As soon as Luke and Caitlin left, Liam climbed into his bed, keeping himself propped up on an elbow to keep his eyes on mine. “So, what were you thinking for a movie?” he asked. “I think “Ghostbusters” would be a hilarious choice, but given the circumstances, I don’t know if you’re feeling up to it.”


    “Up to it?” I asked, crossing the room and sitting on the corner of his bed.


    Liam’s hand immediately slid onto my leg, as though it were a reflex, and he began rubbing his thumb in a soothing circle on the side of my thigh. “You know, because it’s about someone being possessed and all. I mean, you might not be possessed by Zuul, but I can’t imagine you enjoy being reminded of it when you’re trying to relax.”


    “I don’t think there is going to be any relaxing, regardless of what we watch,” I said with a shrug. “I think that’s kind of the point of being possessed by a demon - no rest.”


    Luke’s hand found mine and he lightly rubbed his thumb back and forth across my palm as he thought for a moment. “Maybe a comedy is more the vibe then. Get your mind off things for a while.”


    I sighed. “I don’t think I can just get my mind off it either. A month ago, I didn’t think possessions were actually a thing, or that demons actually existed, or that I’d be on the Queen Mary with a bunch of YouTubers while my life hangs in the balance.”  I flashed a half smile at that part. “Other than the imminent danger, I guess not all of the changes have been bad.”


    He pulled my hand to his lips and gave it a quick kiss. “I can’t imagine how difficult this is for you,” he said, glossing over the compliment. “We’ve been through haunted locations a ton of times, and have had so many possessions that I’m sure the viewers are probably sick of it by now. But to come in and deal with them immediately after having only dealt with ghosts for so long… it’s got to be tough.”


    Tired of sitting up, I laid back onto the bed. Liam snaked his arm around me and lightly pulled me closer to him. The heat radiating from him was a huge comfort compared to the cold dampness of the rest of the ship. That was probably the biggest change of all, I thought to myself. I’d dated when I was younger, but the ghosts had always gotten in the way of everything. After all, no one really wants to date a girl who’s constantly talking to thin air. So eventually, I’d given up trying to find someone who was okay with it. Finding someone who was not only okay with it, but actively celebrated it, was somehow both like a breath of fresh air and a disturbing shock to the system. Part of me was still somehow unable to believe it, and another part of me was sure that this was just a passing moment in time, and that whatever spell had fallen over me was soon to be broken at any moment. But even if that were actually the case, I thought, it’d be better to drink it in now than to lose it without ever fully experiencing it.


    I turned my face toward Liam’s to find him staring at me as though he were trying to read my thoughts. I grabbed the top of his shirt and pulled his lips toward mine. If he actually wanted to distract me from the demon, I thought, there were significantly better ways.If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.


    ***


    We awoke to pounding on the door of our hotel room. I looked around the room at all the beige, and it took me a moment to piece together why the room wasn’t monochromatic, and why there was a man sleeping next to me in bed. Liam stirred slightly at the banging but didn’t open his eyes.


    “If you two don’t get up this minute, we’re going to miss checkout!” Caitlin yelled from the other side of the door before she started pounding again.


    “Can you just tell her that we’re awake,” Liam mumbled.


    “Is that actually the truth, or do you want me to lie to her?” I joked, and his lips pulled up into a light smirk.


    “Can’t it be both?” he asked, then with a sigh, sat up in bed. “We’re awake, Cait, just give us a second.” As he moved, the blanket fell off him, leaving his chest exposed, and I pulled my eyes awake to keep us from definitely missing checkout.


    “If you wanted a second, you should have gotten up the first time I knocked!” Caitlin argued back, but at least she stopped knocking, which I was grateful for. My head ached, as though I’d had a night out at the bars instead of in the hotel room. I must have just done more than I was ready for with my head injury, I thought.


    Liam pulled down the covers and slipped over me with a slight wink. He went to his bag and started pulling at clothes. “Fine, I can let you in,” he said as he pulled the first thing he found in his bag - a shirt - over his head, “but I am currently modeling the fashions of Winnie-the Pooh.”


    “Oh my god!” Caitlin said, sounding somehow like a yell mixed with a groan. “You don’t need to yell that through the hotel!”


    “They’re a hotel,” Liam argued back, pulling a pair of sweatpants over the boxers he’d grabbed. I slid off the bed and started grabbing my own items from my bag. “They’ve definitely heard worse things than that.”


    “I swear if we missed any good ghost footage because you two were messing around, I’m never getting you a combined room again!”


    “Oh yeah, we were definitely levitating at some point,” Liam said, looking back at me with a wink. I giggled, pulling up a black skirt.


    “What!” Caitlin yelped from outside the door.


    “Nothing ghostly happened,” Liam said. He looked back at me and I gave a quick nod as I finished pulling my shirt over my head. He opened the door to Caitlin, who looked slightly like she wanted to add to the death toll of the ship. “It was just a normal night - Andi didn’t even see anyone in the room after you guys left.”


    Caitlin rolled her eyes, her glare finally landing on me as I pulled my fingers through my hair. “Did you at least remember to take the oils that Luke gave you? And fill your bottle up with the holy water solution?”


    I winced. “The holy water, yes,” I said, turning back to my bag, where I’d thrown the bottle of oils that Luke had handed me before they had left. I’d been planning on taking it before bed, in case it did give me terrible heartburn, but the lack of normal routine had thrown me off. “I’ll take the oils right now, as soon as I can find them,” I said, starting to pull out things out of my bag trying to find it.


    Caitlin sighed. “It won’t have as much time to get into your system, but we’ve still got an hour to get back to the house, plus I assume Circe will want to rest first when she gets there, so we can make it work.”


    I pushed a couple more makeup items aside (which I’d brought with in the hopes that I’d feel up to doing a full makeup routine before the Estes method, which obviously didn’t happen), trying to find the oil, but it somehow seemed to have disappeared in my relatively small bag. Then, as I shuffled around a couple more things, I saw a small flash of yellow and paused. I hadn’t brought anything yellow with me. I grabbed my bag and tipped it over on the bed, letting the contents scattered across the comforter. Right in the middle, on top of a pile of miscellaneous makeup, was the little yellow fabric doll. The small spot of blood on the side of the dress was prominent on the front, and I couldn’t help but stare at it.


    Caitlin came over to look at my bed. “I don’t see the oil,” she started, then did a double-take at the doll. “I thought you put that doll in your bag,” she said, looking at Liam.


    “I did,” was all he answered.