by Kate Brian
Dorn sighed. “A body just washed up on the beach.”
“It’s not Pete,” Krista said, tears coursing down her cheeks as she intercepted Joaquin and me on the boardwalk outside the Thirsty Swan. Dozens of visitors had gathered at the railing, while Dorn, Grantz, and the mayor stood around the body near the shoreline, blocking it from view. The Tse twins were right at the center of the crowd, their eerie blue eyes focused on the beach, their thin lips screwed into scowls. Liam and Lalani stood off to the side, holding paper cups of coffee that they seemed to have forgotten in the tragedy. Ray Wagner leaned into the railing, the toes of his boots squeaking against the boards as he craned his neck for a better look. “It’s…it’s Cori, you guys.” Krista sniffed. “She’s dead.”
“What?” I blurted.
“No,” Joaquin said, the color draining from his face. “No. It can’t be.”
Fisher and Kevin jogged past us down the stairs with a stretcher, their feet sinking into the wet bay-beach sand with every step. Dorn stepped aside to let them through, and for the first time I really saw her. Cori was facedown in the sand, her curly hair matted by the rain, her sweatshirt and jeans pillowing around her in wet folds. Someone in the crowd gasped as Fisher and Dorn rolled her over onto her back. Her face was completely destroyed on one side, the skin torn away to expose the bone. One of her eyes was missing. I turned into Joaquin’s shoulder, squeezing my eyes closed, and he held me tightly.
Cori had always been nice to me. Or tried to be, with Nadia breathing down her neck, hating me as fiercely as she could and trying to get her best friend to do the same. She was so sweet, so meek, so innocent. Why had this happened to her? Why was any of this happening? I had just been with her last night. I had just started to respect her, started to get to know her the tiniest bit. And now she was gone.
“I think I’m gonna be sick,” Krista said. “Why would Pete do this to her? They were best friends. Them and Nadia…It makes no sense.”
“Do they think it was definitely Pete?” I asked.
“I don’t know. I’ve only overheard a few things,” Krista said, wiping under her nose with the back of her hand. “I didn’t want to go over there.”
“I will,” Joaquin said. His voice cracked, and he cleared his throat. “We should find out what they know.”
“I’ll come with.” I stepped shakily out of his grasp, pushing my hands into my coat pockets. “Are you gonna be okay?” I asked Krista.
She stared blankly past me. “Do you think he killed her? Do you think he did this because she told you guys where he’d be?”
Joaquin and I exchanged a look. “I hope not. But if he did, that means he’s still out there,” Joaquin said. “That means we can bring him in.”
“Right. And that’s a good thing,” Krista said uncertainly.
“It’s a very good thing,” I said, squeezing her arm. It meant we could still get the answers we needed. It meant we could make him pay for what he’d done. To my family, to Aaron, to Jennifer, to Nadia, and now, possibly, to Cori.
“I guess I’ll go back to work,” Krista said quietly. “Let me know if you find out anything.”
“We will,” Joaquin said.
Someone had laid a white sheet over Cori’s body, and she’d been lifted onto the stretcher. Joaquin and I took the steps down to the beach, and Liam broke away from Lalani to follow us. Fisher gave us a stone-faced nod as he and Kevin hefted the stretcher up the stairs. We joined the mayor, Chief Grantz, and Dorn on the sand. The impression left by Cori’s body had already filled up with water and disappeared. It was as if she’d never been there.
“What the hell happened?” Joaquin asked under his breath.
I cast a wary glance at the onlookers. A few of them were starting to disperse now that the body was gone, meandering off toward the Swan or toward town. The twins kept their position, however, each gripping the guardrail with their right hand. Ray Wagner, much to my disgust, was eagerly following Fisher and Kevin as they carried Cori up the hill.
“We don’t know,” Dorn said, putting his hands on his hips. “She wasn’t attacked like Tristan.”
“But her face…” I said.
“Could be from a fall into the water, or the waves might have knocked her against the rocks.” Dorn shook his head. “She never was the strongest swimmer. It could be a simple drowning.”
“Except for the fact that she’s only the second Lifer ever to perish,” the mayor said, seething.
“Can you check her lungs?” Liam asked.
“What?” the mayor snapped.
Unperturbed, Liam lifted one shoulder. “If there’s a lot of water in her lungs, that means she inhaled it and drowned. If there’s not, that means she was dead before she hit the water. Which would mean…you know…”
Murder, I finished silently.
Dorn and Grantz exchanged an impressed look. “We’ll see what we can do.”
“This is a nightmare. Why is this still happening?” the mayor ranted. She wasn’t wearing an ounce of makeup, and for the first time since we’d met, her hair wasn’t perfectly styled. A few wet pieces clung to her cheek.
“Hold it together, Mayor. We’ll figure it out,” Dorn said. There was an uncertainty in his tone that chilled me. The mayor was the one solid constant we had in this town. If she lost it, then whatever confidence or hope the rest of us had would be obliterated.
“Will we?” She snapped her eyes wide. “Because we haven’t so far. Nadia and Cori are dead. Tristan’s in a coma, and now we have another fugitive on our hands. And in case you haven’t noticed, the island is about to sink into the damned ocean.” She stomped her foot, which only squished further into the thick muck at our feet.
Joaquin turned to the mayor. “We’ll find Pete. He doesn’t know the island the way Tristan does.”
The mayor’s jaw was taut. She seemed to have stopped breathing. “You’d better,” she said. “Because I’m not sure how much longer we can go on like this.”
“What’re you saying?” Grantz asked, his face slack.
She turned slowly to look at him. “I’m saying that if we don’t find a way to reverse whatever’s going on around here, we could be looking at the end of Juniper Landing as we know it.”
No one spoke. The rain began to fall harder, the sharp droplets ricocheting off our shoulders and stinging my face. My hand automatically found Joaquin’s, and he held it firmly between us.
“Get your search parties out there and find Pete,” the mayor growled.
As she stormed up the beach, Joaquin called after her. “What about the funeral? For Nadia? It’s supposed to be today.”
The mayor sighed and cursed under her breath. “The funeral goes on as planned,” she said. “But you and your friends are going to need to dig another grave.”
She cast one last look at the spot where Cori’s body had lain, then made her way purposefully up the beach. The twins watched her go, following her progress with their eerie eyes.
“The end of the world, huh?” Liam said. “That’s something I never thought I’d see.” Then he loped off to rejoin Lalani, taking her hand as they walked slowly up the boardwalk.
Grantz was already on his walkie-talkie, ordering the search parties to the police station. Once the mayor had disappeared around the corner, the twins turned around again, looked me dead in the eye, and smirked. My grip on Joaquin’s hand tightened.
“What is it?” he asked.
“Why does it seem like they’re enjoying this?” I said, lifting my chin toward the twins.
Joaquin turned to look at them. Neither one of them flinched. If anything, their smiles widened.
“Does anyone know whose charges they are?” he asked quietly.
“No one’s mentioned it,” I said. “But it’s gotten hard to keep track lately.”
“See what you can find out.”
Together we turned toward the stairs. “There’s something off about those two. The last thing we need around here is another enemy.”
“Okay. I’ll ask around,” I promised.
When we reached the boardwalk, the twins were still watching. They were the only visitors left, standing at the guardrail in the driving rain.
“I’ll see you at the mayor’s at ten,” Joaquin said, releasing my hand.
For a second I thought he was going to lean in and kiss me good-bye. Part of me hoped he would, and another part wasn’t sure how I’d react if he did. But Joaquin simply took a step back and headed down the alleyway toward his apartment.
My hands were shaking. I had to figure out how I was going to handle Tristan being back. If he woke up—when he woke up—I was going to have to make a decision. Did I forgive him for bailing without explanation? Could we move past it? Or should I be with Joaquin, the one person who, so far, had never let me down?
I hadn’t taken two steps when the twins appeared on either side of me. My blood curdled and I hugged my arms tightly. Being surrounded by the Tse twins was so not what I needed right now.
“Lost another one of your own, huh?” Sebastian asked.
“What do you mean by that?” I snapped.
“A local,” Selma replied. “One of your own.”
“Oh.” I blinked, wondering how they knew about Nadia. But I supposed this was a small town. News spread. “Yes. We did. But she wasn’t just a local. She was a…a friend.” Or at least a potential friend. “She deserves a little respect.”
I quickened my steps, but they matched their pace to mine. Selma’s gaze bored into my cheek and I ducked my head, wishing I could turtle into my coat and disappear.
“You should probably get used to it,” Sebastian said, a teasing lilt to his voice.
I stopped in my tracks and turned on him. “What? Why? What do you know?”
He raised his hands in a gesture of surrender. “Nothing. Just with this storm coming and being on an island…there are usually a lot of casualties.”
I narrowed my eyes at him as his sister slunk along behind me until she was standing at his side.
“You sure are defensive,” she said. “Anything you want to tell us?”
“Yeah,” I said through my teeth. “Stay the hell away from me.”
I turned to stalk away, but my foot caught on the seam between the boardwalk and the asphalt sidewalk and I tripped. Sebastian’s hand shot out to catch me, and the second his fingers touched my arm, my head filled with visions of his life. His death.
Sebastian in a crib lying head to toe with his sister. Sebastian as a boy in a black-and-white school uniform, tormenting a smaller kid. Sebastian scoring a winning goal in a soccer game, then spitting at the feet of his opponent. Sebastian curled up on the floor in the back of a dark closet while his parents screamed at each other. Sebastian and his sister shouting at a rally, hoisting picket signs over their heads. Sebastian and Selma being mugged on a dark street. Sebastian fighting back. A shot going off. Sebastian watching his sister die before being shot himself.
I ripped my arm out of his grip and turned away from them, my eyes filling with tears. He’d died an awful death, watching his sister take her last breaths. But almost more overwhelming were the images of his life. The pain he’d been through, the pain he’d caused. It had been a short existence, but one full of hurt and confusion, anger and fear.
“Wow. Way to say thank you,” he spat.
I turned to look at him, water streaming down our faces. My jaw clenched. “Thanks.”
Then I turned and started up the hill as fast as I could go. At least now I had half an answer to Joaquin’s question. Sebastian was my charge, and one thing was certain—as soon as we set things right around here, he was the first person I was ushering off this island.
I kept my head down as we walked two by two, following the matching caskets down the hill. The service had been brief and cold, as if everyone here had forgotten what wakes and services were actually for—sharing fond memories of the deceased and honoring their lives. The mayor had said a few words in her living room, where the roughly hewn caskets had sat closed on the floor, surrounded by fake flowers, since every real bloom on the island had long since wilted, grown moldy, and died. No one else had volunteered to say a word. But as the caskets were lifted and the crowd parted to form a makeshift aisle down the center of the room, I had suddenly started crying, and I hadn’t been able to stop since.
I cried for Cori. I cried for Nadia. I cried over the fact that they had both walked around this island with the same confidence everyone else had—that nothing truly bad could ever happen to them again—until it did. I cried for my dad and Darcy and Aaron. And I cried for my mom, whose funeral was the last one I’d attended on Earth. The moment I let myself open that door, the memories crashed over me like the waves at high tide. The pain was as fresh as if she’d taken her last breath just yesterday.
I thought of the way Darcy had held it together so perfectly, her posture like a prima ballerina’s, her smiles so gracious and polite as she’d received the guests, until she’d stepped up to my mother’s open coffin and let out an awful wail. I thought of how my father had gotten up from his chair to say his eulogy, but fallen right to one knee, where he’d stayed for at least five minutes until my uncle Morris finally helped him up. I thought of how I’d reached out to hold her hand inside her coffin and stared at her overly made-up face, just willing her to wake up and smile. Wake up and tell me this was just a dream.
Wake up, wake up, wake up, I’d repeated silently, desperately. Please, Mommy. Please wake up.
That was the memory that truly caught me now, closed my throat, and made me buckle at the waist.
Please, Mommy. Please wake up.
I wished for the thousandth time that I could talk to her, if only for a second. Now I needed her more than ever. I needed her to tell me what to do. I needed her to tell me everything was going to be okay. And I needed Darcy, too. And my father. It wasn’t fair that I was alone here. It just wasn’t fair.
“Rory?”
I looked up into Joaquin’s eyes. I hadn’t even noticed that we’d stopped.
“Are you all right?” he asked me.
I shook my head, glancing past the other raincoats and umbrellas at the caskets, which now lay on the grass next to the open graves. The caskets were made of raw birch, the bright yellow grain the only warm spot in the world around us. There was no graveyard in Juniper Landing, of course, and we had decided to bury them near the trees on the lower of the two bluffs at the south end of the island. This was one of the flattest bits of terrain, and a beautiful spot with a view looking over the town to the east and the ocean to the south. From what I had heard, it had taken Fisher, Dorn, and Kevin over an hour to dig each hole because the earth was so saturated it kept collapsing in on itself. Now everyone waited for the caskets to be lowered. For this whole sorry episode to be over.
“I’m fine,” I said, shoving my balled-up hand under my nose. “Shouldn’t you be…over there?”
As one of the sixteen pallbearers, Joaquin was supposed to be helping to place the caskets into the ground.
“Yeah.” A pained expression passed over his face, and he held tight to my elbow. “I just wanted to check on you.”
“Thanks,” I said, and meant it.
I glanced around as I tried to catch my breath. Surrounding the caskets and the graves were dozens of black-clad Lifers, passing tissues, their heads bowed. But beyond them, a small crowd had started to gather. Curious visitors. And I felt a sharp stab of resentment at their presence.
This was a private moment, not a tourist attraction. Even Ray Wagner and Jack Lancet were there. They whispered to each other, their heads bent close. When Wagner caught me watching, he lifted his hand in a jaunty wave. He was enjoying this.
“I think w
e should get this over with,” I said tersely.
Joaquin nodded and got back to the business at hand. He and the other pallbearers—Liam, Kevin, and Fisher among them—lifted Nadia’s casket by its plain silver handles and ever so carefully lowered it into the ground, falling to their knees as they gritted their teeth under the strain. When the wood finally hit the dirt floor of the ditch, Lauren let out a choking sob and buried her face in Bea’s jacket. Then they lowered Cori’s casket into the ground as well, and the mayor stepped up to the top of the graves.
“Today we lay to rest two good friends. Let us never forget what their lives meant to us. What their deaths mean to us.”
She crouched down, picked up a glob of muddy dirt, and threw it atop Nadia’s casket, then did the same for Cori’s. The rest of the Lifers formed a jagged, circuitous line, and each of them followed suit, littering the wood with mud. As I edged forward, I glanced across at the visitors and was startled by a few hostile stares, a few suspicious glances, some furtive whispers. They were talking about us. Talking as if they suspected us of something. But what? We were simply laying two people to rest.
When it was finally my turn, I set aside my unease and scooped up a small chunk of mud. I looked down at a dark brown knot in the lid of Nadia’s casket and let the dirt drop and plop from my fingers to cover it.
“Good-bye, Nadia.”
I stepped to the next casket.
“I’m so sorry, Cori. I wish I had stopped him. I’m so sorry.”
I dropped the mud on her casket, tears coursing silently down my face. Then there was nothing left to do but move on.
Joaquin was waiting for me a few feet away, a black umbrella overhead. “Do you want to get something to eat?”
“No,” I replied, kicking at a white rock. “I just want to go home.” Though what I thought was waiting for me there, other than loneliness and silence, I had no idea.
He put his hand gently on the small of my back, and we moved away from the crowd. We’d barely made it five steps when the sight of the twins stopped me cold. While most of the visitors were keeping a respectful distance from the proceedings, staying near the point where the hill dropped off toward town, the Tse twins were much closer. They’d chosen a spot in the middle of the field, just yards behind the mourners, standing beneath the cover of a wide black umbrella. Their clear eyes stared directly at me, directly through me, making my insides curdle. Sebastian was rolling a coin across the back of his hand from finger to finger, a trick I’d never been able to pull off myself.