“Man, I cannot wait for the boat to get here!”  Kyle said excitedly to Sam, his smile so big it seemed it was creeping off of his face. 

“Yeah me too, but you have to calm down, it will be another half an hour until it gets here. Plus, not everyone is here,” Sam responded, looking over at the group of boys huddled up on the other end of the dock. There were going to be seven of them total on the boat, and so far only five of them had shown up; Sam, John, Cam, Kyle, and Max. Will and Evan had sent a text in advance that they would be a bit late due to the busy streets of the beautiful friday afternoon, which made Kyle quite angry as he had trouble waiting and keeping calm, his friends even jokingly called him crazy. The sun was out, the temperature wasn’t too hot, nor too cold, and the water didn’t seem to have too many waves, Kyle noticed, as he gawked out at the open sea, the beautiful colors beaming back at him. The clouds were nice, and relaxing, like marshmallows in the sky, so soft. The salty smell of the ocean nicely hitting his nose, while he heard the waves softly crash against the shore. But before he could say anything about the scenery, Will and Evan pulled into the small parking lot near the dock, and got out of their car. 

“Hey! Sorry for being so late!” Will yelled to the group,

“Yeah sorry!” Evan added. The two walked over to the dock to meet up with the rest of the group, and now they were all there, and ready to relax on their seven day boat trip.

Kyle could see the boat in the distance, closing the gap between it and the dock as it began to slow down. Before he knew it, the boat was right in front of him and the group, a pretty large boat at that. The driver hopped out of the boat, and introduced himself as Frank. Frank gave the boys a quick tour of the boat with its four rooms, full kitchen, a living room, and two bathrooms with shower heads in both. Kyle’s mouth dropped when he saw the boat’s interior, it was much bigger than he had expected, but he wasn't complaining. He explained to the group about safety, and how to steer the boat and how to maneuver it, but it was mostly just for Kyle. Kyle had taken boating lessons as a kid, so he was to be their designated driver, which he was very proud of, saying that “the lessons would finally be put to use.” 

Kyle and the boys piled into the boat and immediately ran a quick lap around the boat, exploring their new surroundings. The boys sprinted down the long hallways all adorned with sea related items like compasses, and maps. Kyle sprinted to the steering wheel, grinning as he restarted the engine, “everyone ready?” He asked excitedly.

“Ready!” Everyone responded, and Kyle took off. The boat zoomed through the water, cutting through the small waves swiftly.

It had been two whole hours since the boys took off on the boat, but they still weren’t bored, in fact, they were having a great time. Kyle could hear the boys dancing, singing, jumping around, drinking, laughing, they all seemed happy, but not him. His smile had faded since the start of the trip, as he hadn’t gotten to hang around his friends, but instead he was forced to drive, and drive, and drive. Cam came into the steering room occasionally just to mess around with him, to pour drinks on his head, or to make snarky comments at him. Kyle was getting more and more frustrated and infuriated by the minute, but he didn’t say anything to anyone, he just kept quiet, as everyone had always told him that he was too much of a hot head with a short temper, and he wanted to prove them wrong.

The sun began to dim, and so did the lights in the boat as all of the boys began to say goodnight. Kyle turned off the motor, and also headed to bed, a small, squeaky bed that he barely fit in, much less got a goodnight sleep in. Meanwhile, the others had great big beds that they got to share, all warm with blankets to protect them from the harsh winds outside, blowing in through the window near Kyle’s room. Kyle felt his jealousy building up, everytime he twisted or turned in his bed, if he could even call it that. He got up, and went to shut the window, but something caught his eye, a large, shiny kitchen knife the others had left out from their partying earlier. Kyle stared at it, and his reflection stared back. He shut the window and went back to bed, but as he was covering himself up with his coat and blanket, he heard one of the doors creak open. 

Cam had gotten up to use the bathroom but on his way, he and Kyle locked eyes, Cam quickly grabbed a pebble and threw it at the window on Kyle’s door, laughing. Kyle felt himself turning red with anger, but this just made Cam laugh harder, but soon Cam got bored and left for the bathroom. Cam entered the bathroom, and Kyle got up, he had had it with Cam.

Kyle opened his door very slowly, peaked through to make sure no one else was there, and stepped out swiftly. He grabbed the knife off the counter, the moon reflecting off of it, and creeped over towards the bathroom. Cam began to wash his hands as Kyle twisted the doorknob.

“Uh, I’ll be out in a minute!” Cam yelled through the door, Kyle didn’t care. He opened the door, knife in hand, and made his move. He walked into the large bathroom, not saying anything, backing Cam into the corner. It felt as if time were moving faster than normal, and Kyle liked it, it felt liberating to him. “What are you doing man!?” Cam questioned, scared. Kyle didn’t reply as he lifted the knife, smiling as he killed Cam. It felt good, finally getting his anger out, but he was too focused on the adrenaline and relief of the moment, and just left Cam, lifeless in the bathroom, as he returned to his small, crowded room. He got back into bed, not bothering to take off his clothing covered in evidence, shut his eyes, and fell asleep.

Kyle awoke to Sam yelling to everyone, 

“WAKE UP, BREAKFAST IS READY!” Kyle stumbled out of bed and stared blankly at his reflection in the window, and his bloody attire stared right back. At first it scared him, and he stumbled back a bit, falling back into his “bed”. He got back up, remembered what he did last night, and hurried to change into fresh clothes. He stuffed the dirty clothing under his bed, and yelled back to Sam, 

“Going!” Kyle went to the kitchen, and the pleasant smell of fresh eggs and toast instantly hit him. Kyle said thank you to Sam as the rest of the boys poured into the kitchen. All of them sat down, and scarfed down their breakfast, leaving no crumbs. Max promptly said thanks, and declared that the eggs gave him a nasty breath, so he was going to brush his teeth in the bathroom. Before Kyle could react at all, Max was already on his way to the bathroom, followed by the rest of the boys who agreed with their breaths being nasty, and Kyle had no choice but to follow them. 

The boys rounded the corner to the bathroom, while Kyle did his best to not seem guilty, and prepared himself to break down into tears at the sight of the body. The boys opened the bathroom door, laughing, but quickly went quiet, their eyes began to water, all bursting into silent tears. Max ran out of the room, not being able to handle the scenery. The eggs Sam had made ended up everywhere as Will threw up. John rushed over to Cam,

“Wake up Cam, WAKE UP!” He yelled at the body, tears streaming down his bright red cheeks. He immediately began to question the rest of the group, “WHO DID IT!?” He questioned, sobbing between words. He started to point fingers at people, “IT WAS YOU WASN’T IT?” He sobbed at Kyle, jamming his finger into his chest. “YOU COULDN’T TAKE A JOKE HUH? I ALWAYS KNEW YOU COULDN’T CONTROL YOURSELF!” He continued, as the rest of the boys held him back to prevent John from lunging at Kyle, who did his best to seem scared, sad, and surprised. 

“OH YEAH JUST BLAME IT ON ME, TRYING TO GET YOURSELF OUT OF THE CLEAR!” Kyle snapped back, trying to slur his words a bit whilst he sobbed, but really deep down, he wasn’t sad, he didn’t regret anything either, he was proud of himself. 

Kyle knew that everyone thought that he had killed Cam, but his only real threat was John, who was the one pointing fingers and making accusations. Kyle had even seen John talking to the others about him behind his back, convincing them more and more that he had done the murder. Kyle knew what he had to do, he had to kill once more, but this time John.

Night had fallen again, and Kyle awoke, got out of bed, grabbed his knife, and got ready. He would wait for John to go to the kitchen for his routinely nightly snack, and there he would strike. He heard John walking to the kitchen, so Kyle slowly opened his door, and followed. Kyle snuck up on John, who had his face dug into the fridge, and raised his knife. Kyle was ready to swing when John saw a shadow behind him moving, and quickly turned around, 

“I knew it!” John exclaimed loudly, as he began to sprint out of the kitchen. Kyle knew that he couldn’t let John get away and towards the others because he would tell them and that would be game over for him, so he began pursuit.

The two sprinted through the boat, knocking everything in their paths over, furniture, paintings, plants, nothing would stop the two. All the nice decor in the huge boat wrecked, and the once beautiful hallways looked like war scenes. The chase felt endless, as if they were running around in circles, like a wild goose chase. The moment reminded Kyle of all the good times he used to have with his friends when they were little, running around their yards, playing hide and seek, and having fun. The memory made Kyle think about what he was doing, making him regret his decisions, but only for a moment, reassuring himself that his friends deserved it, but deep down, he knew what he was doing was wrong.

As Kyle continued chasing after John, jumping over chairs and couches for another minute or so, he realized that John was leading him straight to the others’ rooms. He quickly turned around, trying to run away, but he had noticed too late. The other boys emerged from their rooms, rubbing their eyes from how tired they were, but quickly snapped upright at the sight of Kyle and his knife. Kyle began to sweat bullets, he was nervous, and scared, he began to frantically wonder what they would do to him, would they kill him? Get revenge? Throw him overboard? The thoughts terrified Kyle, but before he could continue wondering, he was tackled by Evan to the ground, and his head hit the hard cold floor hard, and the last thing he saw before falling asleep was the pitch black night sky, and his childhood friends, discussing to one another about what they should do next.

Kyle awoke, and it was morning, he tried to get up but realized that he couldn’t, as he was tied around a metal pipe. The room was cold, and empty, with the exception of some cardboard boxes used for storage. The ground was damp, there were no windows, and the walls were thick, isolating him even more than he already felt. Sam had already taken Kyle’s role as the pilot of the ship, steering the boat back to land. There was nothing Kyle could do but wait to get back to the dock, and be escorted straight to the police. He knew what he did was wrong, why would he do something so stupid? He sat alone, with his own thoughts, regretting his actions, wondering about what his friends would do to him. Kyle could hear his friends at the front of the boat, discussing what had happened, all heartbroken about not just Cam, but also about Kyle. The boat began to close the gap between them and the dock as they began to slow down, nearing the end of Kyle’s freedom as a killer.