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Mary Lynn…

Mary was finally ready to call Kennedy. Before her, she gripped the handles of the wheelchair the ship’s staff had loaned her. The seat was loaded down with chips from her night at the casino. Their insufferable guardian was not going to save the day by paying for what Nan needed. This was family. Mary had been provided the means, so she planned to handle the financial burden herself. Every game had been blessed. Mary knew her dead husband had been with her for the entire night, watching over every pull and card turn. He had come down from heaven to make sure she could take care of his mother.

She was going to do it for Kennedy. And for George.

Before she left the casino, Mary had counted her winnings. She knew the total down to the exact penny. It would be enough to get Nan home. The winnings might even cover a small headstone with her name on it. She didn’t want her daughter to have to figure her grandmother’s arrangements out, not with a baby coming. Mary had won enough this week to cover it. Her angel husband had made sure of that. Before their guardian wrote the staff a check, Mary needed to tell that old fool that he wasn’t needed. Why did that man keep talking to her? Every day, he had invited her to sit in the sun or take a stroll on the deck. Her husband might be dead, but she was still married. That stubborn idiot needed to find someone new to waste his time on.

As Mary came around the corner, she almost ran into two young men, teenagers. “Whoa… slow down, lady. Where do you think you are going?” Beyond them, far down the hall, she saw a woman with golden eyes, and a heavy thick braid. Her shimmering dress fell to her ankles. She smiled at Mary as she waited by the elevator.

Since she wasn’t alone, Mary felt no need to fake patience with these children. She tried to push past the annoying young men. “Out of my way, punks.”

Instead of retreating, one of them gripped the arm of her wheelchair. “You sure do seem to be in a rush.” As he rattled the chair, the unredeemed chips piled in the seat clanked under her jacket. A handful of brightly colored chips tumbled to the floor. She should have turned them all in yesterday.

Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

“What do we have here? Care to make a donation? Make a guy’s day.”

“Move, you, idiot.” She tried to shove the chair forward, but his grip kept any movement from happening.

The second young man, a shaggy-haired boy, stepped in front of her, blocking her path, crowding her space. He said, “Doesn’t she look familiar? Like that lady in the picture we saw earlier?”

Refusing to release her wheelchair, the young man next to her grinned, exposing a crack in his front tooth shaped like a bolt of lightning. He tilted his head. “I think you are right. We’d know for sure if that old lady she is supposed to be with was still around.”

“Yeah, but she can’t be… right?” He elbowed his friend. “Since she is dead.”

“I thought for sure that choking that old bat would make her turn, but all that happened was her heart stopped.”

Mary curled her lip with disgust. She snapped at the boys, “You shouldn’t joke about such things. Her death had nothing to do with you. She was old, and her liver couldn’t take the pickling she had given it during this stupid trip.

Mary Lynn’s skin went cold. She’d padded the seat with the cash. The sack of coins wouldn’t make a big difference. “You boys are talking strait bull mess. I don’t know what you are up to or on about, but if someone catches you acting like this, you are going to be off this boat. There are cameras everywhere.” She pointed randomly toward the ceiling and corners. The other woman had disappeared. Maybe she had gone for help. “If you hurt my mother-in-law, they would have seen you.”

The shaggy-haired one pantomimed spraying into the air. “That is easy to fix. Squirt squirt, nothing but blur.” He reached out, flicked her jacket out of the way, and hefted the sack of chips. Unphased by her threats, he casually opened it and peered inside. “Holy shit.”

“Just take it.” She hissed at them. “It won’t be lucky for you like it was for me.”

“You don’t strike me as very lucky. Your mother is dead.”

“My mother-in-law.”

Sniffing in the air, like a human knew anything about scent, the fool threatened her. “Could be she is one of them, too. We could check her out and film what happens. That might get us an invitation to the next gathering.”

“What on earth are you talking about?” Mary tried to take a step backward, pulling the chair with her, but the boy held it fast. She stumbled backward and landed on the floor, twisting her ankle.

“We were too gentle with the first one.” The shaggy boy leered at her.

With fire hard eyes, the first boy moved the chair to the side. “We should start with breaking something.”

“Bones.” Purred the other boy gleefully.