Serenity Contest

Blood. All over the deck. The trail led right to...right to the body. How did everything go so crazy? When did this cruise turn into a nightmare?

"Attention passengers. There has been an emergency on the top deck and we are asking all passengers to please return to their cabins."

The announcement sounded like it was spoken through water. I didn't fully realize it until it was spoken again.

"I repeat, there has been an emergency on the top deck and we are asking all passengers to please return to their cabins."

After finally realizing what was being said, I started backing up, still staring at the body on the ground. Soaked red. One of the many images from that cruise which would be forever burned into my brain.

How? How did this all go so crazy?

I went back home from an insane day at the shop I owned. Holiday season and all. I had just collapsed on my couch when there was a knock on my door. I contemplated ignoring it until the knock came again.

Annoyed, I stood back up and answered the door. Rather than a person, there was a cardboard cutout of a ridiculously happy man that was dressed like a tourist with a postcard attached to it. I was too exhausted to question as I grabbed the postcard and read the message.

Congratulations Christopher Jones! You have won a trip of a lifetime: two weeks aboard the newly built Serenity Cruise Line! You were chosen from thousands of applicants and are a very lucky individual! We ask that you join us for its christening on the Twenty-Seventh of July at 9:00 AM! Just head out to the return address on the set date. This postcard will double as your ticket so make sure you bring it with you! We hope to see you then!

A cruise! I couldn't believe it! According to the return address it was even going to be moored in the bay right here in the city! I had never won anything in my life. It was a bright spot in a really rough day. Only half a year away. I didn't even think it was weird at the time. I was just so incredibly exhausted from the holidays I didn't even care. I was bubbling with excitement to go on my first cruise.

The months passed and I got things prepared between my employees; who would work what shifts, just call me if the shop was going completely crazy. The normal things. Drove myself out and everything.

I stared in awe as I drove up. The ship was massive. When I was a kid, my dad had taken me fishing on his buddies' boat a couple of times but that boat was an ant compared to the vessel before me.

The other cruise ships I had seen in the bay were at least half the size of this ship. The first thing I was going to look for was a map, otherwise I'd would wind up wandering endlessly. There's no way you could spend just two weeks on this ship and see everything it had to offer.

I had parked and was digging in my trunk for my all of my luggage when I heard a voice behind me, making me jump and bash my head on the open trunk.

"Oh I'm sorry sir," the voice said. I turned around while rubbing my head to see a man in a pristine white uniform. "I came up assuming you were one of the passengers?"

"Yeah, I'm one of the passengers," I responded, still rubbing my head. "Is it safe to assume you're one of the crew aboard the ship?"

"Yes, sir, I am!" he answered cheerily. "May I by chance see your postcard just to verify?" I pulled the postcard out of my back pocket and handed it to him. "Very good...Christopher Jones?"

"That's me," I responded. "Chris is fine though. No need for formalities. I get enough of that from my employees."

"Very good, Chris," he said in the same cheery voice. I stifled a laugh as I realized it was the same fakey tone I used for customer service. "Here, I can help you get your luggage out and deliver it to your cabin. Speaking of which..."

The man pulled a phone out of his pocket along with a small device (it looked like a card swiper) that was clipped to it. He pressed a few buttons on the screen and pulled out a card from his other pocket and swiped it.

"Here you are, Chris," the man said, handing me the card. "This is your room key as well as a kind of access card for a few of the specialized locations on the ship. You'll be in room 1057 on the second level of the living deck. You can also put money on it at any of the 'ATM desks' locations."

"Wow that's...pretty unique," I said, taking the card. Maybe this was normal for cruises?

"We spared no expense for our passengers," the man said. A strange expression briefly flashed across his face, but it was gone before I could fully process it. Maybe pity? I passed it off from how exhausted I was at the time and how desperately I needed this vacation. "Oh, I'm Johnathon Drake, by the way."

We shook hands and departed after he grabbed my luggage and headed to a separate section on the back side of the ship. I boarded the ship and we set sail right on time. Orientation was simple, telling us that again it would be a two week cruise around the ocean. There was an itinerary in our cabins that would tell us when each of the activities were and where, in which none of them were required. The schedule was our own to follow. If we wanted to just eat and drink on the top deck and lounge by the pool for two weeks we could. It definitely sounded relaxing and accommodating.

I had spent the first three days exploring a few of the different areas of the ship and meeting a few of the other passengers, which there seemed to be a lot of compared to the small amount of crew I'd seen. The only thing any of us seemed to have in common was that we won this contest and were all passengers on this ship. It didn't strike me as odd about the contest until someone finally voiced my thoughts.

"Isn't it weird, though," Damien said. He was a tallish man with salt and pepper hair sitting next to me in the lobby to the theater area where I had stopped to rest. "I don't actually remember entering a contest but yet, here I am."

"Come to think of it, I don't remember entering any contests either," I vaguely responded. I'm sure we would've talked a little more, but his wife had just returned and they had headed into whatever show was scheduled to be showing at that time.

That was day two. On the night of day three was when...when we found it.

I was returning from checking out a few of the stores around the ship to maybe get a few ideas for my own shop when I had seen it. A dark crimson puddle on the ground. I had gotten chills just from looking at it. It was obviously blood. Nothing else to me could match that shade except for blood. There was a smear of crimson as well, what looked like something or someone was dragged across the deck. It seemed to lead to the stairs that led up to the top deck.

I don't know why I followed the trail. Natural curiosity I guess. I still followed it though. Right to the body and the other dozens of people who had already found it before me. Some unknown man I had never met, laying on the ground. His now empty eyes, staring into a vast unknown with a look of horror on his face. Head nearly severed from his body. Almost...almost like he had seen it coming and knew he was powerless to stop it.

We all got ushered back into our cabins and I assumed some kind of authorities were being called in to investigate. Whether they were on the ship or not they had to be calling the authorities right? Even after trying to distract myself with those thoughts, all I could focus on was the image of the man that was now burned into my brain.

Torturous hours passed. No word from anyone. No sign from the crew or that any of the crew even existed. I went to leave my cabin to try and find a crew member...someone...anyone so I could figure out what was going on. Only my door was locked. I fought the panic rising in my chest. I desperately searched around the cabin to find another way out. All I found was some kind of speaker built into the wall. They had these all over the ship, come to think of it. I started looking at every inch of the speaker hoping to find some kind of intercom button to call the crew but no luck. Just the speaker.

I didn't realize I had started pacing until I heard a crackling noise over the speaker. I froze where I was and stared at it. Then I heard the statement that will haunt me for the rest of my life.

"Ladies and gentleman, this is your captain speaking," the voice from the speaker said. It was distorted but horribly amused at the same time. "I would like to inform you that one of our passengers has died tonight. His throat was slit (slit? He was almost beheaded!) and he was dragged out into the open on the top deck in full view of everyone. This is all part of our program here. From this point forward, your schedule no longer exists. This is a game of life and death. There are now 5384 passengers left on the ship. Everyone head back to the top deck for further instructions. Let the real cruise begin."

My door swung open of its own accord and I heard movement from out in the corridor. Screams. Running. I couldn't move. I couldn't believe what I was hearing. This wasn't possible. There's no way this was real. Only one thought got me moving. Someone had answers and I was going to find them and get the answers out of them. Time to head to the top deck and see what was going on.