Islanders

by Brandon Enns

  "How about I knock you out and throw you in the ocean?"

  "Easy, cousin. Just relax. You tell Erin that she's safe and not to worry. Just enjoy the ride."

  "Well, you screwed up because there was no note left with that stupid trident."

  "Stupid trident? Do you know how old it is?"

  "I'm sure it cost your dad a pretty penny, Stefan. We're all wildly impressed."

  He smirked in that arrogantly proud way that Trevor disdained. "Maybe I didn't pay anything for it."

  "Whatever. No stupid clue, no search. We're not leaving the beach today. You go tend to your little treasure hunt. Get it all organized. You're right, waves are nice. Where are the boards?"

  Stefan's eyes were showing a glimmer of what he had seen in the interrogation room. A casual smile formed. "I'll bring you some boards." He turned to leave.

  "Hold up." He stopped. "You have workers on this island? Who's Cassidy?"

  Stefan tucked his hands in his pockets. "Is that your last question?"

  "Stefan," Trevor said with reason in his voice.

  "Yeah, we have some workers. Gotta stay on top of everything out here."

  "What exactly do they do?"

  "It varies. Landscaping, fishing, maintenance. Whatever needs working on."

  "They stay with you? In the basement there?"

  "They boat in from the mainland."

  "I see."

  "I'm sorry Erin's upset. Just tell her everything will get better. But are you okay?"

  "Peachy. Just need to get in the water."

  "You know... One romantic gesture in this place goes a long way. Let me know if I can help you with that."

  "Okay. Hey, I haven't noticed your boat around. How have they been going back and forth?" Stefan asked.

  "Jeez. Should I have my lawyer present for this? Or is that you? My guy is lousy. I’d go back to you, you know."

  "It’s just been a strange trip."

  "That'll happen when you're the only sober one on an island in the middle of nowhere." Stefan sighed. "They boat in from the other side of the island. Arnie runs transit. You need to relax. If you can’t relax on vacation, how can you relax at work?”

  “I don’t have the luxury of relaxing at work.”

  “You should consider it. A free mind can improve efficiencies.”

  "I'll try."

  “Just… Promise me you’ll bring down the concern a couple notches and up the level of enjoyment. Let it go. You’re only in control of what you’re in control of. It’ll all fall into place.”

  “No promises. I’ll try though.”

  "I'm not one for the word try. You're in the townhouse tonight. Ashton and Skye got the love shack. I'm gonna go improve my treasure hunt." He turned and walked toward the center of the island, leaving them on the beach.

  When Trevor walked back, Erin was already back on her feet, rushing up to him. "What did he say?"

  He wanted to talk about his strange experience on the dock that night, his uneasiness about his dad back home, the old man digging and following Cassidy, but he refrained.

  Stefan had expressed from the start that this was a game. It was all connected. One big show. If Erin got any more upset, they'd just leave. "He said that you have absolutely nothing to worry about and he apologizes for scaring you."

  "And you believe that?"

  "I think so. If anything happens, we'll leave. But I don't even know if he's continuing with this shit. I think I got my point across. On the bright side, we are clue-less and have the beach and the water to ourselves. I need a beer. You need a beer?”

  "Okay." She still looked uneasy.

  "I’ll bring a cooler over; Stefan's bringing some body boards." He gave her a peck on the lips.

  Skye was dancing to a song on the portable speaker, moving her hips in circles seductively while Ashton enjoyed the show from his towel. She shouted out to Trevor, "We good?"

  He gave her the thumbs up and headed back to stock up on crackers and Coronas. He'd slice up some lime too.

  All of the questions racking his brain were beginning to subside as he approached their side of the duplex.

  He cracked open the fridge and filled up his cooler with a couple of Gatorades and the rest with Coronas. In the middle of slicing a lime, his eyes wandered around the inside of the unit, stopping on the table. His pulse quickened, and a wisp of air escaped his mouth as he was startled by not a person, but a sheet of paper sitting on the kitchen table.

  It was another ancient scroll-like material of paper with handwritten italics. The corner of the page curled around his finger. Building a future from scratch was no simple feat. What was used as a tool to build, protect, and sustain, became a weapon of heinous barbarity. In the place that doesn't exist, where water runs deep, retrieve the final armament.

  I thought this was supposed to be like a whodunit game of detection, not fetch old relics? Clearly Stefan had sneaked inside to place it there.

  He tucked the limes in the ziplock bag and tossed them in the cooler along with the beer and crackers.

  Chapter Eleven

  After a day of snorkeling, drinking games, and suntanning, everyone huddled around the fire on the beach. The fire wasn't really necessary, but it made for an improved setting.

  Stefan hadn’t joined them all day. He stuck with the twelve to twelve template of his inane game and was probably boarded up inside his luxurious house scheming something that he would deem clever. It was obvious what he was trying to do. Be special, different, and original; separate himself from his father's money while still using it to craft his plans. A lot of twenty-somethings were trying to go against the grain, viewing traditional careers as the enemy, as imprisonment, unhappiness, all that. It was really all an excuse to be lazy.

  Stefan was not as Trevor remembered when they were kids. Sneaking beer onto their fathers’ gold member’s golf course, going to high school parties when they were fourteen, the older women that soon followed… Trevor was still hoping for Stefan to drop the act and join them like the good old days, but he was also hoping for the whole thing to fall apart. Perhaps after Stefan’s pompous project failed, they could do some carefree deep sea fishing. Trevor hadn't seen the big boat since it dropped them off and was worried he wouldn't see it again until they had completed their so-called “tasks” or “mission” or “game,” whatever the hell it was.

  Trevor rose, leaving Erin's warm grasp. "Where are you going?" she asked.

  "Take a leak."

  Trevor inhaled the scent of palm trees as he made his way toward the center. As he took a piss, he could see the bunker up ahead.

  He approached Stefan's place to invite him to the fire. Plus, they could use another bottle of his good scotch. All of the lights were out. Standing at the door, he heard footsteps inside. Then there was movement outside, leaves scuttling, heavy footsteps breaking through the soft sand. He noticed someone walking up ahead toward the west tree line, past the bunker.

  A feeling of enticement lured him in. Was it the same feeling he had on the dock the other night? He couldn't ignore it, so he pursued. He wasn't certain it was Stefan, but it definitely wasn't the old guy based on the lumbering hitch he had in his walk. It was either Stefan or another one of his workers that he hadn't met yet.

  Trevor continued to follow through the trees, babying every step so that he didn't make too much noise, as if he was about to catch someone in the act of murder or some other heinous crime. The further he walked into the trees, the more he felt like something was watching him closely. His skin crawled.

  Near the west beach at the end of the tree line, he saw the silhouette of the same man shoveling. Every time he pumped the blade into the dirt, he'd pick up more speed on his way down. He stopped abruptly. Before the man turned, Trevor lowered himself to the sandy soil. It was damp, his chin touching down, causing some granules to stick to him. The man looked over and paused for a three second count before returning to the task at hand. It didn't take him long to ge
t back to his Tasmanian devil pace.

  Confusion settled in. The trees seemed to have crowded in tight and the moonlight had abandoned him. His legs were heavy. Trevor was no longer convinced he was awake. Was he asleep in the duplex or the villa? He couldn't push out the image of Valencia standing by his infiltrated business. Am I sleepwalking?

  Forging that signature was the worst thing he'd ever done. He knew Valencia wouldn’t have argued the merits of the signature as it was a perfect forgery. Valencia had signed so many documents during their business relationship that he would have claimed that he was tricked, not that it was a forged signature. It didn't matter what his defense was, Valencia had been essentially ‘Zuckerberged,” having “signed” on a document that diluted his shares down to nearly nothing to make room for a larger investor—Fairway Capital. Trevor had stripped the man of his business that he had built from nothing, so that their own firm could score a much, much larger client.

  Although Trevor's mind drifted to that regretful place, he remained lying there in the sand, eyes fixated on the beach. He was trapped in his own mind, literally blind, only seeing his thoughts. But it wasn't a dream. It was reflection. And now, the man was gone.

  Trevor emerged through the trees and returned to his group. Stefan sat in the sand with a tiresome grin, a bottle of champagne dangling loosely in his hand. How? What...

  Trevor fumbled for a sentence. "Sorry, I went for a stroll. How long was I gone?"

  "Like fifteen minutes maybe," said Erin. "Were you sick again?"

  "No.” How in the hell did Stefan get past me? "When did you join us, Stefan?"

  "As soon as you took off wandering in the woods. I thought you were giving me the cold shoulder when we crossed paths."

  "Please don't do that, this place is freaky enough when we're in groups," Erin said. She seemed quite relaxed, drunk perhaps. Trevor didn't like the way she smiled at Stefan. It was the same look she gave him before.

  The fire was wearing down, crackling less. Trevor tossed a log on, noticing Ashton had left. "Where's Ashton?"

  "He left just before you did. Ashton hasn't pooped in three days. He might be done for the night," Skye said with a cackling laugh after. She took another pull from a bottle of red wine and looked at Stefan, then at Erin. "The three of us were going to start our threesome in the water until you showed up, Trevor. Make it four?"

  Trevor was abnormally furious in response to her slightly off-putting joke. It burned inside of him, and giving in to the feeling would have been purified satisfaction. He wanted his hands around her throat. He wanted to squeeze. Was it Skye that was bringing out the adventurous side of Erin? Would she cheat on him with Stefan? "I think I'll pass tonight. You're too wild for me, Skye, you know that," Trevor said through half-bared teeth.

  "Oh, you never know for sure until you try, babe." Before he had time to react, Skye was on her feet removing her top. "Anyone care to join me?" she asked.

  Stefan was slack-jawed. Erin's face flushed. "Skye!" she half-heartedly scolded, which Skye loved, releasing another one of her drunken giggles.

  "I'll go with her. Make sure she doesn't drown," Erin said.

  "Now, now. Don't be shy because of us. Trevor and I will hang by the fire. You gals express yourself freely in there. Let the night guide your decisions."

  His flirtatious tone was overcooked.

  "All right, girl. Let's see what you're packing under there," said Skye, pulling at Erin's top as she blocked her.

  "No, I think I'm good," she said, amused and drunk.

  "Suit yourself." She tried to take off in a run and toppled over into the sand. Erin helped her up, but Skye still proceeded to drag her to the water when Stefan called out, "Don't let her die! We got a reputation here! Of...not letting guests die!"

  Trevor could feel Stefan's eyes all over him, looking him up and down. "You fall in your own piss?"

  "What?"

  "You're covered in sand. You got half the beach on you."

  He dusted himself off. "How many staff members you got out here?"

  He leaned back on his hands. "You're out of questions, cousin, thought you knew that." He took a pull from the wine bottle with a smug smirk.

  "Right. They're part of your little game."

  Stefan forced out a demonic laugh, and then wiped wine from his mouth. "Game again? Really?"

  "Case… Right."

  Stefan’s eyes were cold, his mouth sullenly slanted. "Experience would be better probably." His voice was calm and nonchalant. He sighed and took another sip. "We usually have four helpers. There was lots of prep that went into everything. Mostly with getting my place and the duplex ready. Helping the developers with building, cleaning up, creating trails, cleaning the trails up from palm trees shedding, lots of stuff, man. I wasn't here for a while, and they had to look after the place." He grew quiet, as did Trevor. "Why? Which one did you meet again?”

  "Cassidy."

  "Oh, yeah. She's a beauty isn't she?" He raised his eyebrows, insinuating the obvious.

  "I saw someone digging," Trevor blurted out.

  "Digging?" Stefan's brow furrowed and his attention switched over to the girls in the water, Skye cackling and splashing. "Listen, maybe my hand isn't in everything. You've got to find a way to let the process run its course. I'm still looking to you to continue leading. Try to…just accept the ride. Enjoy it. It's just starting to get interesting, trust me. Captain Trevor Miller. It should come easy to you if you’d just let your guard down even a fraction."

  "I got your note." Trevor reached for the bottle and he handed it off.

  Stefan just smiled and rose to his feet. "Goodnight."

  ***

  The path was old, unlike the ones they had walked the day before. Ashton made his way through the thick trees, worrying he was working his way farther and farther into thick bush that he wasn't supposed to be in. What had started as an odd shining light had led him to a dark tropical nightmare.

  It looked like a narrow-headed flashlight with intense brightness at first, but then became distorted, splitting apart and reconnecting in strange combinations. Had he smoked too much weed? Was that even a thing for him?

  The light had disappeared, settling behind the tall palm trees, but it didn't matter which angle he took, he couldn't locate it again.

  Ashton changed directions, thinking he was heading back to where he had come from, but reached an opening that looked new to him. He hadn't passed it on his way. In the clearing sat an old building, worn down. Around the edges, grass stood tall, almost swallowing the building whole. It was a lighter shade of brown, stained with darker brown colors from aging. It appeared to be a community hall of some sort.

  He staggered around to the main entrance to find the doors had been ripped out. He hesitated and looked around to make sure no one was going to pop out. When he stepped into the place, mice scurried, causing him to stiffen up. He hated mice. There were cobwebs everywhere, an old soda machine from the 70s, and strange mounted animals on the walls that he had never seen before. They were antelope maybe? Though they had fangs and oddly shaped antlers pointing in different directions, like it was maybe some freak show custom job.

  Ashton jolted to the right, nearly screaming in response to the sound of a thud. Someone was inside. Not a word was said. The same thought kept rolling in his head over and over again, and he couldn't get it out. It was like a virus, spreading out of control like wildfire. Stay a while.

  Another thud came from the corner, where it was darkest, hiding from the moonlight and the stars.

  What was that sound? Stay a while. Stay a while.

  He inched closer and closer. Another thud sounded. Closer yet, slowly but surely, the light leaking in as his perspective changed. Stay a while. He was transfixed. There was no turning back. An object flew across the room, making the same thud again. Then...music? He swore he could hear the droning sound of a guitar settling quietly in the background. The moon was at the correct angle, poking partially through t
he vacant window frame and a hole in the ceiling.

  The object burst forward from the dark, but it was no object at all. It was a young boy, and he was just as frightened as Ashton was, eyes shifting back and forth after he gasped and appeared ready to run away. He was a teenage kid, backwards snapback hat, button-up Hawaiian shirt, and he had headphones in his ears that he now pulled out. Ashton realized that the boy had been throwing darts.

  Ashton was leaning against a picnic table, catching his breath. "Hey, hey! It's all good! Not a ghost, not a ghost."

  The kid bent over in relief and groaned from the startling moment. "Shit. You gave me a heart attack."

  "Sorry." Ashton burst out laughing. "That was the weirdest thing. Where the hell are we?"

  "Lost tourist?"

  "Yeah, bro. A little lettuce and beer and I've gone rogue."

  He looked at Ashton with confused eyes.

  "Sorry I scared you, small fry."

  "It's okay." He collected the darts off the board.

  "What are you doing out here? With headphones in yet. That's a terrifying night out, buddy."

  "Just felt like being alone for a bit."

  What was this kid doing out in the bush? He thought they were the only ones out on this island.

  "I'm Jhett."

  “Ashton. What’re you doing here, Jhett?”

  “I help out around here.”

  They shook hands. "You're from New York, right?"

  "How'd you know that?"

  "Stefan told me. Can I ask you something?"

  "Shoot."

  "What's it like there? At night with all the lights and clubs."

  Ashton tossed his bottle of tequila over. "How old are you?"

  "Old enough."

  He laughed. "Fair enough." A 101 class on getting laid seemed to be on the docket.

  Chapter Twelve

  Skye walked down the lonely beach, water rushing up to her feet. When she had arrived back at her room, Ashton was not there. She didn't want to bother Erin and Trevor, so she went for a stroll by herself to look for him. She figured that he had maybe smoked and drank too much and wandered over to the cliffs—not a great location to hang out in that condition. He loved the half day they had spent there cliff diving, water sliding, and relaxing in the hot spring. They had decided against going for a longer hike that Stefan mentioned they should try out. Maybe he had gone to complete that trail?