Summer Solstice

[Fox of Spades]

[A group RP between @Warden, @four, @Capt. Blu, @Fox of Spades]​

---

DAY ONE​

It was the night of the Summer Festival, and for the first time in years, they were spending it away from home. Deciding to break away from the usual hometown traditions, the fresh graduates traveled to Belfast island, a small beach merely a four hour boat ride away from home. Everything was set, Alex and Mari had provided transportation in the form of their Schooner while Kris and Ben had handled the venue and reservations. Both boys had rented a beach house only two kilometers away from the shore. It was old, cheap, and a lot less glamorous in comparison to the photos they'd seen on the website (there was a large living room, a small kitchen, and one room that was separated from the rest of the cabin by a divider). They'd learned the pictures were ten or so years old after they'd made their reservations, but it was good enough for the week. After all, they'd come for the sand and the ocean.

The first afternoon had been spent hauling things from the Schooner to the beach house, and when they were done, they had enough time for a barbecue and a late afternoon swim. The shenanigans continued well into the night, and by the time they'd stumbled back into the old cabin, they were exhausted. Sleep came easily that night.

​

A face behind foggy glass. Kris had woken up to grab a drink when he'd noticed the strange figure loitering outside the beach house. Tired and not in the mood for some bored tourist's pranks, he rubbed the sleep out of his eyes. The figure was still there, staring and standing as still as a statue. The first two thoughts that ran through his head were thief and creeper, nothing the the six of them couldn't handle. If someone tried to break in, they'd kick his butt before he could do anything.

Whatever this was, It was certainly no reason to wake up and worry his sleeping friends.

Without skipping a beat, Kris approached the window, but before he could reach it, the figure slunk away from sight. Figuring that was all the prankster was going to do, the young man got ready to return to bed. However, once he was a few feet away, the same shadow appeared outside. He returned to the window and once again the person was gone. "The hell? You gotta be shitting me. That's not cool, man. Not cool."

Irritated, he returned to the living room where a handful of them had setup their sleeping bags. He couldn't see the person anymore but he could still hear someone outside, occasionally there'd be footsteps and other sounds. He didn't like it, so in the darkness, he crept towards Alex and gave his partner in crime a soft shake.

"Hey, Lex, you up? Listen, I don't think it's anything to freak out over, but I think someone's messing with us. Saw someone outside. He was being all creepy and shit, hanging by the windows, y'know, that kind of shady stuff."

 

[Capt. Blu]

Ben was happy to be out of college. But one thing he was really happy about? Finally getting out of town. Unlike his friends, he didn't go away for college, nor did he stay on campus. He loved Avera. The town was nice, but as a kid he had become so used to always being on the move with his mom, so when they finally settled things became… stagnant. It wasn't all bad of course- mainly just during vacations when he'd lounge around at home. So, when the gang finally got back together and decided they needed a vacation away from home, he was eager to help find a spot.

With the help of Kris, the duo managed to find a perfect little getaway. Well…

At least they thought it was.

"It was the cheapest thing we could afford!" Ben defended himself and agreed when Kris added 'How were they supposed to know that the pictures they saw online were old?'

They were going to make the best of it though. After a trip through an old path to put their luggage in the cabin and one party filled barbecue, Ben had passed out on the floor next to the couch. He was using his bag as a pillow and a throw blanket he brought with him. While it was pretty warm, he had just forgotten to bring a sleeping bag with him, but he was fine so long as no one stepped on him.

Unfortunately though, feeling a cold chill and the sounds of the old boards creaking over and over made him put a hand over his face- although his hair was doing that already. Whoever was trying to be sneaky was doing a terrible job at it. "Ladies, ladies you guys can talk and gossip when the sun rises." He rolled to one side to see who exactly was 'loudly' whispering (though being this close on the floor to each other anything could be considered loud) and saw Kris crouched by Alex. "It's a little early for more party plans..." At this point, since he was making effort to make conversation he yawned and pulled himself to his feet to grab one of the many water bottles he brought on the trip out of the kitchen. When he spotted a figure moving out the corner of his eye he figured it was still the effects of being half asleep. That seemed to be even more true when he turned and didn't see it anymore.

 

[four]

It rarely occurs to Margaret Pritchett that something might not have been a very good idea until long after the consequences have set in. In this case the idea was the claim that "beds are way too mainstream", and the consequences involved waking up early in the morning with her head and legs dangling over armrests on opposite sides of an old couch, neck and waist each wedged deep in some sort of mechanical singularity, forbidding any movement without loud complaints from bones and muscles. Her blanket, meanwhile, had forfeit any meaningful attempt to cover anything and was probably pretending that being a tangled mess is a valid way to provide thermal insulation.

The process of Daisy getting herself off the couch involved putting her limbs through a sequence of rather absurd configurations, in a half-crawl half-tumble vaguely evocative of an amateur puppeteer attempting the same maneuver with a marionette. The aged floorboards produced many loud, cringe-inducing (also sleep-disturbing) creaking and popping noises as she unrolled onto the wood. She suspected some of those noises might actually have been her joints.

"Ow ow ow ow ow. What."

She didn't break anything, though. It required a separate stroke of luck for her also not to have broken anyone by flopping into them instead of just onto the floor.

Daisy was convinced that she was awoken by conversation noises. She was also pretty certain the voice had been Kris, but what he said was either indistinct, or already smudged into nonsense by the incessant operation of impeccable early-morning memory. The first words she managed to parse were spoken by an obviously also still half-asleep Ben.

"It's a little early for more party plans..."

Another half roll on the across the floor would conveniently place her within "polite conversation range" of Ben, so she executed the roll, heedless of potential objections from anyone who would prefer not to hear any more creaky floorboard noises. Creaky floorboard noises ensued.

"Benny Benny Benny," Daisy said in an approximation of a whisper, despite the point of whispering having been thoroughly destroyed by all the noise she had already made.

"It is never too early for more party plans."

The approximation was a poor one anyway and came closer to some sort of semi-aggressive hiss.

Then Ben got up and walked away to get some water or something, and Daisy felt vaguely insulted.

"Actually nah. I'm still exhausted." She rolled over again, flopping back-first onto the floor to occupy the empty space Ben had left on the floor. She noticed that the blanket had been unwound into a trail sprawling across the floor towards her couch, and made a half-hearted attempt to tidy it up before deciding that cloth physics were too much for her morning brain to handle.

Daisy yawned, squinted at the ceiling, and figured that it was a fifty-fifty chance between finding some other distraction to entertain herself with and promptly falling back into sleep.

 

[Warden]

Contrary to what was previously said, Alex did not sleep easy that night.

It was easy to assume that the heir to a maritime shipping conglomerate was comfortable around water — and he was, for the most part. But not comfortable enough, the way Mari captained the schooner and crowed whenever they crested a large, rolling wave on the way to the island. He would say he was ambivalent about it. Water was wet. You could also drink it. More imaginative individuals could think up a couple more uses, sure. What he wasn't ambivalent about, however, was a dilapidated shack in the middle of a (presumably) uninhabited island.

That just screamed a lot of bad things at him, really. Why was there a cabin here if nobody lived on the island? If this place was so close to Avera, shouldn't it have been turned into a resort? Still, these were trivial questions with easy answers. Alex thought he did a pretty good job of keeping his thoughts to himself and discreetly making sure nobody ran off into the woods past the beach. While the group was transferring their equipment to their temporary lodgings, he prowled around the area, trying to look nonchalant and not like he was blaming anyone for the turn of events. Even when the kitchen faucet came off when he tried to wash his hand. Tetanus. Now that was a real threat. Did Kris and Ben even look for insurance?

That night, a lizard kept crooning on the wooden beam above his place. Alex woke up every now and then, convinced that the thing was getting closer and closer – and he did not want to have a god-knows-what with god-knows-how-many-decades-of-germs using his face as a landing pad. He stayed up and stared at the ceiling until the noises faded away some hours later. When Kris woke him up, Alex was just finally settling in to sleep.

"Water's in the kitchen, check the cooler on the counter," Alex mumbled, trying very hard not to sound like a parent about to banish their child into the shadow realm. A half-success – he just sounded like a parent. When he processed the words spoken, he pushed himself up on one elbow. Now that got his attention. "Are you sure?"

The bed rustled as somebody on it began to stir.

"What's happening!? Oh shit you guys it's so early. Why are you all awake?" Mari yelled first as she pulled down the thick blanket she had stubbornly brought, though her voice quickly dropped to a rough whisper when she saw how dark it was outside — and how everyone still seemed to be caught in a bad #WokeUpLikeThis montage. She absentmindedly rubbed the corner of her mouth and blinked to take away the drowsiness in her system.

"Hm." Alex didn't even look at his twin. He was thinking about whether or not to reveal what Kris told him. "Well. Kris said he saw someone outside. But honestly, it's probably just the curtain moving in the wind. Nothing to be worried about." He hoped that sounded reassuring, he didn't think the matter warranted everyone forming a search party. Alex pulled himself up into a seated position and looked at his best friend. "Want to check it out?" It was less of a question, really; Alex was going to go.

"Spoopy!" Mari snickered, obviously thinking Kris was either overreacting or pranking them — figures her brother would fall for it — before letting her bare feet touch the dusty floor. "Right. Good luck with that! I'll go get a snack or something." Unconcerned for potential cannibals or serial killers, Alex's twin rummaged for her food stash under the bed. And she noticed the others. "Hey Daisy. You look pretty daze-y right now. Ha. Oh, that was so bad. What time is it anyway?"

 

[Fox of Spades]

​

Are you sure?

Well, yeah, he wouldn't go around waking Alex in the middle of the night if he wasn't sure. Someone was out there. Kris had seen the silhouette thrice, and last he checked, he had 20-20 vision. He didn't mean to wake the others though, considering it was probably just some drunk shuffling around or some prankster looking for an easy target, but welp, it was too late for that now. Ben was pacing around the kitchen, Daisy was being her oddball self and executing a weird roll of sorts, and a loud voice signaled that a certain twin was up and at 'em and ready to face the day.

The reactions to Mari's loudness were immediate. And Naomi, who was sharing a bed with the other girl, shot up into a sitting position, hair a mess and eyes squeezed shut, tiredness incarnate and not at all happy about the loud awakening. Last night, she'd made the mistake of drinking at least one shot of everything alcoholic, and right now, Mari was just too damn loud to tolerate. "Guys. What the fuck? It's like three in the Goddamn morning."

"It's four," Kris mumbled in response to Mari's question.

"Way. Too. Early." They were on vacation. The unspoken rule was that they'd be allowed to sleep whenever and wake up whenever the hell they wanted to. Who on earth woke up at four in the morning on vacation? Mistaking Kris' reply for sass in response to her own words, Noami reached for the pillow Mari had abandoned and flung it across the room. Having exceptional aim had its perks, and this time, it took the form of a pillow to Kris' face.

Boom! Head shot.

On any other day, Kris would have retaliated and flung the pillow right back at whoever decided to attack him, but Naomi was probably still hungover and he knew the feeling all too well. Alex had seen him suffer far too many times to count. Speaking of his bro, they still had bigger matters to attend to and Alex seemed like he was really keen on investigating the mysteries of the spoopy noises outside.

"Of course, man. Not gonna let you brave the dark outdoors on your own, don't want you to get mugged by some drunk out looking for a new yacht." Kris got to his feet as Mari made a beeline for the snacks, and he gave Alex a rather rough pat on the back. "Hey Daisy, wanna join in?" Kris smiled smugly. "Maybe we'll run into some adventure. Fun, right?"

"You sure you don't want to wait till morning?" Naomi was sitting on the edge of the bed now. "Hey, Mari! Grab some of those snacks for me, will you?"

 

[Capt. Blu]

Ben had most definitely heard Daisy as she woke up, probably by the sounds of failed whispering and creaky floors, but his responses to her were simple hums. Whether or not they were hums of agreement or disagreement was very unclear, but it didn't seem like he'd provide an explanation any time soon.

The time it took him to find a water bottle while the fridge light flickered was apparently enough time for most of the house to wake up, which could have been an incredible feat by itself. "Like a domino effect." He mumbled more to himself before yawning an "Oh boy" loud enough for them to actually hear.

Shuffling back to his makeshift bed, he paused, noticing the body on the floor. "Wh- My spot." He sounded slightly offended, but ultimately ended up flopping onto the couch. It was much too small as his legs dangled off the edge, but he didn't seem to mind as much as Daisy did. His hair was sprawled across his face, so the only reason the others had known he hadn't fallen back to sleep was when he raised the water bottle. "I too think our sporty friend is just seeing things. Probably still on a sugar high." Or was it a hangover? He yawned again. Ben, being 'not quite there', wasn't one hundred percent sure if it was Kris who had decided it was a good idea to consume half their weight in sugar, someone else, or if he was making it all up due to being sleepy- either way, consuming that much sugar was still bad.

Ben was not a very functional person at 4am so it seemed.

He pushed his hair out of his face towards the mention of going outside at such a late hour. "How about? No, maybe? Naomi and Mari are smart. They don't wanna die." Even if he believed Kris was just seeing things, walking around an unfamiliar island at 4am sounded like a terrible idea. He'd stick with the girls inside.

Ben made the effort to sit up and drag his butt over to the girls' room. He tossed Naomi the water bottle and commented, "You probably need this more than I do." He recalled Naomi's bad life choices a few hours earlier, understanding why she'd be upset about getting woken up. "Annnd it's an excuse to come over here for snacks… Pleease?" It was that or he was going to steal a free space on the bed since Naomi was sitting. Whichever came first. Ben was almost forty percent sure the two wouldn't mind.

 

[four]

"Oooooooh." Daisy flailed about a little, did a small drumroll with her palms on the floor, and in general appreciated Mari's pun a lot more than she should. The small island house had in the preceding few seconds exploded into yawns and confusion, so the drumroll wasn't a violation of the quiet because the quiet had recently been made nonexistent.

The "fifty-fifty chance between a distraction and more sleep" had clearly collapsed into one of the outcomes, distraction had won out. Wrestling herself free of the blanket, Daisy finally managed to sit up on Ben's her spot on the living room floor.

A profound observation: "Oh look, everyone's, like, awake."

And so was she, now, running her fingers through her hair, pulling the flattened strands apart from each other and out of her face.

The next step in being awake would be to gather some sort of comprehension of just what at all was going on. Collecting fragments of information from the conversations she could hear, Daisy learnt variously that it was like three in the goddamn morning, that Kris was on a sugar high, that Alex wanted to go outside so that he could check out the curtains moving in the wind, and that it was four o'clock, and then she got confused for a few seconds because it couldn't possibly be both four o'clock and three in the goddamn morning, then Ben's mention of sugar high-induced hallucination reminded her that she was hungry.

"Augh, calories. Gimme one too," she said, seeing that Mari was making her way towards the food stash. She tried, but failed, to get Mari's attention by grabbing at her legs as she walked by, because moving targets are hard to catch through sleepy eyes. So she then turned her attention towards her other friend. Kris seemed to be doing pretty well for someone recovering from a pillow headshot.

"Kristoffel, my friend," she said, (she had always found amusing how much she could butcher his name phonetically just by changing a single letter,) "if you think you could so easily convince me to go wandering out into the night with only a vague promise of adventure then you are absolutely right.."

Daisy was really good at dissociating the lines she was delivering with the tone in which they were spoken, and it would have taken longer for someone who knew her less well to discern the turn at the end of the sentence through her half-drunk-half-asleep voice.

Ben seemed was much less eager to go outside, citing the possibility of being murdered by curtains moving in the wind, or something.

"Don't worry Benny, I don't want to die either. And I'm going with you!"

Certain that curtains - or whatever Alex said he was going to look for, Daisy actually hadn't worked out entirely what this was about yet - were hardly threatening enough to warrant that much worry, she set out to provide some much-needed encouragement:

"If by my life or death I can protect you, I will," she proclaimed, almost managing to conjure the right balance between conviction and gracefulness required of a good Viggo Mortensen impersonation: "you have my swooooord."

 

[Warden]

Oh, great. Now the entire group was awake. If Kris were wrong, he would have to face the consequences of disturbing a bunch of angry--and dazed--individuals. Hell, Naomi was already slinging her own form of punishment this early on. He knew, deep within his heart, that he would have to play mediator to get the others calmed down--or at least bore them to sleep again--once that happened. Alex was hoping to just go outside, point at whatever bogeyman his friend had seen, maybe rationalize the vision--"It's probably all that alcohol speaking, Kris."--and give him a comforting pat on the back before slinking back to his bed roll. All nice and quiet.

Those hopes were utterly dashed now.

Listening to Ben and the others give their two cents about the situation, Alex sighed and kicked off the tangled covers to get on his feet. "Alright then, let's get it done as fast as we can." The theories and implications pertaining to death and horror movies weren't pleasant, though. Now he had to worry about getting back here in record time in case somebody thought their little explorer team got kidnapped by, oh, twin lumberjacks who, ah, ate cedar chippings from the day they were born. Ugh, it sounded preposterous even in his head. With another deep sigh--slightly exasperated this time-- Alex waved dismissively at his friends, and said, "Come on guys, don't be silly. There's no way the local government would allow us to travel here if it were dangerous. We'd have seen a warning about it somewhere. Besides, the two of you-" he nodded at Ben and Kris, "didn't get any bad feedback from your search, right? So there--oh, that's a nice impression but--um, no need for any dying, Daisy."

As he ushered the two volunteers to the door, Alex made a mental note to dissuade Mari or Naomi from showcasing whatever horror blockbuster movie line-up they brought for the trip. Or the DVDs can get mysteriously "lost at sea," only to be found on the date of departure. Who knows.

When the clamoring for snacks began, Mari wisely pulled her hand out of her stash and--like a true survivalist--headed for the refrigerator. What, she wasn't going to let her personal hoard get sapped dry like a pack of gum in school. She skipped past her twin on her way to the other part of the cabin, which was taken as a prime opportunity to say, "Try to get back soon. Even with Kris around, three crusty-eyed kids in their jammies can hardly scare a rabbit, much less a serial killer!"

Obviously, her public service announcement irked her brother--who scowled brilliantly behind Kris and Daisy's backs.

Mari snickered and ducked out of sight. She returned to the sleeping area with an armful of snacks, which she unceremoniously dumped on the bed. "Alright, there you go. I don't know who owns what or which in this pile, okay. Thanks Mari you sweet, dutiful friend. Heart emoji."

So... What were they going to do while the three were out?

 

[Fox of Spades]

​

Welp, everyone was awake now. Not his fault though, he had tried to be quiet. If anyone had started this, it was Daisy and her creaky floor rolls. Yep, definitely Daisy, maybe Mari. As soon as Kris had sorted things out in his head and had assigned the blame to someone else, he nodded to Alex who was now in charge of operation manhunt (not the fun kind), and to Daisy who'd made a vow to protect them from whatever was lurking in the shadows outside.

So far so good. Ben and Mari was talking about their inevitable deaths but he felt confident in their squad.

"Really appreciating the vote of confidence, guys," Kris stopped dead in his tracks the moment Alex brought up the local government. About that. Well, the thing was... he and Ben didn't exactly do any research on the place. Nada. Zilch. The moment they noticed the cabin was half off - and a hell of lot cheaper than anything else - they booked a trip and sealed the deal.

Still, college kids stuck with serial killers on islands, when did that nonsense ever happen?

Cabins in the woods, sure. Islands with white sand and beautiful palm trees, nah.

Noticing that Alex was still waiting for some reassuring reply. Kris pointed a finger at Ben and focused on looking as confident as possible. "So, about that thing you wanted us to do. We didn't exactly do any research but we didn't run into any bad ratings either! If it helps, the site we visited had zero ratings, man. If anything bad had happened, there'd be a shit ton of comments by now. Trust me. People spread bad news like wildfire." Not the smartest words to ever come out of his mouth, but he was an honest man.

​

The water Ben had given her had done the trick and Naomi was officially feeling well enough to join in on the conversation.

[color= #fdbcb4]"Oooo, looks like two of you are getting in trouble with Alex."[/color]

Kris was starting to get tired of this. "Really, it'll be fine." Without waiting so much as another moment, he allowed Alex to usher him out the door. "Don't worry about us too much."

"We'll be here, having snacks. Love you, Mari. Thanks." Noami reached for the packet of chips that had found its way onto her lap, she tore it open then reached out to pat Ben's hair in a gesture of silent thanks. "I'll bet three chocolate bars that it was a seagull or something." Now that it was just the three of them, the house was much quieter.

***

​

As they stumbled out of the beach house, they noticed a human-like silhouette vanish off into the woods. If was a little more than a shadow, a man in a trench coat maybe. Kris couldn't make it out but the figure looked like it was in a rush and was holding something large in its arms. It was nothing too out of the ordinary, and besides that, everything was the way it should have been.

The early morning air was cool against their skin and stars dotted the purple sky above them.

Kris inhaled the smell of the sea, wondering whether or not he ought to point out what he'd just seen. For all they knew, it could have been a tourist lugging his stuff back to his tent or wherever he was staying.

After a moment of silence, he spoke. "Did you guys see that too? Looked like he was carrying something."

 

[Capt. Blu]

By the sound of it, Alex was going to settle the problem once and for all. He was going to close the book to whatever story Kris had conjured up. "You know what, you guys are right. You guys dying would be ridiculous." Mari got up from the bed and he ended up stealing her space and flopping down on his back after being patted on the head. "You've got Daisy with you. She's perfectly capable of protecting you guys from whatever's out there." With all that energy she suddenly had, Ben was sure she was bound to at least scare something at 4 in the morning.

Alex's reminder about Kris and Ben's house hunting made him give a thumbs up. "I mean, when we looked everything checked out fine. But," Ben scooted one of Naomi and Mari's pillows under his head. "If there is anything wrong, can we unanimously blame Kris? He was more focused on getting the alcohol after all." He held a thumbs up again before adding, "No hard feelings Kris we're still bros."

Mari made her way back with snacks so he scooted over as much as he could. "Nice. True adulthood here. Eating snacks at 4am while your friends go play in the dark." He snagged a grabbed a chocolate bar and raised it. "A toast to our fallen comrades." He couldn't help the snickering as he ate his own snack. "It was probably just the wind and trees… but I'll take that bet and three granola bars. Join the gamble Mari, toss in some cookies, raise the stakes" He propped himself up and lifted his hair in order to see both girls. "Though if they don't come back in like twenty minutes does that mean we have to go hunt them down? Well, shouldn't be too bad- I at least brought a flashlight." Ben looked up at the ceiling in thought. "Hm, probably should have let them use it. Woulda probably helped."

 

[four]

"Try to get back soon. Even with Kris around, three crusty-eyed kids in their jammies can hardly scare a rabbit, much less a serial killer!"

"Do not doubt my rabbit-scaring prowess," Daisy said gravely, even though it took away some from that gravity that she was struggling to reach the pile of snacks without reconfiguring her legs. Mari mentioned having no idea who owns what in the snack pile, and that helped her feel a lot better about also having no idea who owns what in the snack pile. She managed to grab a couple of chocolate bar thingies. She had no idea who owned them.

"See, Benny's got a healthier amount of confidence, ye of little faipf," she said, peeling the plastic wrapping off and sticking the bar into her mouth.

The Biblical reference turned out to be even more appropriate when she thought about it, considering that Jesus was passed out when the whole storm thing happened. She figured she would've sounded perfectly historically accurate if the Son of Man had stuffed his face with chocolate bar thingies before he got on with rebuking the wind and the waves.

(The Holy Book does not, in fact, mention chocolate bars. But that did sound like the exact sort of thing the Bible would leave out, so they would never know, she thought.)

"Heart emoji," she shoved the snack through her teeth just in time to free her hands to make the corresponding gesture at their sweet, dutiful friend.

Wait.

"Three kids?" She stared at Ben wearing the "utterly betrayed" face I can't believe you're not coming with us

"Right." She deflated a little when no-one changed their minds. Three crusty-eyed kids in pajamas it is, then, leaving the cabin in the middle of the night and heading off towards …

... um.

"Where are we going?"

-

For a summer night, it was a lot cooler outside than Daisy in her T-shirt and shorts had anticipated.

"Did you guys see that too? Looked like he was carrying something."

She looked in the general direction Kris was facing. The silhouette was small and some distance away, but just about the only thing in the scene that was moving fast, and so was hard to miss. Under its arm was something flat, rectangular, and probably too large to be conveniently carried under the arm like that. Something the figure was wearing was flapping around as it ran. Her brain filled in the image of a man in trench coat carrying a barbeque grill running across the sand, which was silly, then her legs shivered a little and she conceded that maybe there were a few reasons someone might want to wear a trench coat on a beach after all.

"I think," Daisy squinted at the shape in the distance still quickly receding, and at the rectangular thing it was carrying, "I think that's a grill."

She jolted forwards a few steps hoping to get a closed look, stumbled because she hadn't gotten used to how her feet pushed the sand around, and opted for just squinting harder instead.

"Frick," she said.

"I think that's our grill."

 

[Fox of Spades]

​

Our grill? The thought of some random dude walking up to their cabin in the dead of night to steal their rusty grill was so silly that Kris ended up smirking. Someone trying to steal Alex and Mari's schooner, or someone trying to take their phones and cameras he could understand. But the frigging grill? Whoever that was had to be really fucking desperate.

"No shit? You sure he isn't lugging a beach ball or something?" Daisy could have a really overactive imagination, and when she wanted to, she could be flighty and quick to make decisions. Kris was just about point to their own grill, right by the corner of the cabin, when he realized it was no longer there. The puzzle pieces fell into place. "Fuck, you're absolutely right. That is our grill." The cogs and gears in his once sleep-addled brain had begun to turn. If they waited the thief would get away.

"We need those to make tomorrow's ribs... I already made my special sauce, man!"

Faintly, he could hear the disapproving tone in Alex's voice, something about going back inside. "He'll be long gone by tomorrow. Alex, tell the others." And with that said (and without much thought) Kris began barreling onward. "Daisy, back me up!" He yelled as his sudden sprint kicked up sand and dirt. "Thief!" Kris yelled into the night. "Stop! You fucking thief!"

***

​

"Nice, chocolate and granola bars," Naomi commented as Ben added his own bets to their little stash. "Mari, you wanna get in on this? You could end up winning big." She called out to the girl as Ben brought up a little tidbit on flash lights. "Hey, they probably won't even need it. The moon's out." And it wasn't like they were going to find anything out of the ordinary out there. Naomi kept that last part to herself. "But I agree, twenty minutes tops sounds good then we can send in the calvary - what in the world?" Barely ten minutes had gone by, and the silence of the cabin was broken by Daisy's loud screech.

The initial sound caused Naomi to stand up and stare out the window. At first, she chalked it up to her friend's endless energy and hyperactive ways, but when Kris started screaming alongside her, worry began to bubble up in her chest.

The words thief and grill were prominent in their shouty exchange.

Wide awake but still somewhat hungover, Noami reached for her jacket and groaned. "Looks like something came up after all."

 

[Warden]

"Zero ratings!?" Alex sputtered, voice rising an octave, which was probably why Kris internalized all that athletic training and zipped out the door. Flabbergasted—what a funny, fishy word—Alex flapped an arm out, uselessly, and felt very much like a minnow splashing on a dry bay. See, this was what he got for spending all of his time on postgrad requirements and letting Kris and Ben do the planning. "That's just as bad as—you get back here, Kris! And you too Ben, we're having a talk once we return." Inhaling deeply as the stirrings of a migraine made its appearance in his head, Alex trudged out. Daisy wasn't doing so well either, as he nudged her forward. He was sure that she was still a bit out there—well, more out there than she normally is, anyway.

The sand and pebbles crunched underfoot as Alex stepped out and closed the door behind them. He heard the sound of his two friends talking and ringing up a commotion, so he turned as quickly as he could, catching a faint glimpse of a blurry shape. Of course, he assumed it was a tree, or a lead pipe on the roofing—definitely not someone hurrying away with the grill, no siree.

Except, you know. He glanced at where the grill was supposed to be, snug with the other cooking materials under a makeshift outdoor counter, and confirmed it was missing. "Frick," Alex echoed, with more emotion. To him, this was a clear case of thievery, and he allowed himself a moment to feel bad—he hated losing things to other people. Especially appliances. The moment quickly passed when Kris began suggesting what was clearly a bad 'I-thought-of-this-around-4-a.m.' idea—chase after the thief!

"It's just a grill, leave it be. You don't know how dangerous a kleptomaniac is, let's go back inside," Alex sighed and dismissively waved a hand at the retreating figure. Maybe they should haul their other things inside too. "Special sau—what—wait!" As if he didn't hear what he just said, Kris charged into the darkness. A very surprised and irritated, maybe just a little bit concerned, Alex stomped a foot. "What did I just tell you!?" He bellowed after his "best friend", then looked at Daisy. "Daisy, get back inside and tell everyone to bring their flashlights!" Or engage a dangerous grill-loving psycopath! Whichever happens first. And with that, the young man sprinted away to follow the dust trail.

"Should've planned by myself. "Everything's fine, Alex! We found a nice place!" Nice place, my ass. Got ourselves a thief and now fucking Kris is fucking chasing after it like oh shit I've never watched a horror movie before I swear to God if I die on some shitty island," Alex's grumbles could be heard even as he disappeared from view, the darkness swallowing him whole. Exactly as he feared, Alex was regressing into his Big Bad Blame-y Mood™ fast. "Probably a fucking cannibal too. Just my luck. Fuck. Excuse my potty mouth."

"Eh, they'll be fineeee," Mari shrugged and sat down on the side of the bed, since Ben had stolen her place. Three kids, one whole unexplored island. In the dark. What could go wrong? A lot of things, if tropes were to go by, but eh. Not really her problem at the moment. Alex can deal with them. The girl suddenly grinned as she snatched a bag of chips from the loot pile. "Worst case scenario, my bro can just scold the baddie. That oughta be enough."

And what was this about bets? "Hey hey hey hey, you can't fool me with your fancy Venmo socialism. I'm keeping my fruit pops to myself," Mari leaned away from the grabby, grubby hands of the ticketers. "'Sides, I hate granola. Eugh. Das nasty." Wielding her airy bag of junk food and brandishing it like a club, the twin screeched in a grating, indistinguishable accent, "Gambling is a vice, you infidels! Repent!" She was about to start whacking them infidels, therefore starting an ill-advised pseudo-religious pillow-potato fight, when—surprise—shit started to go down.

Mari, again, wasn't concerned much. She would be if they didn't have like, Steroid Hulk with them! All that STR advantages! Raccoons hate Kris! What couldn't he power through? "C'mon, didn't we all agree Kris was a wuss who goes crying to Alex when he sees a flapping curtain?" Looks like everyone in their merry band of what, three was going though, so she heaved herself off the bed with a huge sigh. "Fiinnne I'll get my flashlight. I think they just stepped on a frog though. Damn it." Mari trudged off to the other side of the room, to where her heavier utility bag was, and took her sweet time rummaging through her luggage.

 

[Capt. Blu]

"You've pooped on our party Mari. And here I thought-" Ben paused, thinking over what she said again. Something about Vimeo and socialism. "Actually I don't know if I understood half of what you said. But wow how can you say granola bars are disgusting. They are in fact, great. Especially these because it's got extra chocolate." Ben was still lying on his back as he spoke, but he did rub his chin. "What if I promised to ba-"


Like the gods themselves were telling him not to offer baking, he paused at the sound of yelling from outside. Ben refrained from asking the dumb question of 'who or what made the sound. And unfortunately, he couldn't pretend to ignore it either because as they had previously clarified, it was four in the morning. And usually four in the morning was a pretty quiet time. "Okay but before we jump to conclusions-" Naomi was already grabbing her jacket.

"Okay but also consider that they're just joking around to get us to go outside or something." But then Mari was grabbing a flashlight and heading to the door. "Man…" Ben sighed in defeat and grabbed a snack before hurrying to find his own flashlights and shoes.

It wasn't long before the trio were out the door and looking for their friends. He was standing behind the two, looking back and forth to make sure no one was in the shadows around them. He was glad he had grabbed a jacket because the morning air was chillier than he had anticipated. "I swear if one of them jumps out and tries to spook us their sleeping on the boat." His eyes hadn't quite adjusted to the dark so he flicked the flashlight on and searched around. "You know, just a note. Despite what the scary movies tell us, it's usually a bad idea going towards the screams."

Instead of some sort of monster or even a frog he spotted the usual bright eyed Daisy… except, by herself? "And sometimes it leads you to Daisy in the dark."

 

[four]

"Daisy, get back inside and tell everyone to bring their flashlights!"

"But Kris and his sauc - ow ow okay okay"

Daisy once spent a decent amount of time thinking about having an argument with Alex. For one thing, following orders is a super boring thing that only uncreative people would do. Alex ordered people around a lot. The problem specifically with him is that the stuff he says also sort of makes sense most of the time, and making sense is important! It makes it hard for people to disagree with you, and apparently that is an useful life skill. Besides, when you disagreed with Alex he would just stare at you angry with his ridiculous pretty blue eyes and keep saying more things that sort of made sense.

And so after a number of years she had decided that, when things got really urgent, sometime it was okay to skip the angry staring part and just live with being uncreative for a little while.

Mentally apologising Kris for having to abandon him, she brought herself to a stop, turned around (as efficiently as she could possibly do so on wobbly, sandy footholds), and started sprinting in the opposite direction back towards the cabin.

Alex himself followed Kris in pursuit of the grill thief. This fits nicely with dramatic interpretations in which the hero reassures his friend, tells her to go back to safety, then charges off towards the enemy and saves the day in a glorious act of self-sacrifice! Wait that's not right Alex isn't supposed to die yet, revise the script: the friend returns to the camp, gathers the cavalry, and comes again to the aid of the hero in his most hopeless moment, making it just in time.

It took a lot of effort for Daisy not to have accidentally tackled half the cavalry to the ground, because she wasn't paying attention to where she was going.

She managed to stagger to a halt, coming dangerously close to crashing into Naomi, the first of the three people exiting the cabin. A quick glimpse over her shoulder confirmed that the grill thief was still fleeing.

"Okay good guys guys guys everybody," she said, waving her hands around in gestures of no specific meaning but nevertheless conveying a vague sense of pressing urgency:

"Quick, get your torches, the curtains have our grill and are running away!"

 

[Fox of Spades]

​

Death by Daisy. Naomi barely swiveled away in time as the flightiest member of their friend group hurtled towards her. Wait, wait, wait, Daisy was by herself? This was surprising. Usually, Daisy was the one going off after things.

​

"Where are Alex and Kris?" She shone her flashlight across the shoreline. Both boys were out of sight and her friend was waving her arms around like a madwoman as she mumbled about the curtains running away with their grill.

She liked to think she had mastered the art of Daisy Speak, but tonight proved her wrong. "Calm down," Naomi sighed. She didn't think whatever was going on was important, not yet. "Did Kris and Alex run away? Hey, Ben, Mari. Translate ASAP."

Lingering was preferable when compared alongside running all willy-nilly into the night. It was the sane thing to do, the thing dumb horror movie protagonists never did. And really, Noami would have suggested waiting if not for what happened next.

The voice was unmistakably Kris'. She couldn't make out the words, but it was clear that the boys weren't having a good time.

​

"Shit, Alex, he's speedy as hell." He was aware that his friend was trailing after him - aware that Daisy was no longer with them. Kris was a few meters ahead of his best friend, kicking up sand as he charged after the cloaked silhouette. There was something particularly enraging about having something that belonged to you get plucked up by some stranger.

Here they were, enjoying a nice summer festival at the beach, when some ass decided to just take their grill for no reason.

Yeah. Fuck that. He wasn't going to give this guy an easy way out. With Alex by his side, they could easily take the guy on.

The cabin grew farther and farther away, as they ran farther away from the beach and reached the area where the sand gave way to grass. The man, who was ahead of Kris, disappeared into the forested part of the island. Kris was mad, but he dug his heels into the ground and came to an abrupt stop. Going in there would be a very bad idea. He waited for Alex to catch up. "That asshole ran into the woods." He was breathing heavily, and the irritation and disbelief on his face was clear.

 

[Capt. Blu]

Ben silently flinched as if he was bracing for the impact that would have been Daisy ramming right into Naomi. Fortunately, Daisy's brakes were working and the casualties were avoided. However, just to be safe, Ben casually moved Naomi back a step. One could never be too safe.

Daisy rambled on at the speed of sound as she did when she was either hyper or really wanted the group to do something. It could have been a bit a both at the time he wasn't too sure. Ben stared for a moment, squinting a bit, trying to decipher what she said. At this point, 4 in the morning or not, he was less drowsy than before so he couldn't blame his comprehension on lack of sleep. "What is it Daisy? Someone stuck in a well?" As passively as he said it, he did raise a curious brow. "Wait, wait, wait... Someone stole our grill?" He scratched his chin with a slight frown. "That doesn't make sense, no one else is supposed to be on the island except for us… We paid for this..." His fist hit his palm in shock. "Unless there's someone here for free and we paid for nothing!"

He looked over at Naomi and Mari. "So our grill's gone and I guess our knights in shining armor went out to catch the thief." He looked over at Daisy as if to clarify if that was correct. When she did, he sighed and ran fingers through his already ruffled hair. As he did, there was the unmistakable sound of Kris yelling in the distance, only making him sigh louder. "Alright gang, let's… regroup. If Scooby-Doo has taught me anything, it's that splitting up is always bad."

He followed Daisy, seeing as she was the only one who knew which way they went. "Kris! Alex! Where'd you gooo?" He called out and moved his flashlight around, accidentally flashing the girls once or twice. "Alex! I thought you were the responsible one!" He paused his yelling to comment, "I know, letting the villain of the scary movie know where you are is a bad idea, but Daisy did say they were running away… So more thief than serial killer. That's a plus in our favor."

Moving his flashlight around some more, eventually they managed to catch up to and see the rest of their party who didn't look very happy. "Well… at least they're okay. Great."

 

[Warden]

"Ben, don't tempt fate. I don't want to be the one who has to face my parents if this island does turn into a Jigsaw death trap," Mari joked, her voice just the tiniest bit uneven, from the very back of the "search party." She had to jog a bit to catch up, because when Daisy ran into them rambling about curtains and grills, she dove back into the cabin and brought her Essentials-tagged backpack along — she wanted to have her gadgets and Important Things on hand, even if it was impractical. God, or whoever was up there, she rarely went to church but please don't let this be a death trap. She only wanted a summer tan! "Because if it is," she huffed, stepping over yet another tree root, adding, "why couldn't divine retribution rear its ugly head at… capitalists, or people who deliberately take school financial assistance programs because it would look good on their curriculum vitae, even if they can support their education and they have classmates who can't say the same."

Oddly specific, but okay. You know, just making a point that Jigsaw shouldn't be interested in a bunch of random, sea-soaked young adults. They all had the will to live. That was his MO, wasn't it? Attack nihilists and their cousins? Well, too bad! She already applied for insurance!

(Largely at Alex's behest and effort)

But actually… Mari shone her light towards Ben in retaliation and hissed, "Maybe don't tell Alex the Someone-Is-Here-For-Free-And-We-Paid-For-It theory. He'll flip so bad, he'll get drafted into an Olympic gymnastics team." Apparently finding her own sibling jab — exaggerated, of course — pretty funny, Mari chortled to herself, until their combined flashlights finally revealed the missing duo somewhere along the forest line.

And oh boy, weren't they a sight. The two boys were like deer trapped in headlights, messed up and dirty from running into the underbrush and sand in the dark, although Kris looked as though he was ready to throw someone down. Alex too, but more in a… well, Alex way.

"Heya, so, a grill thief? What happened?" Mari chirped soon as they got nearer. She was smiling as Alex launched into a quick but thorough explanation of their version of the events, but her eyes were on the distant treeline, watching for any suspicious eye-shaped lights or random men in overalls bursting out with a chainsaw revved up.

"… And that's why we're here," Alex sighed, concluding his summary. Somehow the mere act of arranging things in a logical order and explaining them to his friends made him feel better about the situation, as if it could be just as easy to rearrange. He nodded at Daisy. "Thanks for bringing the group along, Daisy. For a second there I thought…" you were going to run after Kris in the woods, he wanted to say, but even if it was a very likely scenario, the girl already helped him out so it would be wise to keep any negative comments to himself. "You got lost chasing us," Alex added, smoothly, in place of his initial remark. It was true; he was concerned, especially about how they would have returned to the cabin if that happened. He and Kris had the shore to follow, but in the dark beach… He shook his head and quickly raised his hand, after clearing his throat to get everyone's attention.

"I vote to chase the criminal in the morning. We should return to the cabin, secure the remaining appliances we left outside, then get whatever sleep we could still get at this rate," Alex pointed out. "I think it's dangerous to go now. We're in our pajamas, for crying out loud. And Mari's missing a slipper."

"Huh, so that's why it was kinda bumpy," Mari whispered, and lifted her leg up to look at her indeed-bare foot. Suddenly, she realized what was going on, and she whipped her head up so fast she almost lost her balance. "Awww come on, we're voting now?"

 

[four]

"Thanks for bringing the group along, Daisy. For a second there I thought…you got lost chasing us."

"No probs! I have an excellent sense of direction." Daisy said, giving Alex a thumbs up with both hands. She realised half a second before trying to drive home the point by pointing out the way back to the cabin that she had no idea which way that was.

Coming to think of it, she would have been more upset about missing out on the action had she not been busy enough trying to catch her breath and not to trip over herself on the sand. That, and the fact that how Alex and Kris were idling on the edge of the woods indicated that there wasn't much action to miss out on in the first place. Admittedly she was a bit disappointed about that as well: the mental image of Alex wrestling a stranger over a grill had been entertaining.

She looked into the woods, at the gaps between the trees through which the grill thief had presumably escaped. Despite having been the one to assemble the search party hollering at everyone telling them to bring their torches, Daisy had ended up without a flashlight, so the gaps between the trees were just darkness and there was nothing at all she could see. She squinted and tried looking harder, then gave up after a while on the principle that holding a camera angle for longer at an empty scene made the next thing more likely to be a jumpscare.

"Benny has a point, okay," she said, returning to her friends' discussion, "Scary movies are unrealistic! The characters are silly and make bad decisions like splitting up in the darkness, or, like, running into the woods following weird people in trench coats who steal barbecue grills." (Probably too specific, but there was a nonzero likelihood that there was some film somewhere in which that scenario happened and turned out badly.)

"But we are real, non-silly, clever people," she held up a solemn finger, "So we do the opposite! Therefore, going into the woods would be a non-bad idea."

She was sure that logic checked out up until she saw the look on Alex's face.

"...I mean, or not? Can't see. Also, it's slightly cold." She built up some warmth from all the running earlier, but now that they were just standing around again she could feel the heat being drained through her skin into the air. Unable to tell whether the change of mind was better-received than her initial suggestion, she spent the seconds of awkward silence grinning apologetically at Ben, Naomi, and Mari in turn.

"...also Mari's missing a slipper."

 

[Fox of Spades]

​

Kris was stewing in his own anger, and had he been by his lonesome, he would have indeed ran into the woods for a smackdown. Who the hell stole barbecue grills? They needed it for tomorrow... they needed it so they wouldn't end up paying a ridiculous fine. He clenched his fits and snarled, ignoring the banter coming from the rest of his friends.

​

"Let it go, beefcake. You might think you're hot stuff in a fight, but honestly, we don't know what we're dealing with." Yes, the fact that they were robbed irked her, but she was a hundred percent with Ben and Alex on this. What if the guy had a knife, or a gun for God's sake. And even if it was a solitary drunk person with a penchant for stealing grills, he could still jump one of them in the dark. She didn't want to have to perform first aid on one of her friends during their vacation.

"See Daisy gets it too." Noami gave their rambly friend a tap on the shoulder. "We are not a bunch of horror movie protagonists, we should make smart decisions. Also, I swear if any of you disagree with me, I will fling my this flashlight at your face. It's honest to God, four in the morning. No, okay?" She stopped and eyed her friends one by one, the only people who struck her as wildcards in this situation were Kris and Daisy, and the latter, it looked like she had already seen the light.

Noami tapped her foot, waiting. "Kris, do you understand?"

The young man's eyes were fixed on the forest. The figure had already disappeared into the woods, even if he wanted to go after the guy, there was no way to tell where he was anymore. "He's gone anyway." Frustrated, he spun around so he was looking at the others. "I wasn't going to run in blindly, can't believe we got robbed though. Man, this is shitty."

"We can search the woods in the morning," Noami answered. "Let's head back."