Day 615

They'd found their way into the ship quite by mistake.
Checking the gate at the end of the boardwalk they found it was unlocked.
A few jaunty dares later found them all on deck, giggling and shushing each other.

They began to grow bored as they found the cabin door locked and the deck empty.
One found stairs leading below deck and the others pushed him to go.
He was fine for the first few steps but soon slipped with a cry.

The others watched him tumble into the darkness of the lower deck.
His cry cut off abruptly with a loud splash.
Then silence.

The remaining trio looked at each other, silently assigning blame and daring someone else to go.
After a few tense moments a second moved to the steps, stopping after two.
He pulled out his phone and switched on the flashlight, illuminating the mess on the stairs.

They all leapt back at the sight of their friend's mangled corpse in a pool of others.
The stairs were drenched in the blood of countless people before them.
At the very end there was so much blood they couldn't see any floor, just floating bodies.

Their friend's face gazed up at them, twitching faintly and struggling to stay awake.
All around him other bodies began to float closer, arms slowly outstretching.
Without so much as a gasp they grabbed at his limbs, pulling him under and out of sight.

Of course the trio tried to run at this, stopping as they saw the boardwalk was no longer there.
Nor was the pier, nor the warehouses or any of the familiar shore.
How long had they been staring down there and why was the water slowly turning red?