
A loud whistle drew everyone’s attention to the shoreline. Winter stood just feet from the water, gesturing for them to approach, and they did so laxly. Cindy couldn’t help but notice how everyone gave her a large radius. The low-hanging sun in the sky behind Winter made it difficult to see, but she was clearly deep in thought.
“Didn’t want to do this close to the campsite, in case something is bugged,” she explained. “It’s Thursday evening, which means we have tomorrow to figure out what’s going on and fix it before we leave.”
“Do you hear yourself?!” Diana snapped. “What are a bunch of high school graduates supposed to do about any of this?” To Roberto, she added, “None of that stuff you stole had any answers, did it?”
“I’m still piecing things together.”
Diana shook her head. “Look, I don’t want to be the bad guy here, and I’m sorry to have to be the one to say it, but we can’t rush into danger like this is just a video game. Our best hope of getting out of this in one piece–you included, Clay–is to sit here until the boat arrives, get on, and never look back.”
She walked away. It stung, but Cindy understood. Chris watched Diana leave, and for a moment looked uncertain, but ultimately stayed with the rest of the group.
Winter lowered her gaze. “I know it’s risky. This is… not natural, but…”
Alex finished, “–but we won’t be able to sleep at night if we didn’t at least look for answers.” He met Cindy’s gaze. “Diana too, even if she’s not willing to admit it.”
“And none of us are stupid,” Roberto added. “Obviously, we don’t want anyone to get hurt.”
Cindy nodded. “So… What do we do?”
Roberto mumbled, “I don’t have enough information to understand what’s going on. The papers mention indigenous legends about going to war with monsters from the sea, some strange seismic and electromagnetic readings, but nothing conclusive. Obviously, they thought it important enough to write down, but only the stranger would know more.”
“I’m not desperate enough to go back to her, yet,” Alex admitted.
Terri finally spoke. “That cave system is pretty extensive. If we found cave art once, there might be more, but someone could easily get lost in there.”
Winter started pacing. “As long as we pair up, leave a trail for ourselves, and don’t push our luck, it may be our best and safest lead.” She stopped and spun towards them. “We’ll investigate tomorrow. Cindy– Clay, you’ll stay here.”
“What? Why?”
Alex replied, “Because whatever this is, it’s focused entirely on you. None of us experience anything weird when you’re not nearby. This island is more dangerous for you than us.”
Cindy nodded, but she felt like throwing up. All of this was her fault; everyone knew it even if they wouldn’t say. There was nothing she could do to assist them, and yet they were committed to helping her anyway. For as much as she’d lied to them, they were not abandoning her.
She sniffed and blinked the tears from her eyes.
Terri was already in her sleeping bag when Cindy entered the tent that night. Cindy pulled out the pajamas she’d been lent: short pajama shorts covered in little sheep drawings and a tank top with a cartoon sheep face on it. She changed into it silently, but her face was burning. A week before, she wouldn’t have been caught dead in something so cute and childish.
She turned off the lantern and lay in silence to listen to the dull noise of waves, ocean breeze, and distant crickets.
“I’m sorry,” Cindy eventually said. “It’s all my fault that everyone’s angry at you. None of this would have happened if I’d just listened to you from the beginning.”
“I’m not mad at you, Clay. I just… I was supposed to take care of everyone, including you. This is the first time I’ve ever felt like I failed. Not just ‘didn’t succeed’, but actually failed something important.”
Cindy had no idea what to say in response. She’d never been trusted to console anyone before. The closest she’d come was listening to Alex rant about homophobic harassment he’d gotten.
“Can… Can you keep calling me Cindy?” she asked, her throat closing up.
“...I’m sorry?”
“I just… Nevermind. It’s stupid.” She cleared her throat and shifted gears. “You were just trying to help. It would have been so easy for you to throw me under the bus, and everybody would have supported you. But you did the hard thing by putting me first even though I probably didn’t deserve it. It’s not your fault things played out the way that they did.”
“It doesn’t matter. None of them are ever going to trust me again. At least I can start from scratch as a college freshman. I won’t have to embarrass myself by trying to get Chris’ attention anymore, either.”
“I’m sorry about that too.”
Terri grunted. “I know I can’t make him love me, but I always hoped that he’d change his mind someday. Seeing how he acted around you just confirmed that, if it were ever going to happen, it would have already. So I took it out on you even though I could tell you didn’t understand what was happening.”
“It still feels like my fault.” Terri tried to rebuke her, but Cindy added, “I know I shouldn’t feel that way, but if I hadn’t been so distracted… I don’t know.”
There was a long moment of silence before Terri said, “I shouldn’t have agreed to cover up the truth.”
It stung.
Terri continued, “The only person I really feel bad for lying to is Diana. She trusted me to keep you two apart, and I betrayed her. I didn’t know if I could tell her without her spilling it to everyone else, or without you blowing up at me. So I told myself I could keep my promise to both of you, only for it to spiral out of control so fast.”
“She really hates me that much?”
“Diana doesn’t like you, and she doesn’t trust you. I’m sorry, but she was never going to give you a chance.”
Cindy sniffled and choked down a couple of tears. Both Chris and Diana had liked her more for who she was pretending to be than who she really was. Even though she’d lied to them, it still felt like shit to be judged for the person she’d been in the past rather than how she was acting now.
“I’m not even sure who I am anymore,” she choked out. “I don’t feel like a boy. I’m not treated like a girl. I don’t want to be the person I used to be, but I don’t know if I can actually change.”
She curled up in her sleeping bag, and for a long moment, there was no sound but the wilderness and her sniffles. Then she heard Terri sit up and scooch closer. Terri grabbed Cindy by the shoulders and pulled her into a sitting position to give her a hug.
“I don’t know what’s going to happen tomorrow,” Terri said, “but I hope you figure out what feels right for you, Cindy.”
Breakfast was quiet and over quickly. Immediately, Chris and Diana wandered off to occupy themselves. Alex and Winter tied their boots, grabbed a flashlight, and headed off to the cave with a journal and their phones to record whatever they could. Roberto pored over all the notes he’d stolen and once again opened up the radio to see if he could get any discernible sounds from it.
Cindy felt useless. She wanted to help, but they were right. The safest thing for everyone was for her to keep her head down and not attract attention from this supernatural force. Since Terri was starting to break down the campsite in anticipation of leaving in the morning, Cindy started quietly helping her.
Every so often, Cindy would glance down the beach in the direction of the cave, hoping to see Winter and Alex on their way back. Her whole body felt heavy, and her mind was a fog. A phrase from English class dug its way out of the recesses of her memory: Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow creeps in this petty pace.
She choked on a sob and had to cover her mouth. The day would end, and tomorrow would come regardless of whether they figured out what happened to her. And they were nowhere close to getting answers.
Cindy breathed in and out through her nose, trying to force down the panic in her chest. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see Terri watching her carefully. She looked worried but clearly had no idea what to say.
Terri’s phone alert went off close to noon, and she pivoted to grabbing ingredients for burgers. Cindy cut tomatoes and lettuce while Terri worked the grill. By the time Alex and Winter finally emerged from the cave, a little scraped up but looking pleased with themselves, the burgers were almost done.
Cindy sat at the table with the others, trying her best to ignore that Chris and Diana had taken their burgers to eat elsewhere. Winter and Roberto were only mildly interested in their food, instead putting their heads together to go over the notes that Winter had taken from the cave. Their hushed whispers left Cindy, Alex, and Terri in awkward silence on the other side of the table, unable to do more than cast questioning looks at each other.
Then Roberto grew excited, speaking rapidly and flipping through pages.
“Yeah, yeah. I think… Okay! Look at this! I think I’ve got something!”
He pushed the plate further away to spread papers across the table. For another minute, he double-checked several documents against the drawn markings in Winter’s journal. It gave Diana and Chris enough time to inch closer and take a peek themselves.
“Okay, okay. Starting here–” He pointed at a document with faded photos of several cave markings. “–the military was able to find evidence of ancient worship. People living here drew these markings about some kind of goddess, old and forgotten even by Native American tribes living on the coast when England arrived. We can see evidence–” He pointed at several other documents. “–of their continued investigation. Some kind of mythical battle against monsters emerging from the water. They cross-referenced folk tales from the Wampanoag tribe, Mahican confederacy, the Lenni Lenape, the Nanticoke and Powhatan people. All of them had scraps of a larger narrative of islands along the eastern coast that were sunk into the sea by warfare.”
“How has nobody heard of this before now?” Terri asked. “All those conspiracy theories about Atlantis and not one documentary about pre-colonial islands full of monsters?”
Roberto shrugged. “Like I said, the compound can’t be more than thirty years old. For all intents and purposes, they had discovered something brand new. Tribes didn’t get to write down a lot of their stories before being killed or pushed off their land. Anybody hearing about an obscure historical event with real monsters would write it off as another myth. Your average Powhatan nowadays has probably never heard any of this. I only have scraps to go off here, but it looks like by the time England started settling the coast, most people only knew the story as an odd historical footnote, if not a fairytale for children.”
“Like the flood in Genesis,” Alex said. “Possibly a real event of some kind but only really known for being part of a specific narrative. Easy to dismiss as entirely false if you don’t believe in the Bible.”
Roberto nodded. “There are… some details about the Goddess, mostly that she was to be feared and appeased rather than loved. Since none of her worshipers survived, accounts are mixed on stuff like human sacrifices, cannibalism, so on and so on.” He shook his head. “And like I said, some strange readings from scientific instruments, but nothing about supernatural effects on individual people. The only person who’s been here long enough to have real answers, if those even exist, is the stranger.”
The group was silent. A long minute stretched on where the only sounds were those of nature. Every few seconds, Cindy felt the pressure in her head increase.
“Alright.” Terri folded her arms. “I think we’ve put it off long enough.”
There were a few nods of agreement before Winter said, “No time to waste, then.”