Sea Sick: A Horror Novel

Joma shrugged. “Such things do not surprise me. But they are inconsequential in the grand scheme of things. What is more concerning now is that somebody killed this man in the hold. The only possible suspect is-”


“Tally. I’ve already started to come to terms with that.”

“It could be no one else. If there were another onboard outside of the spell then I would know of it. Other than you, she is the only one.”

Jack drank his whisky and looked down at the floor. He still could not fathom why Tally would murder Donovan. He couldn’t imagine the petite, beautiful girl committing such a brutal crime.

That’s probably how she got the jump on Donovan. He never saw it coming.

“Why is she doing this? Killing Donovan and trying to set me up so I have to go into hiding? I don’t see what she has to gain.”

“I see many things, Jack, but unfortunately I cannot see a person’s motivations for doing something. Perhaps she seeks to stop you from succeeding in your task.”

“Task? What task? If I am here for a reason I would really like to know why you didn’t just come find me on day one and tell me.”

“That would have been against the rules. A person cursed with the ability to see across the pathways is forbidden from taking direct action to change future events. I must let them play out, but you are not bound by those same rules. You can change things, Jack.”

“You’re saying you can’t get involved, but you can stop time?”

“Not stopping time-“

“Yeah, yeah, resetting it. I know.”

“By resetting the day, I am not directly altering events. I am just allowing the possibility for them to play out differently. You are the X factor that will decide where the future will lead.”

Jack stood up and stretched his legs. The backroom was tiny and featured only the sofa-cube and a side-table, so he walked up to the wall and rested his forehead against it. “Why me?”

“Because you’re alone.”

Jack turned back around. “What?”

“If you had a family onboard, you would not be willing to do the things you have done to find answers. You would have been focused only on their safety. Slowly, over time, you would have become broken by their inability to break free of the spell.”

“So the only reason I’m in this hell is because my life was already a tragic mess?”

“In a way, yes, but I also sensed that you were a protector: someone that values human life.”

Jack laughed. “Guess you don’t know that the reason I’m here is because I killed a bunch of people?”

Joma nodded. “Oh I know, Jack. When a man takes a life it colours his soul. I saw death on you the moment you boarded. Did they deserve it?”

“Yes,” said Jack without hesitating.

“Then that only proves that you are a man willing to do what is necessary. My assessment of you was correct from the very beginning.”

“So what am I supposed to do?”

Joma stood up and walked over to Jack, placed a hand on his shoulder. “Save the world, my friend. That is what you are supposed to do. How exactly, I do not know, but once you find a way all will become clear.”

Jack was about to ask what the hell that meant, when a body came crashing into the room. It was another waiter from behind the bar. The terrified man was bloody and wounded, a wide gash running down the side of his neck. He tried to speak but could only manage to gargle on his own fluids before falling to the floor, dead.

“Shit,” said Jack, looking at his watch and seeing that it was twenty-four minutes past eight. “The infected have turned.”

We need to get somewhere safe,” said Joma. “I didn’t realise we’d been talking for so long. I should have locked the door.”

Jack looked at the splintered frame of the door and then back at Joma. “Well, I think that option’s come and gone now. We’re going to have to go out through the bar area.” Jack peered out through the gap in the doorway. “But there are a couple of infected people.”

“I can’t go out there,” Joma said.