Infinite Loop

Chapter 6 - Doing a High-Wire Act Blindfolded with No Net

He stood there, still holding the chair for a moment, before he slowly dropped the heavy wooden item onto the deck. His hands shook with adrenaline as he fought to regain control. Growing up, he had dealt with bullies, so he knew how to defend himself. But that brute would be a problem. Warren realized he surprised Harry this time. He would have to watch his back.

Warren glanced at a shadow coming from a person standing by the porthole across the room. Carefully, he moved closer to the opening, and he recognized the person. It was the same woman in the green and yellow dress sitting behind him at breakfast. Silently stepping away, he hurried to the cabin door. By the time the man reached the outside, the deck was empty. The auburn-haired woman had disappeared, and he could hear the echoing sound of footsteps coming from a nearby staircase to the next deck below. He reentered the cabin, his head swimming as he felt like he was doing a high-wire act, blindfolded, with no net.

I've got to get organized and figure out this puzzle soon.

Warren forced the cabin door closed. It took a couple of times to get the door shut, and he even locked it to ensure no distractions. Pulling the chair upright and dragging it back to the secretary, Warren pulled out a small notebook from his coat pocket where the original owner left it. Somehow, it didn't surprise Warren that the notebook contained mostly names and phone numbers of women. He saw the name Cassidy at Douglas 36 on the same line with two stars next to it, which made him grin.

She must be a looker!

The other four female names only had addresses below their names. On the next page, he found a scribbled, cryptic line.

"At 460 Laverne Terrace, real riches are the riches possessed inside," he read the words aloud.

The next line made even less sense.

"If you wish to avoid seeing a Spanish fool, you must go behind the mirror."

Seriously?

"Great, this guy likes motivational quotes," Warren muttered sarcastically. "What the hell does this get me?"

Stuck on the back cover and last page, he found a red luggage ticket. It had a passage code stamped in black on the back, AML TO BTM with 460AA. Then, Warren came upon a receipt for two leather steamer trunks delivered to the ship from a store in Boston. It was stuck between two pages. He remembered old movies gave their characters only a few clues, along with plenty of red herrings. Then again, he recalled how much he disliked solving mysteries. It was a tough spot because he was fighting for his life in the middle of one story, which appeared to have subplots.

Warren made notes to himself in the notebook. After he had written out the essential items of his current story, his mind wrestled with other tidbits he learned. Cliches and obvious plot devices like MacGuffins revealed themselves in every story. His first life never showed such things.

Too bad I can't figure out more about them out before someone kills me!

As he went through his time in this purgatory, it became obvious he was part of a script from an old film. Warren stumbled onto the idea when he realized people he interacted with would reply with familiar lines. Plus, the events used classic cliches. He found himself on a horse in a black hat while surrounded by men in white hats. They quickly took him to the sheriff and Warren found himself assassinated by another man in a black hat with a black mask.

Another part of his netherworld showed him that minor characters or unseen people on the screen created his small universe. Now he was in the long-forgotten films which he never saw. From experience, Warren knew that when he went down into the engine room of the ship, he would find a crew of fire stokers. The men keeping the old freighter moving through the ocean existed as real as some of the lead characters he mingled with. As Warren interacted with the extras, he might learn about their lives, fears, and ambitions. Millions of subplots between characters that never revealed themselves on a movie screen. Still, each character had flesh, bone, and blood, along with bad breath and body odor.