"Whoa, whoa, whoa! He's planning to poison people and kill the staff?!" Alex exclaimed.
The group was all gathered in Hayley and Cassadee's room still, and once Victoria was through explaining Brendon's plans, she decided they should work on strategies to stay alive.
"Wait, kill the staff? That means my Aunt Casey will die! I have to tell her," Hayley was cut short.
"No, no! Don't say a word! Just go find her, and make sure she isn't wearing her staff uniform, okay? It should all be okay," Victoria paced back in forth in the room. They had less than twenty-four hours to prepare for a bloodbath. Well, not a bloodbath, but a crisis.
"People are still at stake to die! Even if they're off on lifeboats, they can't paddle fast enough to get away from the ship especially when they're going to make it blow up!" Cassadee wore a look of worry on her face.
"And that's exactly it. I think Brendon planned it that way so no one would be a witness, you know?" Victoria examined all of their faces. Hayley was shaking her head and looking at the ground. Josh kept fidgeting nervously. Alex was cussing to himself. Cassadee looked confused. And Gabe? Gabe was just plain pissed off.
"But all these people would still know it was them, anyways. Plus, what if some make it out alive?" Cassadee asked.
"They're going to wear masks to protect their identity," Victoria lowered her voice a bit, for no reason. There was a moment of silence.
"So tell me why the fuck they're even doing this all again?" Gabe blurted.
"Because! There's shitloads of gold in the cargo hold! They're trying to get ahold of it so Brendon and his posse can start an underground assasination organization, secretly!" Victoria sat down and put her face in her palms.
Gabe looked taken aback.
"Sorry, I didn't mean to raise my voice," Victoria apologized. She could tell they were all confused, and now, it was time to answer questions before they even started to work on strategy.
"Who's gold is it?" Josh questioned. Victoria didn't know the exact answer.
"From what I hear, it's a mix. The cruiseline owns some, rich people do... it was all supposed to be imported to France," Victoria explained.
"Wait," Hayley lifted her head up. "You say after that they're going to the Queen's palace?"
"Yeah," Victoria could tell Hayley had just discovered something.
"They're not importing it to France! I bet it was originally to be delivered to the Queen, and they hid it on this ship because they didn't think anyone would suspect anything!" Hayley looked pleased with herself.
"Oh my god..." Cassadee gasped.
"Hayley, I think you're right! Brendon was probably trying to throw me off. But that makes sense! He's probably going to disguise himself as someone delivering the Queen her gold, and that's how he gets into her palace to steal the jewels!" Victoria joined Hayley and looked pleased with herself as well.
"We just discovered it! But why would he try to throw you off?" Hayley asked.
"He knows I'm so sick of all this. Maybe he was trying to numb everything by... lying?" Victoria said, with the jerk of her head. She turned from Hayley's direction to face everyone. "Guys, we need a plan. We have to be prepared tomorrow. His plans will start taking place around three thirty."
"What do we do?" Cassadee urged.
"Hayley. Find your aunt. Tell her that something bad will happen if she doesn't take the day off tomorrow!" Victoria whisper-hissed.
"Sure thing," Hayley stood up immediately and walked through the door. Cassadee locked it behind her.
"Um, Alex. I sent Hayley a long text awhile ago to warn her ahead of time. I knew she'd be on this boat, but I never thought I'd run into her. I'd known of Brendon's plans all along, but just not the details. Basically the text said that there's a lifeboat underneath that dolphin fountain in the lobby. I need you to be sneaky and go check if it's still there. It's not a normal lifeboat, it's a special one," Victoria explained to Alex what he needed to do. Everyone would have to do something. Everyone was probably confused, which is natural, anyways.
"Okay," he said blankly.
"Remember! Lay low!" She called to him quietly as he slipped through the door. Cassadee locked it again. "Okay, who do I have? Josh, Cassadee and Gabe. I don't know what else we can do to prep. Any ideas?"
"No, I'm sorry Victoria. I think we should all just mentally prepare. I mean, we can at least go over escape plans, right?" Cassadee tried to look on the bright side, Victoria could tell.
"Yeah, of course. As soon as Hayley and Alex get back," Victoria could now see the fear in Cassadee's eyes. She felt her heart sink. All of these innocent people would be going through hell tomorrow. Victoria couldn't do anything to warn them, otherwise Brendon would kill Hayley. She knew he would.
* * *
Hayley was walking down the hall back to her cabin. Alex was headed to the same place, but from the opposite side of the hallway. Hayley looked down. For some reason she had been avoiding Alex. It was some weird feeling she felt after the night before. Everything was so fast for her. And of course she was completely in love with Alex, but she thought deep down that he didn't feel as deeply for her. That made Hayley want to cry.
Of course, Hayley and Alex reached the door at the same time.
"Um... do you have the key?" Alex asked.
"Uh, um, uh, yeah..." Hayley dug in her short's pockets. She found the key card and swiftly pulled it out. Her hand reached to put it in the slot, but Alex grabbed her wrist.
"Hayley, why are you being like this?" Alex looked into Hayley's eyes sincerely. A look of love. This made her heart break even more, aside to doomsday tomorrow, and losing her virginity, and a random medley of things.
"Being like what?" Hayley was quick to reply and avoided his gaze.
"Like you don't even acknowledge I'm here?" Alex let his guard down, Hayley could tell in his voice.
"I, I, I do know you're here. I'm just... scared. Scared about last night, scared about tomorrow..." Hayley felt her eyes watering up.
"Hayles, you should have just told me you felt that way. I would've understood," Alex pulled Hayley into a hug.
"Everything will be alright, I promise." Alex held Hayley close.
"Alex, I'm in love with you," Hayley cried.
"Um, yeah, love you too Hayles. Almost more than anything. I mean that," Alex got nervous, and the two proceeded back into the room. The took their seats.
"Okay, Hayley! Report!" Victoria demanded.
"Uh, my aunt agreed. She's taking tomorrow off," Hayley said shakily.
"Good. Now you Alex!" She continued.
"I checked. It's all good. That secret compartment below that fountain is amazing! No one would even guess it's there," Alex added. He then quieted himself and let Victoria explain the escape plans.
"Guys. This is what we do. The boat will be stopped. I mean, completely stopped. That's when people on the upper deck will start dying from the food poison, and when the ship stops, we know Brendon's crew have taken care of the captain and staff. From there, they'll announce for everyone to get on a lifeboat. We grab the one under the fountain, and BAIL. We get so far away as soon as possible, and while we're at it, warn as many people as possible to get away. FAST. Then Brendon will load all the gold into the yacht someone is meeting them with. When they all sail off in the yacht and when they're far enough away, then he's going to blow up the ship. It's risky business," Victoria stood firm, and she looked as if she weren't frightened. This was terrifying! How could she act so brave?
"Victoria," Cassadee spoke up. "Are we going to die?"
"We sure as hell won't be dying tomorrow Cass. I've been around Brendon long enough and have picked up some of his tips. We will not die on this ship," Victoria was truly speaking powerfully. She knew what she was doing.
Okay! Next chapter, I'm officially starting DOOMSDAY!!! Ahhh. It will be a lot to explain everything that happens when Brendon starts his tragic plans, but it's worth it! I'm so excited to see how this story turns out. I'm not wrapping this up yet. There's still a lot to get through in this plot! I'm sorry this was a filler, pretty much. But it's necessary to get that story moving, haha.
Also, thanks for reccommending couples for my new stories! For my new series that starts after this one (it's still unnamed), I'm doing Hayley/Brendon! :) I was originally thinking Josh/Hayley, but there's a lot of those out there, which isn't bad at all! I love Josh/Hayley fics! Anways, as soon as I think of a perfect name to fit this new series, I'll let you know!
My next series (after the one that's unnamed) I'm considering Cassadee/Josh. Does that sound good/bad? Let me know! I'm going to call that one "Broken Memories" for now, but the name may change. I'm so excited you guys are really enjoying this story! I hoped you would. And I have to say myself, I don't think there are that many stories out there with a plot like this :)
Get ready for more secret plot stuff when I wrap this up! I'm excited for everything! Thanks for reading & commenting! I <3 all of you that even take the time to read this :)
-Ashley
