Nutmeg

"But I don't wanna leave!" I heard my little sister Katie whine to my mom behind me.

"I know honey, but you have school next week.  We can't stay on the cruise forever." my mom replied.   Katie continued to whine.  "Okay kiddos, make sure you come inside before it gets too late." My mom said to me and Kai, my boyfriend.

"Okay mom,"

"Okay Mrs. Graham," Kai responded.

I turned back around, leaning my arms on the starboard railing and stared off into the horizon.  "You know I really wish we didn't have to go back to school next week." I said, leaning my head on Kai's shoulder.

"Yeah me too, but at least we're seniors this year, so we get a pretty fun year." He said, leaning down to kiss my forehead.

"I guess, but this cruise has been fun and I just wish I could stay here forever," I sighed.

"Yeah, it has been really great."  He turned to look at me, "And hey, look on the bright side, when we go back to school we'll be able to see each other everyday," Kai said with a goofy grin on his face.

"Ugh, seeing you everyday, sounds like torture to me, " I said sarcastically.

He rolled his eyes and laughed, "Yeah, yeah, you are so very funny Juliet," He said, staring into my eyes.

I stared longingly into his eyes, and then we heard, "Juliet and Kai, sitting in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G," coming from behind us.  We turned to see Katie standing in the doorway, giggling and running back to mom.

I rolled my eyes and turned back to Kai, I intertwined my hand with his and said, "We should probably go back inside, it'll be dark soon."

I started to walk in the direction Katie ran off to, but Kai stopped me and spun me around until we were face to face.  "I say we take a video to commemorate our time here."  His goofy grin, that I love so much, spread across his face.

"Okay," I said, smiling coyly.

He dragged me back to the railing and took a video of us in front of the sunset.  He grabbed my waist and I laughed, leaning into him.  He glanced down at my face and I looked up at him, my eyes gleaming with happiness.

"I love you Juliet Graham,"

The biggest smile appeared on my face and I said, "I love you too, Kai Marshall."

He leaned down and kissed me as the sun started to dip down beneath the horizon.

He broke the kiss and then looked back up at the camera, leaning his head on top of my head.  He stopped the video and put his phone back in his pocket, before grabbing my hand and starting to run down the side of the boat.

"Kai," I laughed, "Where are we going?"

"You'll see," he said.

After a minute of running down stairs and across the ship, we finally came to a stop.  "What- are- we doing?" I asked, trying to catch my breath.

"Close your eyes," He said.

"Okay?" I said cautiously as I closed my eyes.  Kai was a very sneaky prankster, so a surprise from him could mean anything from filling my room with buckets of lobsters to making me my favorite food for dinner.

"Trust me, this isn't a prank," he said reassuringly.

"Mhm," I mumbled suspiciously.

I heard a few things bumping around, "Uhm, Kai?  Are you okay?" I asked.

"Yep,"  he replied.  "Just one last touch," he muttered.  "And ta-da, open!"

I opened my eyes slowly and saw Kai standing in front of a blanket set on the deck floor with pillows and a telescope beside it.  "Aww," I said. "You did this for us?" I asked, admiring the work he did.

"Yep," he said, his trademark grin on his face.  "M'lady," he said, extending his hand to me.

"Why thank you kind sir," I giggled.

We sat down on the blanket and stared up at the sky, waiting for it to get darker.

I turned my head to look at him, but he was staring up at the sky with a puzzled look on his face.  "What is it?" I asked curiously.

"Is it just me or is the sky getting brighter?" He asked, sitting up.

I looked back up at the sky and sure enough, the sky was slowly getting brighter.  I stood up and walked back over to the starboard railing, Kai trailing closely behind me.  I leaned over the railing slightly and stared off into the distance where the sun had set earlier.  Sure enough, the sun was slowly creeping back into the sky.

"Okay what the heck is happening, this has got to be some sort of prank, right?" I asked, turning to look at Kai.

"I don't know, maybe we should look at the news, that's bound to have some sort of explanation." He said, taking out his phone.  "Uhh, I don't have any service," he said.

"Then connect to the cruise wifi," I said.

"I can't, there's no wifi services popping up." He said, his voice sporting a bit of panic.

"So no service, the sun is unnatural, and we're stuck out here in the middle of the ocean," I said, starting to panic too.

"Hey relax, we'll figure out what's going on, okay?" He said, reassuringly.  I nodded, "Let's just go find your mom and Katie, and see if they know anything."

Kai grabbed my hand and dragged me down the hallways of the ship to get to our room.  'Knock, Knock'

-No response-

"Mom?" I asked, putting my ear to the door.

"Mrs. Graham?" Kai asked.

"Mom, open the door!" I said, rattling the door handle, worried that something happened to them.

-Still, no response-

I looked up and down the hallway frantically, searching for anything I could use to pry open the door.  I spotted a room-service cart sitting at the end of the hallway.  I ran up to the cart and searched for a master room key, a screwdriver, a bobby pin, literally anything I could use.

I found a pair of scissors in one of the drawers on the cart and ran back to the door.  I opened the scissors and started to pry open the door.  After a minute of attempting I finally got the door to open up.  I slammed the door open and frantically searched the room, but to no avail.

"I don't understand this Kai! They said they were going to be here, where are they?!" I shouted.

"Hey, hey, calm down, we'll find them, don't worry." He said reassuringly.

He wrapped me up in a big hug while I sobbed into his chest.  After a moment, I composed myself and got my wits back.

"Okay, let's think here," Kai said. "If your mom and Katie went somewhere, Katie probably wanted something so where would Katie want to go?"

I thought for a minute, racking my brain for something, finally I got it, "That candy shop on the port-side!  Let's go!" I said, running out of the room, Kai following closely behind me.

We arrived on the port side of the boat where ll the gift shops were and glanced around the shops.  I spotted the candy shop and saw Katie crouched in the corner bawling her eyes out.

"Katie!" I shouted, running over to her and scooping her up in my arms.

"Sissy!" she exclaimed throwing her arms round my neck.

"Where's mom?" I asked, wiping the tears from her eyes.

"I don't know," she sniffled.  "We were at the counter buying my candy and she just disappeared, the candy guy too,"

"Wait, what do you mean disappeared?" I asked.

"The candy guy was handing me my candy and then he just disappeared.  The candy is still over there on the floor." She said, pointing to the counter.  "I looked over at momma because I was scared but she was gone too." She said as I picked up the candy on the floor.

I looked over at Kai, who was holding Katie in his arms, while she buried her head into his neck.  I could see the fear in his eyes, and I had a feeling he could sense the fear in me.

"Hey, let's just go wait for your mom in our room, okay?" Kai said, setting Katie down and patting her head.

She nodded and we headed back to the room, hands locked together.

We reached the room and I set Katie on the bed and handed her the tv remote to keep her busy. "Okay Katie, I'm gonna talk to Kai outside really quick okay? You stay here and watch tv," I said.

"But the tv isn't working," she said pointing to the tv with a pout on her face.

"Then read a book," I said.

I dragged Kai out into the hallway and said, "So what are we gonna do?" I crossed my arms, "We can't just stay here forever, and we still don't know what happened to the adults." I said.

"I think we need to go to sleep and then worry about this in the morning okay? Being sleep-deprived won't help this situation," he said.

"But-" I started.

"No, no buts, we both need sleep. Katie could use some too." he said, turning me around and pushing me back into the room.

"So what are we doing now?" Katie asked.

"We are gonna go to sleep," I said, laying down next to her.

"Yep," Kai said, laying down beside me.

As soon as my head hit the pillow I was out.

"Juliet, Juliet! Juliet, wake up!" I heard. My eyes fluttered open and I was met by Kai leaning over me and shaking me.

"What?" I asked, rubbing my eyes and sitting up.

"Oh, I'm so glad you're okay!" he said, embracing me in a hug.

"What do you mean, of course I'm okay," I said. I looked around and noticed the trees surrounding us. "Wait why are we in the forest?" I asked, "What happened to the cruise?"

"You mean the cruise we went on two weeks ago?" He asked, his face full of concern.

"Wait, wait, what's going on?" I asked.

"We were in science earlier doing our nutmeg lab and while you were picking something up off the floor, someone hit the nutmeg container and it fell directly on you. You ingested most of it, but some got in your eyes and you fell backwards and hit your head. When you woke up I guess the hallucinations from the nutmeg set in and you ran outside. We all ran after you and we've been looking for you all afternoon. I found you passed out here a few minutes ago."

"So none of that was real?" I asked, still a little confused.

"Nope, just the nutmeg," he said.

"Uhm, okay,"

"We should probably go find Mrs. A, she'll want to know that you're safe," he said.

"Yeah okay," I said following him.

-The End-