Max and The Master of Nightmares: a fateful meeting
My name is Max, me and my mother live together in a small apartment in Washington D.C. The Iraq war bombings have reached home soil, the entire east coast is a wasteland, and we are sick of it. My father died in a bombing ten years ago, and we have no money, but my mother and I were tired of the fear.
"Where are we going Mom?"
"Somewhere safe..." I could tell by the look in her eyes, she didn't even know.
We boarded the ferry. S.S. Hope. Once we reached our cabin we heard a whistle, the boat shifted and we were off. The cabin smelled of cigar smoke and peaches, it consisted of one small bed and a table. The worst part was the wall paper; it was pastel pink and was chipping in the corners. After an hour of silence there was a knock at the door. I opened the door and there stood a short man with a beard to his waist, he wore a floral print shirt and shorts that were too short to wear in public. He was bald and his left eye constantly moved in different directions.
"HAAAAAAALLLOOOOO Passengers!!! I hope ye are enjoying your trip! I'm ye Cap'n. The Great Cap'n Rubik!!"
"so I'm assuming your co-pilot is driving?" I asked.
"HAHAHAH ok… we will be arriving in Regno in ten hours!" With an eye twitch he ran off. The captain made me even more nervous.
"Ten hours?!?... Regno??? Mom, did you plan this at all???" No answer. "I'm going to go have a look around the boat…"
As soon as I entered the hallway the ship shuttered. The intercom came on.
"Aye Passengies! We'll be going through the portal soon and we'll then be in the Hoenn Ocean, and on our way towards Floe Island!" I could see in my mind his eye twitching as the Captain shouted these words. By this time I just ignored the strange places we were hearing. As I started down the hall I felt a chill as though someone was watching me. I shrugged it off and made my way to the deck. I was amazed as I saw a beautiful cruise ship quality deck filled with tourists and very strange looking people. I thought it would be nice to go for a swim in the small pool on the deck. I removed my hoodie and then put it back on when I noticed a little girl staring at me. After a few moments of indecision I went on and took it off and ignored her. The water was nice and there was no one else in the water, I was totally relaxed and I felt better than I had in a long time. But my joy was ended when I saw a large glowing ring directly in front of the boat. I jumped out of the pool, put my clothes on and ran to the railing at the nose of the boat. AS I looked around it seemed as though it fazed no one. As the portal drew nearer I heard a whistle and The Captain shouting "THAR SHE BLOWS!!!!!" I closed my eyes and after a few moments nothing happened. I opened my eyes to a bright blue ocean that was significantly different than the one we departed from.
"Welcome to the Hoenn Ocean! Arrival time to Floe Island: 4 hours!" The captain yelled over the intercom.
Bewildered I found the creepy girl from earlier, still staring at me.
"What just happened?" I asked.
"Why spend days traveling to the other side of the globe when we could just use the portal? You know you're kind of stupid" She replied. I ignored her and ran off. When I got back to my cabin I found my mother asleep in the bed. I got dry, rolled out a sleeping bag and decided I'd take a nap, all these things were too much for me.