Chapter 3 #5
James could feel the indignant anger rising in his chest. No matter where he went, no one respected the hard work he’d put in.
No one understood how much time he put into learning the skills behind the magic, figuring out how to edit, learning how to get noticed, learning marketing, running social media campaigns, engaging genuinely with fans and haters alike.
It was all hard work, and none of these women had any notion of that.
Whatever fanbase they had came easy to them, and if they ever lifted a finger to actually put in effort, they were rewarded tenfold more than he would ever be for doing a hundred times more work.
“No, there’s nothing wrong with having a famous name,” he said, pausing to swallow the angry bile rising in his throat.
The air over the table felt thick and James brought his glass of water to his lips but struggled to drink. The women returned their attention to their plates, poking at the food, and casting glances toward one another.
“We should probably leave in time for you to shower before the show, Daze,” Cassidy said.
“Yeah, probably,” Daisy replied as she tapped at her phone screen with her left hand and held an empty fork with the right.
“What the fuck?” Apricot asked, eyes glued to her phone screen.
“I mean, she’s still covered in sand, A …” Cassidy said, directing her attention to her friend. Apricot’s eyebrows bunched together with concern and she didn’t look up.
“What’s wrong?” Cassidy asked.
Apricot didn’t answer but kept tapping the screen and dragging her finger back and forth.
“I … I dunno.” She finally looked up at Cassidy and Daisy. “I think someone was in our villa earlier when we were in there.”
“What?” Daisy asked, leaning over to look at Apricot’s phone.
“Why?” asked Cassidy as the blood drained from her face.
“I was going to post our tour but look.” She leaned to her right to show Daisy first. “Do you see that? That shadow in the sliding glass door?”
Daisy’s eyes widened. “What the fuck!”
“What?” Cassidy nearly shouted now, the panic clear in her voice.
The thought that someone might have gotten into their place without them knowing even disturbed James.
Apricot turned her wrist to show them the screen, and Cassidy and James leaned into one another to see it.
The video of Daisy leading the tour that Apricot took played on the screen, smudged by Apricot’s fingerprints.
In it, sunlight coming from the glass door to the balcony backlit Daisy, but James and Cassidy could still see her face.
Then, when she moved away from the center of the frame toward the bedroom, a short, dark, featureless figure stood in the center of the sliding glass door.
The figure was only visible for a moment before the camera moved, but he had no doubt that he’d seen something in the doorway.
Cassidy reached out for the phone to pause the video.
James watched as she dragged a finger to play the video in reverse and reveal the shadow again.
The color drained further from her face until her cheeks took on the same pale hue as her eyes, which read such a genuine terror that James shuddered.
“See?” Apricot asked.
“Are you sure it wasn’t just a local kid on the porch?
” James asked. He’d already noticed the kitchen staff appeared to be local hires, aside from the celebrity chefs, who didn’t all fit the mold of the good-looking blonds in Island Xperience shirts.
Same went for the stage crew he saw doing all the heavy lifting during his ride around the island.
But the fear he saw in their expressions made him even question this logic.
“I don’t think so. It looks like they’re standing inside,” Apricot said, and pointed to the bottom of the screen.
“Look, you can see the shadow of their feet. You couldn’t see that if they were standing behind the door.
” She had also gone pale. Apricot and Daisy both watched the others with wide eyes, awaiting confirmation that they all saw the same thing.
The women reminded James of owls as they looked to each other and to him.
“You would have noticed if someone was standing inside, though,” James said, trying to keep everyone calm.
“Was the backdoor locked when we got there?” Cassidy asked, finally looking up to meet her friends’ eyes.
“I don’t remember. You were the one who pointed out there was access to the porch from all the rooms,” Apricot said.
“Yeah, because I noticed the door in my room.”
“Was it locked?” Daisy asked.
Cassidy paused. The other two became visibly more tense and exchanged glances.
“Yeah, yeah, it was locked,” Cassidy quickly said.
“And you didn’t notice anyone out there?” Apricot asked.
“No, I definitely would have said something if someone had been out there.”
Apricot reached her hand out to take the phone back and reviewed the video again.
“I swear it looks like they’re standing inside,” she said.
“Either way, maybe you should mention it to island security,” James said. “It’s probably just some worker’s kid wandering around.”
“That’s fucking creepy, though. Like, were they trying to spy on us?” Daisy asked.
“It’s probably not like that. If it is some kid, they probably just wanted to see what the villas look like. I mean, they’re probably a lot nicer than wherever the workers are staying,” Cassidy said, picking up her fork.
James thought about the buildings on the north side of the island again. Was the figure he saw also a wandering child? A very, very quick moving wandering child?
What else would it be? he asked himself. He also picked his own fork back up but still felt uneasy.