STOP
Have you read the preceding chapters?
If not then read it from the beginning
or
Read the preceding chapter...
Go to the beginning:
Previously on Listening For That Sweet Tune:
I rushed outside to the main deck as quick
as I could then looked down the bloody stairs that lead to the bottom of the
boat. Everything was so dark down there that I couldn't see any silhouettes of
objects or even walls. I let out a big sigh then yelled down to the
abyss.
'Captain Grey! Captain Grey!' I waited for
a quick moment afterward but there was no response. I feared that the worst
happened to the Captain and I feared even more about my own skin. I yelled his
name one more time but not even a single stir moved in the dark. The boat
creaked back and forth as I tried to maintain my footing at the top of the
stairs then I thought to do the unthinkable. I couldn't drive the boat by
myself—until recently I never even been on a boat. The decent down began.
I kept my two hands on the handrails on
either side of me as my feet dinged as soon as they touched the metal stairs.
Their was a few dim lights around me but none was anywhere near me. As I looked
around I could see the silhouettes of cots and hammocks along with big boxes of
luggage in nearly every corner of the room. I yelled the Captain's name again
but only the creaking of the floor and walls around me from the oceans current
echoed around me. I took the last few steps down to place me in the center of
the room looking for another staircase to place me down another level. Directly behind me underneath
the staircase I just got off was the other staircase. I swung around keeping
haste on my side to lead me down the other staircase nearly slipping on
something wet that was on the ground.
Gaining my footing again I descended the
steps to place me in the center of the next room but there were walls on this
other floor. I could of turned left or right but in front of me was the
lightest coming from the emergency lights that glowed a red. At the end of this
hall was a bright white light that was over a deep red door that read 'Caution'
on it. That room must be the mechanical room in which leads down to the lower
levels but my best bet in finding the Captain was in the room in front of me. I
began to head forward but before I knew it I took a step up that followed with
a cracking. I looked down to make out I was stepping on and I could only feel
dread because what I was expecting was a person. A blanket was over what I was
stepping on so I stepped back to place me on the floor again and sat on my
knees.
The floor was wet because whatever was on
the ground began to seep through my pants and onto my knees. 'Who am I
kidding?' I thought to myself. 'You know very well what is on the floor, stop
being so ignorant.' It was blood. I knew what it was when I first stepped into
the hall. The smell of blood stunk up the air that I was walking through and I
knew the split second I smelled it. In previous instances when I stumbled upon
piles of blood I felt sick to the stomach thinking 'Who could do such a thing?'
but now a growling went through my stomach. I thirsted for the very thing that
once made me sick and I could only wonder why.
I thought back to the lighthouse to when I
bit off the man’s throat clean off his body and how his blood tasted too
pleasing to the tongue and I could only wonder if it was still the case. I
reached down in the dark to put my fingers into a pool of blood then proceeded
to put my fingers in my mouth. I didn't taste the same anymore. What was once
sweet to the taste now had a different twang to it. It wasn't disgusting. It
was better than before. I placed my fingers on the ground again to have another
taste and I let out a big 'mmm'. I caught myself and looked around me as quick
as I could as if someone could have been watching me but I was only
paranoid.
I reached over to the blanket and pulled it
off of the man I was stepping on and I looked at him as if he was the main
course but I stopped myself thinking that there was some etiquette to eating
another person. It should be cooked and I'm better than a mere animal; I
shouldn't tear it apart with my teeth but a fork and knife. I thought of the
diseases that the man could have and I lost my appetite nearly immediately and
got back onto my feet.
I began to listen to the air and what was
once a tiny sound in the air was now louder. Machinery. Machinery and
contraptions containing metal and wood rotated around each other and made a
loud roar burning petroleum-based products. Someone turned on the engine and I
hoped it was my dear Captain. I began to walk over the man with more crunching
and crackling then I stepped on another, then another. The hallway was littered
with bodies—maybe the whole crew—and I stomped on them with all my might—like a
little child jumping through puddles of rain—breaking ribs and jaws hearing
bones snap in half and muscles tear. I delighted in this sound then I realized
that I was loosing control of myself.
I reached up to my forehead to wipe off the
sweat that was dripping down my face. It was hot, hotter than before as if
every step closer to the door led that much closer to the sun. I'm sure it was
just the heat of the machinery coming through the walls. The gears that
rotated, screeched letting out high-pitched squeals as the coal fires of the
furnace roared. I reached the door and put my hand on the handle. It was hot
like the air but something bearable to the touch. On the other side were huge
machine blocks covering the walls as long arms and gears rotated in their
perspective positions. In front of me I saw a bloody handprint and trail but it
could have been anybody. Bodies were tucked in small crevices between the
machinery and others lay on the ground like before. I took a left to go further
through the machinery to be confronted by a man hanging over another staircase
that went further down. I looked up to the man through the dim red light and it
wasn't the Captain I was looking for.
A rotten black door was at the bottom of
the stairs. I reached for the handle and this doorknob was cold, nearly frozen
the door creaked as I opened it to get into the other room. The stench of blood
filled the room and a small lamp on the ground lit up a few inches of darkness
all around it. Blood soaked its way through the rotten floorboards. I picked up
the lantern and began to walk forward. Directly to my right began metal bars
forming boxes. The door to the first one was wide open. Looking inside; blood
was sprayed over the walls, the bench within was snapped in half and marks of
nails were engraved in the wood walls and floor. I walked up to the second box
to see it locked, the light only traveled a few inches inside so it appeared as
if nothing was inside other than splattered blood but looking at the walls I
could see a glimmer of something wet revealing odd forms of shapes.
In the third one was a carcass of a man
that was once being eaten alive. His jaw was stuck wide open showing that he
was screaming as he died or something broke his jaw wide open; blood filled
this cell as well. The fourth one had the door ripped off from its hinges which
I could see on the floor below me but this cell was darker than the rest taking
a step inside I heard a grunt and no more than a few inches away from the lamp
was a woman wearing a small white dress spotted with blood. I looked down to
her feet and she was bare footed while standing in a shallow pool of blood. I
took a few steps back hearing a stir from the woman's feet and a mumbling
coming through her lips. With her long dark brown hair and a smaller build I
thought 'Is it her?'. I took one step closer and whispered.
'Serenity? Is that you?' The body stopped
moving and the mumbling grew louder. 'Serenity?' I asked again. Her mumbling
grew to what was beginning to sound legible and heard her say my name. 'Lets go
Serenity; I've been looking for you. It's dark down here.' That's when she
turned around. Her face was covered in scars and it appeared as if her eyes
were just ripped out from her skull. Fresh blood rolled down her cheeks and
onto the floor. I couldn't tell whom it was because of the scars over her face,
she began to walk towards me. In a growling tone she spoke.
'Ben Lamb, Ben
Lamb find your way to cure them. Abhorrent and rotten is what’s left of
our skin. From the deepest of oceans, to the darkest of rooms. So Ben
Lamb, Ben Lamb, we're waiting for you.'
Up next in Listening For That Sweet Tune:
