Chapter 10
When he woke in a daze, he dragged himself from bed and put on his lucky T-shirt, it had been cleaned and pressed, he headed out into the halls of the lower deck and to his surprise, there was not a soul wandering the hallways nor a sound to be heard. Where had everyone gone? He wandered and looked into rooms which were unlocked for some reason, they were empty.
He turned and saw her, the blonde in the red dress, her blue eyes piercing his soul. She looked at him only for a moment before walking off toward the stairs without a sound.
"Hey wait! Where is everybody?" he shouted.
He followed her up the stairs and she disappeared, he was in the golden room now, with white pillars stained with blood. Gunpowder in the air and bodies laid about the room. The vision he had earlier, came to life. He walked through the room, blood gushing up under his shoes as he stepped over the bodies. There she was again, the blonde girl, her red dress was dripping blood, it was red because it was drenched in it.
"Who are you?" He asked, "What happened here?"
She didn't reply, only looking at him causing him to feel the dread worse than ever before, he wanted to curl up on the floor right there but couldn't for fear of turning into one of the bodies at his feet. She turned and entered a more secluded area swiping a golden keycard into a keypad. He followed her in.
This area had a long balcony over the sea, and several escape boats tied up ready for launch at a moment's notice. She was there stood at the edge of the balcony looking at him with fear in her eyes, Joe was worried for her.
"What's wrong?" he asked. Then he saw what was wrong, the man from the stairwell was there, the bald man with the Jesus tattoo. He had a crossbow aimed at her chest, his hood was up but Joe knew who it was by the smug smile on his face and his salt and pepper beard.
The man pulled the trigger and shot her in the heart, she disintegrated with a fiery blast! Behind them an island loomed in the distance, an island with a dark cloud hanging above it. Joe was afraid, unable to move, the grim man noticed Joe and took aim, he pulled the trigger.
Joe woke up in a cold sweat, he looked around the room, he felt his chest to see where the bolt had pierced him. Nothing. he looked around the room, His lucky t-shirt was still missing, he pinched himself to make sure the dream was really over. It was.
After a much needed shower, Joe changed out of his jeans into a pair of dark blue dress pants, he put his sneakers aside and put on his black slip-ons, he picked out a blue dress shirt with a slight design and put on his 'Cool Breeze' deodorant and Aqua Blaze cologne and went out the door. The blue-eyed, blonde in red stayed at the forefront of his mind as he wandered the very halls of his dream, it was empty and Joe's heart sunk, the dread stopped him in his tracks.
It only took a moment before a group of people came around the corner, talking amongst themselves about how crazy the cruise had been so far, the group was made up of three guys and two girls. The girls gave him a smile, he didn't smile back, he didn't want any more attention for a while. He called Eddy. No answer, he sent a text "Where are you?" and made his way up out of the maze that was the lower decks.
Upon reaching the main deck he thought he would take a look around and see if he could grab another bite to eat. The buffet was still open and the dining hall was not so full, mostly filled with drunken patrons eating to sober themselves up a little or get enough food in themselves to have something to throw up later, of which Joe unknowingly fit in that category. The late night choices were not so extravagant, cold salads and fried food was what Joe filled up on this time.
After eating a double portion-plate full he checked his phone and saw Eddy had replied, "Party deck, poolside." That of course was where he was going to check after his meal, he wanted to swim but still needed to recover his energy that had been sucked out of him.
He looked out on the front deck where they had first got aboard, the party out there was relaxed, people were sitting at tabletops casually sipping, wearing shirts, having a calm good time. He longed to join them but needed to get back to his friend, he felt less dreadful around Eddy, it was the familiarity he needed, surrounded on a boat filled with strangers.
When he made it to the party deck, he saw what he had missed out on the night before, there were women dancing topless in the lounge, fights at the bar, body shots and lots and lots of heavy petting. What kind of crazed sex world had he stumbled into?
It was difficult to move through the lounge area and even more difficult to find a path to the poolside, everywhere he looked people were getting obliterated. After a long arduous journey he found his way to the bar outside and decided he would get a beer this time, It was nice, cold and refreshing, and hopefully he wouldn't get so drunk so quick.
Joe made his way to the poolside, where he spotted Eddy with his shirt on surprisingly, talking to Caroline who was with Mercedes and the other 'dancers'. Eddy spotted him and waved him over, he smiled at Caroline who looked good, even better than before, she had on fishnet stocking a short skirt and spaghetti strap shirt that revealed a lion tattoo on her back right shoulder blade. Joe came over toward them smiling, thinking about how normal everything was at the moment, nobody tried to smell him or fight him so far and Caroline was smiling at him, all was well.