And we're back with more Shady Ship. Sorry it doesn't seem like a true erotic horror yet, but it is a bit of a slow burn.
After all, I do have to build up great characters before things get too sour. Otherwise, no one would care about them. This is a erotica, but it is also a story with characters that need to be great as characters.
Can't end this with readers not having at least one favorite character. Though, I can probably guess who is everyone's least favorite so far.
Each character in this story is at least eighteen years old.
Onward.
*****
"Damn Irene. Where the hell is she?" Tucker said, weaponless.
Despite being without a weapon, Tucker was intent on finding Irene, wrapping his arms around her.
Irene was not a person who would run a red light or kill a spider. Her sweetness allured Tucker to her as much as a car wreck allures nosey people.
He had been aware Irene existed for ten years.
Ten years composed with friendship and sweet love.
Tucker did not intend on letting that go.
As he sprinted, Stacie running beside him with her brown bangs bouncing, Tucker focused on how important it was to arm himself with Carlos's shotgun.
"I get the shotgun, kill whatever messed with my friend. Our friend." Tucker said, sprinting a bit quicker. "We find the gold. Live on rich."
Stacie stopped running. Tucker came to a hesitant stop.
Bending over, placing her hands on her knees, Stacie took heavy breaths before saying, "I'm... too scared about this. What if that cougar comes back to kill us. Wounded animals can still kill."
Tucker gritted his teeth.
He had as much time for Stacie's cowardice as much as a racist teacher has time for their Black student.
He took quick steps to the spot in front of Stacie, placed his hand on her coat-covered back. He said, trying to restrain his fury, "Hey. We need to get to Irene fast. Really fast."
Stacie straightened, rubbed her hands against her coat-covered arms.
"Everything is going to be fine. We just need that shotgun." Tucker said, hoping he could use words to convince Stacie to slip courage into herself.
"Okay." Stacie said after two seconds, her voice trembling.
They resumed taking steps. Along the way to Carlos's room, Tucker said, "How's Jenna been? Has she been as cool as a rapist thrown into a freezing lake?"
Rubbing her arms, as if someone dumped her in a freezing lake, Stacie said, "She's been as cool as a good person being taken out of a freezing lake."
Tucker grinned.
He let appreciated, warm joy flow through his body.
"See? Me and you have a good banter going. We're a better duo than conjoined twins." Tucker said, his shoe bottoms slapping against the solid floor.
Stacie laughed.
Hearing Stacie laugh made Tucker smile a bit.
When they arrived inside the captain's quarters, which Carlos now claimed, the two eighteen-year olds turned their eyes to where the adult Carlos lied on the bed.
Resting next to him was the shotgun.
Resting next to the shotgun, the shotgun shells remained in the glowing lamp's dim light.
"Shotgun. Rescue Irene." Tucker said in a soft tone.
Carlos mumbled in his sleep but did not wake.
Stacie stood near the door, lingering.
Tucker let loose a slow exhale, took slow steps to the spot near the bed, gathered the shotgun shells, moved them into his coat's pockets, pulled the shotgun from the bed.
Since he didn't intend on having Carlos direct the rescue mission, Tucker planned on using the shotgun himself to assist with the task.
He had the crucifix necklace Irene had given him on his seventeenth birthday safe inside his right pants pocket, always hidden from his atheist parents' gazes.
Tucker had to find the girl.
Armed with the shotgun and his coat pockets carrying shotgun shells, he was the person in the ship who was the most dangerous.
The smirk he wore on his face was as smug as Carlos.
Tucker turned to Stacie, brandished the shotgun with triumph, an sweltering eagerness to gain more wins.
The moment had to come when he won Irene's love.
Tucker gave Stacie a nod.
"It's alright now. We're going to find Irene, get the twins back with us, plus everyone else. Then we get the gold, use it to buy ourselves some luxury lives." Tucker said a couple minutes later, taking steps in a hall he never ventured into before he arrived in it.
"Will we though?" Stacie said, her usual doubt and cowardice as thick as the terror that had stabbed Tucker's body when he seen that cougar earlier.
"I know we will. I know it as much as I know Carlos loves feeling like he has all the power." Tucker said with contempt coursing through his voice, as if Carlos was the person alive who was more despicable than Hitler. He chuckled. "We're going to get Irene, then everything will be okay."
The cougar appeared.
It took quick steps past the hall, emerging from the path to the hall connecting to the right, moving into the hall to the left, a gaping hole in its body leaking blood.
Tucker aimed.
The cougar gone, Tucker took steps towards the hall the creature disappeared into, grasping the stolen shotgun.
A cougar that stole Tucker's peace was going to have its heart stop.
Tucker had to keep Irene safe.
He had to keep Stacie safe.
"Stay right here. I'm going to kill it." Tucker said to the sole friend he had with him.
He put distance between himself and Stacie, despite longing to stay close to her.
But a beast existed that needed to die.
