by Mara Webb
“Boat sounds good,” I said, curious as to why he’d dropped the Ryder topic as quickly as he’d raised it. We walked back into the palm trees and began to weave our way towards the dock where we had shored up the powerboat. “Are we going to miss Shell’s Day if we are over here?” I asked.
“I doubt they’d start without you,” Miller answered. “They need the peacekeeper there to blow the bugle that gets everything started.”
“You’ve got to be joking,” I cringed. “A bugle?”
“Yeah. Have you ever seen those guys on horseback when they do war reenactments? Someone blows that weird horn thing and then everyone starts running. That’s what you’ll be doing,” he laughed. “Don’t look at me, I didn’t start the tradition.”
“Don’t you guys have whistles or something?” I asked.
“Sure, but where’s the fun in that?”
We approached the dock and saw our boat rocking from side to side. I could have sworn I’d just heard a splash and the water around the boat was rippling as if something had landed from above, but the rest of the ocean was still.
“Wait,” I said, grabbing Millers upper arm to stop him walking forward.
“What is it?” he asked.
I watched the ripples still, but something was moving under the surface. Had something just dived into the water from our boat? I was nervous to get any closer, but I needed to see.
“It’s not safe,” I whispered. “Look.” I pointed to a dark shape moving away from us, it was traveling around the edge of the island as if circling it.
“Hmm, probably not a great time to bring it up but…” Miller began.
“What?”
“Green Holt is famous for sightings of, I don’t know how else to put this, sea monsters,” Miller said. My eyes widened.
“Sea monsters? Sea monsters!” I shrieked.
“It’s just rumors, or at least I think it is. It’s a tourist gimmick, keeps people coming here to see if they can spot the elusive creatures that haunt the waters,” he shrugged.
“This island had beaches like no place I’ve ever seen, but they think they need a sea monster to get tourists to visit?” I said, realizing I was now gripping tighter onto his arm.
“When you put it like that it sounds crazy,” he laughed. “But yeah, if the legends are true then maybe what we just saw was a sea monster!”
It felt as though my left hand was shaking down by my side. I looked down at the ring on my middle finger and saw that it was buzzing like an old pager. Effie had given me an amber ring and told me it would provide protection. How exactly it did that, I wasn’t sure. I would often stare at the amber and watch it swirl like molten rock. It looked drastically different now.
The amber stone was now lime green and wasn’t moving at all. It had been vibrating but stopped when I lifted it up to inspect it. I’d never seen it change like this before.
“I should call Effie,” I said.
“About the sea monster? Have you got a spare six hours?” he laughed. “She can talk your ears off about water legends. Her and Kate are both into anything like that. If you can find two people that are more convinced that Big Foot is real, I’ll give you twenty dollars.”
“Hey!” Honey shouted. She was jogging along the beach towards the dock and stopped before leaving the sand. It was as if she was reluctant to approach the water. “My guy is up at the house now, so I thought I should get you. He said something about drinking a calming tea and feeling ready sooner than he thought he would.”
“You want us back there now?” I asked.
“Yeah, if you’re free! I for one will be thrilled to not have a dead body buried in my back yard, don’t know about you guys!” she smiled. “If you can get it out of here before my bedtime, I’d be grateful, otherwise I’ll not sleep a wink.”
“We can get to Skerry later. If we can get Pete to agree to a ceasefire then it would buy us some time,” Miller said.
“Pete? Ceasefire? You’d have better luck getting pigs to fly, but okay,” Honey chuckled. As we walked away from the dock I looked back at the water and wondered what I’d just seen.
I knew I hadn’t imagined it, because Miller saw something lurking beneath the surface too. Maybe I was still on edge from having seen something watching me from the trees earlier, or the creepy note that had been left on my bed. Maybe Miller could help me find a therapist after all this, because otherwise I would be the one that couldn’t sleep.
When we made it back up to the guesthouse, we saw a man standing out front with two spades. He had them leaning against his hip as he took frantic gulps from a thermos but lowered it when he saw us coming.
“Herbal tea really calms my nerves,” he smiled. “Honey said there was a…” he gulped, “dead body underground in a…” he gulped again, “bunker.”
“Are you gonna be alright to dig?” Miller asked.
“Sure. It’s just a skeleton, right?” He laughed awkwardly, then lifted a trembling hand to tip the thermos upright to swallow the last of his tea. “Honey, could I get some hot water? I brought six back-up tea bags.”
“Sure thing,” she agreed.
“We’ll get started,” Miller said. “I assume that’s why you brought an extra spade.”
“I own two spades and I don’t take my eyes off ‘em, not even for a second!” the man announced. “Not with those rotten treasure hunters skulking around. They’d take my spade in a heartbeat and use it to go digging up all sorts of things. If there are more secret bodies buried around this island, I’d rather they stay a secret, know what I mean?”
“I guess,” I shrugged.
“What you don’t know can’t frighten you so much that you cry in the shower!” he grinned. He followed Honey into the house, and I turned back to Miller.
“Nerves of steel, that guy,” I smirked, pointing towards the house. “We’re gonna be left alone to do this, aren’t we?”
“Oh, sure. If that guy even has one look through the bunker door, he might have a heart attack,” Miller replied. “Grab a spadie, Sadie!” he rhymed, laughing to himself.
“Just you wait until I find a word that vaguely rhymes with your name. It’ll be over for you then, let me tell you!” I teased back. I picked up the spade and followed Miller to the dug-up lawn behind the house. I had quickly realized that a word that rhymed with his name was ‘killer’ but given that we were about to recover a corpse it seemed inappropriate to say it out loud.
Miller jumped down into the pit first and suggested that I use the spade like a cutting knife to hack away at the edges of the pit so that we could make the whole thing bigger. As I did that, he was heaving the soil from the pit out onto the growing dirt pile on the grass.
There was probably a more efficient way to do it, and certainly my magic would speed things up if I knew what I was doing, but I was too nervous to try. I had considered asking Honey to use her magic, but she seemed determined to avoid coming anywhere near the digging site. I noticed her and the man that owned the spades had perched themselves onto the porch of the house and were watching us work.
“Can you see how big the door is? How much more do we need to move before we can open it?” I asked. I was sweating profusely and didn’t know how much more I could handle.
“I think you can stop now, I just have to move a few more spadefuls of dirt, then I think we can get in,” Miller shouted up. I gladly threw my spade onto the grass and sat down for a minute as I waited for him to be done. The sound of rusted door hinges rang out and I knew he’d opened the door.
I leaned over the edge of the pit and watched Miller descending a short ladder into the bunker below. A sudden swell of bravery took hold of me and I elected to follow him, despite the squeals of protest from Honey and the spade man.
When I got into the bunker, I could see the size of it better. There was probably enough space for a dozen or so people to be in here, but it would be a tight squeeze. Non-perishable food lined the walls on shelves and piles of blankets
were teetering at one end of the room. I wasn’t sure why you would need blankets in here, the whole place was like a hot tin can.
Miller was standing over the skeleton and patting himself down, looking into his own pockets for something. He found a pen and used it to lift the jacket of the victim open without touching it with his bare hands.
In a regular world he would be doing that to prevent contamination so that scientists could check the body for DNA. That wouldn’t be happening in Hallow Haven on account of not having those kinds of facilities. He was using a pen because touching an old dead body is gross, plain and simple.
Even in the limited light, I could see that there were things in the dead guy’s jacket pocket. It was bulging out in places as if stuffed with something. Miller carefully used the pen to retrieve a folded document and we both realized at the same time that it was a passport.
“Why would he have a passport?” I asked. I’d been told many times that folk in Hallow Haven never travelled anywhere outside of their own islands. Miller opened it and scanned the pages for a name.
“Robert Barton,” he read.
Somewhere above us I heard a scream and then a thud. The spade guy was now leaning over the edge of the pit and looking down at both of us.
“Help, Honey just fainted!” he yelled.
6
Miller and I scrambled back up the ladder, and sure enough Honey was lying flat on the grass by the dirt pile. The spade guy was fanning her with one of the soil-covered spades and I flinched every time he swung it downward, dreading that he might hit her with it.
“What happened?” I asked.
“She heard you say a name that folk round here haven’t heard in a long time,” he said. “Robert Barton is a figure in our history that we learn about through whispers. I thought he was long gone, but here you are saying you found him in the bunker!”
The spade guy had a strange expression that I didn’t understand, a mix of relief and concern. Was he just worried about Honey? Or was something else going on?
“Well, we found someone holding a passport that had that name in it,” I mumbled. “That doesn’t prove anything just yet.”
“What do you know about Robert Barton?” Miller asked. Spade guy stepped a little closer and began speaking in a conspiratorial tone of voice.
“Well, some say that he was a man from old Skerry island. He would roam the waters barefoot and was as tall as a house! Some say he used to utter the stuff of nightmares in through the windows of the sleeping! Others say he turned into a swarm of bees and flew far away from here!”
I let out a strange breath that was simultaneously frustrated and confused. “Who was he? Why do you all talk about him?” I asked.
“He was ‘ere, then he wasn’t! That’s fishy if you ask me,” spade guy replied.
“Well, he’s been dead in that bunker for quite a while, puts a dent in your ‘swarm of bees’ theory,” Miller said.
“Hey, no need for them air quotes, sir,” spade guy grunted.
“My apologies. Look, I will make another call to the station and see if I can at least get someone to come and collect the body, that way Honey can rest easy,” Miller explained. “I’ll be two minutes,” he muttered to me before walking to the house. I think he said it to assure me that I would only have to listen to the lore of Robert Barton for a short while before Miller would return.
“I suppose you think this island is wacky, eh?” spade guy asked. “Old Tony-two-spades might not be the sharpest tool in the box, but…” he trailed off. “I don’t know how I was gonna finish that sentence.”
“Tony?” I repeated.
“That’s me! Tony-two-spades. Not a lot of folk on this island can brag about having two spades, but I sure can. Each of ‘em fine looking spades too, that’s genuine wood on the handle!” He pronounced genuine more like gen-u-wine and I wondered why he thought having real wood was such a point of pride.
“Well, Tony, when was Robert Barton last seen?” I asked. Tony looked over my shoulder and winced, causing me to whip my head round and stare out at the choppy sea. The weather had taken a sharp turn and still waters that surrounded the island were now crashing into the shore loudly. Even being high up on the cliff top I could hear it.
“Help me get Honey inside,” Tony asked. He slipped both spades over his shoulder and into some sort of back strapping so that they hung across his body in a cross shape, like a swordsman. He lifted Honey up from under her arms and I grabbed her legs, together we hurried back to the house and lay her down in the hallway.
The less-than-graceful dropping of her body was probably what roused her.
“D-d-did I hear what I thought I heard?” she stuttered.
“Robert Barton has been found!” Tony yelled. She squealed and then I saw the color drain from her face as if she might faint again. These people were weirder than the folk on the main island.
Miller came into the hallway and looked at the three of us huddled on the tile floor. “Do I want to know what’s happening?” he asked.
“The witch in the water is angry,” Tony yelled. “Causing a storm, a big one at that. It won’t be safe to get back to the main island with a body today.”
“Witch in the water?” I repeated.
“Why don’t we all get a cup of coffee and I can fill you in,” Honey said. I helped her to her feet, and we all followed her back to the dining room. I elected to take a seat by a window that faced out onto the pit. I doubted anyone would run up and steal a skeleton, but it didn’t seem like this island was home to many regular people, so who knows?
Tony and Miller joined me as Honey went to fill a coffee pot in the kitchen. “Anyone for food? I’ve only just seen the time and you’ve all been digging so much today!” she called out.
I wanted to point out that only Miller and I had been digging. Old Tony-two-spades had done nothing other than provide the spades, but I was getting snappy out of hunger, so I kept my mouth shut.
“Yes please, Honey,” Miller answered. “What do you have?”
“Never mind about that, I’ll make something you’ll all love,” she hollered. I’d learned quickly that in Hallow Haven, a witch offering to make something ‘she knows you will love’ typically means you are about to eat the best meal of your life. My stomach rumbled excitedly in anticipation.
“I take it you’ve already met up with toothless Pete?” Tony asked.
“We sure have,” I smiled. “He’s… a character.”
“Oh yeah, he’s a good guy for the most part. Won’t suffer any nonsense from the Skerry island inhabitants though. I guess you came over on account of him blasting his cannon their way,” Tony shrugged. “I’m not totally sure what’s upset him this time.”
“Do you know anything about the wall between Green Holt and Skerry?” Miller asked.
“All I know is that I’ve got two spades and an empty belly,” Tony laughed.
“All right, all right,” Honey called as she walked towards us with plates stacked up both arms. “I’m coming now, a little patience would do you wonders.”
She placed four plates down on the table. Each plate held a different meal and it looked as though I had been given a huge tuna salad sandwich, Miller had a pasta dish that looked amazing, Honey had a couple of tacos and Tony…
“Perfect!” Tony yelled, picking up a knife and fork to tuck into the two-thirds of a lemon cheesecake that Honey had presented to him.
“The man loves a cheesecake come rain or shine,” Honey smiled at me.
“Oh yeah, funny thing is that I don’t even think I handle lactose all that well so this could very well kill me,” he chuckled. “But if eating a cheesecake is the thing that kicks me off old planet earth, then so be it!”
Honey snapped her fingers and four huge drinks sprouted up out of the table and straws fell into them from above. She had such control over her magic, and I couldn’t help but gaze in wonder. My magic career thus far had involved producing a cookie out of thin air and s
lowing down a bullet. I’d tried and failed to style my hair and now my 50’s do was clinging to my face and neck with sweat. I clearly needed more practice.
“Peridot!” Honey said.
“Gesundheit!” Tony laughed. Honey whipped at him with a linin napkin.
“No, the ring! That’s peridot isn’t it?” she asked. She was staring down at the ring on the middle finger of my left hand.
“What’s peridot?” I asked.
“It’s an ocean stone,” Honey grinned, lifting my hand up for closer inspection. “Comes from volcanoes underwater, I think.”
“Oh right,” I nodded. My amber ring had changed into some other sort of stone when I’d seen the figure in the ocean, had the ‘witch in the water’ made it happen?
We seemed to have all silently agreed to eat our meal without discussion of the body, Robert Barton or the mystery water witch. Our hunger took over and we ate without talking. The stormy weather outside was getting worse and as the rain began to fall, I realized that the bunker door had been left open.
Miller realized at the same time. As soon as the heavy thudding of raindrops started to rattle the roof of the guest house, he jumped up from his seat and hurried outside before I could say a word. We all watched as he sprinted through the rain and disappeared into the pit to close the hatch and prevent the bunker from flooding.
“Quite a man you’ve got there,” Honey smiled. “I didn’t realize a peacekeeper could date her guardian.”
“Well, I— how did you know he was my guardian? Or that we were dating?” I asked.
“I wasn’t sure about either, but you’ve just proved me right!” she laughed. Miller walked back into the dining room and his clothes were dripping water into a puddle at his feet. His hair was flattened against his head and his shirt was clinging to his skin. I couldn’t help but stare.
I had seen him shirtless before, but this was different. I had gone with him to his house to help lock him in a cage so that, should he transform into his wolf state, he wouldn’t be free to cause any harm to the islanders. It had been a full moon that night and he was still so new to his werewolf existence that he didn’t know what he was capable of. That was what scared him the most.
