Grissom could see the boat more clearly now that he was only a few feet away from it. He thought at first that the ship was another yacht that was drifting in the sea. However, he finally realized that the boat was no boat; it was a ship, a cruise liner to be exact. It had been floating in the ocean, abandoned and ghostly for decades; the whole hull of the ship had been rusted and weathered by the salt of the sea. Grissom slowed the boat down to a snail pace, as Catherine and Grissom both stared in awe at what they had discovered.
It was the first time either of them had seen a cruise ship up close let alone one that has been weathered by time. As they stared at the magnificent creature of man maid strength and build staring at them. Catherine looked at the brass lettering that was bolted into the bow of the boat. The shine from the letters was no longer there, however Catherine could still make out what it said, the ship was named The Britannica. Gil turned the boat around doubling back to inspect the other side of the ship. It was basically the same accept for the gaping hole that was two floors up from the bottom of the boat that was submerged underwater. Gil stopped the boat as he and Catherine stared at the beauty that was once the interior of this ship.
The wood that made the walls and floors was weathered and black, water dripped from the ceiling pooling on the furniture that had been upholstered decades ago. A smashed chandelier was scattered across the floor along with a passenger�s clothes and belongings. It looked like a bomb had gone off in this room and affected no one else. Birds from the outside would fly in and out of the hole trying to look for some easy food, but would have no such luck. Catherine could reach up from the deck of the boat and almost touch the floor to the ancient stateroom.
�Let�s go exploring,� Catherine stated as she turned to look at her husband who was trying to keep the boat steady. A smile radiated across her lips, this would be the adventure of a life time.
�Cath, no, we cannot go exploring, this boat is falling apart we could get killed.� Gil replied trying to keep a level head in all of this.
�Oh come on Gil, it would be an adventure of a life time, I mean imagine what we could find on here, we could be like treasure seekers,�
�Okay, I think someone has had a little too much sun today,�
Catherine shot her husband a look of distain as she walked over to the other side of the bow of the yacht and pressed the button on the mechanism that housed the chain and anchor for the boat as it slowly descended down into the ocean searching for the solid ocean floor. Gil had no chance in hell trying to stop that from happening. His wife was determined to go exploring like Lara Croft on an ancient ocean liner, with or without her husband. As much as Gil was not enjoying this idea he did not want to have his wife wandering a falling apart boat on her own.
�Before we go, let�s get flashlights and weapons,� Gil replied seeing his wife trying to figure a way up into this gaping hole.
�Weapons?� Catherine questioned as she turned to look at her husband. She followed Gil into the galley as he grabbed the flashlights that were with the first aid kit and searched for the two biggest knives that were in this kitchen. �What exactly are you searching for?� she nagged as she shinned the flashlight on the walls making sure they work.
�The biggest knives we�ve got, we need some sort of protection up their, you never know who might be calling this liner their home,�
�You mean ghosts?�
Gil turned to look at his wife who had a broad smile on her face and the flashlight under her chin as if she was about to tell a spooky ghost story around a camp ground of kids. He shook his head, knowing his wife�s childish behavior was poking out, she thought of this as an adventure that comes out of a novel or movie. Gil was trying to be realistic about the situation, he was trying to keep a level head, but it was pointless. His wife had a one track mind and right now it was focused on this ship.
�The quicker we go on your adventure the quicker we can get back to our vacation,� Gil replied as he handed his wife a butcher knife. Catherine rolled her eyes and the knife back into the drawer and followed her husband back outside.
�Now how exactly do you plan on getting up there?�
Both of them stared at the hole, trying to think analytically about the situation but it was useless. The harder they would think about it the fewer ideas would be floating to their heads. Grissom walked up to the hole in the boat, he was a little taller than his wife and could actually touch the bottom of the hole from the deck on the yacht. All he needed was a little bit of leverage to get up their. Grissom looked around the deck of the yacht searching for something such as a step stool or small ladder to get up their.
�Cath, can you pass me that crate over their, I think that will make me tall enough to get up their,� Gil asked as Catherine grabbed the empty crate that once housed some of the food they had consumed on the trip and placed it on the ground where Gil stood.
Gil stepped up on top of crate and was able to reach up farther than just the edge of the hole. He gripped the side of the boat with both of his hands and hoisted his body up into the stateroom, squirm his body across the wet molded floor like a worm until his whole body was up into the room. Catherine attempted to do the same thing but instead of grabbing the lip to the room her hands slipped and she almost came crashing down onto the deck of the yacht however Grissom was able to grab her hands just in time. He pulled his wife�s light body up into the stateroom in one easy pull. Both of them stood in the half intact bedroom of one of the passengers that was once on this ship
Catherine wasted no time in scouting out the belongings that were still in the bedroom. She shinned her flashlight over every nook and cranny of the room, hoping to come across something that would perk her interest. Just then she saw something lying on the ground close to the door. Catherine walked over to it, as she moved closer it reminded her of a dead body, one that she is used to examining in her daily job. She was beginning to get jitters crawling up and down her skin, this was not like her job, usually the bodies are found soon after they have met their demise, and if this is a real body it must have been here for decades.
Gil joined his wife at her side, both of there flashlights beaming on to the same area of the ground, trying to decipher if what was lying there was a dead body or not. The familiar smell of decomposition could not be smelt in the room; however the slat of the sea was right beside them so it could be masked. Catherine knelt down beside the object and touched it gently with her fingers; the legs felt more like cloth then dead skin. She picked it up and noticed that what had spooked them was a doll. It had of course been lying there for years, but it once looked brand new and belonged to a little girl.
�A little girl stayed in here,� Catherine replied as she looked back at Grissom, tears welled in her eyes, it reminded her of her own daughters back home.
�Cath, come look at this,� Gil replied as he walked across the creaking floor, he hoped that the floor would not give under their weight from weathering for numerous of years.
Propped up on one of the wooden shelves that are now slanted from being destroyed in what ever had happened on this ship was a stuffed animal. It was a teddy bear, the same exact teddy bear that they had witnessed stuffed into the hole down in the coral reef on their camera. This was no ordinary little girl�s room; this is the room to the little girl that had been stalking them ever since this trip had begun. Gil grabbed the teddy bear off the shelf that was cold and dripping water, as if it had been submerged in the water.
�Look familiar,� Gil said as he watched the eyes on his wife widen in fear. �This is her room, she wanted us to see this, she�s brought us here,� he replied putting the teddy bear back.
�If she has brought us here, then their must be something that we have to do to help her, Gil I know you do not believe in hocus pocus stuff, but you cannot deny what has been happening on this trip so far. Ever since the plane ride here she has been leaving us clues, most of which have scared us, but maybe she is trying to speak to us.� Catherine explained as she could see the look on Gil�s face, he didn�t believe a word she was saying. �Gil, sweetheart, you know how we speak for the dead day in and day out, now the dead is speaking to us, we have to help her,� she explained.
Gil thought long and hard about this, he did not want to go on a wild goose chase in order to help the ghost of a dead girl trapped on an age old ocean liner. On the other hand, he cannot deny the strange things he witnessed hands on. He looked down at his hand and the emblem was still burned into it, out of everything that has happened, the encounter he had with this child has come to close to home. She has branded him with something that has a great meaning to her, but is oblivious to him. His curiosity was beginning to get the better of him, he cannot deny what his wife has said, she is right, she is trying to speak to them, she is trying to explain her story to two people she believes are able to help her.
�Alright, let�s go,� Gil replied as they headed out into what was once a beautiful hallway where the guests on this liner once walked in dress shoes and high heels.
Catherine and Gil traversed down the hall; the carpets that were once beautiful were now muddy and grungy over the years. The wallpaper that once decorated the walls was falling off, as mould and grease was seeping out through the rotting decay. The hallway was littered with small tables and chairs from an assortment of rooms, peoples clothes were scattered everywhere a mix of men and women. Moths had at one time eaten giant holes into the once elegant clothes the passengers wore.
As they continued down the hallway they had reached the main hall that ran perpendicular to the hall they were on stretching from the starboard to port side of the ship. At the end of the hall there was what remained of two winding oak stair cases that led down to the lower deck and the main hall of the ship. Catherine leaned her body against the banister of the hall as she over looked the beauty of the room. She imagined herself dressed in a long evening gown, with gloves up to her elbows and clicking high heels. She could picture Gil and herself, their arms entwined in one another�s as they headed down the beautiful oak staircase, the other passengers on looking them, jealous of their status and met with other down in the main hall, the crystal of the chandelier above glistening down upon them.
It was almost like a fairy tale dream, this ship was what the people who were on it saw as a dream machine. Everyone was rich and of high status, probably all European heading to North America to visit relatives or either to make a new life abroad. This ocean liner was the best of it�s time; it was the biggest ship since the tragic loss of the Titanic. The passengers ate, slept, and socialized in style, the d�cor would have been magnificent. Catherine could just picture the smiles on the men�s faces, and the jewels that dangled from the women�s bodies.
�Catherine?� Gil asked, seeing that his wife was leaning against wood that would probably snap if she placed too much weight on it. �Catherine, sweetheart, you need to back away from the banister before you plummet to your death,� Gil said as he grabbed her shoulder pulling her away from the danger.
�Oh, I�m sorry, I was just thinking about how amazing it would have been to be back then, to be rich and famous and live in the life of luxury upon an ocean liner.� Catherine replied as they carefully walked down the oak staircase, �I bet the passengers had bucket loads of cash on them while traveling, maybe we can come into a wad of money.�
Gil laughed at his wife�s thoughts about treasure seeking on an old cruise liner in the middle of the ocean. It seems like it is something out of a movie that this was not even happening in real life. Gil thought of himself as an actor, playing out his role in order to help this child, who is not even living any longer, to find out what happened on this boat. It was like examining an ancient crime scene that was just discovered, it almost seemed that this little girl had chosen Catherine and Gil for the reasons that they are trained in the researching of crimes.
The couple examined the main hall to the ship that at one time looked beautiful and served a purpose. They walked throughout the room, investigating what was once on the beautiful walls, the tables that were now turned upside down, and the debris that was scattered across the floor. Catherine smiled, twirling around the floor looking up to the ceiling that she had finally noticed were coated with murals that were now covered with a layer of dirt and grime that had been accumulating over the years. Catherine shinned her flashlight over the drawings, as she could make out the forms of angles over looking the Garden of Eden. The Tree of Knowledge was in the center with Adam standing on one side, respectfully having a fig leaf covering his privates. Eve was standing on the other side of the tree, a snake was coiled around her body as she held an apple in her hand, and a bite had been taken out of it. The whole mural was depicted the fall of man. A very ironic painting for the outcome of what happened to the passengers years ago.
�She was beautiful at one time wasn�t she?� the little girl�s voice could be heard from behind them as Catherine spun around at the sound of her voice.
The little girl stood in the center of the room; her eyes were pinned on Catherine and Gil not moving an inch as if she were afraid they would disappear. She was dressed in a pink dress, her skin was ghostly pale and her blonde hair was in French buns with ribbon entwined through the strands of hair. Her piercing blue eyes welled with tears and the marks of what had happened to her on this boat were imprinted on her neck; she was hung.
�I can show you what she looked like when I was on this ship as a passenger and not a prisoner,� she said as she waved her hand in the air, Catherine and Gil took a step back as they watched with their eyes the destruction of what has happened disappear and the main hall fill with it�s beauty it was robbed of.
The room illuminated like a light bulb as Catherine moved her eyes across the room, mesmerized by its beauty that was appearing before her eyes. The walls that were once covered with grim were now paneled with fresh oak as the smell of it filled the room. The floor�s clutter of debris had vanished as the white marble that was hidden was exposed and shinned as if it was just buffered. Catherine looked up at the ceiling the murals she was admiring looked freshly pained and a large crystal chandelier was posed in the center for the ceiling shinning like the North Star.
�You see, this place was once made of beauty and grace, it once housed good willing people who believed that their only purpose on this boat was to be carried from place to place. Now this place has become a dungeon, the walls that were once filled with light are now shadowed with darkness, the smell of fresh roses is replaced with the smell of decomposed bodies. I was the youngest passenger aboard this ship when it met its fate, I turned out to be the only one that was innocent, that could not be controlled by the beast within. Because of this he is angered, he cannot control me like the others, and he cannot make me a slave to his demonic plans!�
�I-I don�t understand? What happened on this ship?� Catherine questioned as she watched everything turn back to the way it was.
�That all will be explained in time, I�m sorry but he knows that I am here, I must go, please, do not leave, I shall return again.�
The girl disappeared, as Gil and Catherine stared at one another, not believing what had just happened in front of their eyes. It was like a dream, as if they were sleeping back on their yacht and they were imagining the exploration of a cruise ship in the middle of the ocean, that this little girl was just a figment of their active imaginations. No matter how much they wanted that scenario to be true, no matter how many times they went over it in their head about what this little girl had just done, it was useless. They were trapped on this boat until they know exactly what it is that they need to do to help her.
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