The Cruise

The main lower deck was peppered with a handful of other passengers, all spaced sporadically along the railing. It was well into the night, the sky clear. Providing the sort of picturesque scene of the moon rippling over the endless ocean that Andy had only seen in pictures. Postcards.
The slight breeze created small waves but it was otherwise a still, quiet night broken only by the various noises the cruise ship - even that was muted given the late hour. The few places still open were deeper in the ship.
It was this eternal view, though, that felt like they could cross into something ephemeral or fall off the edge of the world, that had brought Andy out and away from his general nine-to-five. Something to break the monotony and norms of his life.
Like many others along the railing, he lifted his phone to take a handful of pictures in both landscape in portrait. Capturing the moon hanging high in the sky as well as the stretched line of the horizon. It was in the last picture he took that he did a second-take. Staring down at his phone when there seemed to be an odd shape in the water. A break in the rippled lines of the waves.
Immediately, he looked up. Trying to find whatever he'd accidentally took a picture of. Perhaps an animal surfacing?
The wind picked up, just a little, but with it came an eerie note. A pitched voice that carried on an ethereal song briefly. Words that he couldn't quite make out. He was leaning over the railing, trying to hear. It took him losing his grip on the railing, then subsequently on his phone, that made him realize he'd been leaning too much, almost over the railing. Andy cursed, looking down helplessly as his phone tumbled into the dark water below. His heart in his throat when he realized he’d almost made that same tumble.
He was jolted when another passenger started screaming further down the deck, pointing down. He saw just as the body hit the water. Had someone jumped?
It was surreal watching ship security run out. Lights were turned on and the woman kept saying over and over, "My sister jumped, she just jumped!" Andy, like so many others along the deck, tried to find her in the water. Spotlights slid over the surface, expecting to see someone. Find something. Expecting to hear someone struggle, calling for help.
The ocean was silent and as still as it had been. With moon-kissed waves that gently lapped against the large cruise ship.

by Midjourney