Black Sea

Chapter 8

But I was wrong, it was not someone being cast into hell, they were seemingly running from hell and I as I always tended to do had jumped from the proverbial frying pan straight into the fire; hmm nice choice of words.

I was startled as something or someone ran past the doorway. I hurried to the entrance and heard footsteps, hurried footsteps moving quickly away and I decided to follow; what do I have to lose.

I moved quietly through the darkness listening to the footfalls as they moved ahead. I heard a change in the sound, metallic, they were going up a staircase. I had a sense something was behind me, following me and using the gloom as cover.

When I reached the stairs I tripped over them in the darkness and winced in pain as my shin caught the edge of the bottom step. I sensed movement behind me and hurried up the steps but when I reached the top I expected to hear the footsteps once again but they had gone silent.

I moved quietly once again trying to ascertain what direction they might have gone if indeed what I was chasing was human which I sensed it was and whatever was behind me I believed may not be human.

I crept down the hallway which was once busy with passengers but now was dank, dark and dead. I heard something slinking up the stairs behind me and I quickened my pace. The room doors to the passenger cabins stood like gravestones in the gloom reminding me that each one represented someone who was supposed to be on the trip of a lifetime.

I came to end of the hall and was faced with a choice of which way to go; I chose left not out of any sense that left was better than right. I moved down the hallway, the odor of mildew and dampness assaulted my sense of smell.

I head sounds behind me again, closer this time; much closer. The rusting wall of the ship oozed moisture and were crusted over in places with salt which fell to the floor like snow whenever I brushed my hand against it.

I heard movement, ahead this time, someone, something is hiding there just ahead; I must be ready to act. I pushed myself close to the wall attempting to become part of it and eased forward down the hall.

Part of me wanted to break into a run, no fight just flight that part of me said but the reasoning part told me that there was no place to run to. I was being approached from the rear and ahead of me was...

I was overcome with shock as from somewhere to my right I was slammed in the head violently. I felt my neck snap to the left and then I hit the floor, I heard movement and then I was grabbed by my legs.

I could not say for certain but it felt like human hands had grasped my legs and I was being dragged quickly down the dark corridor. I could not see in the darkness and I had been hit so hard I was not sure my eyes were still working.

I was unable to move in order to resist this assault so I resigned myself to let matters take their course. Then who or whatever had hold of my leg let go their grasp, my legs fell to the floor with a thud and I could hear movement in the darkness.

I struggled to sit up and was rewarded with another blow to my head.

...

Rhonda and I had that weekend together. I had rented a cabin in the mountains and we spent the weekend together shacked up; in bed mostly. I knew she was just a kid that I could keep up with her I told myself; but I couldn't

I wanted to make a life with her at least that is what I told myself but really it was just the hormones talking. I believed that I was in love with her but I wasn't and she was certainly not under any conviction that she was in love with me. No indeed she was in love with the fact that she was nailing her superior.

It was raining when we drove back to the city. Rhonda painted her nails and rattled on about things in a way I used to think of as cute and sexy but now were just annoying; she could be my daughter for Christ's sake; She was just barely of legal age.

And now I thought what do I tell my wife but I knew she had to be aware, after all a weekend business trip on such short notice. I saw how she looked at me when I told her about it she gave me one of those he's popping his secretary looks and since this was not my first rodeo I think she's figured things out.

How can anyone talk that much, I want to tell her to shut the hell up but I just smile and nod. She pulls the visor mirror down and reapplies her red lipstick again, how much lipstick can a person wear she must have ten coats on there.

My marriage to Dana isn't so bad, we've had good times but I have allowed my work to take over my life and if that is all you allow to be in your life and that little candy striper receptionist is good to go then you jump at the chance and pop that right in your office thirty floors up in a glass tower.

Then you go home all worn out from your day and she has supper saved for you. She ate alone, again, went to bed alone, again and you sit in the dining room picking the onions out of your spaghetti all the while reliving the roll in the hay you just had.

And then you, Roger Littleton have the nerve to act all surprised when you learn she has started screwing the guy who deals with your investments who then sets it up where I was left virtually penniless after the divorce and then marries her.

Payback is a mutha and I guess I deserved it. After all was said and done even Rhonda walked away from me after the company was sold and we were all put on the street. She got married and moved on with my child and I had an apartment on the west side of the city. I tried to tell myself I left her but no, she initiated the break and is much better off for it and never asked for a dime of support; in fact I don't even know where she is.

My dining room, TV room and bedroom all combined in one room, a small kitchen and a bathroom but there were two pools in my complex and I managed to make a few plays with some of the single ladies.

And then the depression set in. I was not depressed over what I had done but over what was now gone, money, house, cars, Dana, and you can see I placed her at the end of the list right where she had been for the past several years.

So now I am a castaway trying to survive on the open ocean, I am more than likely dead or so far over the edge I may as well be. I have a child out there somewhere who I will never meet who will grow up thinking another man is his father which if you think about it he will be the father I am just a sperm donor after all.

My eyes fluttered open and suddenly I am back in the dark of my own personal little nightmare. I hear shuffling to my left and two people talking. Then there is a bright light in my face.

"Who are you and where did you come from?"

I was in a ship wreck, the ship sunk and I was the only survivor," I said covering my eyes.

"Ship wreck, what was the name of the ship?"

"The Caribbean Star, this ship."