Flavian's Mediterranean Mystery

I woke up on the deck of a large ferry. The sky was clear, and the sea was relatively calm. I looked around and realized that most of the other passengers were already up, eating breakfast or making small talk with their neighbors.

As I sat up, I felt a sharp pain in my neck; it was sore from the long flight from New York to Rome, where I had boarded this ferry with no idea where it would take me. It was enough to make me wish that I could have spent another night in Rome before boarding this ship, but there was no time for regrets now. I checked my phone—there was still about fifteen minutes before we would reach our destination, though the name of said destination had not been provided to passengers prior to boarding. It did not matter; I had a job to do.

As the boat drew closer to its destination, I saw a large island off in the distance, shrouded by thick fog. This must have been where we were headed, though what I would find here had me worried. As we approached the island’s shore, I stood patiently and waited for instructions from the crew regarding disembarkation procedures—but none came. Instead, everyone on board just kept staring at the same spot near an outcropping of rocks near the island’s shore, and then they started screaming as something enormous burst out of the water behind those rocks and began dragging down several people into the water with it.

After what seemed like an eternity but which probably lasted no more than two minutes, the beast finally sunk back beneath the waves. The crew dropped ropes over the side for those survivors who were clinging to floating debris or swimming towards the ship and then turned back towards open waters. Most of those rescued were hysterical or in shock; one woman who had lost both arms did not seem fazed by her injuries whatsoever, instead asking how she could contact someone named James when she got home. The rest of us were either too shocked to speak or too busy trying to calm panicked passengers down so that they would not jump overboard in an attempt to swim back towards land. More than one person uttered prayers while looking out towards the island as if they expected it to suddenly be consumed by hellfire, but nothing happened.

Once we anchored safely away from that terrible place and everyone was back aboard the ship, I asked one of the crew members why he had decided not to dock and instead simply sail away once it became apparent that we were all about to die at any moment. He told me that he had never seen anything like what had attacked us earlier; he didn’t know if whatever it was could swim or not, but he wasn’t going to take any chances until he radioed his superiors in Rome and asked permission to dock on this murderous island along with anyone else who was willing to work for them (which meant me). He also told me that whoever these superiors were, they clearly wanted everyone who left this ship alive very badly because they hadn’t bothered answering him once during his frantic attempts at radio contact during our escape from certain death.

He left me alone after that while he went off somewhere else on board with his walkie-talkie; I took this opportunity to sneak below deck and start my investigation into whatever scheme would allow someone to attack a passenger vessel full of innocent people like this without being stopped by any authorities who might have been able to do so otherwise. I set up shop in what appeared to be a storage room full of unused tables and chairs for use during meals; anybody walking by could hear me working through my mystery-solving process (which is what led me here in the first place), but nobody tried interrupting me until almost an hour later when a woman poked her head into my room and said “Oh! You’re awake! Good! We need your help!” She introduced herself as Jenny Frewer and explained that she worked here but wasn’t supposed to be doing so today—instead, she was supposed to be handling some kind of problem on land during our arrival.

She explained that she couldn’t say much more because she didn’t want me getting furious with her employer if things went wrong while she was supposed to be helping them solve their problem (which would give them motive for hiring me), but she urged me not go anywhere until after this evening when things should have straightened themselves out again (if everything went right tonight). That evening came sooner than expected: as soon as Jenny returned from whatever mysterious errand she needed handled today before coming down here with me, alarms started blaring throughout the ship telling us all that we needed immediate evacuation due to deadly fumes spreading throughout the ship thanks to some sort of malfunction involving a ventilation system which should have been used only when docked at sea. Jenny grabbed my arm and started leading me upstairs while explaining that this has never happened before even though there have been signs over recent years suggesting that such a malfunction might occur eventually—this may very well be sabotage! She