Disclaimer: I don't own anything in this story that is mentioned in the movie "Ghost Ship." This is a cause of great sadness, as I would give my soul to own Jack Ferriman :D Don't sue me. Pretty please.

Hey! My summary got chopped off! The full summary is: A mentally unstable young woman embarks on what she thinks will be a relaxing cruise, but she soon finds herself involved in a deadly plot of murder, seduction and trickery – and an evil so great she may have to give her very soul to stop it.

Hi there, this my first try at a fic, and I'm kinda nervous. The first couple of chapters of this story are going to mainly be the main characters' pasts and long, boring descriptions that will come in handy later. If you want to skip right to the action, then by all means do. It should start in about Chapter 4. But I personally think you should read the first bit. Then review, review, review! This is my first time, I need to know if it's any good! Constructive criticism please, no flames. :D Enjoy!

Chapter 1

Ashe Garner inched along the gangplank with the rest of the cruise passengers, her ticket in hand and her suitcase dragging along behind her, wishing she were anywhere but here. She stared around at the goings-on in the harbor around her. Fishing boats rolled as their crews unloaded the catch of that morning. Private yachts danced in the gentle swells, their masts tracing huge arcs in the clear blue Alaskan sky, awaiting visits from their owners. They, too, were eager to shed the ropes that tied them to the docks and gain once more the glorious freedom of the open sea.

Ashe surveyed the brilliant, sparkling Arctic water, breathing in the fresh, salty air. Seagulls wheeled overhead, calling noisily down to their brethren perched on the huge pylons of the docks. Ashe sighed. She loved the ocean. It had been too long since she had seen it. Having lived on Vancouver Island, British Columbia, almost her whole life, the water was her element. It had a way of calming her, of restoring her peace of mind, that nowhere else did. Despite her rough twenty-four years of life, Ashe had always found solace staring out at the sea; had always found her answers. She hoped this voyage would provide her with the much-needed answers she was looking for.

Ashe was born in Victoria, British Columbia, to a twenty-year-old single mother. Ashe's father had run off before Ashe was born, and she had never met him. Her mother had been uneducated, and had not been able to hold a job for very long. She and Ashe had been constantly moving, and Ashe had gone to many different schools during her early childhood before they had finally found a small apartment outside of Victoria, near China Beach. The beach had become Ashe's childhood hideaway, and she would walk there, at times almost daily, to be alone and to walk the beach, or simply sit and stare at the beautiful Pacific landscape and daydream.

Ashe had always been an outcast. She was terribly shy and self-conscious, and made a habit of speaking hardly at all. This and the fact that she wore grubby, second hand clothing, was scrawny and undernourished, had thick, unkempt hair, and had unmistakably plain features had made her a bit of an oddball. All through primary school, Ashe had been made fun of constantly, and made no effort to make friends. She had, in fact, never been encouraged to make friends. Her mother had up to three jobs at one time just to keep a roof over their heads, and when she did get time off, she would go out to the pub to smoke and drink with her friends. She hardly ever saw Ashe. Consequently, Ashe had almost always been alone. She would go out and wander the beach, collecting shells, wading into the cold water, (her mother didn't allow her to swim when she wasn't with her, and it didn't occur to Ashe until later that she probably wouldn't have noticed if Ashe had come home soaking wet.) and contemplating life.

When Ashe started high school, she threw her effort into her schoolwork. She achieved top marks in all her subjects, and spent her breaks in the library alone. This only furthered her reputation as a weirdo, and most people stayed away from her. When people did pretend to be her friend, it was usually because they wanted Ashe to do their homework for them. Ashe started to regard friends as a nuisance; is that what a friend was? How could people stand having friends if all they ever did was use you to cheat on tests, and then wait until you were almost out of earshot before laughing at your naiveté?

Ashe was always aware of what people said about her – she was a nerd, a loser, a poor kid, a loner, and later, a challenge. Boys would pretend to date her, just to see who would be the first one to get the "ice chick" in bed. Ashe had lost her virginity when she was sixteen, in the broom closet at her high school, and the boy had walked out laughing at her, going to collect his bet money. That was the last time she let a male come anywhere within five feet of her.

As her body had developed, she was no longer quite as scrawny as she used to be, but rather thin and lithe, and would have had lovely curves if she had had more to eat. Her hair, which has always been bushy and curly, straightened out, and with lots of brushing could almost be styled like the other girls', if she'd had the money to go to a stylist. Her grades were the highest of her class, and she began to take a liking to science. She dreamed of someday becoming a marine biologist, and spending her whole life beside the sea.

Throughout this all, Ashe could have rebelled. She could have taken up smoking or stealing, could have let her grades slip or run away from home. But Ashe wouldn't do it. She had never been taught to have a conscience, but she knew that she never wanted to be like her mother. Ashe wanted to make something of her life. She was a scientist at heart, and didn't believe in God or religion, but she did believe that good things came to people who tried hard. So she worked hard at her schoolwork, and was always civil and obliging to her classmates when they asked her for something. At home, she cooked and cleaned, and was always patient and polite to her mother. She was courteous to everyone, except those who gave her a reason to mistrust or dislike them. She got a job at a local café and saved all her earnings, so that when she turned sixteen, she was able to buy herself a cheap used car. She graduated with honors and a full scholarship to the University of Victoria, where she acquired her Bachelor of Sciences. She took a second job at a Marine Center, and paid off most of her student loans.

When Ashe was twenty-two years old, her mother died of lung cancer. Ashe sold their old apartment with all of her horrible childhood memories, and bought a cheap apartment in Cordova Bay, a five minute walk from the beach. During her final years at UVic, Ashe could often be seen sitting on the rocks, drawing or finishing an essay, or just staring out at the water that made her feel so at home. She made it a habit of avoiding people as much as possible, especially crowds. She got a desk job at the Marine Center, and quit her job at the café. She started to like people less and less, and soon gained a reputation as a bitchy, antisocial hermit, and she was well aware of the stories people told about her. She found she didn't care. When you've never felt real love, it's hard to open up, hard to feel at all. The more lonely and depressed Ashe got, the more she drove people away from her, until she became invisible – or so she thought. People didn't seem to notice her at all, which was just the way Ashe preferred it.

Now, two years later, Ashe stood on the cruise ship 'Arctic Pearl', the people around her happily chatting and laughing, not even seeming to care about the silent young woman in their midst. She suddenly wondered why the hell she had agreed to do this.

'God knows', she thought bitterly.