3. Lake Effect Kid
Lake Effect Kid
It was astonishing how quickly things could go to shit.
The second the police boats started to approach the island with their sirens wailing and spotlights beaming, it was every teen for themselves. Solo cups were abandoned, beer cans tossed aside, and lawn chairs flipped over in everyone’s rush to get back to their boats before the cops made landfall.
Dustin found himself scrambling across the sand, trying to find Chris in the middle of the pandemonium before it was too late.
Unfortunately, the wild crowd made it virtually impossible for him to see anything; he was lost in a haze of weed smoke and frantic limbs…
which is why it was entirely unsurprising when he collided with another person hard enough to knock them both flat on their asses.
“Shit, sorry, are you…” Dustin’s words trailed off when he realized who it was he’d practically headbutted, “wait, Chloe? Do you know where my brother is?”
“He ran off to find you!” Chloe said, rubbing her forehead with one hand and holding her heels in the other, “this is a huge fucking mess. Krissy, Kristen, and Kamden ditched me as soon as shit went south,”
“You can catch a ride with us as soon as we find Chris,” Dustin offered, helping Chloe to her feet, “we gotta move, now!”
Spotlights continued to slice through the fog like blades as the cops got closer by the second. Someone shouted something about them having breathalyzers, but it was drowned out by the blaring megaphones coming from the police boats.
“This is the Pacific Cove Police Department! Stay where you are. Attempting to flee will be considered resisting arrest! This is your only warning; proceed to the shoreline in an orderly fashion with your hands visible!”
“God damn it, I knew I should’ve stayed home,” Dustin muttered to himself as he and Chloe continued through the crowd. It seemed absolutely fucking helpless; there was no sign of Chris anywhere.
However, just before the first police boat reached the shore, a shrill voice called out into the darkness.
“Dusty! Over here!”
Dustin nearly broke his neck from the speed at which he whipped his head around to see Chris and Bailey in the speedboat, riding parallel to the shoreline, with Bailey waving her hands frantically to get his attention.
Dustin’s happiness to see them was immediately undercut by the realization that he was the one with the speedboat keys…
until patting his pocket revealed that Chris must’ve stealthily lifted them without his notice.
Before Dustin and Chloe could hop aboard, another voice called out to him; this one a familiar baritone.
“Yo, Dustin! Hold up!” James was sprinting toward them, kicking up sand like the Roadrunner as he went. Despite it all, he was still clinging to a beer, “looks like I got left behind!”
Dustin just nodded and motioned for James to come along as he and Chloe waded into the surf, slogging their way to the speedboat.
The water was bitterly cold, and it immediately rushed through the strategic holes in Dustin’s leather pants, chilling him to the bone.
He ignored the cold as best he could, scrambling up into the boat and hauling Chloe in after him.
James followed a second later, still somehow grinning, and before anyone could say a word, Chris slammed the throttle and got them the hell out of there.
For a second, it felt victorious; the wind in their hair, ocean spray on their faces, and the sound of sirens quickly fading into the background. It was almost enough to make Dustin think they’d gotten away with it…
Until another spotlight hit them out of nowhere.
“FUCK!” Chloe squealed, ducking as low as she could, “they’re fucking chasing us!”
Sure enough, one of the police boats had peeled away from the others, and was now gaining on them. The sirens started to shriek, and Dustin’s heart nearly punched a hole in his chest just so it could escape.
“This is the Pacific Cove Police Department. Kill your engine immediately and prepare to be boarded!”
“Fuck. That!” Chris said, hitting the throttle even harder.
The speedboat groaned as it was pushed past its limit, reaching a speed that made everyone lurch forward and brace themselves against anything rooted to the ground…
everyone except James that is, who was whooping and howling like he was having the time of his life.
“Chris slow down! You’re gonna flood the engine!” Dustin shouted, his voice barely audible over the competing sounds from the speedboat and police sirens.
“I’m not facing mom’s wrath if we get arrested!” Chris shot back, his eyes locked on the darkness ahead of them with fiery determination. Dustin pinched the bridge of his nose in frustration, before turning back to see how close the cops were…
But what he saw was certainly not what he expected.
A wall of dense, white fog; much thicker than what was normal in Pacific Cove. It was sudden and pervasive, crawling along the water’s surface like the limbs of a giant spider as it enveloped everything around them.
“Whoa… did anyone see that fog bank before we hit it?” Bailey asked, her eyes darting around rapidly.
“No,” James said, his tone finally serious, “there was nothing there. It just rolled in out of nowhere,”
Suddenly, the speedboat started to slow down; the sound of the engine softening into stillness.
“Why are we stopping?!” Chloe shook Chris’s arm, “we don’t know if we’re in the clear!”
“I didn’t do anything, look!” Chris gestured to the throttle, pushed as far forward as it would go, “I have no fucking clue what’s going on,”
“You probably flooded the engine. Would be a shame if someone warned you about that,” Dustin mumbled, rolling his eyes.
“I didn’t flood the fucking engine! Do you hear sputtering?”
“Well then how the fuck else would you explain it?”
“I don’t know. You tell me since you know every fucking thing,”
“Guys, chill for two seconds!” James cut in, ending the twins’ argument before it could spiral further, “what the hell is that?”
Dustin looked in the direction James was pointing, and his breath caught in his throat.
The overwhelming fog was slowly beginning to lift in front of them, but instead of seeing the shoreline of their town…
instead they saw a series of ornate buildings, floating on the surface of the water like the laws of physics obeyed them and not the other way around.
Each building was made of pale stone that looked like moonrock, topped with a sloped pagoda-style roof carved out of glittering silver and trimmed with glowing lanterns that swayed in the wind.
It was a huge and sprawling complex rather than a singular building; it looked almost like a village had somehow risen up from the seabed.
“That’s… a palace? A Chinese one, ancient too. Like, maybe Qin Dynasty? Maybe earlier,” Dustin said, mostly to himself as he continued to examine the structure.
“Oh my god we’re dead. We fucking died and now we’re in Heaven and I have to answer to my Chinese ancestors and I don’t even fucking speak Mandarin,” Chloe rambled, anxiously tapping her nails against the side of the boat.
“We’re not dead, we can’t be. I definitely wouldn’t be in Heaven if we were,” Chris narrowed his eyes on the building as the boat continued to drift closer to it, “Dustin, you’re sure it’s a Chinese palace?”
“Positive. Mom talks about this stuff all the time… if only you’d pay attention,”
“Okay Mr. Scholar, then can you explain why the fuck this palace is floating in front of us and not in the country or fucking CENTURY where it belongs?!”
“Not really, no,” Dustin admitted.
“Maybe we’re all stoned? I’m definitely stoned… but then again, I don’t usually hallucinate,” James said, and for the first time that night, his voice wavered. The grin was gone, instead he looked… rattled.
Before anyone could respond, a sharp, blinding pain split through Dustin’s skull, like lightning behind his eyes. He gasped and dropped to his knees…
And then came the voice.
Smooth. Detached. It didn’t echo so much as press against the inside of their heads.
“Inside the Palace of Radiant Clouds, you will meet what has always been yours to master,”
At first Dustin thought he was the only one to hear it, but a quick glance made it clear that everyone else was experiencing the same thing, based on the way they were clutching their ears and heads.
“What the fuck was THAT?!” Dustin and Chris cried out simultaneously.
“That voice… I think it wants us to go inside,” James said softly, watching intently as the boat drifted closer and closer.
“No way we’re doing that, are you dumb? We’re calling for help.
At this point, even the police are a better option than going inside the creepy ghost palace that we were invited into by a disembodied voice,” Bailey rummaged through their bedazzled handbag and pulled out her flip phone.
However, instead of dialing anything, she just stared at it in disbelief, “are you fucking kidding me? No bars… fucking AT pulled closer to the dock at the palace’s edge by an unseen current.
“Fuck it… why not,” James finally shrugged and leapt off the boat, landing on the polished wooden dock with a soft thud, “what? It’s better than just floating out here waiting for something worse to happen,”
Chris closed his eyes for a moment, took a deep breath, and followed James onto the dock.