Sea Sick: A Horror Novel

Jack missed Laura’s smile; the one she showed only in private when the two of them were alone. But he knew that he would never get to see it. It had been erased from the world by the ills of a sick, decaying society.

Laura had died because she’d made the mistake of showing compassion for a husband who was trying to protect his family. The husband’s wife and child had been tortured and stabbed by a local gang. The husband had then gone and murdered one of the thugs in revenge. Laura and Jack had been given strict orders to take the man in – and they could have – but he had begged for one more night to finish what he’d started. The husband wanted to go after the rest of the gang and their leader, Frankie. Laura had said yes, and despite his better judgement, Jack had gone along with it.

Jack had known it was crazy the moment they’d stood aside and let the husband go. The only reason he went along with it at all was because he loved Laura – it made him weak and unable to do his job the way he knew he should. He should have been angry at her for that, but it was just who she was – and that was something he could never blame her for. He wished more than anything that he could go back to that evening and arrest the man before he had a chance to go on his rampage. Then no one else would have died that night. Frankie Walker wouldn’t have ended up cornered with a gun. Laura wouldn’t have been trapped inside a hospital room with him. She’d still be alive.

Jack’s eyes caught movement and he snapped out of his memories. Tally had entered the Sports Deck. She copped one look at Jack, then turned back around and tried to leave without him spotting her. She wasn’t quick enough, though. Jack ran after her.

He caught up with her in the corridor. She was hurrying away but hadn’t broken in to a run. Perhaps she never realised she’d been spotted.

Jack placed a hand on her shoulder and spun her around to face him.“Why have you been hiding from me?”

She shrugged free of his grip. “I haven’t been hiding. I’ve been coming here every night. You just haven’t seen me.”

“Okay,” said Jack, trying to stay calm. “Why have you been coming here instead of coming to see me? I thought we were friends.”

Tally laughed. It was a cruel sound. “We are not friends, Jack. We are just two lost souls floating aimlessly in the abyss.”

Jack wrinkled his brow and said, “But you were the one that said there was a reason for it all, that there was a way to stop it. We haven’t found the pathwalker yet. We can still stop all of this.”

“We have not found the pathwalker because he does not want to be found. Whatever is happening on this ship is nothing to do with me. I wasn’t chosen like you were, Jack. The only reason I’m even in this mess is because of my heritage. If I was not Romany then I would be as oblivious as everybody else. I wish I was.”

“Me too,” said Jack honestly, “but that’s not how life goes. When it starts raining shit, it’s not always up to us whether or not we have an umbrella.”

Tally looked at Jack like he was mad, but then she cracked a smile and shook her head, obviously angry at him for getting past her acrimonious shields.

“See?” said Jack. “It’s easier to face all this with company – I mean company that still remembers you every day. We shouldn’t be alone in this, Tally.”

“We’d soon get just as sick of each other as everybody else, Jack. Doesn’t matter how much I like you, I don’t want to spend the next thousand years with you.”

“So you admit you like me then? Here I was thinking you were avoiding me.”

Tally rubbed both her eyes with the palms of her hands. “God, Jack. I don’t know how much more of this I can take. I just want it to be over. I want my life back. I have a daughter back home.”

Jack felt his jaw tighten. “Shit, Tally. You never told me that!”


The tears came quickly and unexpectedly so Jack went forward and held her. He wrapped his arms tight around her shoulders and kissed the top of her head. If only there was something he could say…