Page 28 of Astrid at Sea

His lips turned up slightly at the corners. “It’s difficult not to watch you when your face looks like you’re permanently trying to solve an impossible puzzle.”

“Why have you been watching us, Astrid?” Roscoe asked. “What are you hiding?”

I pursed my lips, considering my options for a moment before I gave in with a sigh. “I don’t know how to say this, but there’s been some strange things happening around the ship.”

Roscoe and Manny pursed their lips, sharing a knowing look.

“What?” I asked, narrowing my eyes at them.

“I know no one believed us, but it really wasn’t Roscoe or me that threw up outside our room,” Manny told me in the utmost seriousness.

“But we don’t think it was any of the others either,” Roscoe pitched in.

“I believe you,” I told them. “But I can’t possibly explain what happened that night. If none of us threw up, then who was it?”

“Was it Kis?” Roscoe asked, eying up the feline, currently rubbing herself against my legs. You’d think I’d see her more when we were stuck on a ship together for the foreseeable future, but it turned out to be the stark opposite. The only time I saw her was during the night, but she hadn’t been coming to our bed the past couple of nights. I had no idea where she had made her bed, but she seemed pretty happy, so I let her be.

“Kis only throws up when she eats carrots.” I leaned down to pick up Kis, running my fingers through her thick black fur. “And we haven’t had any carrots since we were still in Jorvik.”

Manny frowned. “None of this makes any sense.”

I ran my fingers through Kis’ fur, smiling down at her when she meowed while licking her paw.

“Something strange happened last night,” I admitted in a small voice.

“What happened last night?” Roscoe asked, his face the mask of concentration.

“It must have been a little past midnight. Viktor and I were in our room,” I told them, purposely leaving out the part where he had been buried balls deep inside me, his hips slamming into mine with each thrust. “We were nearly asleep when someone opened our door. We both sprang up at the sound, but the person ran away before we could see who it was.”

“That’s so bizarre!” Roscoe gaped, his eyes wide.

“Things are starting to get really strange around here,” Manny frowned and glanced up and down the hall as if he suspected whoever was acting strange onboard would come running down the hallway toward us right now to reveal themselves. “How come Viktor didn’t say anything about it during breakfast?”

“We agreed to keep it to ourselves for now, but I guess I kind of broke that pact,” I chuckled and bent down to allow Kis out of my arms when she became restless. We all watched as she bounded down the hallway and up the stairs which led to the top deck. “We planned to watch everyone and try to figure out who could be behind this all since no one owns up to it.”

“Have you got anyone in mind?” Roscoe asked, a curious expression on his face.

“No,” I sighed and shook my head. “I don’t know if that’s a good or a bad thing.”

“I can see something bad right now,” Manny murmured under his breath, and Roscoe and I turned to look at what he was staring at.

Like the other day, there was a pool of sick outside one of the rooms on the other side of the hallway we hadn’t cleaned yet. Moving closer to it, despite the stench that threatened to repelme, I saw it was outside Garth and Odin’s room, but it couldn’t have been either of them. They spent nearly as much time out on the sea as Viktor did.

There were even little footprints in the pool from where Kis had skipped through it when she went upstairs. Her footprints would have looked cute if it wasn’t a pool of sick that she had paraded through.

“I’ll get this one. You guys got the last one,” I said, my nose turning up at the stench, which became even more unbearable the closer I got to it.

I hadn’t physically seen the pool of sick last time, but judging by the bits of undigested food in it, I was certain that it was one of us. It had to be. I could see Gustav’s cooking in it.

“We’ll need to bring this up with everyone again,” Roscoe sighed, moving to help me.

“The sooner we get to the bottom of this, the sooner we can stop cleaning up someone’s disgusting vomit,” Manny groaned as he swapped out my dirty bucket of water with his clean one, and frankly, I couldn’t have said it better myself.

Kis meowedand rubbed the side of her face against my arm, asking for some fish. As I hadn’t finished the last of mine, I placed her on my lap and fed her the fish from the palm of my hand.

“What did you get up to today, my siren?” Viktor leaned over to ask but hissed when Kis swatted his hand away with her sharp claws, protective of her fish.

I couldn’t help but laugh at the deep scowl on his face as he glared at her. We both knew it meant nothing. Viktor may not admit it, but he was just as smitten with Kis as I was, if not more.

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