Their first few days aboard the Star Light, Princess Cruise's very new, very posh ocean liner, had been wonderful. Aside from their brief strolls along the deck and an occasional meal in the dinning room, the newlyweds had barely left their room. Sara instinctively flexed her left ring finger and smiled as the moonlight danced along the ridges of the 1 karat stone. It was simple and elegant, a clean cut set in a white gold band.
And she absolutely loved it.
"It still looks good on you."
She smiled. "I think so." Grissom, Gil as she had begun to call him outside of work some months ago, brushed her hair from her shoulder and lightly kissed the back of her neck.
Wrapping his arms tight around her, he sighed. "Thank you."
"For what?" she queried.
"For saying yes when I asked you to marry me."
"Well," she turned. "With a piece of hardware like this it would be inappropriate not to."
Her smile was cut off by yet another kiss, this one decidedly more passionate than the last. The fumbling journey to the bed that followed, however, stopped short as a scream pierced the late night air.
"What was that?" Gil shrugged and moved to the door, cinching his robe as he went. Sara followed. Years of training showed as he opened the door just crack, ensuring that neither he nor his new wife was in the line of danger in the event that the something was truly occurring in the hall. Satisfied that all was clear, he entered the hallway, stopping abruptly. So much so, in fact, that Sara ran into him.
"Gil, what the..." But the sight before her shut her mouth.
A woman, presumably the screamer, stood against the wall trembling. Directly in front of her, appearing to have materialized from one of the alcoves that encased to doors to the rooms stood a man, drenched in blood. He too was trembling, a look of horror enveloping his face, but his horror was directed at the object in his hand: a knife. He swallowed and looked up at Gil and Sara..
"I... uh..." He had no words. In the deafening silence, Sara heard a drop of blood fall lightly from the knife and hit the puddle that had begun forming below it. "Oh my god!" the man cried piteously as he seemed to realize what he was holding. The knife quickly descended to the ground. Just as quickly, the man evaporated into a puddle of tears, falling to his knees.
By now a crowd had gathered in the hallway, not a large one, ten to fifteen people perhaps. Not one made a sound.
"Sir," Gil made his way to the man, careful to avoid both the puddle of blood and the bloody footprints. "What happened?"
"I..." he shook his head, a forlorn look began forming itself in his brown eyes. "I don't know. I don't know."
Gil turned to look into the room the man had emerged from. Absolute carnage. That was the only way to describe it. There was quite a bit of splatter and cast off covering all four walls. The bed, unmade, stood against theright wall with two nightstands flanking it. The exact mirror image of Sara and Grissom's cabin. Only their cabin didn't have two feet cocked at odd angles peering out from behind the bed. The curtain at the balcony ruffled gently in the breeze.
When Grissom's eyes finally met hers, Sara knew the honeymoon was officially over.
