Chapter 8 #2
“Well, someone just tried to fight me for telling the truth, but that’s how it goes sometimes.
I think I might head a little deeper into the woods since I’ve got a flashlight, and I think there’s some buildings on the far side of the island that are worth investigating.
There are a ton of people here right now, so I feel safer than usual for explorations, but—”
Screams rose up from off camera and Mike’s face blurred as the phone moved around in the darkness.
A chill spread over Cassidy’s arms as she realized that this must have been the moment that Ryan fell.
She couldn’t make out anything in the muffled shouts, and then a fast and steady crunching sound suggested that Mike was running with the phone still recording.
Abruptly, the shot changed, and Mike once again faced the camera, now sitting in his tent.
He was staring off camera with wide eyes, holding his mouth in both of his hands like he was contemplating something.
“I don’t know the right way to say this, so I’ll just say it.
Um, someone died tonight.” He shifted, but his eyes avoided the camera.
“While I was filming, someone fell from the top of the waterfall. I didn’t see it, but I heard it.
I don’t know who it was, and I don’t know what happened but …
” he trailed off and let out a long sigh.
“I already had a bad feeling about this place, and now this has happened and … I dunno, maybe none of it is related, but maybe it is, and now I’m wondering if coming here was a huge mistake. ”
Now, he reached out and adjusted the phone, his fingers scraping the microphone.
“It’s 3:30 in the morning right now and there haven’t been any updates.
Some people online seem to think they know who fell but I can’t verify it, and I don’t want to spread rumors.
I don’t know if authorities here know about the death.
I mean, I guess I don’t even know if anyone actually died, and maybe they’re just hurt, but, yeah.
That’s where we are. Stay tuned for my next update, I guess. ”
When the video ended, Cassidy opened up the articles Mike linked to and read. As he said, they described past business ventures on Twin Cay and didn’t say much. She searched for “Island X” and “Twin Cay” and found a number of articles written in the past few days.
“If you didn’t get a mysterious email inviting you to party on a private island in the last 48 hours, then you’re like most of us: not worthy, according to the email.
In fact, so few people have been invited that it seems like it’s almost not even worth talking about.
Probably just some credit card scam, right ... ?”
“… But the dorms and villas currently being rented out by the rich and famous this week were not built by the current owners of the island or any current investors. Rather, they were built late last year by land investors who were hoping to develop the island into a fishing community. They were able to get as far as erecting the homes for the neighborhood before all work abruptly ceased after three months and the island was put back on the market. The island exchanged hands a few times before that but was never developed or inhabited for long periods of time, despite the size of the island which is nearly two square miles and quite large to be uninhabited …”
“… A conspiracy theory hatched, fueled by another strange tragedy on Twin Cay. In 2019, a fishing crew was wrecked on the island during Hurricane Dorian. The crew maintained contact with the mainland via radio for a full week while the islands were pummeled with rain. After the clouds parted, a rescue team embarked to save the fishermen. Even a mere twelve hours before the rescue team landed on Twin Cay, they had radio contact with the crew, but once they got to the island, they couldn’t find a single fisherman.
All twelve men had completely disappeared … ”
“… The simpler answer is that no one has actually disappeared on the island and the reports of the fishing crew have been sensationalized and that the previous owner disappeared from the island by returning to their own home after cutting their losses from the island. But the simpler answer doesn’t allow the rest of us, who are going to be bombarded with sun-dappled island getaway pictures from the influencers we hate-follow, to bitterly tell ourselves that it’s fine we weren’t invited, because we wouldn’t want to go to a haunted island, anyhow. ”
“Cassidy?” Apricot called from the couch. The sound of another voice in the villa startled Cassidy so badly she nearly threw her laptop toward the sound.
“Yeah?” Cassidy responded.
“Did you sleep?” Apricot asked, and sounded genuinely concerned. She propped herself up on her arm to get a better look at her friend.
Cassidy shook her head.
“Did you ever hear from Daisy?”
Cassidy shook her head again. “The last time I called, it went straight to voicemail, so I think her phone is dead.”
Apricot flopped back down on the couch. “I don’t want to be here anymore.”
“Me, either.”
“I mean, I don’t want to be in this villa anymore,” Apricot said. “I can’t believe I was even able to fall asleep. I get the creeps just being in this room.”
Cassidy stretched her arms above her head. “It’s daylight now. It’s probably safe to leave.”
“Probably safer out there, as long as we don’t climb any waterfalls,” Apricot said.
“You know, it’s just like Daisy to run off with some guy and let her phone die,” Apricot said as she reached for her orange juice at the restaurant called the Fruit Stand, which appeared to specialize in juices and salads.
“If she’s not back by the time they have a plane ready for us, I’m leaving her here. ”
Cassidy felt exhausted from lack of sleep and more on edge with Apricot’s selfishness than usual. Daisy was more Apricot’s friend than Cassidy’s, and yet here Cassidy was, being the more caring and responsible friend, again.
“I don’t think they’re going to send any planes for us,” she said, and pushed around the dragon fruit and cantaloupe on her plate.
Images from the night before were too fresh in her mind and her stomach raged against even the idea of food.
“We need to stick together, which means we need to find Daisy. She’s in just as much danger as anyone else is.
Maybe more, because she was in the villa when that thing was, too. ”
Apricot’s eyebrows raised in skepticism. “She’s a big fucking girl on a little fucking island but yeah, sure.”
Cassidy scrolled through the feed on her phone as Apricot continued to eat.
Her screen was full of sun-kissed smiles and sandy butt selfies.
Her vision glossed over the photos, barely perceiving them as anything more than visual drivel.
She merely scrolled without any idea of what else to do.
She wanted to make a video about the whole situation but didn’t know what to say.
It’s not like she was exactly having a good time and didn’t really want to memorialize that for the world.
Across the table, Apricot also scrolled, a paper straw for her mimosa sitting loosely in her lips. Her eyes caught on something and she let out a barking laugh.
“Well, turns out Daisy’s phone isn’t dead, she’s just fucking ignoring us,” Apricot said, leaning forward and turning the phone screen to Cassidy.
Daisy walked along the beach in slow motion, back to the camera. She coyly looked over her shoulder toward the viewer, her hair and skirt flowing in the wind which blew off into the ocean.
“When was that posted?” Cassidy asked. Apricot turned the phone back to herself and tapped around.
“About thirty minutes ago. I wonder if there’s something wrong with my phone. My stupid boyfriend hasn’t texted me back, either.”
Cassidy shook her head. Daisy probably didn’t know about Ryan LeHane’s death, but she still could at least send a text to the friends she came with and let them know she was okay or ask them why they were trying to call so much when it was an unwritten rule to never actually use the phone as a phone.
“Barb and my parents haven’t texted me back, either. Maybe we need to connect to Wi-Fi …” Cassidy trailed off as a thought struck her like a slap in the face.
Daisy probably didn’t know about Ryan LeHane’s death, very few people on the island likely did, aside from the people at the waterfall the previous night, because the festival hadn’t addressed it at all.
She understood why they wouldn’t want to put it all over Twitter that someone died during their festival, but they should at least say something to the rest of the people on the island.
The festival-goers deserved to be kept up to date and told when their planes were coming to get them, but there was total silence on even the festival app up to this point.
That’s it, she thought. She opened TikTok and primped her limp hair in the selfie camera for a moment before tapping the red circle at the bottom of the screen.
“Okay, so I wasn’t sure if I should talk about this or not, but no one else seems to be, so I guess I have to.”
Apricot perked up from her phone but said nothing.