
Diana dropped Clay’s suitcase into the sand as people emerged from their tents to see the find of the century. Cindy struggled to breathe as the blood drained from her face. She could barely hear people asking whose suitcase it was. Terri must have been reacting, but Cindy couldn’t be sure because her vision was going dark.
Winter started unzipping the suitcase. Cindy swallowed the dryness in her throat and locked eyes with Terri. Both of them were petrified. What was Cindy supposed to do? She needed to tell them that it was dangerous, or claim she saw the stranger watching them, or pretend to have a heart attack.
But it wouldn’t matter. There was nothing Cindy could do that would stall them for more than an hour. And the longer she delayed, the more suspicion would fall on her.
Winter flipped open the suitcase to reveal a phone sitting on neatly folded clothes and one crumpled outfit.
Cindy closed her eyes as Alex sputtered, “That’s Clay’s phone. Those are his clothes. This is his suitcase.”
He ignored their questions and dived for the phone, turning it on. The others pestered him to be sure of what he was saying, but he ignored them and entered Clay’s password. Cindy cursed herself for trusting him with it.
Alex’s hands were shaking. He covered his mouth in an attempt to keep himself composed. From where she was standing, Cindy could see he was looking at the strange messages that had been sent to his phone. She stood still and silent as Alex frantically tried to explain it to the rest of the group.
“How is it here?” Winter demanded.
“Clay must have been here,” Diana said, shivering. “But—”
“But the captain only brought two passengers,” Alex finished, looking at Terri.
Terri said nothing, so Cindy replied, “It was just the two of us, yeah.”
“Then how?”
Cindy suggested, “Maybe… Clay did show up at the docks, but… someone else brought his suitcase here separately?”
“That makes less sense than him coming here directly.”
“On a different boat?” Chris suggested.
Roberto asked, “If he was here, why hide his suitcase in the woods?”
Cindy cleared her throat and said, “You should turn off the phone to save the battery, just to be safe.”
Alex nodded thoughtfully before navigating to something else instead. Cindy grit her teeth and resisted the urge to snatch the phone from his hand. That restraint turned out to be a mistake.
“There’s a video.”
He started playing it before Cindy had a chance to process what was happening. She was forced to listen to Clay and his grating voice explore the cave, getting deeper and deeper while completely ignorant of what was about to happen. Terri was listening with rapt attention; Cindy hadn’t told her about the video.
The phone was thrown from Clay’s hand by the burst of light, bouncing once before landing camera-side down. It was a few moments before someone picked up the phone and turned the recording off. Watching it play out caused the hair to stand up on Cindy’s neck; Terri had said Clay was gone for hours, and the passage of time outside the cave agreed, but the recording suggested that Cindy had only been momentarily stunned.
“Clay was here,” Alex choked.
Winter nodded. “Quite a mystery to solve.”
“It doesn’t make any sense,” Chris said.
“None of it makes any sense.”
Diana shivered and asked, “What if Clay was the person Winter saw?” and Cindy’s stomach churned.
“Why would he do that?”
“We don’t know what happened in that cave.”
“Enough!” Winter held up her hands. “We need to think about this rationally. There’s no evidence of foul play, aside from maybe whatever light that was, but someone is responsible for Clay’s disappearance. For nobody to remember him being here at all, for his suitcase to be in the woods of all places, someone has to be fucking with us. We need answers.” She paused and wet her lips. “We need to find that cave.”
They were split into groups to search near the beach. It was a big island, but everybody reasoned that Clay would have arrived at the only dock. Cindy ended up with Chris and Alex, who didn’t say much, and did her best not to push them in the right direction.
It was Roberto and Diana who managed to find the cave entrance, and soon everybody was standing at the dark mouth of the abyss with pointy sticks. Winter turned on her phone light and stepped inside. Everyone filed in slowly behind her, Cindy clutching the only flashlight limply in her hand. Nightwing, following Chris on a leash, whined and tried to pull away before giving up.
She rubbed her arms both from the cold and from nerves. There were no answers in there—Terri and her had figured that much out—but that didn’t make the caves safe.
“Should we be doing this?” she asked. “Something bad happened to Clay. What if something happens to us too? Or the stranger corners us in a cave with no way out?”
“She’s right,” Terri blurted out, coming to a halt. “We don’t know what kind of danger we’re in. We should think more about this before doing anything rash.”
Roberto nodded, scanning the walls with his own light. “I don’t like the look of this place either. What if it’s not stable? And there were other branching paths in that video; we could be lost down here for hours… or days.”
“We need answers,” Winter insisted.
“No.” Diana shook her head. “We need to stay safe. There’s nothing we can do for Clay if he’s hurt anyway. We don’t have any reason to think this will even help us find him.”
Chris replied, “We need to look for clues that could tell us if Clay is hurt or in danger. We owe him that much.” Roberto squinted, as if to ask whether Chris was sure about that. “But you can stay here if you feel it’s safer. I’ll wait with you.”
“We’re less vulnerable together,” Winter told him.
“I’m going, either way,” Alex said, stepping further into the void.
Ultimately, nobody wanted to split up, and they pressed forward. Cindy found herself toward the back of the group with Alex and his makeshift spear, though Terri trailed even behind them. Winter and Roberto spent a lot of time analyzing the gold flakes on the walls and whispering to each other. Nightwing stuck close to Chris, ears flat against his head and looking around warily.
“Why do all this for Clay?” Cindy asked when they reached a fork in the cave. “You were all so glad that he wasn’t here.”
She directed her gaze toward Winter specifically, who admitted, “I’d prefer if he were out of my life, but I don’t want him to get hurt.”
Chris said, “He can be a good guy sometimes. Being loud and impatient isn’t a crime.” He got a pointed look from Winter. “Well, it’s not supposed to be.”
Cindy’s chest hurt. They actually wanted her to be safe and sound, and she was still lying to them about everything. She couldn’t even say that she’d have done the same if their situations were reversed. It took all her strength to hold in a sob.
Winter picked a path and left a mark on the wall with a piece of chalk. She led everyone in that direction, but Cindy hesitated. Something felt wrong. Turning her flashlight down the other tunnel, she saw a distant glint of gold in the distance. They weren’t going to reach the mural on Winter’s chosen path.
Her throat closed up. Misdirection would protect her secret. It would take time to backtrack and figure out where they went wrong, possibly too much time to actually reach the mural today. Everyone would be upset over the delay, and Cindy would be safe for a little while longer. As long as whatever was down the other path wasn’t dangerous. As long as they didn’t try to make up the time by doing something reckless. As long as it didn’t give them nightmares to think they couldn’t save Clay.
She cried out, “Hey! I saw something over here!”
Couldn’t leave well enough alone.
It took long enough to reach the mural cavern that Cindy’s nerves were entirely frayed, and yet it felt like they’d gotten there much faster than they should have. Her gaze was locked onto the mural now that it was fully illuminated: the six-armed figure, the woman underneath, and the carved mystery glyph responsible for Cindy’s predicament. All the time in the world to think about it, and she was no closer to understanding.
“Nobody get too close,” Roberto said, pulling Alex back a little. “We don’t know exactly what happened, but finding answers isn’t worth someone else getting hurt.”
A stiff wind blew into the cavern from the tunnel behind them, sending a shiver through Cindy that she had to grit her teeth and bear. She leaned up against the wall beside Alex and took a deep, trembling breath. He was pale in the weak glow of the flashlights.
“How are you feeling?” she asked.
He shook his head. “I’m worried. This is my fault for inviting him in the first place. I was supposed to be on the boat that morning.”
Cindy’s expression trembled as she held back tears. She needed to say something that could comfort him, something helpful or profound, but he didn’t know her from Adam. She was trapped in another body to watch her oldest only friend make himself sick over what he imagined might be happening to her. Thinking about it made her dizzy.
“I’m sure he’s fine. There’s no reason to assume the worst. For all we know, there’s a perfectly reasonable explanation for everything.”
He grunted but otherwise did not reply.
Nausea welled up in Cindy’s gut. She stepped away, arms wrapped around her stomach. Did she have food poisoning? Her vision was swimming; the ground beneath her started to crawl. Cindy stumbled toward Terri and reached out to grab her. Terri was clutching her head and swaying side to side.
“Terri… Terri…” Cindy pawed at her but got no response. “I don’t…”
Terri’s knees gave out, and she fell to the ground as the space between them seemed to triple and then double again.
Cindy looked around at all her sick friends. The walls curved too far, and the ground was breathing. Was there gas in here? People were stumbling. Alex tumbled to the ground in a coughing fit. Flashlights and phones waved in every direction, but there was another source of light.
An incredibly faint glow was coming from the glyph on the wall. Cindy tried to step closer but felt like she was wading through cement. A deep buzzing rang in her ears as her vision turned to spots around the edges. The distant and faint sounds of shrieks and chattering teeth rumbled through her bones. Dimly, Cindy became aware of Winter running in slow motion toward the mural.
Cindy understood. This was the first physical evidence of anything they had. Diana fell to her knees, clutching her head and screaming silently. All noise was washed out by the roar of static. Nightwing barked madly and flailed around while Roberto tried to stifle a nosebleed. He looked up and locked eyes with Cindy briefly, silently begging for help.
So close to answers.
Turning, Cindy reached out toward Winter, her arms crossing an unfathomable distance before wrapping around the other girl’s shoulders, and pulled her back. Winter scowled, but Cindy forcibly turned her head to look at the others. There was a moment before Winter nodded and pulled away.
Cindy felt like she was tumbling over herself as she dragged Chris with one hand and Diana with the other. Nightwing followed but was struggling to stay on his feet. With every step, the screams in Cindy’s head faded just a little. Another step and it became easier to walk. One more and her stomach began to settle.
By the time she stumbled forward to bang her knees and elbows against the ground, Cindy’s stomach finally revolted and threw up her entire remaining lunch and breakfast. Everyone else was shaking or struggling to get up off the floor, but the world was back to normal. Winter had cupped Roberto’s head in her hands and was making sure he was still lucid.
It could have taken moments or hours, but they had made it out of the cavern and back into the tunnel proper. The mural was hard to read from this far away even with the flashlight. Cindy shook her head and turned away. She didn’t think there were any answers in that direction.
Things are getting intense!
She *could* come up with the transposition lie, if more magic comes into play. That the magic replaced Clay with someone from Terri's memory? For some reason.
This is really really good!!
?
That was intense!