Prompt: While on a second honeymoon | an out-of-work writer | is tormented by vengeful spirits

Note: This is my first use of the Amazing Story Generator by Jason Sacher, a gratefully received Christmas present from my family. Looking forward to many more wacky prompts! I’ll suggest for anyone following along, you may choose all three sections, or any one that catches your fancy.

The cruise was Dana’s idea. All our romantic getaways were her idea. I would be happy to stay home and just be together, but she always seemed to want something more. At least she wasn’t leaving me, so I was secretly grateful when she would settle on my lap and drape her arms around my neck to begin another, “Honey, what would you think about…”

So. Married ten years might not seem like a lot to some, but after my heart attack this May, Dana insisted every day was precious and blah blah blah. Don’t get me wrong. I love that woman more than anyone in the whole world. That’s pretty easy, actually. And I’m perpetually mystified that she chooses to be with me.

Especially since the visitors that started while I was in the hospital. At first I thought I was hallucinating on some of the drugs they were pumping into my system. Nightmares. I’m mean, I’m not a wake-up-screaming kind of guy. Never have been. But they were about ready to restrain me, and they were talking psych consult before I got it together and convinced them it was just nightmares.

Almost convinced myself. Until I got home. No more drugs, and they still kept coming. Nothing really concrete, more impressions than images, even. Pasty white faces, diffuse around the edges, black eyes, black hair. Long tendrils for fingers, reaching for me. Burning where they latch on, scratching long bloody streaks down my arms, across my cheeks, my chest. But when I wake up, nothing shows. I can still feel every mark, but there’s nothing there. See? Nightmares.

They didn’t come every night, and over the next few months, they faded more and more. I would go a couple of weeks with nothing and then, blammo. So when Dana suggested the cruise as a second honeymoon on our tenth anniversary, I sort of heard, “Let’s get the hell out of Dodge.” I might have surprised her with my enthusiasm for the idea. Might have set a bad precedent for future romantic getaways. If I survive this one…

Dogs in house	Houdini
Time writing	~20 minutes
December word count	9,754