1.19 Do you feel better now?

I fight the urge to puke. What have I gotten myself into? This haunted house is not a house, but a ship. And it's on top of a huge, turbulent body of water. I've exhausted all of my energy trying to get through that horrible trip to get here and now I have to do it again. This is not to mention the traumatic childhood I had involving haunted houses. I am so going to die.

"Whoa. They outdid themselves this time!" David's face is the brightest I've ever seen. Any hint of Mr. Cool is gone. It's like he's a kid again. I hang back and let him hurry towards the building, making a career out of distracting himself. "Dina, let's go!" he calls to me.

I squeeze my eyes shut, convincing myself to get a grip. David needs this. "Okay," I tell him weakly, but I doubt he hears me. The screams from the ship/house get louder as I approach, threatening to burst my eardrums.

Once I reach him, I expect us to join the queue at the ticket booth, but David takes us directly to the entrance instead. He must have seen my confused look because he smirks at me. "I'm part of the student council, remember? We get free passes on everything."

"Now, that's JUST unfair."

"Not really. All of us take shifts patrolling the whole place, you know, so this is sort of our payment," he answers. He peers at me and I try my best to not look as pale as I think I am. "You're not scared, are you? You can hold my hand if you want to."

He offers his hand to me again, as he did earlier. I scoff at him, slapping it away. I don't think I can handle the mini heart attack that I feel whenever his skin is on me when I'm about to head to my death on a haunted ship.

"Does Kier have to do it too? Patrolling. I mean, he literally owns this place." I ask him just to keep his attention away from my ashen face.

"Well, no, he gets to skip on the patrol shifts. But he's on a phase right now, so he's helping us." David says. He and I join the line at the entrance, which isn't any shorter than the one at the ticket booth.

"What phase?"

"Well, according to him, he's trying to live an ordinary human life to piss off his fiancee." he confides. My forehead creases, remembering Kier and his unimpressive white Toyota. So, that's what the weirdo is up to.

"We're up. Ready?" he says, grinning. I nod at him, trying to keep a smile in place. We move in front of the line. The girl manning the entrance looks slightly taken aback at the sight of David and me together. She stays tight-lipped as she stamps our wrists, though. Not that I wouldn't be beyond giving her a dirty look if she grumbles something mean.

I follow David towards the hulking structure, and soon enough, we're inside. Darkness welcomes us as the ship rocks side to side and a scream echo from our left. I jump in fright, grabbing at David's arm.

"No way. Tough Dina is scared. My hand is still up for grabs if you want." he chuckles. "We--"

"Shut up." I cut him off. I need all of my concentration right now.

We continue to walk down the hallways as wails of agony continue to surround us. I can't hear myself think. A pair of hands pop out to the side of me and I swallow a scream, steadying myself against the walls as the ship continues to sway. I can already feel bile rising in my throat. Meanwhile, David is laughing, giving comments about the actors' costumes and critiquing their performance.

"Look, Dina. That one's wearing Crocs." David tells me as he examines a corpse in front of us. The boat rocks again and my hand finds the wall for support. But another bloody hand shots up from it, grasping my wrists. I scream and forcefully remove my hand from its grip. Instinctively, I deliver a kick in the direction of the hand and I hear a groan as my foot connects something.

"Dina. What are you--" I hear David's worried voice to my left. I run towards him and collide with his chest. He isn't ready for my weight, so we fall into the dummy corpse. Only, it isn't fake, it is a person.

"Aaagh!" the poor actor howls in pain as David's elbow hits his knee. The three of us fall to the ground.

"Whoa. Sorry, man, seriously." David apologizes to the actor. Despite the chaos that just happened, he's somehow still calm. He picks up something from the floor. "Here. Your Crocs."

I observe the interaction in silence, not knowing whether to laugh or cry. There's tightness in my head and chest and I'm getting dangerously close to vomiting.

"Dina. Are you okay?" David asks, crawling towards me. He wobbles a little as he stands. "Here."

I stare at his hand, unseeing. This is the third time that he's offered it to me today. I have half a mind of refusing it again, but I am at my limits, so I begrudgingly take it. David starts to pull me up, but the ship lurches again and he falls on top of me. It's dark, but I can see his eyes widen at the impact. I go into a full-body blush.

David clears his throat awkwardly, raising himself on his arms to keep his weight off me. "Are you okay? I'm so sorry, I didn't realize you were so scared. Why didn't you tell me before we got in?"

He's looking at me reproachfully and I suddenly can't meet his eyes."Do you feel better now?" I ask him. I know that he knows what I mean.

There's a beat before he answers, "Yes. It made me forget for a bit."

"Good." I nod, gripping my stomach as I feel the sway of the ship beneath me. I really do feel relieved that I helped him keep his mind off things for a while. But then again, this is just a small sacrifice in comparison to what my father did to him.

"Dina? Look at me. We're getting out of here, now. Don't let go of my hand, okay?"

I do look up at him, suddenly aware of the stinging in my eyes. My vision is blurred but I see him clearly in my head. He takes my face in his hands, and I let him touch me. I'm probably getting delirious, but I feel everything stop around us as his warmth settles on my face.

"You're okay," David says. His voice is soft, tugging painfully at something within me.

Desperate, I kiss him, hoping that he'll lend me his strength. I can no longer deny it, he's the reason and the cure for my guilt. I don't think about my selfishness, keeping all these secrets from him. I don't think about what it could mean for both of us. For now, this is all I want to do.

"Gaarchh...ackkiirtt" a zombie approaches us and David and I break apart.

"Dude. Read the room." the corpse guy tells his companion. I spring up from my spot on the floor. God. I can't believe I forgot the guy's even there in the first place. Did he just see everything? David tries to catch my eye, but I don't give it to him. I can just die of embarrassment right now.

-LETTERS START HERE-

September 28, 2015

Dear Maisie,

You told me to reach out to you after three days, but you never replied to my last letter. This can only mean two things: (1) you're still mad at me, and (2) a Jonas Brother got married and you've barricaded your room in grief.

Anyway, I need you. You're the only one I can talk to about this. I think I'm in love. I haven't been here before so I'm not exactly certain. The worst thing is, it has to be with the wrong person, at the wrong time. I don't even know how it happened. I detested him so much one day, then felt the complete opposite the next. You know how much I hate drama, so you have to know I'm not exaggerating about this. He also seems to feel the same way, which just makes the situation more convoluted than it already is. He's fighting with me one minute, then giving me these puppy-dog eyes the next. You're right, love is both the most wonderful and the most horrible thing in the world.

Please reach out to me soon. I'll tell you more about it then. I miss you.

Love, Dina