Chapter 10
James left Cassidy to console Apricot and meandered toward the stage, passing by a woman in a cowboy hat doing some jerky TikTok dance and a drunk man lying on the paved path like a sunburnt starfish, though the dark clouds that lingered on the horizon all day had finally gathered over the island.
The smell of fried fish floated heavy on the air.
The closer he got to the stage, the more crowded the walkways got, and James had the sensation of being one of hundreds of lemmings.
He was thankful for the cool air and the occasional raindrop but hoped the rain wouldn’t cancel the show.
The audience in front of the stage was packed even though the opener still had a half hour until stage time, so James got a White Claw tallboy and stood on the perimeter with his phone in one hand and the drink in the other.
On Twitter, he wrote, “There’s some weird stuff happening on this island,” with no tags.
On TikTok, he made a video talking at the camera with no filters. “So, I heard a rumor that the lineup for tonight’s show has changed …” he started. He put an emoji covering its mouth in the caption and used the #islandxperience hashtag.
Overall, that last one seemed positive, if blatantly untrue. But if nothing came of it, he wouldn’t lose any followers for spreading lies because he said it was just a rumor.
He saved the original videos and a screenshot of the tweet to his camera roll.
Maybe I can make this work in my favor, he thought.
If the people controlling the festival and the island’s Wi-Fi were doing something insidious with people’s likenesses—influencer’s likenesses—maybe he could get away at the end of the week with proof.
Cracking open something like that could afford him a lot more opportunities than trying to continue living off sleight of hand videos.
He went to Ryan LeHane’s profile and couldn’t find any comments that talked about the fall from the night before. Cassidy’s voice echoed in his head, so he tapped out of the app and searched Ryan LeHane’s name. Nothing came up.
Cassidy was right. There was no way that some minor entertainment news outlet hadn’t seen her post or been notified in some way about the fall, and yet there wasn’t even speculative coverage about the rumor of a death on the island. There was nothing.
Whether this whole thing was an experiment in AI or just a coverup, it involved some very powerful people, James concluded.
Cool ocean air blew over the crowd, further chilling his skin as the sporadic rain continued to fall but full of the salt and scent of the Atlantic, and James reminded himself that he was literally in paradise.
The breeze smelled earthy with marijuana and body sweat and the damp sand underfoot.
The opener finally started with an intense drumline that immediately flowed into lyrics everyone in the crowd knew from the song’s place on the top songs of summer 2022 according to Spotify, and James almost forgot that the festival had a death on their hands.
The songs flowed easily from one to another.
James knew most of the lyrics, and the band was wise to keep the energy upbeat enough for everyone to at least be able to dance along.
Forty-five minutes passed before anyone could realize, and the musicians left, having successfully primed the audience and left them wanting more.
The houselights came up high in the canopy air above the crowd, illuminating them in a dim yellow light.
The murmur of their talking rose gently as they all waited for the next act to start.
After fifteen minutes or so, a small figure walked across the stage dressed completely in white, looking very Instagram business casual, and spoke into a microphone.
“Tonight’s lineup has changed slightly,” they said.
Sounds of disappointment and anger rose from the crowd.
The figure put the microphone back to their mouth.
“I know, I know, but don’t worry. I think you will be very happy with what we have in store for you instead. May I present to you Bad Bunny!”
Another figure ran across the stage with a microphone in hand, greeting the crowd as the houselights went down and the stage lights took on a rhythmic beat of changing colors.
Everyone screamed with excitement and surprise, but James stood motionless in shock.
In his video posted on TikTok less than an hour before, he predicted this exact turn of events.