Blood Cruise: A thrilling summer chiller from the new Stephen King by Mats Strandberg

Author:Mats Strandberg [Strandberg, Mats]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781786487780
Publisher: Quercus
Published: 2018-04-30T16:00:00+00:00

Göran

Göran holds on to the banister as he walks down the steep stairs past the car deck. He has no particular desire to fall and break his neck.

He pulls the door to deck two open and notes with a grimace that the septic-tank smell has grown more intense. He continues downwards, breathing through his mouth as he turns right and finds the short hallway where Marianne’s cabin is. Thankfully, he made a point of memorising her cabin number. One of the doors at the start of the hallway is ajar. It is dark inside and he ponders whether he ought to pull it shut. Someone might be asleep in there, or might have left and forgotten to lock their door. But he quickly dismisses the thought. This is not his problem.

He walks up to Marianne’s door at the far end of the hallway and taps it lightly. Fixing his ponytail, he realises that he is shifting from one foot to the other like a nervous schoolboy.

‘Marianne?’ he calls. ‘It’s me, Göran.’

He waits, straining his ears, but there are no sounds coming from cabin 2015. He vacillates for a minute. Does he really want to wake her? Yes, he does. He wants to see Marianne again. He wants to lie down next to her, between the sheets in the bed where they made love. He knocks again, harder this time.

Is she awake? Is she angry with him? She looked so disappointed when he said he was leaving, but he had thought she would be coming with him, that it was a given. And when he realised he had messed it up, it was already too late: she looked like she’d wanted him gone as soon as possible. Maybe she doesn’t want to see him now.

He knocks a third time and hears a shuffling sound, but it is not coming from Marianne’s cabin.

Göran turns around and can’t see anyone in the hallway. But the gaping door seems to have opened further.

Suddenly he is convinced someone is lurking in the dark behind it, watching him, and Göran is acutely aware that he is in a dead end and that there is no one else around.

He turns back to Marianne’s door and pounds it hard.

The decks above him are full of people, all hustle and bustle. Music and fresh air. He tries to remind himself of that, but down here it is hard to believe.

The darkness behind the crack in the door seems to be spreading out into the hallway. He listens hard.

This is ridiculous. Just some curious person staring at him from inside their cabin. So what? He should yank that door open and stare back.

Instead, he starts walking back down the hallway, not taking his eyes off the open door for a second. His heart skips a beat when he thinks he sees something moving inside.

He feels relieved when he turns the corner and spots a staircase nearby, closer than the one he came down. It doesn’t matter; he just needs to get out of here.

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