Chapter Seven – The Cruise Ship
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The two friends stared blankly down the road. The scenery passed them by in a blur. The speedometer on the car reached 100 miles per hour.

“I think you might be speeding.” May pointed out.

“I will end you.”

“I’m already dead tho?”

Harbor glared.

May laughed nervously, “SO uh how are we getting to Hopikan?”

“Here, look it up on my phone.” Harbor tossed the phone to May.

“I have no hands, how can I use the phone?”

“Oh right sorry.” Harbor winiced, “Hey why don’t we stop at that cafe? I’m getting hungry are you?”

“I can’t eat Harbor.”

“But you were breathing pretty heavily back there.”

“I didn’t actually need to do that, that was more muscle memory.”

“Oh really? How fun.”

Harbor pulled into the parking lot of the small cafe. The car pulled around sliding nicely into a parking lot. “Alright, let's get something to eat.” Harbor announced, popping his side open. May dived out through it as well.

Harbor blinked, stunned.

“What are you waiting for, let's go!” May urged, bouncing on their toes.

Harbor shook his head, “Right, let's go.” A grin creeped onto his face. His feet carried him to the doors of the cafe.

Inside the doors of the cafe sweet smelling air wafted around. Soft chatter filled the silence. Lightly colored booths, tables, and walls gave the area a soft vibe. It made Harbor’s muscles relax and a smile slip onto his face. His shoes made a light tapping sound against the cold tiled floor of the humble cafe. The counter he walked to had pasties of all kinds on display, shielded by glass to keep hungry customers from taking them.He smiled politely at the person before him. She wore a pastel apron and a collared shirt.

“How can I help you?” She inquired.

“Uh, I would like a scone, and ahh…” He trailed off, eyes wondering the menu plastered behind the lady serving him.

“Lemon cake.” May interjected.

“... and a slice of lemon cake.” He finished.

“Of course that will be 11.85!” The lady said, pushing a few buttons on the cash register.

“Alright,” Harbor dug out his wallet, flipping it open and pulling out a twenty, “Here.”

The lady took it with a thank you. She handed him a piece of plastic with a number on it, “Here you go.”

“Thanks,” Harbor turned and headed away from the counter, finding a mildly secluded area of the cafe to sit down by himself at. 

May nodded over to the seat across from him, “Hopikan.”

Harbor rolled his eyes, pulling out his phone. His fingers tapped away at the screen. May, reluctant to be left out, slid over to his side peering over his shoulder.

“Flights to Hopikan. Owch those are expensive.”

“And the next one is two weeks from now.” Harbor muttered back not wanting to come across as insane to the people surrounding him.

“No way in hell I’m staying stuck like this for that long.” May frowned, turning their nose.

Harbor tapped out of that window, opening a new one, “What should I look for then?”

May thought for a long moment, “uh… hmmm… how do you get to an island other than plane?”

“Boat?”

“Oh yeah! Look for boat rides to that island,” May exclaimed into Harbor’s ear.

“Not so loud May, I would like to be able to hear by the end of this.”

“Ehehe, sorry.”

Harbor rolled his eyes typing in the search bar for boat rides to Hopikan. Loading… loading… loading… The wifi here was not the best, Harbor observed irritation growing in his chest. A list of links popped onto the screen. His eyes scanned them, Boat tours, more boat tours, gods there were a whole lot of boat tours.

Harbor clicked on the first one. More information appeared on the screen. He sighed as he read through the information, looking for something useful. May started blankly, quickly realizing watching Harbor look through touring sites would leave them incredibly bored. They stood up, twirling their body around to find something to occupy them. They wandered the store passing by unexpecting groups of friends or family.

Deciding on a course of action May approached a particularly bratty looking person. Their eyes focused on the half full glass of water and ice. Wandering, curious, May approached focusing on the feeling they used to be so familiar with, they reached out using momentum and the memories of once being able to feel to knock the glass over. They hit it briefly, feeling the chilled plastic under their palm, then their hand went through.

The glass wobbled, falling over to the side with a clank spilling cold water and ice all over the table it had previously been perched on. May whooped, throwing their hands into the air and bouncing up and down. The woman sitting at the table must have been significantly less amused for she shouted in alarm, cursing. She stood from the table dodging the majority of the falling water. She found herself standing at the end of the table with a slightly damp pair of pants and a wet table.

May skipped away, the power they held within their transparent body would be abused.

Harbor heard the clatter followed by a shout and spun his head in the direction it had come from. His eyes landed first on his cheering friend then on the woman glaring down at the table she had been seated at. Harbor sighed, shaking his eyes with a found smile as he turned his attention back to the phone in his hands. Let May have their fun, they’ve needed something to bring them joy for a while now.

A soft voice dragged him out of his thoughts, plates clinked down onto the table, “Here is your strawberry scone and lemon cake sir.”

Harbor thanked the waiter before turning his phone face down, digging into his meal. Man did it taste amazing.

CLANK    BANG BONK CLONK! Harbor winced as he listened to the sound of pots and pans falling, maybe he should have stopped May…

May cackled as they flew down the corridor whipping around the corner at breakneck speeds.

Definitely should have stopped them. Harbor felt sweat build up on the back of his neck as he attempted to ignore the growing chaos, choosing instead to take a nice big bite of the pastry in front of him. 

May had a shit eating grin plastered on their face when they returned to the spot across from Harbor.

“Ask me what I did.”

Harbor let out a long drawn out sigh, “What did you do?”

“I fuck shit up,” May replied with excitment nearly tangable in their voice, “I was a problem.”

Harbor took a long sip of water, “How fun.”

“You gonna eat that?” May drew his attention to the lemon cake that sat half eaten on his plate.

“If you can find a way to eat that I will let you have it.” Harbor bargened. 

May stared down and the cake, they attempted to pick it up, it went through their hand. They attempted to take a bite without picking it up. Their face went through the cake. They sat down glaring at the cake. They lunged for it, opening their mouth wide and attempting to take a bite, they went through the cake, and Harbor, and the booth behind Harbor.

Harbor erupted into a coughing fit, hitting his fist against his chest. May floated back with an apologetic look on their face, “Sorry,” The whispered.

Harbor looked them dead in the eye and shoved the entire rest of the lemon cake into his mouth. May made a few sad sounds looking longingly at where the cake once was.

“Let's head out,” Harbor stood from the booth, bypassing May entirely.

“You love me no more!” They whined, playing the woe is me card.

Harbor rolled his eyes in a playful manner, “Yes this entire time I only meant to cause you suffering!” He teased.

“Nooooooooo!”

The duo laughed together as they made their way into the car waiting patiently for them to return. 

The car took off down the road. May hummed the tone playing on the radio and Harbor did his job being a safe driver.

“Find a way onto that island yet?” May asked, looking over at their friend.

“Yep, it’ll be two hours before we get there. we’re taking a cruise ship. If we don’t get delayed we should make it to our destination early tomorrow morning.”

“Sweet,” May nodded, getting comfortable in their seat. “Have fun driving.” They grinned, closing their eyes.

“Bestie no, if I have to be awake and drive, so do you.”

“Boo! I was gonna see if it’s possible for me to sleep.”

“You’ll have plenty of time to test that once I pass out on that ship.”

May blew a raspberry, “With the way our luck is going your probably not even gonna get any sleep.”

“Good thing I have experience being an insomniac.”

May giggled.

The ride passed with peaceful chatting, radio music, a call to Harbor’s parents and playful banter.

They pulled into a large parking lot at the estimated time. The duo got out of the car. Harbor popped the trunk to retrieve his luggage and together they made their way to the entrance of the building to check in and get on the ship. They passed cars, trucks, buses, anything that moved fast really. The automatic doors slid open for Harbor and May walked through a glass door without realizing it.

Once they had finally gotten through security May and Harbor found themself waiting for the boarding. It was like an airport with less security. Damn this was boring. Harbor took a set on one of the benches to wait. May complaining all the while behind him. Suddenly a thought popped into his head.

“Oh crap I gotta call Blue!”

“Oh crap, have fun with that.”

Harbor smiled back at them with a tight grimace. Putting the phone up to his ear and speaking into it.

“Hey Blue, how are you?”

“An update Harbor.”

“Right, right, right, so uh, nothing really happened. I hiked the trail and investigated the campsite. I’m at a hotel right now, I’m gonna take a break from searching tomorrow, it's uh, it's been a lot ....”

The call went on for another twenty minutes.

Boarding ship to Hopikan please proceed to the entrance.” an automated voice rang out through the intercom.

“Finally!” May yelled, zooming to the entrance to the boat.

Harbor struggled to keep up, lugging his luggage behind him as he made his way after May. chatter filled the air, sounding like white noise to Harbor’s ears. He made his way closer and closer to the ship docked at the building.

“Hurry up! We’re not gonna make it!” He heard a voice shout from behind him cutting through the noise that surrounded him like a knife. He winced slightly.

“I’m going!” A second voice responded.

“Would you two cut it out! Everyone’s looking at us!”

Everyone was not in fact looking at them.

A beeping noise popped up  behind him. Harbor felt his eye twitch.

“Hey we’re getting some supernatural readings over here!” The obnoxious voice of one of the people behind him called out.

The beeping grew louder. 

“It’s coming from over here!”

If that noise got any louder, he was going to commit a murder.

“Mister! Mister!” The voices called to him.

Harbor attempted to ignore them, unable to move quicker due to the line before him. Please let them be talking to someone else, he silently begged.

“Hey Harbor, I think they're talking to you.”

“Shut Up May.” Harbor whispered back.

“You in the blue shirt!”

A coincidence?

“And the brown hair!”

Two coincidences.

“With dirty dress hiking pants!”

Fuck ok he couldn’t deny they were talking to him any longer. Harbor turned as May snickered. “What?” He asked, voice flat and tone dead. His eyes rested on a group of three that had shown up behind him.

“Rude much? Hmmm?” The smallest, a girl interrogated getting up into his face. The taller girl pulled her back.

Harbor raised an eyebrow.

“Have you been in the presence of spirits lately?”

Harbors eyes widen shooting over to May for a quick second. “Why would you think that?” He asked, keeping his voice calm.

“Ultimate Ghost Detector  or UGH for short picked up on a spiritual presence coming from your area.”

Had Harbor not witnessed his friend get turned into a ghost himself he would have believed they were bullshiting him.

“Ugh? Detector starts with a D. '' May whispered to Harbor, brows furrowed with confusion.

Harbor may have paid more attention to his friendif his ears didn’t ring from the inseset beeping from the UGH. “Can you turn that off?!” Harbor snapped, stepping closer to the person who held it and looking up at him with an angry glare on his face. The guy towered over Harbor, but Harbor is kinda feral.

The man stared down at the angry twink before him, “Right,” He said, hitting a button on the machine and turning it off. The beeping died down before disappearing entirely.

“Final call for boarding ship to Hopikan.” The voice called out.

Harbor spun on his heel and marched away, to the ship he went. The thudding of footsteps and speaking wheels of baggage indicated the weird trio were following him. Harbor felt himself seeth. May float out of sight, probably messing around with the equipment the trio behind him lugged. Not his problem. As soon as possible he was losing these weirdos.

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