Ocean Vagrant
Sunday 5/10/2026
My Main Squeeze,
I’m not really sure what to write in this because I’ve never seriously written letters before. So I guess I’ll just keep you updated on how the vacation is going.
Yesterday morning we took our flight from Columbus to Galveston, Texas. The flight was ok but I had to sit alone because we couldn’t get all of the seats booked together and I’m the only one that didn’t have someone going on this trip with them. I didn’t have to sit in the middle seat though which was nice. I sat in the window seat and the person next to me spent the entire flight in silence which made it all the more pleasant.
He was reading a cool looking book though. I think it was called At the Mountains of Madness. I'm pretty sure it's a book by H.P. Lovecraft and he’s one of those authors whose works I really want to read but always choose writing DnD campaigns instead. I did briefly talk to him about the book though and he said that it was one of the scarier ones he's ever read. It’s about an expedition to Antarctica led by some professor named ??? Dyer (I totally forgot his first name). Anyways, that's just a new book for me to add to the end of the list right after I finish reading <3 Tusk Love <3*).*
After getting off the flight though I became quickly acquainted with Texas and totally get why you hate it so much. Where we landed just seems like a coastal version of Washington Court House and I don’t get how this city manages to have all the joys of a coastal city while maintaining the absolute hillbilly culture of rural Appalachia. That’s without even talking about their politics! The city is literally composed of a majority of people who are either minorities, poor as fuck, or both. Yet the entire city is out the ass republican. I guess some people just like voting their money away to the vampire oligarchs so they can build their giant space ring around the sun to steal all its energy (conspiracy theory courtesy of Dr. Steven Brown, The Ohio State University).
After I formally solidified my hate for Texas though we made our way to the hotel we were staying at for the night. There honestly wasn’t much to say about it except for the fact I got screwed over on the sleeping arrangements. I had to sleep on the fold out couch because once again. I’m the only one here without a partner. I really wish that you were here right now and, if you’ll believe it, not just so I can sleep in a comfortable bed. I really miss you and wish we could go on a vacation sooner than the lakehouse.
The next morning (today) we gathered all our bags and made our way to Royal Caribbean's dock in Galveston so we could board our ship. I found out the ship we're going on is called the Symphony of the Seas, which is something I probably should’ve known a little bit earlier than the boarding process. We ended up getting on the ship though and we found our way to our rooms. I have to share mine with Jacinta and Joseph but I do get a nice bed this time. Mom kind of intervened in the sleeping situation because she didn’t want me to keep getting the shitty end of the bed bargain (aka the fold-out couch). After we left the dock we all went to the first nice dinner of the night and I can happily (unhappily) inform you that duck was not on the menu. Jack and Welma are safe for now but my hunger cannot be sated by these shrimp cocktail bowls forever. I yearn for waterfowl and I will have my way.
Anyways, after the dinner we all kind of split our own ways and I’m currently looking out over the ocean on the back balcony of the ship. I can see the light of Galveston growing further and further with each word that I write... good riddance.
I think I see something off the right side of the ship in the distance. If I had my glasses on I could see it better but it kind of looks like someone standing on top of the water.
I better get back to everyone though since I told them I wouldn’t be out crazy late. I love you so much and I can’t wait to see you again. I hope your trip is going well.
With much love,
Your Shortie
Monday 5/11/2026
Dear, N.IN.A
When I woke up this morning I couldn’t get what I saw out of my head last night. When I was looking off the edge of the ship I swear I saw what looked like a person out there. It wasn’t like someone had fallen off the ship and was swimming in the water, but like someone was standing out there on the ocean and I could only make it out because of the reflected light of the sunset on the water causing its silhouette to stand out. It was probably just some weird mix of the light reflecting and my bad vision but that didn’t stop me from going out at 6am when I couldn’t sleep to make sure what I saw wasn’t real. I sat on the back deck of the boat and watched the wake behind the boat. I didn’t see anyone and had to go back around 7:30 to get breakfast with everyone.
Breakfast was really good even though we failed to make it to the fancy cruise provided breakfast (Steve’s daughter took 1.5 hours to get ready) so we went to the buffet. I got a bunch of sausage and gravy and got an entire extra plate for fruit. Their oranges were really good. You would’ve loved it.
After breakfast everyone decided to stay out on the deck and enjoy the pools for our first day on the ocean. I swam with everyone for quite a bit but there are just so many nasty little kids in the pools that you have to swim shoulder to shoulder with. I got out after about thirty minutes when some kid kept splashing me and their shithead waste of oxygen parent, who was fucking watching them, didn’t try to stop them at all. Should’ve thrown that dumbass overboard.
My day got considerably better though when I sat down far away from the kids’ pools and started working my way through the week's reading list. I had actually worked my way through the entirety of Animal Farm on the flight to Texas so I started on my next book of the summer, Slewfoot. So far it's about witches back in the height of the witch trials in colonial New England and follows this girl named Abitha who becomes widowed shortly after moving to the colonies and comes into contact with a spirit which the book is named after. I only read for about two hours before something caught my eye down the deck.
One of the all you can eat ice cream machines.
It was looking at me in some kind of way.
I sauntered over to the ice cream machine taking one of the cones and slowly began the extrusion process. The soft serve was by no means high quality, very airy with an artificially sweet taste, but I wasn’t picky. After making two large cones I walked my way back to my deck chair double fisting my sugary spoils and grinning from ear to ear. Did some of the vacation goers see this odd display? Perhaps, but as far as I’m concerned this is a judgement free zone – second only to Planet Fitness. I barely made it back to my chair before I began sinking my teeth into the soft surface of the ice-cream. I bit all the way through taking off the entire top half of the swirled cone and savoring the way the frozen substance made my teeth ache. Six more bites. That's how long the rest of the cones lasted.
I was back to the room by 6:30 to get ready for the dinner service which is probably my favorite part of the cruise. Mainly because the food is so nice but it also gives me the opportunity to dress fancier than normal which is always a plus. By the time everyone was ready to go I had already dressed myself in a pair of grey dresspants and a black mockneck and was waiting outside of our room. After Jacinta finished getting ready we began walking to the main dining room to meet everyone else. We talked about how our last semesters at college went and I asked her about her current roommate situation, in which one of her roommates got a chihuahua that she refuses to house-train and just lets shit all over the floor. Jacinta actually asked quite a bit about you too and how you felt about us not being able to see each other for nearly two weeks. She knows better than anyone what it’s like considering she wasn’t invited to Joseph’s family’s vacation last year. It just sucks even more that he wasn’t able to come on ours this year.
I don’t want to finish this letter with a sad paragraph like that though so I’ll tell you about dinner. There was no duck, lucky for them. I did get a really good spaghetti carbonara though. Much better than the one I make considering they use prosciutto instead of Oscar Meijers bacon and for dessert I got a really nice Crème brûlée. I just wish they made the serving sizes bigger. It was in some 6oz cup. I would’ve ordered like four of them if I had the chance.
Anyways, it's getting late and I should probably go to bed.
I can’t wait to write to you about our first excursion tomorrow! We’re stopping on a small island just off the coast of Cancún.
I love you so much,
Jacob
Tuesday 5/12/2026
Dear, Nina
I woke up so early for the excursion today. The ship docked at 7am but I had to wake up at around 5am so I actually had time to get ready and get breakfast before departing for the island. I guess we could have just slept in and waited a little longer to get off the ship but mom really likes using up all her available time on the islands and wouldn’t have it any other way.
When we actually got onto the island the first thing mom wanted to do was go find a beach and begin her day of tanning. Even though there’s so much to see on these island days taking into account the beautiful nature and new culture, it is quite hard to convince her off of a beach chair to go do anything. I don’t know how she does it. I can appreciate the beach for an hour or two but I’ve gotta get out and go do something at some point.
This need for new experience led me to begin exploring the surroundings outside the roped off areas of the beach which had been allotted and reserved for us by the cruise staff. On the northern end of the beach, about five hundred feet out of the reserved zone, there was a rather thin but high reaching headland which separated the bay from the rest of the shore. On the other side there could be plenty of things to see. Perhaps the jungle extended out to the sea where the trees would run up along the ocean, separated only by a thin belt of sand, maybe a larger bay laid beyond, or I could have been met by a an onstretched version of this rockface which would continue to jaggedly cut its way around the coast of the island.
I began searching for a way to get around the headland and found that I would either have to trace it back into the jungle until I could find a less steep part of the rockface and climb over or I could try and swim around the front side of the headland. Considering I was a bit off the beaten path and am quite unfamiliar with the wildlife that I might find in the jungle I decided to risk a swim around the rockface. Besides, it was low tide and I didn’t really feel like I’d be putting myself in any real danger by attempting the swim.
I waded my way out into the water and after making my way to about chest height I began paddling out into the small waves far enough to clear any sharp rocks lying near the headland. The entire process was much more tiring than I thought and I got a mouthful of salt water when a larger wave completely slammed me in the face and had me stopping for a minute to catch my breath. Eventually I did clear the width of the headland which seemed to be another 500 feet and I clambered my way up to the land on the other side. As I approached the shore I could see that the beach before me was a dark black hue and as my feet made purchase against the ground just beneath the waves I felt thousands of small pebbles shift beneath my feet. I stood up and looked up and down my newly discovered cove. It was beautiful. The sand itself wasn’t as fine as that of the normal beach as the pebbles that comprised this black sand must have been made of some tougher material. I walked further up onto the shore, which continued about fifty feet from the edge of the water until meeting the trees, and collected some of the bigger less eroded stones so I could keep them as little souvenirs of the trip.
I was crouched down about halfway up the beach for quite some time before I noticed that the wind had died down. It hadn’t just died down though. It had seemingly died out. The trees ahead of me did not sway an inch and the sound of rustling leaves had completely vanished. In addition the lapping noises of the crashing waves had vanished and as I slowly turned around a gaping hole grew in my chest as I saw the entire ocean stood still. There was not a single wave for miles and the shore line stretched horizontally in a perfectly straight line reaching to the other side of the cove. Standing nearly thirty into the ocean was a naked man. No. Something that once was a man. Pale skin wrapped tightly around its limbs, face, and ribs but jutted out in regions where gas had built up and caused bloating. On its face, the skin had begun sloughing off at its thinnest points revealing two bulbous opaque eyes that could not see but still seemed to lock onto me.
It didn’t move and neither did I.
I don’t know how long I stared into its blank eyes and it to mine but I was snapped from my stupor when its smell finally reached me, having gradually diffused through the moist air without a breeze to carry it. It was a sickening stench that overtook the senses. A sweet yet sickening rot filled my lungs and I could nearly taste the brine of the ocean which had invaded and made a home in the body long ago. It was a smell that demanded attention and compelled repulsion. The moment that scent hit me I flinched. A fraction of an inch.
It began moving.
Slowly at first. Almost so slow I couldn’t tell it was moving. But once it had submerged itself to nearly its knees in the water it, in one motion smoother than anything living or dead should be able to perform, sunk into the water without a single ripple.
I immediately sprinted into the jungle trying to trace my way back the side of the headland that led into the trees and began climbing over it at an area that was sufficiently flat. Not letting off any speed, I continued my path through the other side of the jungle before reaching the sand and falling to my knees. I couldn’t breathe. My breaths were so shallow. My vision was narrowing.
And the eyes. That’s all I could see.
Looking into those eyes was like looking into the windows of a house, but on the other side of the window there is no interior, no decorations, no drywall, no framing. Just nothing. A void. There was not a human behind those walls of bloated flesh and opaque windows. Something dreadful had claimed those vacated halls as its own.
Some of the other passengers on the cruise found me dazed, sitting with my back up against one of the trees at the edge of the beach, and quickly called over lifeguards. I tried to explain what I saw but they only sent a crew to look for a corpse having thought I just saw a dead body floating in the water and attributing the rest of my description to the shock of having seen a corpse washed up from the ocean.
I was taken back to the ship with mom, Steve, and Jacinta and they accompanied me to the infirmary where they gave me an IV. Apparently I was dehydrated. Other than this there was not much they could do for me before I was sent back to my room where Jacinta was already asleep on the pullout.
I need to go to bed. I’m tired and not sure what to think or how to feel.
I love you and can’t wait to come home,
Jacob
Wednesday 5/13/2026
Dear Nina,
When I woke up this morning the ship was moving. I'm glad to be far away from that island and whatever it was that I saw on it. I didn’t sleep well last night. Everytime I closed my eyes I saw it. Mom and Steve didn’t believe me and now I have to go sit with them at breakfast. They probably think I’m fucking hysterical at this point. I wish Jacinta were here to talk to. She’d probably believe me.
I ended up getting to breakfast by 9:00 am and found mom and Steve sitting at one of the tables in the buffet. I was definitely late because they had already gotten halfway through their plates and before I even sat down at the table the questions began.
They asked if I was alright. Told me it was ok not to be after seeing something like that but they don’t know what I saw. They wouldn't believe it if I told them that I saw a dead man standing on the surface of the water. Eyeing me like a pig watching the farmer carry feed into the barn. There was a hunger behind those eyes but I was just out of its reach.
After a breakfast full of longwinded reassurances and stale reheated biscuits and gravy, mom and Steve told me they were going out to one of the pool decks and that I should join them. I told them I’d rather read but they said that I shouldn’t be alone after yesterday, that it’d be good to be around other people. They were probably right so I went back to my room and changed into my swimming trunks. They told me to meet them on the pool deck closest to the back of the ship where they have all of the kiddie pools and water slides. I have no clue why the hell two grown-ass adults would want to deal with that.
I’m currently finishing writing this as mom tries to convince me to go get in the kid infested pool so I should probably go. I really am going to try and enjoy the rest of this vacation. What happened is over and there’s nothing I can do considering I’m stuck on this boat. Maybe I’ll read one of my happier books instead too. All of this horror stuff I’m reading probably isn’t the best on my mental state right now. Maybe I’ll read Tusk Love...
They’re waving me over now, I think they want me to go down a slide with them.
I love you so much and I can’t wait to see you again,
Ya Shortie
Thursday 5/14/2026
Something happened yesterday,
They got me to go on the slides with them. They told me that I needed to loosen up, which I was doing, and that I should go swim with them and enjoy the ship's attractions. We were walking up the stairs leading to the top of the slide. I was actually kind of excited to go down until we got halfway up the tower and finally ran into the line that waited to get up the second half of the tower.
Standing there, looking out over the ocean, I saw it. This time there was no mistaking it. I could see its broken form between the rolling peaks of the waves and, when I could see it, it wasn’t swimming. It looked like it was standing out there in the center of the waves, on top of the water. I was so scared I just kept my eyes on it. I don’t know how long I stood there staring but my attention was brought back to the line when the person behind me tapped my shoulder and asked me to keep moving. I moved up the three steps I had let grow in front of me. When I looked back out to the ocean the thing was gone.
When we got to the top of the slide tower I could see out over the pool decks of the ship. There were kids running all over the deck and parents sitting in lounge chairs. The sounds from below were jarring but being this far away there was almost a peaceful silence. I wish I could’ve spent longer up there at the top.
First Steve went down and as he disappeared into the darkness my mother and I looked over the side of the tower and watched him go shooting out the other end and go skidding across the water to the very end of the landing pool. The lifeguard, some young man in his mid twenties, lazily motioned for my mom to go down the slide now that it was clear. She too went down the slide and came rocketing down at the bottom. After waving me towards the slide as well, I walked forward, grabbed onto the overhead rails, and slung myself down the red tube.
I shouldn’t have done it.
As I rocketed down the slide I could see the occasional flash of light from the midday sun as it shone through the transparent portions of the slide. As I kept going down the slide the light began to dim. At first I thought I was going through a more solid portion of the slide but it kept getting darker and before I knew it I was sliding through a pitch black tunnel. The walls of the tunnel also began to get bumpy and I felt myself passing over sections of the slide which were softer than the surrounding material and gave way to my weight. To stabilize myself I reached out for the walls and instead of slick plastic I felt spongy walls coated in a film of mucus. I felt the sides of the tube flinch and then begin contracting around me. As I continued to speed down the tube, the walls eventually closed in and before I realized I was laying flat against my back and the top of the tube was pressing down on my chest. It bared down on me and was tightening like a giant sphincter. First to go was my shoulder. I heard a sickening pop as my shoulder came out of its socket and my arm folded tightly against my torso, and the pain, it felt like someone dug a knife into my joint. After that I felt the space around my ribs tighten and when I felt one of my ribs crack I vomited and fainted.
I woke up the next morning in the ship's infirmary. Apparently I passed out going down the slide and came out the bottom and almost drowned in the landing pool. It’s all bullshit.
I don't know what’s going on,
Jacob
Friday 5/15/2026
I woke up this morning and no one was on the ship. I don’t know who was here or why I am here. I think I’m on vacation but I don’t know why I’m by myself. There should be other people here. My family should be here. I wish you were here.
I went to the buffet to look for food but there wasn’t anything there. I went into one of the kitchens and found enough stuff to make myself some pasta. The kitchens here are so nice and the food was pretty good but I just feel off and can’t bring myself to eat as much as I know I should.
I walked around the ship trying to find some crew. I couldn’t find anyone in the majority of the hallways and outer decks and I couldn’t get into any of the crew floors or up to the helm. All of the doors were locked. There’s got to be someone here though steering this ship. If not, I don’t know where this ship is going.
I went out to walk on the decks. I went out to the front of the ship to try and see where we’re going. I was standing on the front of the deck, at the very tip, looking out into the vast expanse of blue. The sky was completely clear with an occasional cloud and as I followed the light blue sky down to the horizon, it met with the deep blue sea. There wasn’t a single wave in sight.
I heard a sound behind me. A heavy wet one as something slung itself over the side of the ship and smacked down onto the hard deck. The smell of brine and rotting flesh filled my senses and the sound of shuffling footsteps creeped closer behind me. I turned around and standing less than ten feet away from me was the thing. It looked at me through those pale pearls and it opened its mouth. A voice began resonating from its open throat. As this noise bellowed up and out its bloated chest I knew that it wasn’t speaking any language I knew, yet I heard it in ones I did.
It spoke to me of the ocean. It spoke of ein Leben unter the waves in die tiefste Tiefen. Es gibt Städte unter dem Meer, die größer als einige menschlichen Städte sind. Die sind nicht von Menschen, sondern Göttern. Er sagte, dass wir einen Ort in diesen Städten haben. In dieser neuen Welt. Ich möchte in diese neue Welt gehen, um sich von dieser menschlichen Suchendes Bedeutung zu entfesseln. Ich möchte mit ihm gehen. Es gibt etwas wundersam in die Tiefe und ich bin der Letzte, der es nicht gesehen hat.
Alles Liebe,
Jacob
Samstag 16.5.2026
Ich glaube, ich habe Meerweh. Ich stehe auf dem Deck und schaue hinaus auf dem Meer. Ich wollte nach Hause gehen, aber jetzt konnte ich mich nicht mehr zu Hause als an dem Meer fühlen. Ich sehe alle Leute. Sie empfingen mich mit offenen Armen. Ich sehe meine Mutter und meine Schwester. Das ist wo sie sind gegangen. Wie könnte ich so vergesslich sein. Sie vermissen mich und möchten, dass ich mit ihnen in diese besseren Ort bin. Sie sagte, dass a place für me gibt. That I am the Letzt and that after I join them we can all go to this new place.
I’m standing on the outside of the ship's railing. The water is far below but I am not scared because I know they will catch me.
,
Jacob