were trapped. The other attendants must have left to find help. But they were alone with a corpse and a pool of vomit. In a room that was starting to fill with water.

In a room that was starting to fill with water. Her heart was pounding, and she would have screamed if the trauma hadn't already taken her voice from her.

Week 2 -- Post 4/5 -- 209 words

Eliza screamed as the spa attendant was crushed by the chunk in the ceiling. Her blood splattered on Eliza's skirt and mixed with the water pouring through the hole.

The woman across from Susan vomited, and the sight made Eliza want to vomit too, but she withheld it.

Stay calm, stay calm, she thought, grasping her head. Eliza looked at the ceiling. They could get out that way, but who knows what was at the top?

She glanced at Susan, who was standing stock-still and bleeding and waded to her.

"Susan, Susan, stay with me, okay," she said, taking her hand. "We're not dead yet."

The water was reaching her knees, and the bottom of her dress, soaked in blood, started to float. Eliza waded to the entrance, but she slipped. She touched the dead woman's skin and lifted her hand. It was soaked in blood. She uttered a low moan of horror and vomited, not keeping it in this time.

Eliza wiped her mouth and stood up. She grabbed chunks and pushed them aside, trying to get to the door.

"We have to get through!" she cried, tears running down her face. But the chunks were too heavy, and the door was shut tight. She screamed in frustration and kicked the door many times, but it wouldn't give.

Eliza stomped her foot, but it landed on hard rubble. Pain shot through her foot, and she gasped. She limped away and back to her seat. She massaged her foot. It was hopeless.

She was going to die.

Eliza started crying, and her body shook. She was going to die. She would never laugh with her friends again. She would never see her parents. She would never feel her mother's arms around her again.

"Oh, Mom," she wept. "Martha..."

Week 2---Post 4/5 300 words

Time seemed to blur by Jack, deafening the noise of the screams, ignoring the falling rubble, and numbing the smell of the dust, the blood, and vomit. He was still collapsed in front of where the spa attendant was before she died on the spot, watching as the blood mixed in with the layer of water forming around the room.

This wasn't real. The screaming, water, announcement, debris. None of it can't be real.

This was where he was going to die, but it can't be. It shouldn't be. It was only some minutes ago when his biggest worry was perfecting an anniversary surprise present, and it was only a few hours ago that he was relaxing on the deck with Olivia's smiles and laughs melting in his view as she whispered in his ear, "I'll see you soon."

He didn't want to die.

Not like this.

Jack snapped out of his stupor when he heard Eliza scream in desperation while trying to uncover the rubble and find the exit, and suddenly it was like his body started to the produce maximum adrenaline possible for his body.

He didn't want to die.

If he has any chance of seeing his family again, he had to survive.

They had to survive.

Jack quickly got up, feeling his blood rush through his veins. "We have to find an exit," he said quietly first towards Eliza, hoping it will fuel back her spirit in trying to leave the room. He turned back to the other two young women. It was still dark, but with the adrenaline pumping through his veins, they were as clear as day. "Everyone," he said again, louder this time. "We need to find an exit or we will drown. Run or swim, I don't fucking care, but we need to find a way out. Now!"

He didn't mean to sound intimidating or enraged; Jack was usually a gentle giant, not ever channeling anger or sadness towards anyone—not even himself. But this was a life or death situation, and right now, he didn't care what they thought of him; they all just needed to work together if they wanted any chance of surviving.

The water was up to his waist now, but that didn't stop him from running towards the edges of the room, digging through rocks and kicking anything down in hopes that it would lead to their survival.

Week 2 -- Post 5/5 -- 400 Words

We have to find an exit. Jack's words rang in her ears. His mini speech fueled something within her.

"I'm not going to die," she whispered. Eliza rubbed her eyes, although her face was still wet with tears, and she dropped into the water and swam to Jack's side. Grim-faced, he nodded to her, and she nodded back. Together, they dug through rocks, working to push bigger rocks aside.

The water continued to rise, passing their waists and reaching their chests.

"Come on, you guys, if we work together, it might mean something," Eliza called to the other two. "We've got to try!"

Week 2-- Post 5/5-- 105 words

Susan vaguely heard someone shouting about needing to find an exit. It sounded like it was coming from a million miles away. Exit. There was no exit, was there? They were going to die. That was it.

She thought she should be moving but she couldn't. Her body refused to move, even as the water started to rise up to her waist, bits of debris making it a deadly soup of materials that could all easily crush her against something. Still she was stuck, her mind having resigned itself to the fact that there was nothing that she could do.

"Come on, you guys, if we work together, it might mean something," called another voice. It sounded vaguely like that girl who'd been near her. Eliza.

It was followed by a yell of "We've got to try!" The words rang in Susan's ears, mixing with the water that was now starting to rapidly rise up to her face as she suddenly found herself having to kick with her feet to keep her head about the water level.


That finally stirred her brain into action. Daph. Cass. Mom. They need me to come home. I can't just accept my fate. No. I won't die. And Dad. I have to find Dad. Her mind finally unfroze, and she was able to move again. weakly paddling towards where Jack and Eliza were trying to clear a path through the larger rocks.

She knew she wasn't going to be much help in pushing the rocks, so she tried to make herself smaller, using her small stature to navigate the rocks to look for any signs of an exit, her mind functioning completely in survival mode, all other things forgotten as adrenaline ran through her veins like pure electricity.

Week 2 --- Post 5/5 --- 296 Words

Time drifted slowly and yet fast. Moira was in too much shock to process it any further. The man, who Moira could have sworn was the same man she had danced with earlier, was yelling and screaming for them to get out, for them to find an exit.

There was none. And the spa was filling with water, much faster than it ever had in Titanic.

This couldn’t be happening...

It appeared to be every person for themselves. Moira may have been a strong swimmer, but that wouldn’t do anything here.

She always heard drowning was a terrible way to go, and her survival instant was kicking in. But she had only enough time to process it before she was submerged.

The current prevented her from swimming to the door, which she had a feeling wasn’t going to help anyway. And it would be impossible to swim through the home in the ceiling.

As she started pounding against the wall, Moira’s life started to flash before her eyes. She already felt her breath leaving her.

This couldn’t be possible. Just an hour ago, she was getting coffee with her friends.

She was only 27. This couldn’t be the end.

Not when still had so much to do.

Moira reflexively opened her mouth, and sea water rushed in. Maybe it was the end. People died young all the time. You never thought it would happen to you... what she didn’t understand was how this had all happened so fast.

She shut her eyes, ready for the suffering to stop.

Week 2 — Post 5/5 — 255 Words

Jack was drowning, and as much as he tried to swim to the surface, he only sunk deeper and deeper into the dark abyss of the sea. He heard Olivia scream his name, and he heard his daughters cry for him to come back, but as much as he tried to reach for them, they were out of reach, out of mind, out of sight, gone. He tried to scream their names and tell them that he was here, that he he heard them, that he wanted to save them—but the sea swallowed his words and took the remaining oxygen from his body. He could do nothing but sink, letting the darkness engulf him.

Jack awoke with a desperate gasp of air, sitting straight up and instinctively wading like he was still in the water.

But... he wasn't.

He had to take a few moments to let his lungs take in the appropriate amount of oxygen while he let his heartbeat settle down, but after wiping his glasses from the rags of his wet shirt, he finally understood: he was on land.

Land. Land?

Jack shoveled the sand beside him and let it run through his fingers. How ironic that they set sail to an island, and here he was, alone and shipwrecked.

A sudden ache of adrenaline went down his spine as he remembered what happened. The boat was sinking. He remembered thinking he was going to drown, but he obviously didn't. What happened?

Even though his leg was in a throbbing pain with small glass shards starting tiny waterfalls of blood, Jack immediately got up to his feet and looked around to examine his surroundings. As he suspected, the ship was wrecked; wreckage was everywhere, littered on the sand and the ocean. There were also three other people sprawled on the beach, and then it dawned on him that these were the same people who were trapped with him in the spa room.

How the four of them survived this, he had no idea, nor did he care right now.

Jack wanted nothing but find Olivia. He felt so much fear and panic that his emotions seemed to be numbed and void; he knew finding survivors other than Olivia was the right thing to do, but after he found her, he wanted to do nothing but lay down and stare at the clouds passing by, hoping for this nightmare to end.

Hobbling over to the nearest person, Jack bent down to nudge them. "Hey. Get up. We need to find survivors."

He didn't wait for a response as he hobbled over to the two others, saying the same thing.

They needed each other's help if they were going to survive and rescue others.

Week 3 -- Post 1/5 -- 455 Words

When Moira came to, she thought she felt the overwhelming warmth of sunlight. She opened her eyes, and heard waves lapping in the distance. She was on a beach, and wreckage from the boat was everywhere. Her clothes were not only tattered, but soaked.

A British man's voice spoke to her. "Hey. Get up. We need to find survivors."

He walked away from her before Moira really had the chance to realize what had happened.

Somehow, they had survived. Even though the last Moira remembered, she was trapped in the spa, submerged in water. Barely able to breathe. About to drown. Anya. Jill. They must have made it. She remembered the call to abandon ship. They'd been trapped in the spa, and hadn't been able to go to the lifeboats... But her friends had.

Somehow, Moira managed to stand up. She wobbled a little bit, but didn't fall over.

"Hey!" She shouted to the man. "What's going on?"

It was a stupid question. Of course, he probably had no better of idea of that than she did. And yet, the reality of the situation hadn't sunken in. Not yet, anyway.

Week 3 -- Post 1/4 -- 188 words

The first thing Eliza felt was warmth above her and beneath her. She groggily opened her eyes. Green eyes met a blue sky. Eliza closed her eyes again, feeling tired.

A shadow crept into the corner of her eyes. "Hey, get up. We need to find survivors." The voice sounded rough but strangely familiar. Eliza slowly got up into a sitting position and looked around. Her dress was ruined beyond repair and soaked. Her shoes were lost, and so was her grandmother's shawl. She noticed three other people, the ones in the spa.

And...they were on an island. More specifically, the beach. Eliza looked out toward the ocean, but she couldn't see the SS Anastasia. A sinking feeling rose in her chest. They...they couldn't be the only survivors, could they?

That's ridiculous, she thought. Jack told us to look for other survivors. Maybe he's right. Martha and John have to be alive.

Eliza drew her knees up and inspected her foot. It was dark purple and blue, and little cuts were scattered all over the bottom. It throbbed painfully.

The other woman stood up wobbly, and shouted, "Hey, what's going on?"

It's fairly obvious, Eliza thought, but she didn't voice it aloud. The woman knew it was a stupid question too, by the look on her face.

Eliza took a deep breath, balanced herself on her uninjured foot, and stood up. But, her disorientation, along with only standing on one foot, made her falling forward. Out of habit, she used her right foot to balance herself.

Immediately, fresh pain exploded in her foot, and Eliza stumbled to the ground with a yelp.

"My foot hurts really bad," she said to the others. "I don't think I can walk on it."

Week 3-- Post 1/5-- 298 words