Kerrie crouched in the corner of the stairwell. Her hair was pulled into a ponytail, a few strands hanging loose. A cut ran along her cheek. Her breathing was heavy, ribcage expanding like an eagle spreading its wings. She held her heels in her right hand.

Kerrie peered down to the next floor, the lights flickering below. She lowered herself down the flight of stairs, her eyes darting for any sudden movements. Screams echoed from the floors above. Kerrie exited the stairwell.

This was her floor. The hallway was a long tunnel paneled with the doors of passenger cabins. Kerrie's cabin was at the end of the hall, where it was safe. Neil would be there. Maybe they could put what happened behind them and be safe together. She would feel better with someone else, even if it was Neil.

The flickering light was now above her. The light pulsed off the sweat on her shoulders as if electric currents rippled across the ceiling.

Kerrie moved down the hallway, her bare feet sinking into the carpet. The hallway seemed to stretch further with each step, the air thinning along with it. She quickened her pace, the flickers fading behind her. She heard more screams above.

Kerrie ran.

Her ponytail trailed behind her, caught in a jet stream as the air rushed around her face. The balls of her feet sprang off the carpet, her legs lunging forward with each stride. The screaming from above became muffled as her heart pounded in her ears.

She slid to a stop, the soles of her feet burning as they braked against the carpet. She searched for her key card, her clammy hand digging through her purse. When she pulled the key card out, it slipped from her fingers. As Kerrie reached to pick it up, a cabin door opened from behind her.

A large woman stumbled out. She reached for Kerrie and grabbed her shoulders.

"Help me, please." The woman spoke without emotion, devoid of any life. "My head. It hurts. Help me."

"I'm sorry, I—"

"HELP ME." The woman slammed Kerrie against the door. "GET IT OUT."

The woman shook Kerrie's shoulders back and forth in quick succession. Kerrie's feet squirmed, trying to get a sure footing.

The woman's eyes began to bleed. She placed her meaty hands around Kerrie's face. Her palms were thick, like two couch cushions—the hands of a giant.

"Is it in your head too?" The woman asked. "We must get it out."

The woman slammed Kerrie's head into the door.

"GET IT OUT."

She slammed Kerrie's head again, a deep sound that threatened to rip the door from its hinges. Kerrie's left hand reached up and tried to pull the woman's hands from her face. Her head slammed into the door again, vision blurring. Kerrie's right hand dropped one of her heels. The woman pulled Kerrie's head back for another slam that would surely crack her head open. Kerrie took her remaining heel and drove it into the woman's eye. The woman swayed backward and landed on her back like a plank of wood. Her head hit the floor with a crack and a pool of blood formed around her.

Kerrie grabbed the key card, unlocked the door and slipped inside her cabin. With her back to the door, she slid to the floor.

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The room was dark, and Neil hadn't returned. Kerrie took a moment to breathe, the sweat along her spine feeling cool against the door. She felt safer with the door shut behind her, but would it be enough to protect her from the woman if she awoke? Kerrie had felt the door rattle behind her when the woman had sent her crashing into it moments ago. If the woman wanted, she could knock the door off the frame.

Kerrie walked through the room and collapsed on the bed. The moonlight shone in, like a crystal pillar of light illuminating her skin. She lay still, her body sinking into the mattress as a series of moments flashed through her mind. She couldn't wrap her head around any of it.

This can't be happening.

She remembered Neil's face crumbling like a stone to dust, carried away by the ocean wind until his body was a silhouette against the fading sky. His shoulders slouched and his hands were in his pocket. He didn't look back.

Then, she heard the screaming from the theatre. Kerrie made her way back to the performance to see what was happening, but she never made it through the crowd. People poured from the theatre in a stampede. She was knocked down by a man carrying a child, her face smacking against the cold tile. She lifted her head and a foot stomped on her face. Another in her stomach.

Kerrie noticed the blood when she got back to her feet. The blood was everywhere. It soaked into their clothes. It painted their faces. A man crawled from the theatre and she stared into his eyes. They were the eyes of a man who had met his end, a man who looked death upon its face and saw what waited beneath his feet as the rope frayed. A bellowing darkness, its jaw unhinging to consume the entirety of the vessel.

Kerrie saw a shadow reach from the theatre and pull the man back in. The man's hands clawed at the ground and then he disappeared as the double doors swung shut. She second-guessed what she saw. It wasn't anything human.

That was when Kerrie headed back to her cabin, her legs moving on their own. Much like how her lungs breathed of their own accord or how her heart pumped to its own beat, she didn't have to think about running. She just did.

The rest of the cruise was filled with the same horror, as if a coordinated set of time bombs all went off at once, sending the entire ship into hysteria. Even as a nurse, Kerrie had never seen so much blood before.

And now Kerrie waited for Neil. It would be best to wait for him. She couldn't marry him but there was strength in numbers.

She fell asleep and awoke to a screech from the cabin above. A chair skidded across the floor. And then a thump.

It had been a couple of hours and Neil never came back. Kerrie sat up. Maybe she should find Neil and make sure he was okay. Kerrie regretted ever thinking she would be happy if she never saw him again.

Kerrie moved into the washroom and danced out of her dress. She watched her reflection as she took off her earrings, her figure looking frail in comparison to that woman. Her shoulders were like doorknobs, rolling as she moved from one ear to the next.

She ran the water, her finger testing the temperature. With both hands, she splashed the warmth over her face and washed the blood from the cut on her cheek. She looked into her dark eyes.

You can do this. You can find Neil.

Kerrie moved to her luggage and slipped on a pair of green khakis and a white tee. She put on her sneakers and looked at her phone before sliding it into her pocket with the key card, still no signal.

Kerrie reached for the door and then stopped. She remembered what she saw upstairs. The blood. The screaming people. The shadow that reached from the theatre. She couldn't leave empty-handed. She turned and grabbed a knife that came with last night's room service and tucked it in her back pocket.

Kerrie moved to the door and looked through the peephole. The woman was still lying on her back.

Slowly opening the door, Kerrie stepped over the woman. She looked down into the woman's bloated face, eyes open and an unblinking. Her jowls hung low, almost touching the floor. She realized the woman's entire skull had cracked open like an egg.

What the hell.

Kerrie was equipped for the sight of blood, but this was horrifying. It was unnatural. She had never seen this in any of her patients, let alone her schoolbooks.

When Kerrie moved back toward the stairway, she heard a sound. The rustling came from the maintenance closet.

Kerrie stopped.

It was in there. The thing that made everyone go mad. The thing that dragged the man into the theatre.

Kerrie bent her knees and pulled the knife from her back pocket. The blade was smooth against the cotton fabric.

Something banged against the door.

Sweat ran down Kerrie's temple.

The handle turned, slowly as if the creature was still learning how to use it, and then the door swung open. A mop fell out, the stick hitting the hallway floor. And then out stepped a little girl. She didn't look older than the age of five. She wore a red polka-dot dress.