Fate Interrupted 3 (9 page)

Chapter
Fourteen

Dean reeled his
jaw in, his eyebrows slanting at a downward angle. “Somebody get me a towel,
and turn this goddamned boat around! This party is over!”

The others
steadied themselves as the chartered vessel settled back into place. Small
waves licked at the moss covered sides of the boat, the quiet returning to
haunt them once again. No one spoke, daring only to exchange questioning
glances they could barely see in the sliver of moonlight sparkling off the
water’s surface.

“What the hell
was that?” Will asked in a cold whisper.

Captain Taylor
flipped on a flashlight, illuminating their frightened faces, and scurried
across the peeling deck. “We hit
somethin
.”

“Like what?” Jon
asked, hurriedly buckling his jeans.

The captain leaned
over the starboard side and waved the light around.
“Rock maybe,
or a dead tree.”

Will frowned,
gazing across the vast body of thick blackness stretching into the night on all
sides. “Way out here?”

“Aye.
Used to be islands out here back in the day.
May’ve just nicked the top of one.”

Sky wiped white
stuff from her chin with the back of her hand. “What islands?”

“
Most’re
submerged now.” The captain shone the light around
the rear of the boat, lighting up nothing but water.
“Could’ve
been the mast of a ghost ship.”

Will
swallowed
the lump in his throat. “Ghost ship?” he said, his
voice cracking.

“Water is low
this year.
Real low.”

Kat took Dean’s
arm and snuggled up next to him, heat flushing his side. He shook her off and grabbed
Shaun with both hands, crumpling Shaun’s North Face into his fists.
“Get
Mikey
back here, right – fucking –
now.”

“All right,
Dean! Relax!” Shaun frantically dug his phone from his khakis and tapped at the
screen, peering around Dean’s angry fists to see the contacts list. Shaun paused,
tapped some more and then slowly looked up. The screen’s light painted a
desolate look across his freshly shaven face. He lowered the cell, groping for
words. “There’s no signal, boss.”

Dean balled Shaun’s
jacket up tighter and then shoved him away. “You have got to be kidding me!” he
said, pulling his cell from his worn jeans.

“You won’t get a
signal way out here, lad,” Captain Taylor called out, lighting a propane lantern
and shutting off the flashlight. “We’re several miles out.”

Sky latched onto
Jon in the darkness as Dean tapped at the cell’s bright screen just the same.
He put the phone to his ear, his eyes darting from the girls to Will. Everyone
watched him, anxiously awaiting his report. Dean squeezed his eyes shut hard
enough to see stars and, grudgingly, lowered the cell phone. “Shit,” he said
under his breath. This wasn’t happening. He opened his eyes and found the
captain. “Try the radio.”

Captain Taylor was
already holding the lantern above the boat’s dash, lighting up a VHF marine
radio mounted to the side wall. Taylor pushed buttons and twisted knobs that
should have lit up the darkened radio but didn’t. He clicked the handset and
said things that none of them understood.

Then he said
mayday
.

And everyone
understood that.

A few more seconds
passed and he released a defeated breath, racking the
mic
and turning to them with a grave look in his eyes. “Power’s out.”

“What?” Jon
gasped, prying Sky off his arm.

“What about a generator?”
Will asked.

Captain Taylor
dangled the lantern over the side of the boat and took another good look around,
checking for damage. He came back up, a mystified expressing increasing the
wrinkles around his eyes. “No genie.”

Something jumped
in the water behind the boat.

Will’s bloodshot
eyes got as big as saucers. “What the hell was that?”

“A fish,” Taylor
grunted, fiddling with some wires under the dusty dash.

“Sounded like a
pretty big fish.” Will pulled his backpack closer. “What’s the biggest fish out
here?”

“Probably
a
muskie
.”
Taylor came up from beneath the dash
and stopped in the doorway, resting his leathery hands on his waist. “Or…could’ve
been the Lake Michigan Mermaid,” he said softly, glancing over his shoulder
like he had just heard something coming from the front of the boat.

Jon’s Adam’s
apple rose and fell. “Lake Michigan Mermaid?” he asked, taking a seat on a
wooden bench running along one side of the rear deck. Sky shivered in the
breeze rolling over them and joined him.

“Aye.”
Taylor looked
out across the water, stroking his shaggy beard. “Folks say Lorelei still
haunts the shipwrecks at the bottom of this lake, searching for her drowned
husband.” He turned to them with warm eyes. “Legend has it she’s as beautiful
as a newborn’s first breath.” His face hardened into something solemn, leaving
dark shadows around his eyes. “But that creature is not to be trusted.”

Dean’s agitated
gaze pierced the captain without mercy. “Would you just get the goddamned boat
started?” he barked, cleaning his jeans with a towel that only smeared the
whipped cream in more.

“What happened
to her husband?” Sky asked, scooting closer to Jon, who scooted further away.

“He was aboard a
great wooden steamship, called the Doty, transporting a large cargo of corn
from South Chicago to Ontario in October of eighteen ninety-eight when she
sailed into a terrible storm.” Taylor studied their faces in the lantern’s
faint light. “
Cuz
it’s a freshwater lake, it’s
believed the vessel – and the crew’s seventeen corpses – are all well preserved
down below. So she searches for him to this very day.”

“
Awww
,” Kat cooed, taking a seat next to Sky on the hard
bench. “That’s so sweet.”

“Aye.
Unless she
finds you and you’re not her husband.”

Dean rolled his
eyes, now scrubbing his shirt.

“What happens if
you’re not her husband?” Will whispered.

The captain jerked
his eyes to Will without moving his head. “Then…she has sex with you.”

Shaun bent an
eyebrow. “Now, that’s my kind of mermaid.”

“Then she cuts
your dick off with the razor sharp teeth lining her privates.”

“I stand
corrected,” Shaun replied, taking a long swig of beer.

Dean popped out
of his folding chair so fast it toppled to the deck behind him. “Will you cut
the fairytale bullshit and figure something out!” He checked his watch. “We
need to get back to the marina!
Now!”

Captain Taylor’s
bushy eyebrows rose into his forehead. “Only one thing we can do.”

Dean threw his
hands out. “And what’s that?”

“Wait for help.”

Dean turned away
and leaned against the side of the boat, hanging his head between his
shoulders. He let out a tired breath and looked up, staring out across the
water running into the pitch black surrounding them. “They’ll never find us out
here. Not at night.”

“Aye, but they
will when the sun comes up and we haven’t reported back.”

Dean spun around.
“And what?
Spend the night out here? Are you fucking
crazy?”

“I’m sorry, lad,
but we
ain’t
got much choice in the matter.”

Dean stepped into
the captain’s face, his chest rising and falling beneath his soiled t-shirt. He
locked eyes with Taylor and spoke in a heated whisper. “Call me
lad
one more time. I fucking dare you.”

Shaun took his
arm and pulled. “Dean, take it...”

Dean yanked his
arm away. “Fuck you, Shaun! This is all on you!”

“That’s fine,
but getting all pissed off about it and making a huge scene isn’t going to
solve anything. This is out of our control now.”

Dean pointed an
accusatory finger at the girls. “This got out of your control the moment they
stepped foot aboard this boat.”

Kat dropped her
face into her hands and started crying.

Sky wrapped her
skinny arms around her coworker. “
It’s
okay, Kat.
We’re going to be fine.”

“No, we’re not!”

Sky flinched
with the outburst.

“I’m cold and
there’s a fucking killer mermaid on the loose!”

“He’s just
kidding around, aren’t you Captain?” Jon said.

The captain
blinked blankly at Jon, stroking his beard for a few seconds too long.
“Aye.”

Kat scanned the
captain’s weathered eyes and burst into tears again. Taylor lifted a bench seat
against the other wall, pulled a blanket out and offered it to Kat. She didn’t
take it but Sky did.

“Great,” Shaun
said, tossing Dean
an
are
you happy now
look as Sky wrapped the
blanket around her and Kat. “You don’t have to be an asshole about this.”

Dean set his
jaw, his face turning bright red. “Oh, I’m the asshole? I’m
not
the one disrespecting
my fiancé! Who, by the way, will be standing on
the dock waiting for us when the coast guard or who-the-fuck-ever tows us in
tomorrow.
” He looked to the girls. “
Which
should go over real well.
”

Will popped up
from his chair. “All right, all right, everyone just calm down. Everything is
going to be fine.” He turned to the captain. “What do we have for food and
water?”

Kat looked up,
rivers of black eyeliner running down her cheeks.

“They’ll find us
in
da
morning,” Taylor replied, evading the question.
“Afternoon at
ta
latest.”

Jon got up and
approached the captain under the helm’s small roof. “I’ll give you twenty bucks
to let me use the bathroom.” He shifted from foot to foot. “I’m about to
shit
my pants.”

Taylor looked
down at the twenty in Jon’s hand and then looked back up. “Forty.”

Jon stopped
shifting and gritted his teeth before digging out his wallet. “I’d like to punch
your mama right in the mouth.”

Taylor chuckled
as he took the money and slipped it into a back pocket. “Hey!”

Jon stopped and
turned in the tiny doorway leading below deck.

“No
funny business down there now,
laddie
.”
Taylor wagged a
finger back and forth at him.

Jon pressed his
lips together and turned for the stairs, grumbling under his breath.

Chapter
Fifteen

The smoke alarm
went off and Brooke sat bolt upright in bed. Rolling smoke rushed into her
lungs and she immediately began coughing. “Ben!” she screamed, reaching over to
find his side of the bed cold and empty. Her bare feet hit the hardwood and
pattered around to the master bath.

“Ben!”

She pulled her
night shirt over her nose to block the smoke, eyes watering. Her hand found the
bathroom light switch but nothing happened when she flipped it on.

“Ben! Where are
you?”

The incessant smoke
alarm answered her with its panicked series of high-pitched beeps, fueling her terror.
Her vision blurred. Her chest burned. Brooke made a beeline for the hallway and
stubbed her toe on the bench at the foot of the bed. She cried out in pain and
skipped across the room on one foot. Her hand found the doorway to the hall.
She stopped to cough, the smoke alarm above her, blasting her eardrums with its
urgent cry. Fire pooled around her bare feet and quickly climbed her legs. She
tried to run but couldn’t move – a witch at the stake.

“Ben!”

Brooke’s eyes
popped open. She sat up in bed, chest pounding beneath the
Star Wars
shirt she had stolen from Ben, who was just as gone as
the smoke. Her cell phone rang again on the nightstand next to her. She
snatched it up in a shaky panic, her breath shooting out in warm bursts and
fogging the screen.

Evy.

Three forty-six
in the morning.

Brooke answered
it, glancing at Ben’s untouched side of the bed again. “Where are they?”

Evy’s heavy
breathing came through in hitching waves, her voice little more than a whisper.
“They’re not there?”

Brooke wiped
sweat from her brow with her shoulder and threw back the covers. “Hang on,” she
said, hopping out of bed and being careful to avoid the bench on the way to the
master bath. She hit the lights, her eyes reflexively shutting out the harsh glow.
The bathroom was empty, just like in her dream. Her ears rang in the quiet. She
staggered into the open kitchen and hit the lights, clutching the phone to her
chest. Her heart sank.

“Ben?”

The panic in her
voice reminded her of the nightmare she had just escaped only to find herself trapped
in another. Her heart beat against the cell phone. She called out his name again.

Nothing.

Brooke brought
the phone back to her ear. “They’re not here.”

Evy didn’t
respond and Brooke pressed the phone tighter against her ear.

“Evy!”

“Where could they be? It’s almost four in the
morning!”

Brooke tried to
think of a smartass answer to alleviate her sister’s anxiety but her own apprehension
squashed that plan to bits. “I don’t know,” she said instead.

“Dean doesn’t answer his phone. None of them do.”

Brooke frowned,
a foreboding feeling blooming in the pit of her stomach.
“None
of them?”

“No.”
Evy sighed into the phone, silently
processing events. Decision flickered across her face.
“Find out who the limo company was. I’m coming over to your place. I’ll
call Carrie on the way.”

“Evy!”

Silence gripped
the line with both hands and squeezed and, for a moment, Brooke thought her
sister had hung up.

“What?”
Evy said weakly.

“I’m sure they
are fine – probably just swimming off the beers and smell of fish at Shaun’s
house.” She paused. “You drive carefully.”

Evy took a deep
breath and released it.
“Okay.”