Young Writers Society

Alex woke up with a throbbing headache. She sat up, wondering if what happened last night had been a dream. No, it hadn't been.

Bo had really been in her room. She'd really tried to kiss him, and been turned down flat. Sighed, rubbing her temples as stood up. She was surprised that she'd slept as well as she had, and had no dreams.

Alex heard others talking outside her room and figured she wasn't going to be able to avoid Bo forever. She walked over to her wardrobe and saw an outfit waiting for her. It was a long burnt orange fuzzy sweater. Denim capris. Pointed black flats. The same thing Anna Karina had worn in a famous picture of her that Alex had seen in a magazine once. The clothes made her feel pretty, even if she didn't think she pulled it off as well as Anna.

She left her room when she saw Bo talking to Kirux. She caught eyes with Bo for a moment before continuing on ahead to the main hall, where Richard Beymer was waiting for her with scrambled eggs and toast. After all of these years, he was still so handsome.

She sighed, thinking about that one Sylvia Plath poem that Jay had quoted on the first day they'd met.I shut my eyes and all the world drops dead. I think I made you up inside my head. But even Sylvia Plath never had any trouble getting boyfriends.

"Why doesn't anyone want to be with me, Richard?" She asked. "No one's ever liked me except Jay."

"I don't think that's true. You think out of all the people in the world, only one person has ever wanted to be with you? You're twenty-one years old," Richard said.

"Like I'm going to meet someone in prison," Alex said.

"Don't worry about that right now," Richard replied. "Now, be a good girl and eat your breakfast."

**

Sarah woke up, and for a moment she expected that she'd back in her own bedroom, back beside Ed, and she'd be able to wake up and make breakfast for her son.

No. She was still on this goddamn cruise ship, alongside her ex-husband's teenage squeeze and five other people, with no seeming escape, the one that had everything they ever wanted yet still had felt like a prison. In that vein, when she opened her closet she saw the cutest outfit. A knee length multicolored skirt. A long black shirt with a scoop neck. Brown clogs. It was exactly the kind of new outfit she'd been wanting for springtime, as, back at home, she hadn't bought new clothes in years.

She tied hair back in a low ponytail and went to meet the others outside. Except it was just Bo and Kirux. Where was everyone else?

"Hello," she said.

Bo had not expected the sudden hug, but he'd needed it. His brows raised a little before he returned it, giving Kirux a pat on the back.

"Hey. Good morning, Kirux."

It was mid-hug that he looked up and saw Alex, making brief eye contact before she tore her gaze away and walked down the hall. He tried to imagine what it was like to be in her shoes. Feeling awkward, rejected, uncomfortable, unwanted. Probably embarrassed and ashamed. He wasn't sure what the rest of their trip on this boat was going to look like going forward.

He pulled away from Kirux as Sarah came out, fully dressed, and looking nice. For a moment, he wondered if he should've actually tried and done the same, but then he decided it was too late. Besides, he was a prisoner on a cruise ship in some pocket dimension or whatever. He could stay in his sweats if he wanted to. And lucky for him, his head was buzzed so he didn't have to worry about bed hair or anything.

"Hey, Sarah," he said with a small smile. "I think everyone's still waking up. That, or they're already wandering around the ship again. Alex just went down the hall to get breakfast I think, but we can check to see if the others are up yet first."

As he said the last sentence, he went to the next door - Meg's - and knocked, still looking over at Sarah and Kirux.

"I don't know if anyone wanted to sleep in, but uh, I'm doing this anyway, haha."

Megara had given up and gone to bed eventually, but she was already awake when the knock sounded on her door. The lack of sleep combined with the infuriating culminated in the mother of all headaches pounding at her skull.

Familiar armor was in the wardrobe. She opted to stay in the nightgown.

She opened the door and blinked at the one behind it. Why did he have to be so much taller than her? She tried for an at least moderately friendly expression with limited success, "Yes?" she asked, leaning on the doorway.

"Just checking in on everybody after last night," Bo said with a small smile. "Have you heard from Tim or Winter yet? They're the only guys who don't seem to be up yet, I think."

She shook her head, "Tim's not back yet?" Of everyone here, she'd think that he would be one to get some sleep. Or maybe not. She really didn't know that kid that well.

Kirux shook his head. He hadn't checked up on Tim or Winter, either! But at least Megara was up - she was really nice the night before. And Sarah was up, too. A conflicted expression flickered across his face. He wanted to greet both of them, but he didn't think he could hug them at the same time.

He crossed his arms and thought long and hard on it.

(Long and hard being a few seconds.)

Once he came to his decision, he darted over to Megara and gave her a really quick hug before running over to Sarah and doing the same. Less than a minute later, he was back where he had been before - with a noticeable increase in energy.

He swung his arms back and forth. For good measure, he alternated between balancing on his heels and balancing on the entirety of his foot. Today felt like a really good day!

Sarah let Kirux hug her. He was so sweet. After she let him go, she turned to the others. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Alex eating breakfast in the main hall, but ignored her for now.

"Have you tried knocking on their doors?" Sarah asked, referring to Tim and Winter. When no one replied, she did just that. Nothing.

"Tim? Winter?" She called. Both doors were locked. She tried knocking again. Nothing. "I don't think they're here. I'm going to see if I can try and find them. It's a ship. There's only so many places they can be."

Without another word, she disappeared down the hallway. She tried to remember something she'd learned in school. On a ship, the Captain's quarters were usually in the back. Something was calling there. She tried a few floors before she finally arrived, on the same floor as the reading room.

She opened the door. And sure enough, Tim and Winter were there. In a cage. With Jay. No, not Jay.

And then, he changed. Before her was now a girl of about sixteen.

It was -

"Hi mom," said the girl. "Why didn't you save me?"

No, it couldn't be. Not Susan. Susan would only be eleven now. And yet, didn't mothers always wonder what their children would be like when they grew up? This wasn't her. It was all a trick.

"You're not her," Sarah said. "This is all a trick."

"But I can't let you leave," said the being pretending to be her daughter.

Tim and Winter watched helplessly as Sarah was led into the cage.

Winter stared at the captain, her unblinking eyes never so much as glancing away. The captain is cruel for cruel's sake, Summer would say if she were really here and not just the form the mimic choose to take, Stay away from people like that. They won't do good even if they want to.

Winter's fingers wrapped around the bars, and she realized something. Metal bars, metal cage. Such things could be so brittle in her hands if she just...

The heat from the bars wasn't much, but as it drew into Winter she could see frost begin to creep up the metal. She turned her eyes to it curiously, and pushed. It shattered, more brittle than glass.



Megara tried Tim's door after Sarah. Locked with no answer wasn't a good sign, but Sarah was probably right. Tim wasn't likely to be in his room.

Still, it was a property damage kind of morning.

She stepped back and one solid kick later, the door broke free of its hinges. The splintered wood of the doorframe snagged the edge of her nightgown as she moved the door out of the way, but before she even took a moment to free it, she could see that Tim wasn't there. That was bad for someone, she was sure. Who remained to be determined.

Quickly, she followed after Sarah, not because she thought Sarah had any idea where to look, but because Megara had no more idea than she.

She saw Sarah walk into a room, and Magara followed to the doorway, slowing her pace to listen as she went. She heard voices. The captain - gods, that was a stupid name for that thing - and Sarah.

"I can't let you leave."

Megara decided against revealing her presence just yet. She stood next to the doorway, against the wall and out of sight from inside, and listened, glancing back to check if anyone else had followed.

Sarah and Meg very quickly ran off to go find Tim (and presumably Winter) but he had no idea where they were going. He was ticking off the list of people in his head. Winter and Tim seemed to be missing (or just off somewhere else, but everything was suspicious), Sarah and Meg were going to find them, Kirux was with him, and Alex was off having breakfast.

Well. Someone had to let Alex know.

Bo looked over to Kirux.

"Hey, while they're out looking for 'em, we should go tell Alex that we can't find them so she's in the know. Wanna come with me?"

He figured it would be good to have someone else with him, and Kirux - who was more a child in character and manner than anyone else, and was exceptionally kind - would hopefully serve as a good... quiet? Mediator? Or just a calming presence of sorts. He didn't know. He just hoped Alex would even listen to him. He didn't know.

Tim was already starting to make his predictions - by the end of the morning, all of them would be inside of the cage. The captain didn't seem too sadistic. Safety wasn't something he was worried about. But he still needed to keep track of everyone who entered, just in case an opportunity to escape appeared.

Case in point: Winter apparently could freeze things to the point of shattering them.

The captain was there. They wouldn't be able to escape. But, at the very least, he could see how the captain would react.

He'd find the captain's weak spot.

And then he would use it to get out of here for good.


Kirux gave a big nod. Talking to Alex seemed like a good idea! He wasn't sure where everyone else was, but maybe they could find them on the way.

Bo smiled at the nod before leading the way down the hall, stopping in the doorway and looking in where Alex was quietly eating her breakfast of eggs and toast. He knocked on the outer wall to announce their presence.

"Hey, Alex," he said, stepping in the room. "We tried checking in on everyone this morning and no one's seen or heard from Tim or Winter, and they aren't in their rooms. Sarah and Meg went out to go try and see where they are, but I figure it's a pretty big ship, and it might be a good idea to have another group going out to look for 'em. Just to make sure they're okay. Especially after that whole... thing with the captain and all. We still don't really know what the captain's deal is. As in, who they actually are and stuff. But yeah. Would you wanna join Kirux and I as we look for 'em?"

Winter stepped out of the cage and summoned a flame into her hand. Her veins glowed gold with the heat of the flame in her wrists. The glow faded out by the time it reached her elbow, but she could feel the heat spreading much further. It felt like her skin was finally thawing after being devoid of heat for so long, and the burning heat in her chest was slowly cooling.

It was odd. Equalizing.

She should use her heat more often.

She held the flame out toward the captain, "Do not come near me," she said firmly.



Whatever was happening in that room, it didn't sound good.

No one else was coming. At least, not yet. Megara cursed internally. She couldn't look into the room without giving herself away, and she didn't know what the captain was capable of beyond just changing his shape.

So, she stood there, forever hesitating.

"Sure," Alex said, putting down her fork and following Bo and Kirux.

She thought now of this one episode of Gilligan's Island, where headhunters slowly captured each of them, one by one. When each castaway didn't return to camp, another would go to look for them. And before the end, all of them were captured. Seven of them. Seven castaways. And no Gilligan to accidentally save the day. Alex didn't have a good feeling about this, but didn't know what other choice they had.

"You know, I'm not sure how you saw the Captain," Alex said. "But he manifested as my husband. And Sarah, she used to be married to him, so. She saw him too. That's why we were fighting."

She was lying through her teeth about being married to Jay, but she wasn't sure what else to call him. What else Bo would understand. She had momentarily forgotten that she had told the others who she was, and one, Bo probably knew she was lying and two, she'd basically admitted things were over by trying to kiss him last night.

After a relatively silent walk, they found their way to the Captain's quarters. Meg was standing outside.

**

The fact that there were seven beds unnerved Sarah. The captain was still looking like a grown up version of her dead daughter that would never be, and she tried her best not to look in that direction.

She wondered what was going on at home. The last thing she'd remembered, she'd fallen asleep in the bed that she shared with Ed. Was she having some kind of fever dream? She wasn't sick, and she hadn't eaten or drunk anything unusual.

"What do you want with us?" Sarah said. "We have families."

"Oh, don't worry," said the Captain. "Once you return to your ordinary lives, it'll be like no time has passed. Your loved ones won't know a thing."

Sarah wasn't sure if she was imaging it, but she thought she heard voices outside.

Winter had gotten out, but Tim had a sneaking suspicion that the captain would somehow get her to return to the cage.

So Tim didn't make a move to leave.

He just stood where he was, watching the imitation of his girlfriend with a gaze far too cold for someone who couldn't even legally drive a car yet.

"You do realize who my family is, don't you?" Tim asked. The Drakes were admittedly wealthy, but Tim knew that the captain knew which family he was really talking about. The ones who dressed up in imaginative costumes and moonlighted as vigilantes. "Something tells me the world's greatest detective isn't going to be all that fond of what you're doing here."


Kirux immediately grinned behind the cloth covering his mouth when he saw Megara.

A second later, he was giving her a sudden, quick hug like he had given everyone else.

He felt really sad for Alex and Sarah. He didn't get why they were fighting earlier - if they both loved the same person, that meant that person got extra love! He wanted Winnie to get lots of love, even if he was the only family she had.

But he really liked Megara, so he was able to put aside his sadness and give her a hug.

Winter stepped back as the captain stepped toward her. Her flame flickered. The captain's attention was barely on her as she suddenly found herself stumbling back into the cage. Your flames aren't for hurting people, she could hear Summer reminding her. She could see Summer in front of her. So as the captain stepped toward her, she stepped back and the bars reformed before her.

She blinked.

Extinguishing the flame, she reached out again and tried to draw the heat from the bars. The frost spread across them, and she continued to drag out the heat, every last bit, and pushed. They remained steadfast, unmoved. She frowned, turned, and went to sit cross-legged on one of the beds.

It was to be like that, then.

She could not escape, so she waited. It was easy to wait. Perhaps the captain would give up. They might discover that they were not the people they were looking for and let them back to where they were before. That would be nice.

xXx

Megara returned Kirux's hug. Looking at the others, she put a finger to her lips and inclined her head toward the door. She could only hope they understood.