by Brian Lumley
“When I left my cabin, people were still moving around nice and normal on B deck. I got in the lift with a family of four on their way to a late breakfast in the Glory of Knossos dining room, also on the main deck. They were all excited, full of the thrills of the cruise, looking forward to all the onboard activities they’d planned for the day ahead—and all I wanted to do was scream at them that there wasn’t going to be a day ahead—not for them, and probably not for anybody.
“We got out of the lift for’ard, and the purser’s cabin was amidships past the hotel manager’s office and gift shops. There was a lot of shouting going on that way, and these two children, a boy and a girl, wanted to see what all of the noise was about. I called them back to their mother and father but they wouldn’t come. They were just…just little kids! So then I told their parents, ‘Go and get them, and get out on the open decks in the sunlight. Keep them safe!’ They looked at me as if I was weird, and I realized how I must look, all trembling and…and wild. They went after their kids, but far too slowly, and by then the shouting had stopped.
“Other people were on the move now; some were running, many seemed dazed, disbelieving. And then, from the purser’s office, the screaming started. Oh, God…the screaming!
“I passed a steward who I knew. He was sitting on the floor with his legs stretched out and his back against a bulkhead. He didn’t seem to see me. I went to offer help, but he didn’t want any. He just looked right through me and brushed my hand aside. Then I noticed how pale he was, and the twin trails of blood on his neck, and those poisonous punctures like craters where he’d been bitten.
“The kids’ parents had seen him, too, and now they began to call out for their little ones, running after them.
“Other people were down on the deck, many unconscious while some just sprawled there. I saw at least a dozen like that, and then the screaming stopped again. But finally these nice people chasing their kids reached the purser’s cabin—more a kind of storeroom than a cabin proper, with plenty of open deck outside under a fancy rail-to-rail canopy—and there outside the cabin…it was a strange and very terrible thing.
“I was standing well back from it, but I could feel all the lure of it like a magnet dragging at me. It was the woman—no, I can’t call that Thing a woman—the female creature, and she was surrounded by a ring of maybe ten or twelve men, women, and children alike. But they weren’t attacking her. On the contrary, they were just standing there while she stepped among them. And again she looked beautiful…and again I knew that she wasn’t at all beautiful, that she was in fact a monster!
“She was covered in a radiant haze, outlined in a dazzling corona like the sun in an eclipse. It was her disguise, I knew. She stroked the men, touched their faces, then bit them. I saw those terrible jaws like mantraps—they were mantraps!—and each time she struck the blood would spurt, spattering her face and neck with crimson. And God, how she drank it in, soaking it up like a sponge! Then, like men in a trance, her victims would stagger away, stumbling and going weak at the knees, until they gradually collapsed to the deck. They were so obviously fascinated, enthralled by her lying charms; and each time a man fell, another would step forward to take his place.
“The women, too. They couldn’t resist her. They would reach out, touch her awful body, go to their knees before her as that loathsome Thing nipped at their necks, dribbling blood from her mouth down into theirs! One of them was a very lovely girl; her husband—I suppose he was her husband—seemed uncertain, he wasn’t as hypnotised as the rest. Protesting, he tried to push the monster away. The she-thing took something from her robe: a sharp knife shaped like a sickle. And with a single stroke that was so fast I didn’t even see it, just a blur of something that glinted and was gone, she struck. After that, nothing seemed to have changed. But as the young man began to protest again, even as he opened his mouth, a great gush of blood came out! And his throat opened ear to ear as he collapsed to the deck!
“But the most terrible thing was this: that his wife didn’t even see what had happened! And while she fondled the monster’s loose paps through her rags, so she in turn was deeply bitten.
“And the children, the children!
“They were all enraptured smiles where they gazed upon this ‘beautiful’ creature—even as she murdered or forever changed their parents before turning on them. Which included the family I had come up with in the lift; they went the same way, yes.
“As the female was finishing with those she’d hypnotised—for surely it could only be hypnotism—so the male came striding out of the purser’s cabin. He was carrying the arms locker, a heavy metal trunk which he handled like a small suitcase. And that was when the two stewards who I had spoken to earlier came on the scene. They’d obviously seen something of what I’d tried to tell them and had followed the trail to its source. They had fire axes, and when they saw what was happening, all the bloody mayhem…then, with cries of outrage and horror, they came on and hurled themselves at the vampires.
“The monsters didn’t see them until the last moment. But as the male creature reached the ship’s rail with the arms locker, and hoisted it up to throw it overboard, so one of the stewards swung at him with his fire axe. The creature saw him, flung the locker over the rail and made to step aside. The way he moved—his motions were like quicksilver! But lightning fast as he was and so fluid in his actions, still the pick end of the axe went home through his trousers and into his left buttock just above the thigh. It went all the way home, right up to the haft.
“The sheer agony that would have caused any other man would surely have been enough to bring him down. But this one reached over his shoulder, backhanded the steward and knocked him away. And all he said, was, ‘Ah! Ahh! Ahhhh!’ as he drew the axe out. But I saw his face—the way his jaws extended, and the way his teeth sprouted into scythes! His colour turned to lead and his eyes were afire as he swung that axe in an arc, driving it into the steward’s forehead! It got stuck there, lodged in his head, his skull. And the steward dangling—his arms and legs jerking and kicking like those of a frenzied puppet—as this creature lifted him, fire axe and all, over the rail and let him fall!
“As for the other steward: rushing headlong at the female, he had entered her hypnotic zone, penetrating the haze she wore all about her. His axe was raised overhead, but already she had him! Frozen there, solid as a statue, his mouth had fallen open. Then his stomach fell open, too, as she laughed at him and used her knife to cut through his shirt and the tight muscles of his belly, from right to left across his navel. He made no outcry—said nothing, did nothing—but simply dropped the fire axe to clatter on the red-slimed deck. And in the next moment, with an upward sweep of her arm, she’d cut him again from his crotch to his navel, so that his belly opened up in twin triangular flaps and uncoiled his guts onto the deck!
“And I ran away…ran and ran…down to my bunk…and out of there to a storage room with a steel door…then out of there and down through a trapdoor into the bilges, where I huddled against the iron plates of the ship…and there I stayed with the rats and the diesel stench, for hours and hours, until I think I fell asleep…or it could be that my mind was numb and totally insensible to everything around me.
“Eventually I came to my senses. Or perhaps not, not quite, for my senses like my manhood had deserted me. But as for what had brought me round: I think it was the insistent pounding of the engines, or more probably the sudden shock that had jolted me as they ground to a shuddering halt. I found myself slammed this way and that in the dark belly of the ship, until at last there was no motion at all, not even the gentle wash of Aegean waters against the hull. Still, I was certain that the engines had been working, and I knew that I’d felt the ship in motion.
“So what was this? This silence, this stillness? I thought—I dared to hope—that it was over and those creatures were dead. Perhaps the rest of the crew had got themselves together and gone at the monsters in a body to finish them, and now the Star had l
imped into some port or other. It had to be at least possible.
“But still I was quiet as a mouse as I left my hidey-hole, crept up through the trapdoor onto B deck’s gangway, then up through the aft service ladders and hatches to the performers’ changing rooms in the rear of the All That Jazz show bar; finally onto the stage, where I peered through the drawn curtains into the room itself, at the aisles, the bars, and the seating area.
“But there was no band, no entertainers, no bar stewards at their stations, and no audience. The lighting was as low as it would be during a show, but the place seemed completely empty. Except…I thought I could hear a low moaning—a faint cry for help, perhaps?—and a frightened, timid-sounding sobbing.
“And I thought: maybe it’s someone like me, someone who has seen, heard, taken flight, and gone into hiding here. And in the gloom I sought him out.
“And I found him, yes. The show bar’s Master of Ceremonies, a black American. He was sitting at a table all alone. Just sitting there in top hat and tails—his ‘Cab Calloway’ outfit—with his head down on his chest, and a bottle of champagne cooling in a bucket of ice on the table in front of him. He seemed to be wearing a necklace of rubies which patterned his starched white shirt and matched his crimson cummerbund. But as I moved closer I saw that they weren’t rubies; they were clots of blood which had dribbled from the punctures in his neck!
“‘He gives and he takes,’ he half sobbed, when he sensed me standing there and looked up.
“‘What?’ I answered. ‘What are you saying?’
“‘That’s what he said to me,’ he went on. ‘He said, “I take to make me strong, and I give to make you strong. My essence is powerful and will soon work on you. So don’t fight it, for from now on you are mine and belong to Malinari.” So now I’m waiting for him to come back, for he’s the only one who can help me and tell me what to do.’ Then he began to sob again.
“But I’d seen his eyes and they had a faint, yellowish glow in the gloom…
“I made to move away, but he gripped my wrist and said, ‘Do you know, I think this champagne is off.” Here, try a glass, and be so good as to tell me what you think.’
“He slopped a glass of champagne for me, and I used my free hand to sip at it for I didn’t know what else to do. And then I told him, ‘It seems fine to me. But I have to go now.’
“‘Go?’ he said. ‘But no, no, you mustn’t! It’s so very cold and lonely here. I am cold, and you…are so strangely warm.’
“‘But I must go,’ I said.
“‘And I said you mustn’t,’ he answered, and again I saw the greenish-yellow glow of his eyes. And of course I knew…
“Then…I snatched myself away from him, and when he came to his feet I smashed the champagne bottle over his head! He at once sat down again, so heavily that the chair fell apart under his weight, sending him crashing to the floor. I didn’t wait to see what he would do then but was off and away from that place, up through the secret ways that only a deckhand knows, to what I prayed would be the clean, sunlit upper decks.
“But when I got there, oh God…it was evening, and night coming in fast…!”
“Give me a moment, and I’ll go on. But you know, I think maybe I’m getting used to the idea now? That these memories will stay with me forever? So sharing them with you…perhaps that’s as good a way as any of relieving myself of some of the burden. It sounds cowardly, I know, but if that’s the way it is then so be it. I may be a coward, but at least I’m a live coward! At least I’m not…not undead.
“It was evening, yes, so obviously I had indeed been asleep or in deep shock for quite some time, at least eight hours. But now…the last rays of the sun were falling slantingly on the upper decks, and apart from that—
“—It was as if nothing had happened! There was no sign of trouble, no trace of blood. But then of course there would’t be, for these decks had been awash with brilliant Mediterranean sunlight from early morning until…until now.
“Now, all that remained were those last few slanting beams, and the air was that much cooler in a breeze from the north. As for having docked or run aground: oh yes—we had run aground—but not on any island worth mentioning. It was barely a rock, and the Star was stuck fast on it. There was no way I could get off the ship, not if I intended to go anywhere, and no easy way back to civilization and…and humanity.
“But then I heard commanding voices and the sounds of mechanical activity for’ard: the creaking of booms as they took the strain, and a rattling of chains. I’d heard these sounds before during ship’s drills: someone—a group of people—was trying to launch a lifeboat, which could only mean one thing: at least a handful of crew members had survived, and were now attempting to get off the Star before sundown.
“At that point I might easily have made a dreadful mistake, but something warned me to remain vigilant. So instead of rushing to declare myself, I took off my shoes and disposed of them over the side, and keeping to the shadows crept silently toward the activity. I was on the bridge deck, open both port and starboard where the lifeboats lined the deck. To starboard, the sun was a golden blister sinking in the sea. Portside, all was now in shade…
“The two for’ard boats were small launches, fairly powerful vessels, each capable of towing a string of lesser boats behind them. The portside launch was being lowered. Its lights were on and I could see people inside as it slipped down out of view. I knew these people; they were all women. And I shivered as I remembered who they were: an exotic dance troupe called the Belles from Brazil…but in several of their more outrageous routines they were also known as Val’s Vamps! And the thing was…they were all wearing exactly the same enthralled expression: dazed, staring-eyed, and zombielike!
“Down below, the rocks were like dark fangs jutting up from the calm sea, but directly below the launch was a deep, natural channel. And as the winch turned and the launch settled down to the water, again I heard that commanding voice. But this time I knew it didn’t belong to any crew member. It wasn’t the kind of voice you would expect to hear on a daily basis, but it was the kind I hope never to hear again, not on any day, ever!
“‘You have done well,’ it said, and it was deep, oily, purring, yet in no way catlike. It was a low rumble, but one that I felt was volatile, which might erupt at any moment into lunatic laughter or a menacing snarl of fury.
“‘You’ve done well and your payment will be good,’ it continued. ‘Well, depending how well you can hunt, that is. For you all know what you are now, what you are rapidly becoming. Among my kind my bite is virulent above all others—er, mine and my “Lady” companion’s—and we have given much of what we are into making you what you are. But for every one of you whom we’ve recruited, we know there are many others hidden away who have not felt our bite. For quite apart from the task being too great in so short a period of time—even for Great Vampires such as we are—still it was a deliberate omission. We have left them for you…’
“At that a sigh went up, or perhaps it was a gasp of denial or horror. I crept closer, until I could see everyone who stood there in the launch’s now vacant stowage bay. The male and female creatures, of course: they had their backs to me, for which I was grateful, and the rest of the small crowd who were all—who had all been—crew members. Stewards and deckhands, even an officer or two, their faces formed a pool of greenish-yellow fire, feral in the failing light.
“And, ‘Ah! Ah!’ said the male creature. ‘What’s this? Did I hear a complaint? Do some among you think to deny the newfound fever in their veins, the ravening of their lust? Let me assure you, it is undeniable. You are not yet undead, for you’ve never been dead, but you are vampire thralls. And believe me the urge will grow, blossom, bloat! You can fight it, and fail. You will weaken and others will take…advantage of you. Better if you welcome it and enjoy. Enjoy it, aye, revel in it, while yet you may!’
“Again that groan went up, but the male creature ignored it and went on:
“‘F
or while you hunt aboard this vessel—the many hundreds who are shivering in their rooms or hidden away in other places—men will come who in their turn will hunt you! They may be on their way even now. You are doomed, each and every one, so what little time you have left, put it to good use.’
“And then the female spoke up, and hers was the ugly, croaking voice of a hag. ‘To “good” use? No, never that, not at all. Put it to whatever use pleases you. There are women, and virgin girls, aboard this vessel. Plenty of them. You men are now vampires, with all the ferocious lust and every carnal desire that goes with it. All that was forbidden, it’s yours for the taking. At last you are the masters of your own desires…if not your puny destinies!’
“‘We go now,’ the male nodded. ‘This ship, this place, this oh-so-short time, is yours. Do what you will with it…’
“With which he and the female thing turned from the throng, stepped easily up onto the rail with a sure balance that defied all human skills, and leaped outward to the hawsers holding the launch in position. And dressed in dark, jewelled finery stolen from the onboard stores, for a moment they clung there looking back at the changeling crew, and their eyes were red as warning lamps in the deepening gloom.
“Then, looking for all the world like great bats, they descended, their fine clothes wafting about them as they seemed to float effortlessly down out of sight.
“A minute or so more and the hawsers slackened off, as down below the launch’s engines coughed into life.
“Then the double handful of ex-crew members, fledgling vampires now, looked at each other, saying nothing. But their eyes continued to flare with that feral light. And in a little while they began to lope away into the fast-falling darkness. Some of them came in my direction where I hid just inside a hatch.
