Vague posting broke the last of the willpower keeping him from checking Steve’s profile. But when he searched Steve’s handle, nothing showed up.
You’d think the Wi-Fi here would be better,he thought, but knew it was a minor inconvenience, just like Steve’s absence, and was easily amended. If James could change his amenities and his career, he could change anything.
“Shit!” he exclaimed, realizing he needed to prepare for interviews. Maybe he'd been able to land a new job, but it was still a job, and he could still get fired for doing it poorly.
Not that he needed to worry. The fake credentials and practiced charisma turned out to be all he needed for success. The interview with Lil Neb allayed James’ anxieties because Neb didn’t take himself seriously, so James didn’t either. It felt more like catching up with a friend than a professional interview.
After that, the rest of the day flew by in a blur of yes-anding and acting like he knew who was emailing him from office off the island to ask for updates. No matter what he said, he was never wrong, and the world molded to his will. He assured his new contacts that the rest of the festival would be an experience that no one on the island would soon forget.
Ediekeptlookingfora trail, but there were no paths leading into the forest and no prints on the sand to suggest that anyone went that way in some time. She lost track of how long they walked. The sand made it seem like they hiked for far longer than in reality, but Edie thought that they should see something soon. There needed to be a couple hundred people living on the northern part of the island to keep an island of this size going. Whatever building they were staying in would have been large and apparent and not hidden deep in the forest.
Although they were only a few feet apart now, Edie had a hard time hearing Cassidy as her words were projected into the woods in front of them and swallowed by the cold, glossy leaves, and the soft bark of the trees. The path became fainter and fainter as they walked and the undergrowth encroached. Soon, their little hike became a bushwhack through spider webs and damp vegetation.
Around sunset, they emerged near the middle of the island where the two coves met. They hiked for hours without food or water and were exhausted and beaten up by branches that caught on their arms and legs. They hiked up and over rocks and around in circles for what felt like miles and miles, and yet they never saw any more buildings or heard another person.
The sounds of other people were surreal to hear after so many hours in the forest. After Cassidy planted the idea that maybe they were the ones who disappeared in their minds, both women began to feel alone on the island and almost forgot that there were other festival goers living normal lives and creating content.
The island that Edie and Cassidy found was not the same as the one they’d left that morning when they entered the forest. The dorms were gone, and in their place stood a closed surf shack. Edie noted the lack of tents that morning when they’d crossed the island, but now the space between the tents was greater still.
“I want to get some clean clothes from my tent and shower at the villa.”
Cassidy assented with a grunt. Her feet dragged through the sand as she walked. Watching Cassidy made Edie realize how sore her entire body felt, and a deep gnawing hunger awakened in her belly.
When Edie pressed her wristband to the door lock at the tent, nothing happened. The red light glowed like an angry eye.
“Maybe it got messed up in the water,” Cassidy suggested.
“Or maybe it’s not your tent,” a familiar voice said behind them.
They turned to see James, towel thrown over his shoulder and blue swim trunks damp against his legs. He stepped between them and tapped his wristband to the lock. The red light turned green, and Edie let out a sound that fell between an unsurprised laugh and a disappointed sigh.
“I got an upgrade this morning,” James told them with a shit eating grin as he unzipped the door.
“How convenient that it’s my old tent. Especially after the day we’ve just had.”
“You two look like you’ve been through the ringer today. Might want to run a brush through that,” he said, flicking his wrist to indicate Cassidy’s rat nest of hair.
She stared back at him with dead eyes. Neither woman had the energy to be angry or defensive at this point, but their lack of response seemed to take James by surprise.
“Geez, lighten up you two.” He stepped inside and threw his towel on the bed. “Everything you could ever want is at your fingertips, and you’re still miserable.”
Like a struggling engine revving to life, Edie’s anger turned over inside her. The exertion made her lightheaded and she put a hand against Cassidy to balance herself.
“AllI want is to have my best friend back and to get off this island and go home tomorrow, but shit keeps happening to me because of you!”
James rolled his eyes. “You give me so much power over you. Do you need me to promise that nothing else will happen? Is that what it’s going to take to avoid a libel case when we both go home? Fine, here.” He stepped further into the tent and grabbed his phone off the bedside table.
Edie and Cassidy kept their distance as he raised the device and turned so the camera caught the sunrise on the ocean behind them.
“Hey guys, I just wanted to thank everyone who helped make this whole experience one of the best I’ve ever had,” he said.
Edie caught her image on the screen, barely more than a backlit shadow, but ducked out of view anyhow. “James, don’t, we look like shit,” she said.
Cassidy covered her face and turned away.
James just laughed. “Edie and Cassidy have been communing with nature or something and aren’t camera ready, I guess, but I still want to thank them for joining me and becoming my island friends. I know that even if we never speak again, we’ll all remember this well into old age.”
James turned to Edie, his grin falling away like it was a real-life filter he applied for the video. He gave Edie a hard stare that saidthere, are you happy now?Putting his face back on, he continued monologuing to the camera.
