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The Haunted Halloween Cruise

My cousin Mel's third annual Halloween story...enjoy!

Chapter One
The long anticipated trip was finally happening. Jan, Mel and MB were on a flight that would take them to their cruise ship. One week on a Haunted Halloween Cruise was going to be more than a blast. Costumes were packed in their bags as well as swimwear and flip flops. MB was sitting with her laptop computer in front of her, Jan had her camera and was peering out the window trying to get some cool cloud photos and Mel was waiting camera in hand to snap a few shots after Jan was done.
A few moments later MB looked up from her computer, “What the heck is going on?!” she said with some alarm in her voice. She had heard some very strange sounds, a low deep growling noise and then they all heard a scream and loud banging noises.
The cabin door in front of them flew open and a huge Frankenstein-like monster emerged. He had blood dripping out of his mouth, a huge knife was sticking out of his chest and his eyes were wild with rage. He had a flight attendant by one arm and she screamed over and over again, ”Help me, please help me.”
No one moved from his or her seats. With mouths open in horror everyone watched the poor girl being attacked by the monster.
Then Jan started to laugh. She couldn’t help herself. It was so obvious that this was a set up to get everyone in the Halloween spirit. But the monster wasn’t amused and raising his head up glared straight at Jan. With a terrifying murderous look on his face he let go of the flight attendant, turned and lumbered down the aisle toward Jan and her cousins.

Chapter Two

As the Frankenstein monster drew closer Jan realized that this no joke, it was not a costume worn by some flight attendant and that the monster looked absolutely filled with rage. As he raised his large arms in front of him they saw how grotesque his hands were. They were covered with wounds that were oozing green pus. Midway toward them he paused and licked at the pus before moving forward again. Just as he got close enough that they could smell his foul breath, an Air Marshall came from behind the monster and quickly wrapped a rope around his ankles causing him to lose his balance. With that the monster fell to floor and gave a horrible grunt as the knife that was in his chest pushed all the way in and killed him. After what felt like an eternity several men came forward to help and with great difficulty they carried the monster off to be locked away till they landed.
“Man, that was a close call!” Jan said as she took a deep breath.
“Jan, you almost got us all killed!” Mel complained.
In that instant the lights went out and moments later the cabin of the plane was filled with hundreds of screeching vampire bats. Utter chaos broke out! Women were screaming and men were trying to hit at the bats to keep them away. When the lights finally came back on the bats were gone. Mel looked around to check on the others only to discover that Jan was sitting in her seat looking dazed with blood running down her neck. Mel yelled, “MB, look at Jan!” and they both hurried toward her noticing that the source of the blood came from what appeared to be a large bite.

Chapter Three

At last they were aboard the Haunted Halloween Cruise ship. It had been a strange flight and Jan insisted that she had not been bitten but had simply scratched her neck as she reached to ward off the flying bats. Even stranger was the fact that when they mentioned it to the flight attendant on the way out of the plane she looked at them as if they were crazy, said she had no idea what they talking about and added, “I can see that you three are going to enjoy your Halloween cruise!”
Jan just muttered under her breath something about that weird attendant while MB and Mel looked at each other and shrugged. They put the flight behind them, looking forward to the cruise.
Their rooms were next door to each other and they agreed to unpack and freshen up and be ready to take a walk around the ship in an hour.
The cousins went into their rooms and closed the doors. Jan loved her room. It wasn’t big but it felt cozy, was clean and had a few little Halloween decorations around. A little pumpkin sat on the dresser and a skeleton hung in the corner of the room.
Jan decided to shower right away and opened the door to the bathroom. It was dark in there and as she reached for the light she felt her blood grow cold and shivers run up and down her spine. She felt something, a stringy gossamer web, and thinking for an instant that it was just another Halloween decoration she reached in a little further and as she did an enormous hairy black spider appeared. It was then that she realized that she was stuck to the web and as she struggled to free herself she became even more tangled giving the spider time to move his long crawly legs in her direction. Its mouth was open and its blood red eyes were gleaming with delight at the thought of the meal set before him.

Chapter Four

The screaming was so loud that both MB and Mel heard it, knew it was Jan and ran to her room. Jan had left the door slightly ajar; pushing it open they saw Jan crouched on the floor. “What is it? Are you alright?” they both asked at once.
Jan opened her eyes and looked around her, there was no web and no spider. “I thought I saw a spider, a giant one in the bathroom. I was caught in its’ web and the spider was about to attack me!” MB turned on the light in the bathroom and looked around. She saw a little tiny spider in the corner, grabbed a tissue and squished it.
MB laughed and said, “We know you hate spiders, but come on, this little thing couldn’t hurt a fly, well maybe a fly but not you. I saved you, dear cousin, now get up and shower so we can go exploring.”
A short time later they met in the hallway and headed off to check out the ship.
The crew and many others were dressed in costumes already because tonight would be the Midnight Halloween Ball. As they walked about they saw all kinds of ugly masks as well as cute angels, ghosts and Harry Potter outfits.
They had stopped for a little light snack and were heading back to their cabins when Jan noticed a sign that said, “Haunted Happenings This Way!” with a big arrow pointing to a small door. On the door was another sign that read, “Enter If You Dare!”
“Let’s go!” Jan said excitedly and MB opened the door.
There were candles lighting the way down an unadorned hallway. A sharp turn to the left and then stairs headed down into darkness.
Mel peered down the stairs, turned and to the others and screamed, “Boo!” Jan and MB jumped and laughing, Mel said, “Ha, ha! I got you. This isn’t so scary.”
“Let’s just keep on going, come on!” Jan grabbed a candlestick and led the way down the dark stairs.

Chapter Five

As they reached the bottom of the stairs the door above them slammed shut and locked with a loud click. The blast of air from the closing door blew out the flame. All three were breathing hard and for a moment that was the only sound they heard. They turned into a damp dark room. A loud creaking noise filled the air sounding like the opening of a heavy wooden box. “I don’t like this, let’s get out of here!” MB whispered.

“NOT SO FAST,” a deep voice boomed. “Come in, come into my parlor!”

They really had no choice since the door above them was locked. Together they moved into the room. A tiny bit of light came from a fire that blazed in the fireplace in the corner of the room. The strange thing was that there was no heat coming from it. Before them in the dim light they saw a large coffin with an open top and a dark figure lying inside.

As they held onto each other the deep voice sounded again reciting a strange rhyming poem,

Tonight at the Halloween ball,
Only ONE will hear my call.
In full moonlight a golden box she’ll see,
Inside on red velvet she will find a key,
Once in hand she need only wait,
Not to disappoint, I won’t be late.
Blood that’s meant for a lovers bite
I’ll share with her this very night.

With that the firelight was extinguished and everything went dark.

Chapter Six

An overhead light switched on, the coffin was gone, the fireplace was gone and the room was filled with stacks and stacks of boxes. An older man with a toolbox in hand came toward them from the other side of the room yelling at them, “What the heck are you ladies doing down here? Didn’t you see the sign on the door, CREW ONLY?”

Jan yelled back at him, “We saw a sign for a Halloween Happening and followed that down here. Maybe you should check that out!” The man just waved his hand at them in disgust and led them back up the stairs. The signs they had seen were gone and there was no evidence of any Haunted Happening event going on. There was only one sign on the door that clearly said, “CREW ONLY!”

“There is no sign for some Halloween thingy here, is there? Now, good-bye and don’t poke your noses in places they don’t belong, understand?” he said as he walked away.

“What the heck was all that about?” Mel said.

“Who knows?” MB stammered.

“Well I for one am enjoying this spooky cruise!” Jan offered. “And I am going to check out the Halloween store. Care to join me?”

When they entered the store it was full of passengers getting last minute costume accessories for the Halloween Ball.

Jan saw a display of rings. There were spider rings, skull rings, and one that caught her eye right away. It had a red stone that looked like a drop of blood. On either side of the drop were two silver pointy fangs and along the bottom was the word “blood” made out of some other dark metal. Jan picked up the ring and slid it onto her finger. Immediately it burned into her skin and with a loud scream she fell to the floor.

After getting Jan outside in the fresh air she swore she was fine. The ring was not on her finger. She thought to herself that it must have fallen off when they moved her outside.

“It was so hot in there,” MB said, “I thought I was having a hot flash.”

“Are you okay now?” Mel asked Jan.

“Yeah, fine. Thanks.’ Jan answered. “It’s late, let’s go get some rest before the ball!”

Chapter Seven

A few hours later they were at the ball. Mel was dressed as an old hag, MB was dressed as a Dackel Princess and Jan had on a black gown with a long flowing cape and fake fangs in her mouth. It was all so grand. Lights flickered, carved pumpkins with candles inside glowed on every table. Costumes of every imaginable kind paraded around the room. Music blared and festive treats lined the buffet table.

As they sat eating Jan heard her name being called. She figured she heard it wrong and it was one of the sound effects except it kept going on and on. “Who is calling my name? I wish it would stop!” she said.

Mel and MB just looked at her and Mel said, “I don’t hear anything?”

“Oh, I thought I heard something, forget it. I need some air, I’ll be right back!” With that Jan made her way outside. She glanced at the nearby clock on the wall and saw that it was just midnight. Out on deck the moon was full and bright but from time to time dark clouds passed over it.

Jan looked down and sitting at her feet in the moonlight was a silver box. She opened it and inside lying on red velvet was a key. Remembering the poem she took the key and held it tightly in her hand.

Instantly a dark figure approached her from behind and taking hold of Jan’s shoulders, turned her around to face him. In the shadowy light Jan recognized the pale face framed with curtains of black hair: Snape! At that moment he bent down, bit her neck and drew a bit of fresh red blood out of her and into him. “At last we are to be one!” he said. With that Jan realized that she too was now a vampire. Snape offered her his neck and she quickly and feverishly bit it, drawing her first taste of blood from him.

As they both stood there with drops of blood trickling from their mouths, Jan felt something burning on her finger and looked down--the ring from the Halloween shop was once again on her finger! Snape looked at the ring, then meeting her glaze and said, “To bind us together this night and every Halloween night for all eternity!”