ON HIATUS UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE!
Life is going well for Sea Redmund. She's recently graduated college and moving into her new adult life with the help of her friends and family. As a graduation gift, she and her friends are sent on a luxurious cruise...
"How could this happen?" I sob, holding onto Chloe's lifeless arm. I stare at her as I stroke her stiff, long hair. She's been here for a while, the blood that's pooled onto her locks has completely dried up.
"Well we are on a ship full of killers." Mason says bluntly and I shoot him a death glare.
"I don't need your attitude Mason. I know you didn't like her, but that's absolutely uncalled for." I stare him down until he's forced to break eye contact.
"Chelsea, didn't you mention that the man baby took your clothes?" Kepner asks and I nod. It takes a moment for me to connect the dots and I let out a cry of defeat.
"She was there." I whisper numbly. "On the roof with me. I didn't recognize her since cut that stupid smile onto her face, but she was there. It's all my fault, I left her there to die."
"You didn't know she was there, there's nothing you could have done Chelsea." Kepner crouches down and wraps an arm around my shoulders.
"You don't understand. She was alive when I left the roof. She was the one that screamed as I ran down the stairs." My eyes glaze over as I realize what I just said. "I could have saved her if I hadn't run away and faced the monster of a man."
Kepner grabs both my shoulders in his hands and turns me to face him. His deep green eyes calm my heart as he stares into my soul. "You did what you could at the time and that was to save yourself. You did the right thing. You would have died if you had stayed and tried to fight the man baby." Kepner nods towards Mason as he continues, "We both couldn't take that beast on, so there was no way that you would have survived on your own."
"Sea, you made it back safely, that's all that matters." Mason says and kneels down in front of me.
"She matters." I stand and motion to Chloe. "Chloe didn't deserve this. She was so excited for us to spend this trip the four of us together, but all she got was fights with her friends and death by terrorists." No one says anything in response and I sigh. "We can't just leave her body here like this. I couldn't bear the thought of another one of those crazies getting their hands on her."
"Well let's get her out of here then." Kepner grabs underneath Chloe's shoulders and Mason rushes to grab her feet. The two men carry her out of the stairwell and back to the pharmacy. They gently place her in the office tucked away behind the desk. On the walk back I had rushed into the Outdoor World and grabbed a pair of socks and boots, a t-shirt, a pair of pants, and a large coat. I placed the coat around Chloe, protecting her in the only way I knew how to in this moment.
We closed the door to the office and silently paid our respects to her. I had slipped the boots on before coming over the barrier of glass, but I needed to change into something more suited for fighting off attackers. Without hesitation I pull the chef's coat off my body and fling it to the side. Both Kepner and Mason awkwardly shifted and avoided eye contact with me as I changed into the clothes I snagged from the other shop.
Once changed, we head back to the stairwell and made our way up to the roof of the building. I have no idea what to expect when we open the door, since the last time I'd been here there had been a naked tea party for all the ladies the man baby could collect.
He might have killed all the girls that were there when I was and now he's replaced them with new, still alive, girls. The thought sent shivers down my spine. I swing the door to the roof open and am met with a warm ocean breeze. The light is so much stronger on the top of the ship, since there are no walls or barriers that block the strong gusts. My eyes adjust once again to the bright afternoon light and I'm left speechless with what is on the roof. Or more the lack of anything on the roof.
"Where did they go?" I ask, my mind reeling from the empty rooftop. "There was a table right here," I rush out onto the open ground. "And chairs all around here. There's no way they could have left without a trace." I scour the ground looking for any indication that the girls had been here, and more importantly the man baby with my belongings.
"He must have had help moving everything once you and Chloe escaped." Kepner suggests and I continue looking on the ground for anything. There isn't even blood stains from all the carving the man baby did to those poor, innocent girls.
"What if she didn't?" Mason asks from the doorway of the stairwell. He hasn't stepped foot on the rooftop and he didn't appear too eager to join us.
"What do you mean?"
"I'm just wondering what if Chloe didn't escape." Mason's vague question gets me thinking.
"What if she didn't escape and the man baby didn't have helping moving the bodies? What if Chloe was the last thing he needed to move and that's why we found her in the stairwell? What if he's coming back right now to retrieve her body?" I finish asking my questions and we hear a creaking come from behind Mason. The door to the bottom of the stairs opens and the man baby lets out a wail.
"Where's my dolly?" The baby cries out and pounds his way up the stairs towards the roof. Mason's eyes widen as he rushes onto the roof with Kepner and me. We all huddle close together, weapons in hand, ready to once again battle the baby.
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