Chapter 22: Fear

That wasn't the situation Adrian normally would've wanted in on. Stuck on a boat, in the middle of nowhere. With a captain nowhere in sight. No, it wasn't very fun at all.

"What do we do now?" Cybil's voice creaked as she asked the most obvious question out there. Adrian dismissed it with a wave of his shoulders.

"I dunno."

Cybil shook her head and bit her bottom lip in an attempt to not say anything drastic. She was supposed to be the one that kept order, not to be the one that yelled and screamed. "Well, I'll check all the cabins, you walk around to the other s-"

"Starboard side," Adrian cut her off, "I gotcha." Adrian walked farther out ahead, almost out of Cybil's sight. She squinted through the fog to get one more glimpse of him.

"You sound like you did more than sing for your band in the past," Cybil called after him. She took note to his confident swagger as he moved around the side of the boat.

"My dad took me on boats like this when I was a kid." He walked out of Cybil's field of view. "I always got sick five minutes into riding on one."

'That wasn't exactly a comforting thought,' Cybil thought with a frown. She would've protested, if Adrian weren't already doing what she had told him.

Adrian smiled as he picked up the shotgun from its stand on the wall of the captain's room. Yes, he had been told to stay outside, but he couldn't necessarily resist when he saw the powerful weapon through the window. The mere aura it gave off... the sense of feeling important when he pumped the barrel and gleefully shuddered at the sound of the weapon's readiness.

The feeling of power.

He walked out of the room and pointed the weapon towards the starboard side of the boat, and watched the woman behind the steering wheel in silence.

Cybil walked down a small flight of stairs and into a narrow hallway. There weren't many places to go and it wasn't easy to get lost- a small boat left room for only three cabins down below. She opened the door closest to her with a low creak; the light in the hallway filtered into the room and allowed Cybil to look around.

One step into the room, and she quickly slipped. One hand gripped the nearby part of the doorway, and she just managed to keep her bearings while she leaned down to pick up what was under her feet- a newspaper. With the flash of a half smile, she backed into the hallway under the comforting light, and began to read.

'The Little Baroness Comes Home: In A Very Bad Manner'

'TOLUCA LAKE
Many tourists long time inhabitants of this town had been hit hard when the news that the small boat entitled 'The Little Baroness' had disappeared just over twenty years ago, and finally, their loved ones are hit with a shocking confirmation.'

'The boat crashed into the back of Harbor Inn late last night, and aboard the ship were the bodies of all twenty two occupants of the boat before it left on what was a planned three hour tour around the outskirts of the town. No one inside the building was injured at the time. The person, or people who caused the deaths are unknown, but most bodies were found crudely beheaded, and others seemed to be shot repeatedly. No guns were found on the boat, and the police are currently looking for fingerprints on any sharp tools that may have been used in this cruel act.'

'However, the question of who could, or would have done such a thing is the big mystery. The records on the boat showed only twenty two people on board and twenty two bodies were found, no body more or less butchered than any other.'

'A memorial will be placed in Rosewater Park in memory of these unfortunate victims.'

"Twenty years ago..." Cybil searched the paper for a date, and when she found it, her eyes bugged out.

'October 23, 1939'

"What are you doing?" Adrian asked. He didn't get an answer.

"I saw the note in the Indian Runner." He waited, as if he expected the woman to turn around at his claim- but she did not. "Was that you who wrote it?"

Raven didn't turn her head, nor did she even make a gesture that she was listening to a word Adrian had said. Soon, though, she gave a blunt answer. "Wrote what?"

"You know what I'm talking about." Adrian approached Raven slowly, cautiously, his shotgun raised. His bottom lip quivered, and he bit down on it gently to keep it from continuing. "Whose baby are you plannin' to kill?"

At that point, the barrel of the imposing weapon had started to nudge uneasily against the back of Raven's head. Slowly, she raised her hands from the wheel they had once clung to, and turned around. "I don't know what you are talking about, sweetheart."

"Oh yeah?" Adrian pulled back on the weapon and held it up so that Raven had literally found herself staring down the barrel of a gun. "I'd bet you a million dollars, that you do." His words were spoken with a cold sneer- if there was any time that Adrian would have pulled the trigger on another human, that moment could surely contend to be one of those times. "I'd bet your life that you do."

Raven didn't seem to be very threatened by the gun's presence, however. In fact, she appeared so at ease, it creeped Adrian out. Something was different about her- when he first saw her, she was so eager to help him out. But from the moment he saw her in the hospital, he knew she wasn't the same person.

"What are you going to do," Raven prodded, "are you going to shoot me?" She smirked, and took a quick peek over her shoulder. "Do you know how to take control of a boat, honey?" The sound in her voice caused Adrian to glance past her and to the waters ahead, and there, his heart felt like it fell out of his body. A large group of rocks stood in the way of the boat, and there was nowhere near enough time for him, or even Raven, to steer them out of harm's way. Adrian rolled his eyes, and Raven's smirk widened.

Cybil felt ready to puke by the end of that article. What a newspaper from the thirties was doing on a boat now, she had no idea. No idea except for one, and it wasn't one she wanted to be thinking.

She then realized that she had been down there for more than she wanted to, and had left Adrian topside. She swiftly shifted her weight and ran upstairs.

Outside, the humid air that generated from the fresh water currents engulfed her senses. She fought the fog and was bound for the front of the boat. When she got there, all she saw was Adrian, staring out into the lake at something she couldn't make out.

"Adrian! Are you okay?" She trotted to him, and upon stopping next to him she could see what his eyes were transfixed on. Her mouth slowly hung open, and her eyes snapped shut.

"She was here." Adrian didn't look to Cybil to utter the three words- he knew she would hear them just as well otherwise. And she did.

"What are you talking about?"

"She was here, Cybil," Adrian echoed, "I saw her."

Cybil's eyes opened. She then pointed to their right. "We have to get off this thing, now!" Before Adrian could realize what was going on, Cybil ran to the side. One running leap planted her feet on the top railing of the boat, and she used the momentum to propel herself across the large area of water before she landed harshly on the docks to the side.

She rolled to a stop, before she peered through the fog at the boat. Cybil had no clue if it was the low field of vision that was playing tricks on her or she had just grown paranoid overtime, but as her eyes traced the mass that drifted by, she could swear that read 'Little Baroness' in big black letters along the side.

"Cybil!" Adrian watched in horror at Cybil's leap, and couldn't imagine doing the same thing himself. Once she was in midair, she was completely gone- as if the fog swallowed her whole. That seasick feeling from his childhood almost reared its ugly head.

Adrian glanced back at the rocks ahead.

'Come on, sissy...'

He turned back to where Cybil's silhouette had cut into the fog. And there, the fog subsided- just enough for Adrian to see Cybil climbing to her feet at the docks below.

'You're going to DIE...'

With a growl, he ran along the back of the boat; as far as he could possibly go in order to get the shortest distance before his jump as possible. With the shotgun still clenched in both hands, he vaulted up to a lower railing with one foot and used that power to get his other foot to the highest point.

'JUMP!'

And there, on a spot of something red, he slipped.

His body wavered in the air, but there was no stopping. He held the shotgun overhead, and chucked it with all of his strength. Below, Cybil caught it in her arms like a wide reciever catching a football. There, she looked back as her friend's body twisted around in the air. She flinched.

'Come on, you're gonna make it, you gotta make it.'

As Adrian turned to the boat he jumped from, he saw the reason his footing troubled him, and how he hadn't noticed it before, he didn't know. Whether it was there before or not, however, wasn't the case. The fact was, at that moment, the entire boat- exterior and all- was bathed in crimson. And Adrian doubted that stuff was paint. He didn't have much time to doubt though, and he knew that. He turned to prepare landing on the docks, when he felt a sharp jolt in his left side.

He exhaled a deep exhale, the wind knocked out of him entirely. He looked over how he landed, and suddenly wasn't so surprised at the painful results. He edge of the docks was tucked under his left arm- the only thing that kept him up. He instinctively spat to the side into the water below, letting a wad of bloodied saliva travel to the depths underneath him.

Cybil blinked and waited for a second, to see if Adrian could make it up on his own. It was dreadfully obvious that he couldn't. She quickly knelt down, placing the large gun at her side before she reached for Adrian's hand, but it was too late. She couldn't tell if Adrian simply gave up or something gave him a tug, but before she knew it he was gone, underwater.

Adrian fell lifelessly into the water. A red mist trailed out of his mouth and created a small crimson decoration in the water nearby.

'Ugh, snap out of it, man.'

His eyes narrowed slightly as his legs slowly started to kick for the surface. It was then that something drifted towards him. Something black.

The first thing Adrian thought was that it was Raven's kimono- he hadn't known if she got off the boat in time or not even though he secretly hoped so, if only to get the answers to his questions. Either way, though, it wasn't Raven floating towards him, and he noticed that when the object brushed against his stomach.

He reached down and grabbed it, lifting it to his face to get a good look at it, and there his eyes took on a look of confusion. A small, black duffel bag.

His hands searched for a zipper and they soon found one. He yanked on it and slid the bag open. Moments later, he quickly wished he hadn't.

Adrian tried to let out a scream, but only bubbles of water formed instead. He pushed the bag away from him, but that only caused the rotten hand that was inside to drift closer. Something else was half in and half out of the bag but Adrian didn't stick around long enough to check, nor did he want to. He kicked and tried to part the water with his hands as hard as possible, just as one after another, more bags the same size began to float in his proximity.

The second he reached the surface, he yelled.

"Oh, God." Cybil heard Adrian's yelling, and looked over the edge of the docks to see his choked face, gasping for air. She reached over as far as possible. "Grab my hand!" Adrian looked up to find Cybil trying to pull him up. He lifted both hands- one to rub the water out of his eyes, and the other to take Cybil's hand. When his eyes ceased in stinging him, he used his other hand to grab one of the support beams to the docks as help to pull himself to Cybil.

"Hurry, please," Adrian pleaded quietly, "get me the hell outta here."

Cybil used all of her strength to get Adrian up next to her. He coughed and wheezed as the adrenaline in his body forced him to his feet. "There's something down there.. these, these fucking bags, and this one had a hand in it. I swear to God they were down there..."

Cybil raised her hands, and motioned them for Adrian to calm down. "I believe you, it's okay. I believe you."

"Yeah..." Adrian pulled at the sides of his pants, which were now drenched and clinging to him like his shirt. "Yeah, I hope so." He pulled off his boots, and shook out any water that had seeped inside. "Son of a bitch, this sucks."

Cybil smiled. As much as they had endured, she was glad that Adrian wasn't badly hurt. "Well, it could be worse."

Adrian placed the boots next to his feet and slicked back his black hair. "How so?"

"Well.. you could be dead."

Adrian thought about that for a second, and then he shrugged. "I guess that's true, too." He walked over and grabbed his shotgun from where Cybil had put it a minute ago. "Did you miss me?" Adrian's eyes remained on the weapon, but only for a second. He looked up only out of curiousity to see what was around him and Cybil, when a neon sign that half-worked blinked out the answer.

'keviw Hote'

To the sound of water dripping, Adrian walked forward. And in the distance, just beyond the sign, was a large building. One that Adrian recognized a little too well.

'Augh...'

He dropped to one knee and held his stomach. His shotgun clammered to the partially rotted wood next to him.

'It's the room that confines me'

'It's the room that confines me'

'It's the room that-'

"I'm fine," Adrian said, sensing Cybil questioning his well being. She had thought about it, and had walked over to him as if to help him up, but Adrian stood up on his own before she could even do that. Adrian lifted up his weapon and looked over the building ahead. Inside would be the room 105 he was looking for, but before he could approach he was called back.

"Adrian?"

Adrian turned and faced Cybil. "Yeah?"

"Are you going to put your boots back on or are you going to just leave them here?"

Inside, Adrian chuckled to himself. Wouldn't want to forget about those.

"Oh. Oh, right." He headed over and sat down, putting his boots back on with ease.

"Maybe you should wait, or I can give you a ride back to your house and you can get some new clothes?"

Adrian shook his head. "I've been able to deal with all this, I can deal with some wet clothes. Besides, I have a feeling that we shouldn't be taking our time with this."

"What do you mean?"

Adrian finished strapping up his boots and stood up, picking up his shotgun with him. "I need you to do me a favor."

Cybil shrugged. "What is it?"

"Go back to Maria's house. I need to know if she has any birth certificates, blood tests, any type of records that would insinuate that she's had a baby."

"Erm, why?"

"'Cause I think she had one and never told me."

Cybil shook her head, puzzled. "Why wouldn't she have told you?" Adrian glared at Cybil sternly.

"Don't you think I'm trying to figure that one out, myself? Adrian sighed, waiting for Cybil to let the comment sink into her head before he spoke again. "Do me that favor. Please."

Cybil frowned. There wasn't anything she could say that would change Adrian's mind, and with that, she conceded. "Alright, I'll do it."

Adrian moved his lips as if to say 'thank you', but Cybil was already walking away. Adrian smiled after her, and when she was gone, he remembered what he stayed there to do. Purposefully, he made his way towards the hotel.