"Do you think it will float?" asked Van, arms crossed to her chest, questioning the raft they just built.
It doesn't look good, of course. Since they lack proper materials for building a raft, they had to be resourceful, like getting the roots and vines that were coiling around the plane they found and using them as an improvised rope to tie and sandwich the bigger logs between the thinner ones to make sure it would all be held in one piece. All they knew was that they could not use all the ropes they got back in the cabin for the raft because they had other important uses for them.
"By the looks of it, no. I don't think so," replied Agami, a hand on her chin, checking their finished product but completely doubtful.
Van smacked the woman's back with so much force that it almost sent Agami to the ground, face first, on the landing. "Stop being a pessimist," she told the woman.
"Well, I'm sorry if I think that a log raft made by two girls who don't even have any experience in scouting or any crafting bullshit will not float!" said Agami, her hand pointing at what she claimed was a piece of crap.
"This was your idea!" yelled Van.
"But that doesn't make it a sure thing!" argued Agami.
"It has to float! We spent two days working to build this stuff!" responded the red-haired woman.
Agami ran her hands to her face in frustration, taking her moment before they put the log raft to a test to see whether it would float, sink, or, in the worst-case scenario, the vines they used to tie everything together wouldn't be able to withstand them and the water itself.
She removed her shoes and socks, and her peripheral vision caught Van doing the same thing. As the two girls' eyes met, they nodded at each other as they began to push the raft from the shore to the lake together. Once it hit the water and the moment they felt that they were already waist deep in the lake, Agami and Van jumped, bringing themselves on top of the raft and lying over the platform as they were catching their breath.
A few moments later, Van gets up from her lying down and starts hitting Agami on her arm.
"Holy shit," she whispered excitedly as she continued to slap Agami.
They both started screaming like kids who managed to ride a bicycle without the training wheels for the first time, as if it were such a big achievement unlocked. Slowly, Van and Agami tried to stand up, balancing themselves on the raft on both ends to make sure it wouldn't sink. The red-haired woman used the long branch they brought along to push the raft off the bank and further from the shore.
"We're the best," said Agami, laughing at their success.
"This has to be added to my list of skills for my college resume," Van responded.
The girls took their time to admire their work and had a few more conversations as they floated around. Agami paddled more, trying to reach the middle part of the lake and check if there were rocks or piles of boulders they could use to their advantage once they tried to catch some fish. When they found nothing, it was obvious that they had to improvise more things for making bait if they wanted to catch something to eat. As much as possible, she doesn't want to go diving with Laura Lee, not just because they both lack experience with it but also because they don't have proper equipment and the lake's water is not that clear. Surely they would have a hard time if they ended up doing that.
After they had finally confirmed that the raft was stable, Van suggested that they should go back to the shallow part of the lake so they could take a little swim since they both reek from sweat and the two of them need to wash their bodies to freshen up.
The cabin was loud and lively once they were back, with most of the girls singing-or rather screaming along to the song-all in a better mood, as if the seance they did last night wasn't a disaster. Before they left to build the raft, Agami entrusted her own walkman and tapes to Natalie. She gave the woman her permission to use them and just drain whatever's left from the last batteries she put on them since she had two more pairs left in her bag. Just like what the girls did before, her walkman was placed in a bucket as music played at the loudest volume.
"You're having a party without us?" Van asked the girls.
Agami simply sat down in a chair to rest her body and didn't join the girls. Van was the one who informed the rest about their successful work on making the raft, which earned cheers and praise, and that they could start fishing tomorrow. Ben was the one to give orders to Gen and Mel to prepare some spears they would use in fishing, while Crystal volunteered to find some baits. After the next work to be done was divided, the music resumed playing.
Her eyes searched for a specific person, Lottie, who was just standing in a corner with her arms crossed and was obviously in deep thought. Blood can still be seen through the bandage on her forehead, which made Agami think that Lottie's cut may not be as superficial as Akilah told her last night.
The woman must have felt her stare since Lottie shifted her gaze in Agami's direction. But instead of avoiding Lottie's eyes like she always does, Agami looked straight at the woman, contemplating whether or not she should ask her about what happened in their seance. It was Lottie who decided to break their eye contact, and Agami knew that was a sign that Lottie didn't want to talk about it yet, which she respected.
"Property of A.D.," Natalie said in a curious voice, reading a label from one of Agami's tapes.
Her eyes widened when she heard what Natalie said. She might have forgotten to take her own mixtape away from the rest that she lent Natalie earlier.
"Not that one!" she screamed, attempting to stop Natalie from playing it but failing.
"Sorry, Dick. It's already on," replied Natalie in a teasing voice.
Agami groaned, hiding her reddened face with both her hands. "I get that you're all those cool soccer players in high school who're probably dancing to pop songs in the locker room, but keep in mind that I'm not."
They understood what that meant-that it was a mixtape of Agami's personal favorites, and that automatically put them in critic mode. The woman sighed heavily as the intro of the first song played from the walkman and echoed in the four corners of the cabin.
"Goodbye love, goodbye love."
Agami slowly slouched down in embarrassment upon hearing the silent giggles from the girls. Even Lottie, who was just quiet earlier, was now covering her mouth to prevent her laughter.
"Here I thought Shauna was the only one with questionable taste in music," said Jackie.
"Bowie? Really?" added Natalie, not hiding her disappointment with Agami's song choice.
She simply rolled her eyes at everyone as she spoke. "Well, have fun listening to my lame collection of favorite songs on that mixtape because I need a nap."
Agami ignored the teasing coming from the girls and went straight to the attic. Before she completely went up, Agami could still hear the song playing as it slowly faded the moment she reached the loft of their cabin.
"There's a starman waiting in the sky. He'd like to come and meet us, but he thinks he'd blow our minds."
***
[2021]
Shauna pulled over in front of a modern-looking bungalow, which probably was the biggest among the block, with two cars parked on the side. You can clearly tell who owns what if you know the people living in the house.
As she killed the engine of her own minivan, Shauna gestured for Callie to get out of the vehicle as well, since she's aware that the visitation they'll do will definitely take some time. The young woman rolled her eyes in annoyance as a response.
Her mother had to wake her up much earlier than when they left the other day for New York, saying they needed to get back on the road as early as possible because of something important that came up that Shauna didn't even bother explaining to her exactly what it was. But since she doesn't have a choice, Callie didn't argue anymore and just thought of the fact that the earlier her mother settles her so-called emergency stuff, the faster they'll be able to get home, and she could once again reunite with her bed to have a nice long rest without any disturbance.
The older woman rang the doorbell immediately. Her eyes fell on the mat placed by the doorway as she waited, certain of who had the nerve to put such a terrible thing in a million-dollar house, and she was amazed at the same time that it's still there. 'Go away. I don't like how your feet smell like' was what's written on it.
A few moments later, the door finally opened, revealing a tall, dark woman who was still in her sleepwear with confusion visible on her face.
"Shauna? What are you doing here?" Taissa greeted the woman. Her eyes then shifted to the young woman standing behind her friend. "And, Callie, sweetheart. Lovely seeing you again."
"Hey aunt Tai," the teen greeted back, yawning as she spoke.
"What are we doing here? Didn't Van tell you we're coming this morning?" Shauna asked Tai, now looking as confused as her.
Taissa closed her eyes upon hearing her wife's name, finally realizing the reason why Shauna was standing in front of their house at seven in the morning.
"She told you, didn't she? That idiot," said Tai, sighing heavily and stressed out with Van's decision in life.
"But it's not the only reason why we're here," Shauna replied in a serious voice. That's when Taissa decided that they should just talk inside their home.
The moment Callie saw the couch, she didn't think twice, dived right into it, and ignored the presence of everyone who was with her. Shauna shook her head in disbelief at her daughter's actions, telling Callie to get up, but Taissa herself insisted on letting the young woman just rest for a while. They then simply went straight to the kitchen and prepared something for everyone since they all hadn't had breakfast.
Soon after, Van arrived and joined them. Taissa chose not to start a conversation with her wife about telling their friend about her sleepwalking since Shauna is not like any other person to them anyway. There's no point in making it a big deal.
The couple, especially Van, fill up Shauna with information about the incident the other night.
"What do you mean, 'it's back'? And what sight?" asked Shauna. She was familiar with it, or maybe she had a thought of what it was, but she's completely clueless about the latter part.
Taissa and Van exchange looks, as if they were communicating with their eyes. The woman with the afro hair nodded, understanding the situation and deciding it was the right time to tell Shauna about something that they had never discussed with each other in all the years they'd been friends and back after getting rescued.
"When I was sleepwalking during our time out there, I was following the man with no eyes," Taissa started.
"A man with no eyes?" Shauna repeated, trying to confirm if she's actually heard the right thing from Taissa. A woman of logic.
"It sounds crazy, I know. But that was what I was following whenever I sleepwalked, Shauna. I'm not randomly roaming around whenever I do it," explained Taissa.
Van then spoke, adding a few more pieces of information that she knew. "Do you still remember the symbol?" she asked Shauna first.
"I'm sure that's a pretty hard thing to forget, Van," the woman responded.
"Tai found more symbols surrounding the cabin, they were carved in trees," the red-haired woman told Shauna. "And when I tried to pinpoint it on the map that Nat and Travis made, guess what it formed."
Shauna nodded her head, understanding what Van was trying to say. "The same symbol, but bigger," she said to herself.
"We were surrounded by them, but what's more messed up is that we didn't even know what it was." Taissa said, clearly stressed out. "Until now, we're still fucking clueless what the hell those symbols meant or if they even mean anything."
"I think we know two people who might-or at least understand them," Shauna stated in a lower voice.
Van's eyes darkened at the woman's statement as an overwhelming feeling enveloped her body.
"But we never saw Lottie again after that day in the villa. Heck, she wasn't even in both our weddings," says Taissa. "Nat was the last person she was always with, and she didn't say goodbye to her either before she disappeared. We all know how fucked up Nat became after that, and don't even start me on Travis."
There was silence after that.
For some reason, Natalie was always visiting Lottie in the hospital, staying with the woman even though she wasn't saying a word. They were always together after they got rescued, and clearly, Natalie stopped her bad habits just so she could visit Lottie and stay with her.
On the same day that they gathered in one of the Matthews' villas, the woman was glued to Lottie and wouldn't leave her side. Was it because of guilt, loyalty, or just simply being a great friend to Lottie? They don't know. But it was better than drinking or using drugs and abusing her body, so they just let Natalie do whatever she wanted to cope with their situation, even if it meant being fixated on Lottie.
Until a few more months later, Lottie's father decided to move to Switzerland to get better treatment for the woman since none of whatever she was receiving at the moment was working. The problem was that Mr. Matthews was a real asshole and didn't even let her daughter's friends, or at least Natalie, bid their goodbyes.
Natalie was knocking on the Turners' door one morning, and Taissa let the hysterical woman into their house and asked what the problem was. After filling in Taissa with Lottie's sudden disappearance in the hospital, she begged for help to try to convince Mr. Matthews to let Lottie stay in Wiskayok. For Natalie, it was Taissa who was capable of helping her, knowing that the Turners had a small connection with the Matthews. But it was clear that no matter what kind of convincing they would do to Lottie's father, he wouldn't change his mind, especially if it was what he believed for the betterment of her daughter's condition.
With that, Natalie left their house, completely broken, as if she had once again lost the purpose she had just found in taking care of Lottie. The next thing they knew, she was back with drinking and drugs, and worse than how she was doing before.
"And the other person who might is not here anymore," said Van, knowing that the silence that followed was Taissa and Shauna not wanting to talk about Agami and being sensitive to her.
That's when Shauna remembered the real intention of why she had gone to their house in the first place.
"Speaking of," she said as a starter as she opened her bag. "I was in New York yesterday with Callie for some annual book festival."
The couple didn't say a thing and just let Shauna speak.
"Callie was walking around and wandering in the self-published authors area, where they rent a space to promote their books, when she found this," Shauna said, sliding the book that her daughter had bought in front of the two.
Van's eyes widen the moment she sees the cover, grabbing it aggressively and checking it once more to confirm if she's seeing the right thing.
"What the fuck? Is this some kind of sick joke?," she asked Shauna, who was just as clueless as her.
"I checked the website they provided, but it's useless. There was nothing there except the same pictures on the last pages of the book. I think they're not really plugging the book itself but simply using it to promote their place, camp, or whatever it is," Shauna explained to the two. "But it's inactive at the moment. No address, no number, nothing," she added.
Callie, who was now awake and appeared in the kitchen to get something to eat, gave the three women a weird look, then just sat not far from them and scrolled through her phone as she ate quietly.
"Who else could know about this symbol?" Taissa asked, and Van shrugged her shoulders but still responded.
"Us? I mean, we joked about how terrible her symbol looks-that it was horrible enough to be a jolly roger even with the absence of skulls or bones," Van stated, remembering a few moments from decades ago.
"Agami mentioned to me that if she ever becomes a published author, she would use that symbol as her signature," Shauna added. "At first, I was thinking of using it too. To, you know, at least remember her and give her credit because it was Agami who convinced me to pursue writing at Brown. But I never use it."
"Did she use it in our school newspaper back then?" Taissa asked.
"Jesus, Tai. It's been over two decades. None of us will remember if she ever did," replied Van, letting out a heavy sigh after.
"Her family then? I don't know."
"The only family we know of Agami was her father, and we know what happened to him."
A day after they got rescued, all the families of those whose children boarded the plane that crashed were contacted, waiting for them in the airport where they could finally reunite with their kids. Most of them broke down when they saw that their children were not among the survivors who got rescued. That's when they started to realize how horrible they were and asked themselves if they actually deserved to be with their families, knowing that they were the reason why the families of their friends were suffering.
But what broke their hearts the most was when a man who looked so much older than his real age, probably due to so much stress, approached them one by one and started tugging on them.
"I can't find my daughter, have you seen her? She was not on your team, but s-she boarded the plane with you. She was tall, had dark blonde hair, and was a little troublemaker, but she was a good kid. H-her name was Agami."
They wanted to tell the man that, of course, they knew Agami. They've been with her for 19 months. But if they tell the man all those things, they don't know how they are going to explain next what happened to the woman. That his daughter was supposed to be with them right now.
Natalie, whose own mother didn't even come to pick her up, was the one to talk to Agami's father. She probably decided to explain to the man some of the things that he would need to know and that his daughter didn't make it. Mr. Dickinson broke down when Natalie handed him what looked like Agami's walkman, which he recognized immediately.
A month later, it was all over the local newspaper that Mr. Dickinson was found dead in their house, with the sickening headline "Man ended his own life and was found dead in his daughter's room", followed by content about the poor man being the father of one of those kids who was lost for nineteen months because of the crash and didn't survive.
"Then let's ask those who might. If she actually used that in the school newspaper before, then the club members will know," said Van.
"And what if it was one of them who used that just for profit?" Taissa asked her wife.
"You know a lot of good lawyers, Tai," replied Van.
Taissa glared at her wife because she knew what Van was trying to say. It wasn't about filing a case or whatever; rather, Van might do something stupid to whoever was causing them such trouble that she might need to hire a lawyer to defend her in court.
"No, it's too much. You told me you would finally stop and move on from what happened," she reminded Van.
"That was before you started sleepwalking again, and before we knew the existence of some fucker who wrote this book, Tai," argued the red-haired woman to her wife.
"What if it was just a coincidence, huh? It's not a pretty unique or hard to draw symbol anyway. Even a kid can come up with that."
"Taissa, are you listening to yourself? The same ugly symbol? The pictures included in the book don't remind you of something? And not to mention that goddamn Starman pen name? Come on, Tai. We all know where everything is pointing."
"No, Van. This has to stop." Taissa still insisted.
Van ran her hand to her face in both frustration and agony, but still tried to remain calm.
"Please, Tai? I need this," she pleaded to her wife. "I promise you that after this, I can finally start to move on. I will let her rest."
Taissa didn't reply immediately, thinking far ahead of what it could possibly do to her wife once they had their answer. She then glanced at Shauna, who was just quiet but also in deep thought. When their eyes met, the woman nodded at her slowly.
"I'm with Van in this one, Tai. I owe her some important things too, and if this is the only way I could do to return everything she had done for everyone, then I would. After this, we can all finally leave everything behind," said Shauna, taking a pause before speaking again.
"Besides, if the person who wrote this knows a lot about her and about this symbol of Agami's initials, what are the possibilities that they know about the other symbols and everything that happened out there? We should at least take this as a warning that maybe something or someone is coming for us." Shauna finished her statement, lowering her voice a little so her daughter would not hear the other things they were discussing.
That made Taissa reconsider her decision. Their now peaceful life is at stake if the other symbols are known and revealed to the public. It will not be good if people slowly start to uncover their dark past, and with social media today, they will become public entertainment once again as they drop their conspiracy theories about what happened out there.
"Fine," she said, giving up on the two. "We will join the reunion tomorrow and try to talk to the former members of the newspaper club. That's where we're starting."
Van groaned in annoyance.
They heard about the reunion that Allie had planned for their batch, and they don't have any plans of going to the event, but with things taking a different turn, they are now obliged to attend the said reunion. She never wanted to see anyone from high school again except their closest friends, but for the sake of everything, they would have to just so they could start their search.
"All that because of this goddamn book," yelled Van, slamming the book she was holding at the table.
Their conversation was interrupted when Callie raised her hand, getting the attention of the women.
"I'm sorry, I couldn't help but hear what you guys are talking about. Like, why are you four so stressed over that book? It's like you guys start losing your shit when you see it," said Callie, not minding her language as if she wasn't talking to her mom and her friends.
Confused, Shauna asked her daughter one more time to clarify something. "Did you say four?"
"Yeah, mom," the young woman responded, her voice flat. "The four of you were so frantic over that book."
"Wait, did you tell Misty fucking Quigley about it too?" Van asked Callie since she knew about Misty's constant attempt to reach everyone through calls.
"Who?" Callie replied, clearly not recognizing the woman's name, which was a relief for Van.
"Then what do you mean by four?" asked Taissa.
Callie covered her mouth, slowly sinking to her seat, when she realized she said something she wasn't supposed to say. But since she was now busted, the only thing she could do was save her ass from the wrath of her mother by trying to smooth the situation.
"Oh, did I forget to tell you?" she said, facing her mother and trying to sound as innocent as possible. Like she actually just forgot to mention it, when in reality she didn't even have the slightest intention to tell Shauna about it, and it just accidentally slipped on her mouth.
The three were not able to contain their surprise upon hearing Callie's next words, as it was a real shock to them, and couldn't help but utter a collective scream of 'what' after.
"Aunt Jackie is coming home."