“You wanna do this?”

“Well,” she said, her lungs also beginning to strain. “It’s either that or sink. I doubt I could swim to the boat now.”

“I could help you ….”

“Bryce, fuck it, come on.”

She began to swim toward shore, done having languid chats while her muscles cried for mercy. When she was shallow enough, she slipped both sandals on beneath the water, and dropped her legs into the mucky seafloor.

Oh, sweet relief, she thought, but her good vibes were cut short as her feet sank into the wet sand. Bryce came up next to her, and they both stepped cautiously forward, aiming for the rocks.

“Try to keep your feet off the sand. Your skin, I mean.”

Eva was disheartened to see that Mike wasn’t watching them as much as he was watching the sand between the lapping waves and the rocks. Looking for movement, for the things that had laid waste to good old Terry from Jersey and Karyn with a “Y”.

As Bryce and Eva emerged, dripping, from the sea, they both took a moment to study the stretch between them and the stones. Eva didn’t notice any movement, saw nothing strange crawling around or on top of the bright sand.

“You guys will be fine, but I wouldn’t dawdle too much,” Mike said.

Eva agreed, and they walked across the beach, hand-in-hand, until they stepped gratefully onto the rocks.

Once atop one of the large, rounded stones, Eva looked down at her feet, her legs, and saw nothing untoward. There was a fine mist of sand on her toes, her heel, but nothing moved, nothing turned her skin black or made her want to scream out in agony.

Not yet.

She saw Bryce doing his own inspection before looking at her and nodding.

“Well, this sucks,” Eva said, and appreciated Mike chuckling at her shitty attempt at levity.

“It does at that.”

Then, as one, they all turned to study the blackened corpses, this time with a more studious disposition.

“So, you think something…what? Bit them?”

“Infested them. Some strain of sand fleas, sand lice, whatever they’re called,” Mike said, shrugging. “It isn’t that uncommon and, well, I’ve heard horror stories. I mean, me and Stacy do a lot of traveling, sometimes to some pretty remote places.”

“Maybe,” Bryce said. “But come on … look at them.”

“I know, I know. This is totally fucked. I have no idea what ….”

“HELLO!”

A booming voice interrupted Mike’s thought, and they all turned to see Manu standing at the bow of his boat, having seemingly appeared from nowhere.

Was he hiding? Eva thought, trying not to get carried away, overly paranoid. Sleeping, more likely.

Mike waved back but dropped his arm when he saw the big smile on Manu’s face, the expression blatant even from seventy-five feet away.

“I see you’ve discovered my friends!” he yelled across the water, and then laughed as if it was a hilarious prank, a joke they’d all be laughing at later, perhaps while eating charred boar off a spit at the infamous Manu Luau to which, Eva recalled, they’d all been invited.

A chill went up her spine at Manu’s choice of words, and her defensive, sardonic inner-wit scurried away, leaving a void of empty fear behind. My friends?

Bryce said softly, “What the hell ….”

“Please, come pick us up!” Mike yelled.

“I don’t think so!” Manu called back. “The blood gets them stirred up, you know. Can you see?” He pointed in the direction of the couple, and their eyes followed.

And yes.

Yes, now…they could see.

“Oh God,” Eva groaned.

The sand was moving. It seemed okay close to the rocks, but there was a wide swath of beach extending outward from the dead bodies that was, without a doubt … teeming.

“Sand mites?” Bryce looked at Mike. “Is that what you think?”

“Shit man, I don’t know. Whatever they are, they’re quick and deadly as piranha.”

Stacy, who Eva had all but forgotten about, suddenly joined the discussion. “You think he did this on purpose?” she said, her voice high-pitched and cracking. “You think he brought us here to die?”

“Take it easy, hon,” Mike said softly.

“There’s not much left of them now,” Bryce said, and it was true. The bodies were still lumped on top of one another, but the flesh had been eaten away, leaving bloody tissue and flashes of wet gristle, like raw hamburger beneath a charred shell. A red stain of blood surrounded them.

Their flesh seemed to boil.

“You can stay on the rocks. Most people do,” Manu called cheerfully. “But sooner or later ….” He shrugged, giving them his best what are you gonna do expression. “To help you avoid temptation, I will leave now. I hope you are still alive when I come back, because that would be much more interesting!”

Manu pulled up the anchor and started the boat, gave them all a cheerful wave as he turned it around and motored slowly out of the harbor.

“Son of a bitch,” Bryce said, his tone heated. “Why is he doing this?”

“Don’t know,” Mike said.

Eva turned around, studied the shadowed tree line. “What about the trees? He made a big deal about us staying out of there, so maybe there’s help there. Safety.”

Mike nodded. “Good point. Still, there’s a lot of sand between here and there.”

“We could also try swimming to the edges of the harbor,” Bryce added, “climbing those rocks and seeing what lies beyond. He claimed this island was uninhabited but, to Eva’s point, he was probably lying, wanting to keep us on the sand.”

Stacy groaned and they all looked at her. She was looking down, one palm on her chest, pressed against her heart. “Oh no….”

Mike studied the area Stacy was fixated on.

“He’s right,” he said with a sour grimace. “Blood does get them stirred up.”