It was sometime in the afternoon when the rest of the survivor camp saw Amanda and Jake for the first time since they'd unexpectedly returned to the realm. They didn't seem as worse for wear as the extremely loud outburst from Amanda would have indicated, though her smiling and relaxed demeanor may have had something to do with the extremely loud orgasm she'd had earlier.
Nea looked up first, swapping batteries around in a stack of flashlights trying to find a combination that would provide them the best brightness. She smiled and waved and Amanda and Jake smiled in return. Amanda knew that her orgasm had to have been heard and even though she was blunt about her fucking, she couldn't stop a flush coming to her cheeks at knowing everyone in the survivor camp had overheard her screaming in her climax like a tornado siren.
Nea asked her, "It hasn't been two weeks yes, has it? I know time flies when you're having fun, but I didn't think it flew that quickly."
Seeing Amanda and Jake were rejoining the fire, the rest of the camp ended up following suit from where they had been sprinkled throughout the camp. It was the first time survivors had been granted a "vacation," And they were eager to find out what it had been like. They were especially curious to hear why Amanda had been so angry earlier.
Amanda was shaking her head. "Nope, we had to come back early. It was either that or we'd probably both be dead now."
That drew some raised eyebrows. After all, they'd all been dying and surviving for years. The thought that they would once again be mortal seemed almost foreign to them after decades of being sacrificed on hooks or Moried.
David said, "Well I think ya two got yaselves a captive audience. Tell us everything, lassie, we're all dyin' ta hear what it may be like when our time is up in this place."
Amanda briefly wondered if lassie was a slang word in David's country or if he was calling her a dog. There was nothing malicious on his face, so Amanda assumed it must have been the former.
So they both described the initial return, finding everything basically the same as it was when they left it, hanging out at Jake's cabin and flying safely to New York, and then...
"So I had a fun idea," Jake said. "Since she'd never been on one before, I booked quickly and got us on a cruise."
The ladies around the fire all shared sappy looks at Jake making such a romantic gesture for Amanda. Jane stole a glance at Ash, but saw that his eyes were narrowed.
And then Ash spoke what was on his mind. "But the cruise got cut off early. What happened, did one of you fall overboard?"
Amanda looked at him with a sullen look in her eyes. "We should have been so lucky. The ship ended up sinking underneath us two days into the fucking cruise. Shame too. It was a nice one."
That answered some of the question, but not all of it. "Still, even if the ship sank it had lifeboats or whatever. Surely you didn't come back here because you didn't get an entire cruise in."
Jake, movie aficionado, said, "We didn't. And don't call me Shirley."
Ash looked at Jake blankly for a moment, then he remembered the reference and let out a chuckle. Then his face got serious. "Did the ship...Sink really fast?"
Amanda and Jake shared a look and then told the story from the initial sinking right up to the end. Amanda kept trembling when they got to the last moments, trapped aboard the ship. She knew the Entity hadn't told the survivors when it said that they had a two week deadline, it had been lying, and they could stay as long, or as briefly, in the real world as they wanted.
"I guess the Entity has an ability to sense when we are in danger. I mean we were caught up in the rescue and feeling good that we were helping and we never thought for a minute that we'd end up trapped and on the brink of death. But right before we drowned, the fog came out of nowhere and pulled us back to the realm. The Entity saved our lives. We knew we were well short of two weeks but it still managed to know what was going on and rescue us."
And while most of them were very wary of the Entity, they admitted that they could understand how the two survivors it had basically said it would keep as prisoners forever, would still have a certain awe and reverence for it.
Ash said, "While it's nice to see you back, it isn't really fair that you didn't get the full two weeks back, especially considering that you're both here for eternity. Is the Entity gonna give you a...I dunno, a do-over?"
They both looked at each other. Then they looked back at Ash. Jake shrugged.
The others around the campfire were suddenly firmly behind Ash's suggestion. Claudette said, "Ask it. It talks to you. You had a horrible experience and maybe you can go back today and have a better experience, but please, don't go on another cruise."
Jane smiled. "Go on. We can keep the killers busy until you get back, if it lets you go now. We didn't mean to listen in, but...It was pretty obvious that it affected you both deeply. This will give you the chance to enjoy it, experience the real world and get over the awful experience that you had."
So, they'd stood up and walked back to their cabin, happy that their friends had suggested it. "It's probably because that last orgasm was pretty close to disturbing the peace," Amanda said with a wink.
It started speaking to them as soon as they entered the cabin. "I was not avoiding you, of course. I could simply tell from the trauma that you had endured that it would be easier for you to talk it through yourselves. But I am of course pleased that I was able to return you here in time."
"Can you tell us what happened?" Amanda was curious to know. She assumed, but she wanted to hear it for sure from the Entity itself.
"The fog could not penetrate the water. Nor could it penetrate the steel hull of the ship. Attempts were made to penetrate the entrance to what you referred to as the ship's bar, but with the structure having collapsed over it, that was also impenetrable by the fog."
Amanda looked at Jake and muttered, "So the only reason we're here, truly, is because..."
"...Jake opened the circular window known as a porthole," the Entity finished for her. "Even then, the escaping oxygen still almost doomed you. Had the cabin flooded before the fog had made contact with your forms...While it displeases me to say so...It would have been impossible to rescue you. It is something that we will all have to take into consideration next time. Water, enclosed sealed spaces, massive fire, certain energies...They'll cut the fog off from reaching you."
Amanda's brow furrowed. "Certain energies?"
The Entity replied, "Paranormal energy or the energies from a location where much pain or anguish occured would have a similar effect on the fog as water or steel or fire. This realm thrives on the energy of the paranormal and pain and anguish, but it isn't as strong outside of this realm. The fog, if facing that energy, would react the same way as focusing the same end of two magnets on themselves. The strong energy in the real world would repel the weaker paranormal and energy of anguish from the realm."
The Entity chuckled. "So be careful of ship interiors, safes, burning buildings, submarines, and haunted houses, and the rest of the real world should be perfectly safe for you to travel in. And I suppose the wind differential of a moving airplane would cause the dispersion of the fog due to the high rate of speed in which it travels. If you're on a plane that appears to be on the verge of crashing, I suggest you find a way to exit it. You will of course be maimed and killed upon striking the ground, but the healing abilities of the realm, or the fog, will restore you. Being incinerated in the actual crash will not be anything you can recover from, as I've stated."
Amanda let out a snorting laugh. "Well, we can't avoid planes I don't think. Hopefully if we have to bail out of one that is on the verge of crashing, we won't be over the ocean."
"You of course may return immediately, after all, you have the ability, even though they are unaware. And this last excursion ended badly and abruptly."
"I'd rather wait a couple weeks or so," Jake said. "Then when we get back, we'll take it easy. We'll be right at the cabin, we can stay there for two weeks."
"Fucking," Amanda added with a grin.
"And other things," Jake looked at her. Christ, she'd said only a few hours ago that sex was the last thing on her mind. Now after she'd been splendidly laid by him, his twisted little wife was once again back in full overactive libido mode. That powerful, screaming orgasm she'd had after their near-death experience had once again created a sexy fuck monster.
"Entity? Can you do me a favor?" Amanda was looking around the cabin air, still wishing sometimes that she could see something of it so she could actually rest her eyes on something.
"You know of course I have the ability. Speak it. The events of your last visit to the real world have definitely made it appropriate for you to receive something special."
Amanda said, "Awww, just living forever here with you is special enough. And my favor is really easy, but I'm sure you already figured it would be."
"I've come to accept that as a human woman now, your mind does not think of requests that border on the grandiose, but someday, I know I'll be challenged," came the Entity's snarky reply.
Amanda pulled out the documents she'd gotten from Strahm, and the cards. "These are the originals and I'd rather they never leave the realm. Could you make me exact copies? That way if something ever happens again, I know the originals are always safe and if these get destroyed, oh well."
In less than a few seconds, a small pile appeared on the bed. Amanda looked at them side-by-side and could detect no difference. They were exactly the same as the ones given to her by Strahm. Amanda beamed. "I'd kiss you, if you had a form."
"I've grown to enjoy your presence in this realm so much that if I had a form, I may let you." Amanda giggled.
After the Entity departed, Amanda's mind filled with kinky thoughts of having Jake all to herself, miles away from anyone, for two weeks. She constantly wanted him inside of her and there was not a lot to do in the cabin. So she'd spend the next two weeks doing him, well away from everyone, every opportunity she could. She just hoped the Ocean Princess experience wouldn't make her afraid to be fucked in the cabin's jacuzzi.
She found herself craving him again, even though they'd fucked only a few hours ago. Why shouldn't she crave him? Every time they had sex it was mind-blowing.
They went out, spoke to the other survivors about their plans, and said that they'd spoken with the Entity who would return them in a couple of weeks or so.
********************************************************************************************************************************************************************* Amanda and Jake had spent the next couple of weeks doing trials, hanging out, and enjoying themselves, letting the close call aboard the Ocean Princess become a distant memory. Upon their next return to the real world, it would be. The only ones who would remember it were they, themselves. Finally, it came time for a return to the real world. They'd be able to reset what had gone on the last time they were there. Jake and Amanda would disappear from the passenger manifest of the Ocean Princess. Jake had realized only a day after they'd returned to the realm that his parents were in the real world, probably thinking he was dead, and he admitted he was glad that when they returned, that anguish they'd felt over his own death, and Amanda's, would be completely wiped from their memories again.
As they prepared, they discussed what they would need to do upon their fast return to the real world.
First, they'd need to again soothe Dr. Sullivan at the hospital, who would be looking for Amanda. They'd repeat the exam, but since Amanda had to ask Sullivan for the Tetanus shot last time, they knew that giving her the vaccine hadn't been on Sullivan's mind after their arrival, so Amanda could avoid getting a double dose of the inoculation.
Also, the hospital gown she'd worn back had been left behind at the hospital the last time they were there, so instead, Amanda and Jake, remembering that they'd be returning to Ohio in November, went ahead and dressed for the weather. While wearing heavier clothes and boots wasn't as comfortable for Amanda as her usual shorts and tanks, the cabin was warm and toasty, and she had a tank and shorts supply at the cabin, so she could dress as she was used to as long as they remained indoors.
They went out to the fire and said brief goodbyes to their realm friends and jokingly told them that this time, they'd enjoy the full two weeks. They went to their cabin, wished themselves into the real world, and opened their eyes in the woods. It was as they remembered.
They walked hand in hand down the familiar path Jake had taken to bring them there, what seemed like years ago, and soon emerged outside of the treeline to face the massive cabin that Jake's father had bought. Amanda grinned and said, "Deja vu, Jakey."
Jake glanced at her and smiled, they walked around the back of the cabin to the front, and then they got their first surprise.
The rental Jeep was gone.
It had been parked by Jake near the cabin's front door, and he'd left it there when he carried her into the woods to beg the Entity to save her life. It had been there when they returned the first time, but now it was absent. They both exchanged a look but didn't think much of it.
Amanda, knowing Jake's fondness for the Keanu Reeves film smiled and joked, "Must be a glitch in the Matrix. Now I'm even more glad I risked it to go back for my shit in the stateroom. I'm not gonna lie, if Agent Smith is waiting for us in that cabin...I might have to try and talk you into a threesome."
He rolled his eyes as she grinned broadly. Of course Amanda's favorite character would be the bad guy. Though Jake admitted Hugo Weaving's performance was pretty epic, and he had that very unique and memorable way of saying, "Mister Anderson..."
Jake rested his hand on the cell phone in his pocket. Thanks to Amanda, he still had it in his possession, and it hadn't sunk with the Ocean Princess. He felt a slight twinge of sadness knowing that Brian Shaw and Mike Rogo, the friends he and Amanda had made before and during the sinking, would now board the ship without them, and would never have met them thanks to the time reset now that they'd once again returned from the realm.
He pulled it out and turned it on. It was still about 75 percent charged. He'd left it off while in the realm, as there was certainly no cell service there, and had put it in his pocket before they left. Amanda checked the pocket of her coat, and the newly-minted documents the Entity had made for her were still in there. She slipped them back inside as Jake replaced the cell phone in his own pocket and they went into the cabin.
Amanda immediately went to the closet where she knew they had their laptop stored. Jake looked at her with a small trace of confusion. Amanda turned with the computer, cord, and wireless mouse in her hand and said, "I'm going to leave a negative review on the cruise line's website. Then I'm going to think over the next day or so whether or not I'll fuck up the very fabric of space and time if I leave a warning in advance on their customer review page or somewhere else online before the ship sails."
"OOOOOO." Jake said. "That is a TOUGHIE. I wasn't thinking about that. We now know something that would change history. Do you try to do it? I mean, if everyone survived the sinking even before we were on it, then warning the cruise line wouldn't really matter much, if the ship sails, the captain still abandons it but everyone still survives. It all depends, I guess, on whether our presence on the ship actually saved more people, or if the outcome of all the passengers and crew being saved would have happened no matter if we were on the ship or not. Shame we can't look into the future."
Amanda said, "We can kinda. She plugged the laptop in and powered it up. "We can just ask Ash." Amanda winked. She opened Internet Explorer, and then got herself to the homepage for Google. Of course, it was the basic version. Neither Jake nor Amanda knew that in only two years, Google would branch out into Chrome.
Jake was wandering around the cabin. Something seemed off but he couldn't place it. So he stood in front of one of the windows and looked at the trees in an attempt to clear his mind. The Jeep being gone from the driveway had just been so odd that he supposed it was playing tricks on his mind.
Amanda was staring at the Google search bar. What was the fucking name of the cruise line? Starburst? Starfish? Starbucks? Fuck it. She typed in the name Ocean Princess.
And her eyes widened. And then she looked at the preset links under the colorful Google logo: Web, Images, Groups, News, Froogle, Maps, and More. She clicked the news link and her eyes widened more. Then she looked in the bottom right corner of the laptop screen. It said it was 9:03 a.m...11/23/2006. She opened the calendar to make sure she was not seeing things. It confirmed it was Thursday, November 23rd, and there was a turkey icon.
"Jake..." Amanda's voice was almost choked into silence. He hadn't heard her. So she screamed, "JAKE!"
He scrambled from the window and stood next to her at the arm of the sofa. "What? Did somebody else beat you to the punch on that bad review?" Amanda's eyes were wide as saucers as she tilted the laptop screen to show him.
The first article, which the search engine had pulled as a link from the Miami Herald website when it was posted November 16th, proclaimed, "Almost a miracle: All passengers saved except billionaire's son, wife.
Below the large headline was a photo. A screen grab, Jake guessed, from the video footage captured by the news helicopter. A zoomed shot that showed him and Amanda along with Rogo and Shaw. Under the picture, a cutline:
"A total of 1,101 lives were saved in the sinking of the GTS Ocean Princess, but the cruise still ended in tragedy for passengers Jake and Amanda Park. The tragic couple, seen here during evacuation efforts, both lost their lives in the sinking. Pictured are, from left: Michael Rogo, Brooklyn, Ny., Amanda Park, Manhattan, Ny., Brian Shaw, Swansea, Wales, and Jake Park, Manhattan, Ny. (Photo courtesy of TeleCeiba Canal 7, Honduras)"
The article went into depth on the sinking of the Ocean Princess. It was of special note to the Herald, as the ship had departed from it's fateful voyage from the cruise terminal right near Miami. It talked about the ship, her captain, who was facing manslaughter charges, and then a write-up, complete with quotes from Brian Shaw, about the son of billionaire CEO Jackson Park and his sunny bride who had refused to leave the ship ahead of all the passengers and many of the crew.
Shaw described how he'd last seen them. Amanda had been on a rope climbing up to where the helicopter hovered with rescue harnesses, and the ship had broken in half.
"She lost her grip and slid into the little bar there on the deck, and then Jake, he didn't really hesitate at all. He unclipped himself from the harness and slid down the deck after her into the bar. Neither of them were willing to leave the other behind, that was how deep their love was. It's no comfort to me though that while they're together...It's in that ship."
There were other details on the sinking and evacuation efforts, and the article closed by saying Jackson Park could not be reached for comment.
Jake went back on the browser, and scrolled. The most recent article was from the New York Times, indicating that Jackson Park and the Starlight Cruise Line (STARLIGHT, Amanda's mind yelled at her through her shock. THAT'S the fucking name) were entering a joint partnership to commission a deep sea submersible to attempt to recover his son and daughter-in-law's bodies.
Amanda shifted the laptop into Jake's lap and slid down the couch before she froze. She started hyperventilating. "Dead...They think we're dead they all think we're fucking dead oh fuck what are we gonna do what the fuck it didn't reset oh fuck oh fuck."
Jake, for the moment, was too in shock to react as strongly. His parents were in New York, crying over their loss. They had returned to the real world on Nov. 9, 2006. After they'd returned to the realm on Nov. 15, the date the Ocean Princess had sunk, they stayed a further two weeks. 2006 had advanced to Nov. 23, which, when looking at the calendar, was two weeks from Nov. 9, and then had apparently stopped.
If it was moving in real time along with them, it would be Nov. 29 now. Instead, the real world had somehow blocked off the two week period they should have been there, and had reached the morning of Nov. 23, stopped, and waited for them to show back up again.
But how? They and the Entity were under the complete belief that time would reset every time they returned. It hadn't. The world believed they were dead. His parents believed it. Everyone who knew them did. And then he began to panic himself. How were they going to explain how they'd escaped that ship alive and unhurt? They wouldn't be able to just jaunt to New York like nothing had happened.
He formulated a plan. It was a long shot, and it would require the assistance of a God, but maybe...Just maybe, they could pull it off. He searched maps of the Gulf of Honduras, in the area of Puerto Cortes until he got the coordinates he needed, wrote them down, and turned to his trembling wife. She was rocking back and forth. "Amanda...AMANDA."
She looked at him. He held her hands and explained his idea and she kind of nodded. The news reports, he knew, were bringing back the memories of that water-filling ship's cabin and it meant that he was going to need to do the critical thinking for the moment. He went back to the Miami Herald website and tracked down the name of the Honduras T.V. Network that was credited and visited the website. As he'd hoped, the footage of the sinking, edited into an hour-long video file, had been posted to the front page.
Amanda flatly refused to watch. She bolted from the couch and looked out the window Jake had been when she'd called him over. Jake scrolled through the video as fast as the internet connection would allow him. Passes over the bow, the rest of the ship, himself and Amanda and Shaw and Rogo helping evacuate passengers. A long section followed Amanda around the starboard rail until she went into the ship's interior. That was when she went to their cabin. The video clipped, then picked up with video of their evacuation efforts while she was gone.
He clicked the bar, advancing further, further...Amanda's leap from the rail when she went to see if anyone else was left behind. more clips of evacuations, shots of the front of the ship with the bow and bridge underwater, and then back to the stern. The cameras had caught Amanda's return, and her climb up the rope. The camera followed her fall down the deck into the Sunset Bar, then there was a quick cut right after, but it still caught some footage where it looked like the cameraman was setting his camera down. The video picked-up with footage of himself. He watched himself look at Shaw, or try to, then disconnect his harness and go after her.
The footage showed the ship's rear half sinking deeper and deeper after they had both disappeared from sight, and it caught the massive fog bank of the Entity surrounding the ship. That was good news for the first part of his plan. Jake's body broke out in a cold sweat. Even though he knew the ending, watching the ship in these final moments after having BEEN there inside of it was tense as Hell.
In an instant, the fog was gone, and when it cleared, he saw what he had hoped for: Some of the inflatable life rafts were bobbing upside down next to the sinking hull. The ship's entire superstructure was underwater, Only the stern portion of the ship remained. The bobbing life raft that was right side up got sucked back down briefly, rising to the surface again swamped, but the two that were upside down remained on the surface. And then the ship sank. After the ship disappeared completely, the sea belched up a ton more debris from the ship, including about 10 of the sealed, reddish orange lifeboats that had been dislodged from the davits after the stern had gone under.
his plan would work. It wasn't totally perfect. There were holes. But it would certainly be bought more than the real story of what happened to them.
Jake shut off and replaced the laptop in the closet and re-locked the cabin doors. He took Amanda's hand and said, "Come on. We've got to go back to the realm briefly."
*********************************************************************************************************
They appeared back in their cabin after both had mentally thought to return. The fog filled the cabin and collected them. Jake checked on Amanda, who seemed to be doing better. He asked for her to call the Entity, and she did. And after a pause, he heard the sarcastic voice.
"I am aware that it was an extraordinarily negative experience for the pair of you during your last excursion into the real world, however, as you humans say in your vernacular, once you are thrown from the bicycle you must quickly mount the seat again."
Jake did the talking. "It's not that. Time passed. In the real world. It was November 23rd when we returned this time, and we went back on November 9th when we returned before. Time...Didn't reset like it was supposed to. And our presence on the ship is now history, and the real world thinks WE'RE history. It thinks we died on that ship."
The Entity was silent for a moment. "That was an unforeseen complication. It was my total belief that my powers would return you to that exact point and time every time, and thus your adventure aboard the Ocean Princess would be negated. I also understand the problem you are facing. When your family knows you are still alive, questions will be raised as to HOW you are still alive. Also, when you make your returns to the real world, it will need to be done with the expectations that everything you have done on your trips prior remains in the Earth's record. Hopefully, you won't be in a position again where you have to take center stage during a video-recorded disaster."
Jake said, "I can tell you, Entity, it was not our intention when we returned. Cruises happen all the time on earth, and we simply had the unfortunate luck to find the one ship sailing on that particular day that ended up in the midst of a disaster."
The Entity was quick to say, "My comments were not to assign any blame. I am well aware. It is more for our own knowledge, that you will continue to be a part of Earth's history, in two-week intervals, for as long as you return there. Perhaps I can send the meat Ash back to his time of 2018 to collect some materials on disasters that took place between November of 2006 until 2018, so you will know what to avoid."
"In the interim," Jake said, "I've got a potential plan to keep the knowledge of this realm a secret. It would merely take a location change for when we return, and is it possible for you to recreate and send a vehicle from here to the real world? You told Amanda you couldn't bring back her car, so if you can't, that will put a damper on things."
"Created here, I can send a vehicle back to the real world. It simply requires more power than I'm willing to use to transport persons and items beyond what they are carrying. As for sending you to a different location, again, it takes more power than I usually use under normal circumstances, but this is of course a unique situation, and I am willing to listen to the plan you have formed."
Jake said, "It's pretty simple. I need you to recreate a lifeboat from the Ocean Princess, and send us back in it and drop us in the ocean a few miles from Puerto Cortes, Honduras. But the boat will be too large to replicate in the cabin. You'll have to take us to an open space for that. We need to change also. My plan is to make it look like we got off the ship, managed to make it into a lifeboat, and have been drifting in the sea ever since, to make up for the week or so we've been missing after the ship sank."
"Do what you need to prepare," The Entity told him.
Jake said, "First, if you don't mind, I'd like to go back to the real world myself and do a quick test. I want to see if the calendar advanced again since we went back and returned. If it has, then this plan is moot."
So he'd thought of returning to the real world, and again returned in the woods. He sprinted back to the cabin as fast as he could, unlocked the door and ran inside. He pulled the laptop from the closet, plugged it in, powered it up, and nervously opened it. After it loaded, he looked to the right at the date and time. It said it was 8:54 a.m., Nov. 23.
He stood a moment, thinking. Time had reset this time. Apparently the ability for time to reset depended entirely on how long they had been in the real world the time before. Since on their abbreviated second trip, they'd been in the real world for less than an hour, the clock had reset back to what he assumed was the exact moment they had returned together, before Jake made his solo trip. They'd been in the real world for almost a week the first time, and time had advanced another week or so after they'd departed.
Since they would never again make a brief trip to the real world, they finally had the answer. Every time they returned to the real world from this point on, they could plan on time advancing for a full two weeks. So eventually, after they made another few trips, in the real world, it would be 2007. And then with every trip they made after, they'd progress through the year 2007, two weeks at a time.
Jake actually didn't mind. It was a pleasant feeling to know that after they made enough trips, they'd start returning to the real world in the spring and summer of 2007, and be able to spend time here in hot weather, rather than it always being chilly November. He put away the laptop, locked the cabin, thought himself back to the realm, and vanished in the fog.
He shared his findings with the Entity. His scientific test had revealed so far that being in the real world less than an hour allowed time to reset. He didn't know how long they had to be there for time to keep moving after they left. A full day? Two days? It didn't matter right now.
"Very curious," The Entity replied. "I was not incorrect when I told you time would reset, but it appears that your intervals must be brief in order for it to happen. Perhaps when we all are bored, we can determine exactly how brief, and how long, your presence must remain in the real world so you know exactly how long you can stay if you want to turn back the clock, or allow it to keep going."
Jake said, "It doesn't matter. Even if it advances, it only goes to a certain point. I don't see any instance we'll leave before two weeks are up ever again, unless we're in a situation where we are close to dying and have to. I'm not planning on being in that type of spot ever again. And this special location you're taking us to when we leave, it's just a one-time thing, correct? After that, we'll always return back in the woods near the cabin?"
"Correct," The Entity replied. You could, of course, choose a different location, but it seemed easier to just use the realm entry point in the woods as the official site of all your returns to the real world, especially since you have housing located nearby."
Jake said, "Works by me. Give 10 minutes or so, and then we'll be ready."
Amanda had been watching Jake chat with the Entity, only listening to his side of the conversation. The shock from finding out that they were now famous, and also declared dead, had dissipated and she was curious now to know what Jake had been up to.
Jake told her, and then he said something that made her stomach knot in fear. "We're going to have to go back in the water for a while, honey."
Amanda shivered. "Isn't there anything else? Please. I swore. Never another boat. Can't we do something else to resurrect ourselves believably?"
"I'm going to be right there with you the whole time, honey. We've got to pretend we're Ocean Princess castaways. It's the only way to resurrect us and hide the existence of this realm. Even doing this for realism is going to leave us with a Hell of a story to sell, but it's the only thing I can think of. We're dead. Everyone knows it. And you and I both know that without the Entity, we would be. The only way to keep from fucking things up is to play up the possibility that we somehow escaped. Please, honey. We have to."
Amanda looked at the floor, then she nodded. She stripped off her clothes and took out the tank top and shorts that she'd been wearing when they had first returned from the realm, and left her feet bare. They smelled like old sweat from her terror. Absently, she tucked one of the banded packages of $10,000 from her poker winnings into one of her shorts pockets, but left all of her actual important documents behind, opting for the copies of her driver's license and passport made by the Entity.
Now that she knew time had advanced, she was very glad she went back to that cabin and collected them or they'd be lost for good. She'd not have been able to replicate them in her memory closely enough for the Entity to make them that way. Jake put on his soiled t-shirt and pants and the boat shoes. He knew that he could change his hair through the Entity's powers, but could he do anything else? He closed his eyes and imagined himself with about a week's worth of stubble and being dirty from many missed showers and when he opened them, his face itched and he stank.
"Your turn," he told Amanda as she wrinkled her nose at the smell. She imagined herself as she had been after about a half a week of missing showers while high, and when she opened her eyes, she felt dirty and she smelled awful as well. Sexy. Jake wrinkled his nose at her smell.
Amanda called the Entity this time and it pulled them into the Haddonfield realm. Thankfully, none of the survivors in the camp noticed that they'd made a brief return. None of the Ocean Princess' lifeboats had been numbered, and with many of them probably still attached to their davits on the wreck, the spare one created by the Entity would not raise any flags. He'd seen both the exterior and interior extensively, and formed the images in his mind. While Amanda had been radioing the Norwegian Star, Shaw had told him how much food and water they carried, and had rattled off a laundry list of the equipment they held. The Entity searched his mind for the memory of his and Shaw's conversation, and made a list of the items it would need to duplicate in addition to recreating the lifeboat itself.
It appeared. Jake opened the door and stepped inside. The lifeboats interior contained buoyant oars, a coil of rope, two boat hooks, a buoyant bailer and two buckets, a survival manual, an illuminated compass, a sea anchor, two hatchets at each end of the lifeboat, a watertight container with fresh water, food rations a plenty, a rustproof dipper with a lanyard, a rustproof graduated drinking vessel, four red rocket parachute flares, six red hand flares, two buoyant orange smoke signals, one electric torch suitable for Morse signaling, and a daylight signaling mirror. Also included was a whistle, a first aid kit, a manual pump, and a jack knife on a lanyard, along with a radar reflector, searchlight, a can opener, and thermal protective aids. As he looked at each item, he heard Shaw's Welsh-accented voice in his head, saying what they were.
If anyone really looked closely, it would seem exactly like it had come from the Ocean Princess herself. Jake gave the Entity well-deserved praise for the creation.
"It took practically nothing. Do you have the coordinates at which to be placed?" Jake nodded and held up the paper rather than thinking about them. The Entity said, "Splendid. Think of your return, and you will open your eyes off the coast of Puerto Cortes."
He took Amanda's hand and led her into the lifeboat, then closed the watertight door behind them. He kissed her and said, "It's going to be ok. I love you."
Amanda grinned. Her initial reluctance long gone. "I fucking love you more. When we get back...Expect a workout." Jake smiled, and Amanda smiled back. They sat on the seats, closed their eyes, and thought.
When they opened them, they were gently rocking in water. Jake stood up and opened the door to see the warm waters of the Gulf of Honduras. He'd stuck his cell phone and wallet in one of the plastic bags and removed it from his pocket to place it somewhere safe. Before he did so, he took the cell phone out of his pocket and briefly turned it on, nervously. But when the phone lit up, it again told him that it was November 23rd. Time definitely reset after every brief interval in the realm. He shut the phone off and started making plans for what to do next.