Chapter Ten - The Departure

Harbor woke the next morning to shouts of surprise and anger. Sighing he rolled onto his back and stared at the ceiling above him. May must have been off curing their boredom yet again. More bangs and yells echoed down the hall and into the small room Harbor had been sleeping in. Shaking his head he sat up sliding his legs over the ladder to the top bunk.

He easily slid down it. Once he had managed to make his escape from the bed he gathered a few articles of clothing from his luggage. Straightening up his eyes swept the room, the trio of ghost hunters seemed to have no problems sleeping through the growing chaos taking place outside. Lucky. 

Harbor shook his head before wandering off to get changed. Slipping out the door he made his way to the shared showers and bathroom the majority of the people down this particular hall used. As he passed doors of people who had been resting he didn’t have to strain his ears to discover what they were dealing with. Seems May had a whole lot of free time while he was asleep. Speaking of which, where was the tiny demon?

Habor found himself pondering that question as he made his way inside the male restroom. After doing what he needed to do he slipped back out into the hall with the intention of finding his ghostly friend. 

“Harbor!”

Speaking of the devil, Harbor felt himself leap back as he cocked on his spit. May floated through the wall in front of him, “MAY! What the fuck?” He exclaimed as his coughing fit began to die down.

May rubbed the back of their neck, “ehehe, sorry?” They apologized.

Harbor rolled his eyes, “Come on, I need to find the cafeteria.” Harbor commented walking toward the staircase.

“Oh yeah! They're making your typical hotel breakfast by the way.” May mentioned floating upside down besides him.

“Great.” Harbor’s stomach growled, “Do they have any good yogurt?” He asked as he ascended the stairs.

“Yeah, they have strawberry, blueberry, and vanilla.” May replied, “Go out this door,” They directed.

Harbor swung the door open walking out into yet another long hallway. “I heard you had a busy night?”

May cackled, “YEAH I did!” flipping around in the air.

Harbor laughed softly, a calm smile falling in place on his face. “I can't tell.”

“This door~” May sang, floating over to a set of open double doors.

Harbor turned and entered, taking in the scene before him. Round tables feel in order lines across the open space, a long table filled with different foods and a mini fridge, a few early risers filling the air with soft chatter. Harbor took in a long breath smelling waffle batter and something else that seemed to be ever present on this cruise ship. 

Harbor’s feet led him to the table of food. His stomach growling angrily at him. He grabbed a plate off of the stack at the end and let his eyes scan the foods laid out before him. Eggs, sausage, hash browns, waffle batter, cereals, and yogurt. His hands reached for the scoop for the eggs piling some onto his plate. He moved to the hash browns next adding a few to his pate. 

Harbor went down the line of food, gabbing a thing of milk and two yogurts. FInally his attention turned back to the tables before him.  He maneuvered his way around the tables to one in the back, placing his plate on the table and sitting down so his back was facing the wall. From here he could see nearly the entire cafeteria.

He took a bite of the eggs as he pulled out his phone, typing in the password and flipping through the screens into his contacts. He scrolled to find his mom clicking on it, making a call. He placed the phone to his ear with one hand and scooped a nether bite of egg with the other.

May entertained themself by attempting to eat the food on Harbor’s plate, only managing to move it around slightly.

“Hey mom!” Harbor answered the phone with a small smile on his face.

May smiled floating besides Harbor as he ate his food and chatted with his parents. Quickly growing bored of this however they moved on to torment the other passengers on the ship. Wandering around the table and knocking cups off the ends.  Floating up they were able to see the entire cafeteria from their perch on the ceiling.

May watched from above as people saultered in and out of the place grabbing food as needed. The tables and people looked small from all the way up here and May couldn’t help but wonder if this is what tall people felt like. Also how high could they fly? If they tried hard enough could they just leave the planet? Has anyone tried this yet? Seems like a wonderful plan. May began to make loops in the air as they contemplated.

Their thoughts were unfortunately broken before they could really go anywhere by a particularly obnoxious toddler having a tantrum. The parents of the kid gave occasional apologetic looks as they tried to console their cry child. May floated closer, dropping down behind the kids' parents. The little boy sobbed his eyes out, crying for something of another. Damn did this thing have a turn off button?

May bonked the child on the head. It quieted for a moment looking at them with curious eyes, or something passed them, probably something passed them. Lifting their hand again they bonked the child. The kid started to giggle, smiling up at them. Well that’s just adorable. May started doing tricks in the air, flips, dives, summersaults, whatever they could think of. The kids' eyes tracked them the entire time cheering when they striked a pose.

The parents of the kid gave a confused look to each other before deciding to take it as a blessing and urged their child to take their hand so they could get something to eat. The toddler did not listen as most toddlers don’t. The mother decided to pick the kid up and move him herself. The toddler did not appreciate this at all.

Fat tears rolled down his face as a wail made its way out of his throat. May winced swiftly floating to where the kid could see them and began to make funny faces. The wailing stopped as tears stopped flowing. Big curious eyes stared at May as they made weird faces. The kiddo began giggling.

May smiled, playing with the kid for a while longer as the parents got food. Once the father sat down with two plates of food, May took that as their chance to head out waving goodbye and floating back to Harbor. 

“I’m back~” They announced in a singsong voice.

Harbor gave them a tight grin and a thumbs up, before going back to speaking animatedly with his mother.

“Yeah mom we’re actually on a cruise right now! I’m doing great, I promise, I needed to get out of the house.”

“Alright deary stay safe and if you want to come back home at any point I will pick you up from wherever you're at!”

“I know mom, love you.”

“Love you to hun, talk to you later.”

“Talk to you later.”

The line went dead.

“Damn didn’t know cell service worked out here.” May commented, taking a seat across from Harbor.

“Neither did I,” Harbor confessed taking a sip of his water, “You wouldn’t happen to know when we dock do you?” 

May thought for a moment, “Nah, but I bet we will be here in a few hours.”

Harbor nodded, “I should get all my stuff together in the meantime.”

“Yeah, if you're lucky you’ll be done before those ghost hunter wake up.”

Harbor winced, “Yeah I sure hope so.” He really wasn’t a fan of those three.

May patted his shoulder, or at least tried to. They still didn’t have hands. “There there.” The comfort.

Harbor shook his head standing from his seat and picked up his plate. Cleaning the food scapes off into the trash can then puts it up with the other dirty dishes on the pile. Finishing his task he made his way out of the cafeteria and into the hallway. Using his memory to guide him back to his room.

He stepped down, he stared and made his way down the hallway looking at the number to find his room back. Reaching the room he had slept in he swung it open revealing the cramped area currently housing four people and a ghost, kinda. All of which were awake. And staring at Harbor. Dammit.

“Good morning,” Liam greeted, giving Harbor a stunning smile.

“Morning,” Harbor grumbled, giving a tight smile that looked more like grimmance and a wave. 

Turning his attention back to where his back leg was, Harbor found his feet stepping around the items that laid on the floor making his way to his bag. He found it to be as tighty and clean as when he had left it. 

“You already get breakfast?” Liam asked, obviously trying to strike a conversation.

“Yeah.” Harbor struck the attempt down.

“Oh? What was there?” It was Ellie who asked this time.

“Nothing much, about what you would expect.” He replied, gathering the last few belongings of his and putting them in their places in his bag.

“Ah.” Came the reply.

“Do you know when we dock?” Harbor decided to ask as he packed.

“Uh not entirely sure the caption sho--”

“Good morning ladies and gentlemen we will be docking in an hour, please gather your belongings and grab something to eat at the cafe. We here at Southern line cruise ships hope you enjoyed your stay.”

“Huh, well nevermind.”

Next thing Harbor knew he had an arm slung around his shoulder and a rambunctious ghost hunter leading him back to the cafeteria. May cackled at his misfortune.

The hour passed in a blur, Harbor found himself on the ship deck in a line to get off. Liam Ellie and Katie behind him chatting his ear off. 

“Hey you're going to come ghost hunting with us on this island right?” Liam asked, giving him a smile.

“Oh my god he’s flirting with you.” May whispered, giving Harbor a horrified look.

Harbor choked, once over his coughing fit he finally got around to answering Liam’s question, “No I don’t think so. I have plans already you see.”

“Oh that’s a shame, well you if change your mind or if your free we’re going to a creepy mansion in the woods that’s supposedly haunted later tonight.”

Harbor mentaly cursed, “Sounds good.” Why couldn’t he get away from these people?!