Draft 1

This Blog Post was originally published on adagia.org.

So, I decided to join NaNoWriMo (https://nanowrimo.org/), and I thought I share my drafting here to keep myself accountable. I have a base idea of how the story should play out, but I'm not quite there yet. Luckily, there are still some days left in November. :)

For now, you can enjoy the first draft down below. If something is written with a double "#," I still need to find the correct translation for the word or generally still need to look something up, don't get distracted by it. :)

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Jonathan enters the ship via the gangway. Although he is a lucky guy, luck has turned on him recently, so he slowly wanders upward towards the large ship. With a small tear running down his face, he thinks #Friend# would have enjoyed this trip. It has been a trip they have been planning to do for years, and now, just before it started #Friend# died of pancreas cancer.

The first few days of the cruise seemed pretty strange to Jonathan. He got a suite-size cabin, which would easily fit four people. Initially booked for him and #Friend#, the whole suite seems empty now. Although the ship inhabits more than 3000 guests and another 800 persons of personnel, it doesn't feel good without #Friend#.

"How should I sustain such a long and world-spanning journey, "he thinks to himself. After the first week, while they were in a port, he thought about moving off the ship again and returning home. But #Friend# wouldn't want that. The idea was always there to have a world cruise running more than 300 days around the globe. He can't quit now, and suddenly someone notices his grief. A young woman, probably the age of Jonathan, seems to be showing up near his dinner table, in the gym and even appears to be taking similar massage times that #Friend# booked a while back. He isn't sure if he is dreaming or if this woman might be stalking him.

Another few days pass, and finally, Jonathan decides to move and ask her, whom he never saw in accompaniment of another person, what she's up to. At first, both seem too introverted to let anything significant happen. They chat at the gym. They eat dinner together. They enjoy each other's company all around the ship.

The woman disappears from nowhere, and nobody else besides Jonathan seems to notice it. He talks to the crew and other guests, whom nobody seems to know here. The hole in Jonathan's heart was ripped wide open when #Friend# died, and he started to think that the woman he had been talking to for the last couple of weeks was part of his imagination. Almost going insane, he tried to find her cabin, but no records were to be found that she was on the ship. Deepening into his depression, Jonathan isn't sure if he is even on board the vessel or if it was imagination altogether.

A few sleepless nights later, he feels like he hears her voice talking to him through the ship. And so another journey through the boat. This time even through the private parts of the crew and the machine room starts. Nothing is safe from Jonathan anymore. He will rip apart the whole ship if necessary.

Her voice is constantly in his head until he finds her necklace in one of the crew's quarters deep inside, near the ship's engine. With the proof of her existence, Jonathan gets filled with a new set of energy and finally convinces the cruise ship's captain to help him.

But is the captain helping or just trying to get rid of Jonathan? TODO how to conclude?