I'm writing this simultaneously with another story. Check for errors.

Catrina spied what appeared to be a big boat – or small ship on the dusky horizon. It wasn't the first boat she had seen, obviously. Maybe this time this crew will make it, and survive. She scrutinised it and began to draw what it might look like if it were closer. The next page she decided to fill with what the crew might look like. Katie flickered into place at her side in time to see her friend draw a load of cut throat pirates.

"Hm, I see." Katie chided, reframing from stating the obvious. She stared at one of the pirates. "Ha, that's Jack!" She indicated at the graphite. "That's a good likeness, you should do this professionally."

"What, piracy?"

Together they laughed like musketeers.

"No. Make some good honest cash, sell some of your work."

The young ghost had some good ideas for the future, Catrina's future. And Catrina hopefully thought she will be able to pay her back- with freedom. "I think I'm going to take that advice, soon."

Katie gave her a rather perplexed if not suggestive leer. "Has something come up?" Her voice was quiet, she was aware Jack could make an unwanted appearance.

"I've found that fighting isn't the answer, well not the kind of fight I had in mind. My victory will probably be my end or everybody's freedom."

Katie's eyes were almost translucent. "You're giving up?"

"No." Catrina had to object to that. "It's not like that, I'm going beyond that- Jack will realise how far I'm willing to go and he'll sever ties with whomever he works for, and you might be free, me included- ish. "

Their faces mirrored each other, not just because they looked similar- but they both believed, and were determined to be free, in some form. "A little dangerous, because if he doesn't sever ties- you will die." Katie added morbidly.

"Yes, I did mention that, but you won't be stuck on this ship, in limbo."

The sun had disappeared below the horizon, the lack of light made the air go considerably cold. Katie was already naturally cold."I don't like it, sorry. It seems like someone is going to get screwed over. You have no idea where our souls go if you win or lose, severing ties with management, we might get stuck here, if he doesn't- we might go to hell!"

"The bad ones might go to hell, you will be sent upwards." Catrina gestured to the heavens with her pencil, before carrying on drawing.

"You can't know that." Katie was severe when it came to the afterlife. "Why would he capture my soul if he knew it wasn't going to hell?"

Catrina was consumed with thought, before saying slowly and defeated. "I don't know how it works, but you're not bad, good people can't be damned to hell. God wouldn't let that happen."

Even Katie's sigh of resignation had an accent. "God doesn't have anything to do with this, he wouldn't have put me through this shit, 60 years….not 40, miscounted." She sounded old and beyond her years. "So many years…you think God would have intervened by now?" The English ghost had the most manic expression.

Catrina shook her head, trying to rid herself of the image. "You need faith, don't darken your heart, it'll only feel longer. Don't become a restless spirit."

"I'm a floating protoplasm- I have no heart!" Tears sprung to Katie's eyes, which was sort of reflection Catrina's. "I can't help it." She said with a rumble of both anger and despair. "I'm on the verge of going mad…" This was evident, Katie's misty hands were starting to shake, and was she beginning to flicker from existence? "You've only been here over a month- and you are telling me to have faith!" There was no doubt her protoplasm was flickering and becoming taller, and darker. "Maybe just one more soul will do it?" That manic face returned- "You wanted to make a sacrifice…now do it!" Further flickering, so violent it was audible.

"Katie." Catrina said calmly, wondering if what she was witnessing was really bad. "Katie, don't you see what's happening?"

"I don't care!" She raged, her breath was a blast of wind that nearly knocked her companion off her feet.

"Please Katie!" Catrina knew she had to get her voice to match hers to get through, but it was hard to get some steady ground with the wind picking up, and they were losing precious light. "This has escalated really quickly!" She spoke over a distant roar and through darkness. It was night now, and terrible time to be having a face-off with a ghost. A ghost which was now 8 ft tall. "The sacrifice will come in all due time!" She knew what she had to say to calm things down, give the ghost what it wanted to hear. Some of it might soon come to pass anyway. With noisy wind came a mist, rendering her unable to see Katie fully. "I will save you!" She was showered with what she believed was sea water blown up by the storm, she clutched at the railings behind her back because she had no choice- the wind had pinned her there, and her hair was spiralling out of control. "Katie!" Katie no longer had a recognisable feature on her, it was just a grey mass. What Catrina believed to be a face turned into a black hole of a mouth- sucking all remaining light or life. Catrina screamed loudly, to save herself, to be rid of the spirit, to scare it away. It instead, contorted and twisted violently and rushed towards the alarmed woman like a tornado. Catrina closed her eyes tightly as it whipped through her clothes and hair, heavy and cold. Then it was gone. Catrina peered through anxious eyes, before dropping to the deck. "Katie?" Some light returned to her surroundings, there was no more wind. It had been awful, and it still did feel that way- a time like this she would seek comfort with her only contact….

A void had been left in her spirit, Catrina's spirit. It seemed her very anchor that kept her sane on the ship, and remotely human was the little ghost girl- but she had obliterated herself in front of her, and in absolute rage, directed at herself. It had seemed final. Had Katie crossed over some plane? "Katie?"

Maybe that wasn't Katie? Things are never what they seem in this new supernatural world she had been introduced to.

Catrina at a snail's pace began to stand up and found someone was there lurking on the decking, not necessarily there to help her, but confront her. "What did you do?" Jack was deathly calm. She wondered how long he had been on the ship, and in hearing range.

How was she to know? "Katie, I think…and I'm emphasizing 'think'; she crossed over." She took a much needed breath and swallowed her heart, well it felt like she was holding her heart in her throat.

"Not in the way you think." Jack was mocking, and she couldn't fathom why.

"She went somewhere!"

"To get away from you." He didn't even match her raised voice. Normally when someone was yelling, the other would feel compelled to compete. "She has crossed over to the restless side."

"That's your fault!"

"Whatever." He didn't even care about the insubordination, she did it so often nowadays. "I bet you don't even know what I'm talking about."

The strain was starting to show on her face, madness was beginning to set in. "I think I might join her." She had shed many tears in her captivity, and been very snarky while skulking about the ship. Despite the circumstances, Catrina believed she had handled herself better than anyone could when put into that situation. But surely being on the verge of manic laughter wasn't exactly handling it. "Will I be expecting any poltergeist activity from her, or what?" She waited for him to drawl something utterly useless and cold, and when nothing came, she glanced up. He stood there very unanimated, disinterested in anything. She didn't know him well enough to know if this was out of character, but she already knew he was soulless. "Right, thanks."

"I don't have time to talk, I've got to get back before they realise I'm not onboard."

Right, he was in the middle of ferrying. "Then why did you come back? You could have ignored your spidey senses." She put her back to him, expecting him to vanish. "You wasted 2 minutes just standing there gawking." He had indeed vanished, but it didn't mean he couldn't not hear. "You missed me." Catrina teased at no one, and very half heartedly, after all she might have just lost Katie. She was also aware she might have scuppered her chances at softening his heart.