2: Get me off this ship!

"Oh my god! Oh my god! Oh my god!" Rose Sexton could feel her heart pounding in her chest, and sweat dripping between her shoulder blades. Her blood ran cold at the realization that she was on board a cruise liner packed with blood sucking monsters! Thousands of blood sucking monster! Her fight or flight response was in a state of shock, she looked back and forth to study her surroundings. Where she was standing, right next to the embarkation ramp, there were few people nearby. But further along the deck there were hundreds of tourists, they looked normal...

"Calm down ma'am," the sailor in front of her desperately tried to present an aura of calm.

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN I'M ON A CRUISE FOR VAMPIRES!" Rose cried out in abject terror as the sound of horns blared in the wind. The ship, the HMS Sanguine, was continuing to proceed out of the harbor and into the open ocean. Sea hawks were flying to guide them out to the great blue beyond.

The man in front of her looked around, and realized there was no hope of getting off the ship in time. He removed his cap and wiped his brow, she realized he was also fairly stressed about the situation. It appeared there was no escape, unless she was willing to jump several stories and swim against the ships wake...

Rose seriously considered that option for a full minute, being on a ship full of blood sucking vampires didn't seem like the safer option. She ran to the side railing to look down, the current's waves were bashing against the hull.

"Say cheese!" An unknown voice called out, Rose turned quickly as a flash burned her retinas.

"Ouch!" The sudden attack was a surprise! Rose took a few steps back, nearly impacting the rail, while she rubbed her eyes.

"Oh sorry!" an unknown voice sounded alarmed. Rose could make out a pair of blurry figures standing in front of her, one was slightly taller than the other.

Finally her vision cleared enough to make out the pair playing with an old camera. She couldn't make out details so she kept rubbing her eyes. "Watch where you're pointing that thing!" Rose briefly forgot she was addressing non-humans.

"I told you to be careful with that thing," The second voice was definitely that of a woman...or vampire woman?

As Rose's vision finally cleared she could make out the couple before her. They appeared just like anybody else she might have randomly met in life, the duo looked like they were in their thirties and wore ridiculous Hawaiian shirts. The man was tall, broad shouldered, and unbelievably pale as if he had been inside all day. The woman was just a few inches shorter, with long ginger hair and a beach bod that looked like she could be a model. Even in a baggy Hawaiian shirt she looked impressive. Her bronze skin leaned into her husband, or boyfriend, while she criticized the old camera he was trying to adjust.

Whoever the man with the camera was, he seemed rather attached to it. "Its a classic, I just have to figure out how to turn off the flash." He was picking at a series of old style buttons.

Rose grabbed it from his hand and immediately pinpointed the small dial hidden on the side, the pair of vacationers looked at her in surprise. She opened the chassis without disturbing the old film and deactivated the flash bulb before throwing it back to them, "You know it's rude to take pictures of people without their permission?"

The sailor rushed up next to her, "Ma'am if I may, let me take you to the captain...maybe we can figure something out."

Rose suddenly remembered again that she was on a vampire cruise ship! which mean she just yanked the camera away from real vampires!

"Is there a problem sailor?" The pale man asked, his long blonde hair blew in the wind making him look like some forlorn prince.

The sailor looked at the passengers and scratched the back of his neck, "Just an unfortunate accident, this lady boarded the ship by mistake." He paused to look at Rose, "In a complete rush I might add."

Rose planted her hands on her hips, she had such a hard time picturing the three people within arms reach as the blood sucking demons she had read stories about as a child! They looked completely normal, they didn't even have pointy teeth like the old Dracula vids. The man was pale, but not in an eerie malevolent way. The woman's face was oval, not narrow with sharp edges like in some of the anime. In every sort of way they seemed completely normal...

"Wait so does that mean we have a human in our midst?" The pale man asked? Clearly that peeked his interest.

His girlfriend, or wife, raised an eyebrow "A human! oooh yummy?" she licked her lips.

Rose froze, her eyes dilated and the blood drained from her face. She took a quick glance at the railing and the waves far below. The shoreline was still not too far away.

The strange woman laughed, "Relax just kidding! Seriously you need to lighten up, it's rude to just assume we want to drink everyone's blood we meet?" she finished with a wink.

Rose tried to feign a laugh but barely kept her awkward, clearly fake, smile. "heh...good to know..."

The sailor placed a hand on her shoulder, it made her recoil and jump to the side. He tried to address her again, "Sorry, I was afraid you were about to faint and fall off the side!"

The woman across laughed at that, "We certainly can't let her get away can we?"

"Honey stop, you're frightening her," he patted his partner on the head and approached rose but was wise enough to keep a fair distance. He offered a hand in greeting, "Sorry about my wife, she loves to tease. The names Vlad, and this sprite is my wife Catarina. We're the Kemps, and you are?"

Rose stuttered as she responded, her hand shook as she hesitated to accept the handshake. "Rose...Rose Sexton...and please don't devour me..."

He laughed, "Didn't she just say it was rude to assume that? besides we don't actually...devour...people. You really don't know anything about Vampires do you?"

"Perhaps we could...educate her?" Catarina said almost seductively.

"No no, leave her alone. Mr and Misses Kemp you've had your fun but we really must be off. Were running out of time as it is! Please miss Sexton follow me!" The sailor waved the pair to go away then carefully placed his hand on Rose's back to guide her to safety.

"See you again soon Rose! Pleasure meeting you!" Catarina called out as Rose walked away with the sailor. She felt goosebumps on her arms and her throat was dry.

"You don't need to worry, there just picking on you. We vampires don't actually prey on people like all the old stories. And we take pride in the safety of all our guests aboard the HMS Sanguine, even accidental ones," There was something about the sailor that seemed to exude confidence. Rose couldn't put her finger on it, but something in his voice made her feel more at ease. Normally she would instantly shove away any man that would dare lay a hand on her and move her around like a puppet, but this time she didn't complain as he lead her away from the main deck and into the confines of the ship itself.

She expected the inside to be dark and brooding, and was genuinely surprised to find the lights stunningly bright and even flamboyant. Classical music echoed from speakers along the halls, and the carpeting glowed a vibrant teal. She noticed there was an absence of the color red, even the wood furniture was stained a dark black as if to avoid any shade close to that spectrum.

It took a couple minutes navigating the hallways before they made their way to the bridge. They passed by many sailors and passengers, each time she saw someone knew she tried to search for any signs of fangs, glistening skin, or corpse drawn skin! Each and every time she couldn't notice anything out of the ordinary. But...she got the impression they knew she wasn't one of them. More than once she received a courtesy glance, or snarky glare as if they knew instantly she was not meant to be there. What alarmed her the most was that she never got the feeling that she was unwanted...she felt like she was in the wrong place at the wrong time, and people here were glad for that.

Once inside the bridge she found a portly man sitting cross legged in a decorative chair, before him were a dozen other junior officers going over their instruments. They all wore pristine white uniforms, and once again their was a bizarre absence of the color red everywhere. He noticed them enter and stroked his white beard in curiosity.

"Sailor, why are you bringing a passenger here? You know thats against regulation! explain yourself?" he spoke with a charisma matching his office. His voice didn't contain any contempt or frustration, just resounding certainty.

The sailor who had been near her from the beginning cleared his throat before speaking, "My captain, sorry to interrupt but I needed to bring this to your attention!"

The captain suddenly seemed more aware of Rose's presence. She got the suspicion he suddenly understood exactly why he brought her here. "Dear god man! Did you let a young woman on board! What were you thinking!" He sounded suddenly more angry than before.

"I'm sorry sir, she ran right past me as I was about to exit the loading docks. She believed this was the other cruise liner, and was in a rush. I apologize for not being able to stop her sir," he saluted the captain as he spoke, it was clear to Rose that he was probably addressing the captain for the very first time in his life, "As you can see this could present a problem, and on behalf of our newest passenger I would like to request the ship to turn around?"

The captain waved his suggest away, "We can't turn around! Do you have any idea of the logistics, not to mention the port is already fully occupied! We're not the only cruise liners scheduled to dock and depart this morning. It'll be hours, maybe a day, before we could get back on track. So no thats not an option."

Rose suddenly felt the urge to protest for herself, "Please get me off this ship!" she cried out, "Give me a lifeboat or something! Hell I'll take a pontoon raft if thats all you got! The coast guard could pick me up from there."

He laughed at her in amusement, "The riptides will drag you out to sea, and the coast guard will never find your body. You'll spend a couple nights in the open ocean before you die of thirst. I can't in good conscience do that, besides we don't keep spare lifeboats for the random stowaway." The captain leaned back in his chair, the leather groaned under his weight.

After a couple seconds stroking his beard he finally groaned and pulled out a ledger from his desk, "What is your name miss?"

Rose brushed her hair back before answering, "Rose Sexton, and I have plenty of friends and family that will come searching for me if I suddenly turn up missing..." She had no idea why she included that last part but it made the captain raise and eyebrow and laugh.

"Rose Sexton, you're a hoot," He continued to laugh as he wrote her name in the ledger, "Seriously, haven't had a good laugh all day," He put the ledger back and then wrote another sentence or two in a logbook.

The sailor next to her seemed uncomfortable standing at attention for so long, "Um Captain, what should we do?"

The looked at them and shrugged his shoulders, "Only thing we can do, find her a room and make sure she has a passkey like everyone else. I'll notify the HMS kdskfjdsk that we have one of their passengers by mistake. The company will refund her ticket and apply it to one of our passenger rates of equal measure. Or they'll refund her ticket when we arrive at the first port in the cruise tour, she could get off at Nassau and take a plane back."

Rose crossed her arms over her chest, she wanted to stay calm. So far no one has tried to suck her blood, so that was a good sign. But the idea of staying on board any longer was making her a nervous wreck. She tried to understand the option in front of her, "So I can get off at Nassau? When is that?"

The captain looked over at the navigation officer who gave him a thumbs up. Apparently the ocean current and weather was smooth sailing. "As long as the weather remains good we should be there by tomorrow!"

"And none of you will, suck my blood in that time?" Rose had a stutter in her voice.

"Jesus Christ," The captain exclaimed, "You really don't know anything about vampires do you?"

The look of her expression seemed to give him all the answers he needed. Rose Sexton looked out of the bridge windows, the skies were a rich blue with a glaring sun climbing overhead.

"James bring her to the forward deck officer, bring him Rose's new credentials and he'll get it sorted. Try to enlighten her a little bit about vampires on the way. She doesn't need the whole sob story, just enough to help her relax," The captain motioned that it was time for them to leave, but not before officially welcoming her aboard, "Rose Sexton, its a pleasure to have you aboard the HMS Sanguine. Even if it's only for twenty four hours, I hope you enjoy your stay."

Rose struggled but thanked the captain, figuring it was only polite. As she walked out of the bridge with the Sailor, who's name she just learned was James, she overheard one of the junior officers speaking aloud, "Damn are all humans like that?"

The captain responded curtly, "Only at first George, only at first."