Heavenly Seas Chapter Twelve

Complaints about the restaurants put Elodie off the soup of the day. Passengers complained there were eyes in their soup. Better to stick with cake, Elodie thought. After trying and failing to convince Heath not to break windows, she retreated to her cabin. Her bed was calling her.

She saw Rose leaving just as she was coming in. The smell was suspicious to say the least. One that she knew too well, one she hoped never to smell again.

Elodie examined the stench coming from her bedroom. She opened the covers and regretted it. Gagging, she scurried back to the corridor to call out Rose. At the top of her voice, she shrieked, “EXCUSE ME!”

Rose ran towards Emily with a smile on her face. “Yes, Lady Elodie?”

She lowered her voice and hissed so nobody could hear. The last thing she wanted was to be accused of something she hadn’t done. “There is a dead man in my bed.”

Rose giggled. “Ah, that would be Theo’s dinner.”

“Dinner!” The vow of peace didn't last. “What do you mean by that? And what is it doing on my bed?”

“Theo’s had far too much candy; he needs proper nutrition.”

A fair point. However, it explained nothing. She didn't know nor care much for the deceased one. Some poor sod is missing him. Whatever happened, he had no business being on her bed. It took a while for everything to click in. “What are you talking about, Rose? You make it sound like he’s a vampire.”

“That’s because he is one.”

The way Rose said it was like it was just another day at the office. That was the secret to her everlasting youth. How did it take so long for her to notice? “I swear to God…” Elodie panted. “I’m gonna kill the bastard who did this to him.”

Rose cowered against the wall and crumbled to a praying position. “Please don’t kill me, Lady Figgs. We all love you very much here.”

“Isn’t this just wonderful!” Elodie screamed, slapping the bannisters and kicking the walls. “Calvin’s dead; Theo’s a vampire; and Heath’s turned into a lunatic.” Hyperventilating, Elodie grabbed her neck and crawled back into her cabin and onto the sofa. “They say it comes in threes. Maybe my baby will be next…or me! Everyone is going to think I'm some murderer!”

Rose had followed Elodie like a concerned doctor. She tilted her head and stroked Elodie’s blonde locks. “You are a murderer, though.”

Elodie gasped, pushing Rose away. “Not every Tom, Dick and Harry needs to know that.”

Elodie supposed vampires processed death differently than humans. They needed murder to thrive. Blood…both humans and vampires needed it, but Elodie didn't want to see it. A natural food chain, perhaps it's what Heath sees when he sees someone eat beef.

“Oh, by the way,” Rose said. “You might not want to go into the bathroom.”

Elodie slipped off the sofa. “Why not?”

“There are more bodies in there, but don't worry, there's another set of toilets three corridors down to the left.”

A sense of morbid curiosity got her. It was going to be something else Elodie would regret. “OH MY GOD!” Elodie resisted the urge to puke. Corpses stacked in the bathtub, Elodie refused to count how many bodies there were. One was missing a head, and Elodie found it in the toilet.

“Don't worry,” Rose said, patting Elodie’s back. They will be gone by tomorrow. “Keeping them here is better than letting the zombies at them.”

Elodie found her mouth with her hands, but she could not scream. She needed a drink! She needed cake. Wine and cake made everything better. There's no way the day could get any worse… until it did.

Theo sat on the sofa and winked at Elodie. The way he looked at her was not the way a son should look at his mother. “Sorry to scare you, Mummy Dearest, Rose and I were just having a picnic.”

“Theo…Cherry Pie…this is not the time for this.”

“Are you having a bad day?” Theo asked, lifting his leg. “Let me make it better for you. You can tell me a saucy bedtime story.”

“Wow, Lady Figgs,” Rose said, smirking. “You're starting to make me jealous.”

Elodie laughed, not what she intended, but something to hide her nerves until Rose finished preparing cocktails. “Now is not the time for bedtime stories.” She sat beside Theo and patted his back. “God, if Calvin were here, he'd say: for God’s sake, put some bloody clothes on!”

“But Calvin’s not here!” He remained still. Beautiful. He was porcelain. In another life, had they not been related, they could have been openly and passionately in love. “We can do whatever we want…”

Theo attempted to grab Elodie’s chest, but she pushed him away. “I miss him.”

Theo laughed. “At least you won't have anyone nagging you anymore. He's at peace now, sleeping with the fishes.”

“At this moment, I would do anything to hear Calvin’s voice again. Just once. I wish he could come back.”