As the minivan’s engine rumbled to life, Sam sighed and silently thanked the universe. That was too damn close.
Trey and Nate slid into the front seats. The van finally pulled out of the driveway, just as the twilight sky was deepening to a dark purple. Sam thought he might fall asleep again, he was so physically and emotionally drained. He took one last look at Kauai’s famed Belle Estate through the back windshield.
Goodbye, house. You were the weirdest house I’ve ever visited.
Then, he looked at Colby, who appeared just as relieved as he did, and leaned his head against the window. Finally, they were leaving.
They reached Hanalei before the scuba shop closed and managed to see the glowing orange sun descending toward the waves. Saying goodbye to Trey in the parking lot felt like cutting a cord that had been strangling Sam’s neck. Visiting the North Shore had been a bizarre and unsettling experience, to say the least, but when they got home after vacation was over, he was going to suggest to Colby that they make a video about it.
Hell, no. Even better. Write a book. Videos melted away after a while, but a book? Books and stories solidified on the conscious mind forever.
How could one house be so peaceful, idyllic, and strange at the same time? Sam had never experienced so many disturbing occurrences in one day like that. Whenever they did séances at famously haunted spots, he usually felt like they deserved whatever happened to them, just for messing with the spirit world. Like when all five candles flickered at the Millennium Biltmore Hotel in L.A. But today, all his experiences had come without provocation.
Sam watched as Trey accepted Nate’s handshake before pulling him in for an awkward hug that lingered on a few seconds too long. Nate allowed it.
“I do miss spending time with people my age,” Trey said. There was something in his voice that sounded real, for once. Like actual sadness and regrets, not the monotone notes of a robot. “Truly, it was a pleasure having you here.”
Nate remained in Trey’s clutches, helplessly looking over Trey’s shoulder at Colby, Alex, and Sam. Finally, he relaxed in the hug and patted Trey’s back. “No, man, thank you for inviting us. This was really fun.”
Damn. Colby was right—Trey was lonely. He missed life with friends his age, even wished he could come back to L.A. with them. It certainly seemed that way. Finally, after several long seconds, Trey pulled away from Nate, and for a split second, Sam thought he saw a glistening in Trey’s eyes.
“We’ll stay in touch!” Nate called, as Trey slowly walked back into the van and drove out of the parking lot. For a moment, it seemed the guy would change his mind and turn back, as the van sat at the stop sign with the brakes on. Finally, he turned onto the road and disappeared toward the setting sun.
Colby let go a huge sigh and turned to assess the snorkeling gear heaped on the ground. “You guys start the car. I’ll return the stuff inside.”
“I’ll go with you.” Sam helped him pick up the gear, as Nate and Alex climbed into the car, started the engine, and collapsed.
At 6:28 PM, the bell on the scuba shop door chimed. Sam and Colby entered, carrying four sets of damp snorkeling equipment. “Just in time,” Colby said, getting in line behind two other people.
“Only because you hurried us the hell out of there. I could’ve slept through the night.” Sam’s exhaustion at the Belle Estate had been so fierce, he’d felt as though the bed had grown tentacles and pulled him under. Until Colby had woken him from the nightmare.
“What were you dreaming about anyway?” Colby asked.
“Dude.” He shook his head. “That was messed up. I dreamed I was there in bed, while you guys stood there talking about…whatever you were talking about…when the same dark shape I told you about came into the room.”
“The Shadow Man?”
“I don’t know if it’s the Shadow Man,” Sam said. “But it floated in, this gray mist, and wanted me to follow it.”
“Follow it where?”
Sam shrugged. “It showed me these hallways, like coming from different directions, and a subterranean labyrinth. I didn’t really study it, because in the dream I kept pulling away from it. I could see the guest bedroom and kept trying to get back to it. I wondered why you guys couldn’t see the thing, standing so close to it as you were.”
“We weren’t aware of it,” Colby said.
“I know. It was happening in my dream.”
Colby stepped closer to the counter, as the shop employee counted the number of items they were returning. “Dude, we were looking at this satellite image while you were sleeping. I’ll tell you about it in the car,” he whispered.
There was a lot they couldn’t talk about after having left the mansion, because of Trey being in the van with them, but Sam was sure they’d quickly unleash their worries on their drive back.
Finally, they reached the counter where a different woman, older with a weathered look, smiled at them. “Howzit. Returning?”
“Yes. Here’s the receipt.” Colby handed her the ticket stub.
She verified the equipment. “Did you have a nice time?”
“Yeah, real nice,” Sam answered, feeling guilty that this woman was working when she could be enjoying time off, like them.
“Where did you dive? Hanalei Bay?” The wrinkles around her eyes gave her the maternal aura of a sweet grandmother.
“No, we actually went to…” Sam hesitated. The last time he’d told the shopkeeper they were going to the Na Pali Coast, they got an inquisition. But this lady seemed friendlier. “Ke’e Beach?”
Her forehead crinkled with interest. “Oh? I thought it was closed.”
“It is, but we know the locals. They invited us up.”
The old woman’s expression dampened, giving course to a faraway expression. “I lost my grandnephew ’round those parts last year. He went surfing right before the rains began and the flood hit,” she explained wistfully, then went back to checking her rental book. “He never returned.”
“Oh, man. I’m so sorry.” Sam’s heart ached at the thought of losing a family member like that. He’d never experienced any treacherous weather phenomena other than the occasional tornado here or there.
“They should keep the beaches closed,” she said.
“They are. We just had special permission, I guess. How old was your nephew?”
“Pauahi was…nineteen? Twenty? Yes, twenty,” she replied, pivoting to throw the masks onto the counter, where the same man as earlier in the day received them and rinsed them off inside a big plastic tub. For all Sam knew, the man had been working since the moment they arrived this morning until now while he and his friends had been swimming at the North Shore without a care. The way many people labored more than he did was not lost on Sam.
“We’re so sorry to hear that,” Colby said.
“Thank you. Pauahi loved to surf. The more dangerous the locale, the better. I hope he’s happily surfing in the afterlife,” the woman said sadly. “You boys have a good night. Aloha.”
“Mahalo. Aloha,” Sam replied and turned to leave.
Returning to the car, he slipped into the driver’s seat. Colby climbed in, and they both sat staring across the road at the pink skies over Hanalei Bay. The melancholy fog surrounding them was almost palpable.
“Everything okay?” Nate clapped a hand on his shoulder from the back seat.
Sam blinked. “Colby and I just heard about a kid who disappeared in the North Shore. He went surfing before the storm and never returned. I feel sad for his family.” He thought about it a moment more, how your life could change in an instant, nature could claim you, and you’d be done with this world. On to the next.
He put the car in reverse.
“Wow. Seems like the residents have had it pretty hard in the year since the flood,” Nate said, checking the left-hand side of the traffic. “You’re clear. It’s no wonder Trey and Georgia came across a little desperate for visitors.”
“A little?” Colby’s eyes flared. “It was scary how desperate they were, not gonna lie.”
“Yeah. And did you see the way he hugged me before he left?” Nate asked.
“Yes, dude, I felt bad for the guy,” Sam said. “He seemed like he wanted to come with us. When he paused at the stop sign, I wondered if maybe he didn’t want to drive back home, or to Georgia, rather. I felt like he wanted to hang with us longer.”
Colby held on to the window frame, his hair whipping in the wind. “After seeing his things stuffed into a box in the guest room, I wouldn’t blame him. That was pretty sad.”
“It was,” Nate said.
“What box?” Sam looked at him.
“Oh. Dude, you were sleeping. We found things from his old life just stuffed into a little box like none of it mattered. It made me flip a switch, like now I actually feel guilty that we’re leaving him behind. That hug he gave Nate almost seemed like a cry for help.”
Colby’s assessment lingered in the air for a minute.
“I’m sure he’s fine,” Nate broke the silence.
“Yeah, they’re just an odd pair,” Sam agreed.
“Though it does seem like he’s only around for Georgia’s needs,” Colby said. “Fixing her screenplays, making her breakfast, doing her bidding… Do you think he’s sticking around in the hopes she’ll put him in her will or something?”
“I was thinking the same,” Sam said. “Sugar mama.”
“You guys think so?” Nate asked. “What if they’re just happy together? I mean, it’s hard for us to conceive of it, but it’s a possibility.”
Sam took in the gorgeous, blending hues of the darkening sky, as they headed east back to Koloa, thinking about Trey and Georgia’s relationship dynamic. “Maybe. All I know is I feel massively relieved that we’re out of there.”
“Bro, you’re not kidding.” Colby rested his head on his fist.
Nate laughed to himself. “By the end, I was starting to feel uncomfortable. You with the weird dream, Georgia inviting us to dinner, then to the wine cellar…”
“I know, right? What was that all about?” Sam said. “Didn’t you get the sense that underneath all that nature, art, and architecture, something was not quite right?”
“Like the Mardi Gras mask over the Buddha head?” Nate scoffed. “I keep thinking about that. Man, all I can say is that that was an experience.” He sat back, the glow of his phone lighting up his face in the back seat.
“It was,” Colby muttered.
“It was.” Sam waited for Alex to chime in. He’d been quiet for so long, Sam wondered if he was upset that they hadn’t stayed overnight at the Belle Estate. “Alex?”
“Alex is out,” Nate said.
Sam nodded and kept his eyes focused on the road, as the boys fell into silence. Masquerade mask over the Buddha, Sam thought. That was the perfect example of the Belle Estate—well-meaning, beautiful, mystical. But underneath it all, a persistent energy of desperation pervaded. Good thing they were gone.
Like a beacon in the dark, the Airbnb welcomed them home. Walking in, Sam could feel right away the difference between the two houses they’d been inside today. The cabana’s energy felt positive, comforting. He threw their fast-food garbage into the trash and keys on the countertop. Then, his ass on the couch.
“That was a day,” he sighed. Colby, Nate, and Alex lumbered in and shut the door, while Sam messaged Katrina to let her know they were back in one piece, adding a few hearts in case she was mad for not texting her all day. He felt too tired to conduct any fun games or make videos of them goofing off inside the cabana.
Nate rummaged through Colby’s bag.
“What are you looking for?” Sam asked.
“His butt plug.” Alex threw himself onto a lounge chair. “He misses it.”
They broke into lighthearted laughter, a good feeling after being on edge all day. Sam had missed Alex’s random one-liners during the drive and was glad to see him in a better mood. He’d been the most reluctant to leave the Belle Estate. For a minute there, Sam had actually been concerned he might want to stay.
“Seriously, though, have you guys seen my bag?” Nate asked.
“Which one?”
“The small one I keep inside Colby’s, so the two are together. Less stuff to carry. It has my iPad,” Nate explained, searching through Sam’s bag as well.
“The one you’ve been doing all your writing assignments on?” Alex asked.
“Yes. I can’t fail my writing class. As it is, I secured special permission from the professor to make up the work, just so I could come on the trip. Can you guys help me find it?”
Lying on the floor, Colby picked up a flip-flop and threw it up in the air, catching it and throwing it up again each time. “Dude, why would you bring your iPad on a snorkeling trip?”
“I brought it to do work in the car. I’m sorry I have school.” Nate rummaged through the bags dumped by the front door.
Sam didn’t care for Nate’s insinuation that he had more to worry about, all because he took classes. “Bro…” Sam heaved himself off the couch and started checking every bag for Nate’s small bag. They better find it, or this could be a problem.
“Where’s my phone?” Alex was suddenly up on his feet as well, checking his pockets and the edges of the chair cushion.
“Are you serious?” Sam gaped at him.
“Yes, I’m serious.”
“You’ve gotta be kidding me.” Colby jumped to his feet, flipping cushions on each couch and chair. “Both of you left something?”
“I think it’s still in the van,” Alex said, slapping his pockets.
“What? How can you leave your phone? Your phone is literally attached to you at all times!” Colby’s voice grew louder.
“I haven’t been checking my phone all day, Colby. The point of today was literally to forget about our phones and enjoy the beach,” Alex retorted. “Hold on, I remember having it before we left. I used it to Google ley lines when we showed you the book.”
“Then it’s either in the guest room still or in the van or in the car.” Colby paced in circles and double-checked places he’d already checked.
“Let me check the car.” Alex headed outside, as the rest of them followed and searched the rental car inside-out for both Nate’s bag containing his iPad and Alex’s phone. They looked under the seats, in the trunk, in the door pockets, even on the gravel driveway, in case they’d dropped the items on the ground when they arrived.
Nothing turned up. Sam suppressed the urge to show how upset he was. How hard was it to check all your most important stuff before you left on a car trip? “Nate, text Trey, ask him if they’ve seen Alex’s phone or your bag. We might have to go back and get it.”
“We can’t,” Colby said. “The convoy is closed for the rest of the day.”
“Then we’ll have to get it tomorrow,” Sam said.
Colby fumed. “We don’t have to. Neither the phone nor the iPad is indispensable. Indispensable,” he said, turning to Nate, “means so important that we have to drive three hours to get it.”
“You know what? Come on, Colby. It’s my graduation on the line versus a few hours on a beautiful drive. It’s not the end of the world, bro.” Nate shook his head.
“Whoa, guys,” Sam jumped in between them. They never argued like this, and it worried him. Clearly, the long day had gotten to them. “Enough. This isn’t helping.”
Nate rubbed his temples. “All right, look. I don’t need it for my flight. I’ll just need it when I get home. Maybe Trey can ship it if he finds it.”
“Fine. We’ll wait to hear what he says. Let’s go back inside,” Colby said.
“I still need my phone, though,” Alex murmured. “It has all my flight info.”
Colby crossed his arms. “We all have the same boarding pass codes on our phones. You don’t technically need it. Maybe Trey can ship it to you the same way he can ship Nate his iPad.”
“You’re really doing anything to avoid going back to that house, aren’t you?” Alex glanced at Colby once before pacing in circles around the car.
“Huh? And you’re really doing anything to make sure we go back,” Colby muttered under his breath. He kicked at the gravel, sending some pebbles flying.
“Colby…” Sam said.
Out of the darkness appeared a short, young woman walking her little dog in the middle of the street. She directed a glare at them. “Um, quiet, please. This is a residential street.”
“This is how much I care.” Colby flipped her the middle finger, but thankfully, the woman, wearing AirPods, didn’t see or hear him.
Sam hated to see his friends like this.
“We should’ve double-checked everything before we left,” Alex said.
“Okay, but we didn’t,” Sam replied. “It’s been a tiring day.”
“If we hadn’t left in such a hurry…” Nate balked.
Colby looked at him. “The convoy’s time window is nobody’s fault, Nate.”
“I know, Colby. I’m just stressed, okay?”
“Sorry, bro,” Colby replied with a sigh.
“Is Trey texting back?” Sam asked.
“No,” Nate said. “Remember, their signal there sucked.”
“All right, listen, it’ll turn up eventually,” he said. What a weird day. “Look, I think maybe we’re just tired and not thinking straight. They’ll probably find it and drive our way to bring it back. It’s not like they have anything else to do, and they’re super hospitable.”
“I don’t know…they do have cooking at 9:08, piano playing at 10:08, scriptwriting at 11:08…” Colby mocked. “And they have to break their best-average record on how happy they can make each other. Don’t forget that. It’s not like they have a helicopter tour scheduled for tomorrow.” Colby disappeared into the house.
That’s right. They had a tour of the island tomorrow that they couldn’t miss. “Let’s all go inside and chill,” Sam suggested. “There’s nothing more we can do for tonight anyway, except keep texting Trey.”
Nate and Alex slumped into the house without protest. Sam was glad that, at the very least, they hadn’t blown up at each other too badly. Yes, it was a messed-up situation that needed solving, but it wasn’t the end of the world. It wasn’t like they’d lost a friend surfing off the Na Pali Coast or had to work all day in a snorkel shop while privileged kids got to travel. This was a first-world problem, and they’d solve it, like they solved everything.
But it’d have to be tomorrow. For tonight, they were screwed.