Ripoff

Cruise, Day 3: The Haunting

a/n: this chapter is lowkey dedicated to leo cause I haven't written sheikrin yet so I'm feeding him in a different way

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It was far past midnight by now, but the partying wasn't over quite just yet. All the children had gotten tired and gone to sleep, so now only the adults were left. In other words, it was time for drunk dancing and an excessive amount of flirting. Left and right, people were dancing awfully close to each other, too close even. The music was blasting, the air was starting to get warm and heavy, and the amount of accidental touches with other people was just too much. It was starting to get overwhelming.

"Thanks for coming back with me," Zelda said as she and Ike walked down the hallway that lead to their room. "There were way too many people there, I was getting uncomfortable."

"No worries, it's pretty late anyway and I'm kinda tired," Ike said, yawning. "Are Robin and Sheik gonna come back soon?"

"I think Robin wants to enjoy his last few hours of freedom before we depart, as for Sheik, I don't know," Zelda said. "He and Link seemed to be having a good time though."

"Jealous?"

"Shut up."

They finally reached their room, so Zelda took out the key card and inserted it into the lock. A single beep. Weird. Usually, when the door unlocks, there's two beeps. She took it out and reinserted it. A single beep again. "It's not working."

"What do you mean?" Ike said.

"It won't unlock," Zelda groaned, taking out and reinserting the key card over and over again. She sighed and held it up to Ike. "Give it a whirl."

Ike took the key from her and inserted it again. Nothing. "Why won't it work?"

Suddenly, the lights in the hallway went out, leaving the two in almost total darkness. The only ray of light came from the direction they came from, where the main lobby was. Ike, although startled, reached out for Zelda's hand and pulled her closer to him. Truth be told, he was almost expecting an announcement warning passengers to quickly exit the ship because they were sinking. Thankfully, no such announcement came on. At least, not yet.

"Are we about to get murdered?" Zelda asked.

"It's certainly not out of the realm of possibility," Ike said quietly, still trying to get the key to work. At this point, he was considering calling for an employee, but he figured all of them were probably outside helping with the celebration.

"What if this turns into the Titanic?"

"Wouldn't be the first time there's a disaster in Isle Delfino."

"That's true, but at least it wouldn't be too bloody. Unless someone gets caught in the propellers."

"Thankfully for us, they're off."

"Ike, would you make space for me in a raft if we were stranded in the middle of an ocean?"

"I'd give you the whole damn thing."

"But I don't want you to die."

"I can swim."

"No you can't."

"No I can't."

A purple smoke started gathering up around their feet, and as they looked at it then back at each other, they suddenly felt their chest getting tighter. Ike looked past Zelda, into the darkness the hallway led to, and saw even more smoke coming from there. A chill ran down his spine. Zelda looked that way too, and started slapping his arm as the smoke accumulated more and more. "Open the damn door."