Island claims vacationers

Bryce and Cortney stepped out onto the sunlit streets of the island, but something immediately felt… wrong. The air was too still, the usual hum of distant chatter and music replaced by an eerie silence. Shops that had been bustling yesterday now stood half-empty, their owners moving sluggishly, their smiles strained. "Did you notice that?" Bryce muttered, his eyes scanning the nearly deserted marketplace. Cortney nodded, her playful mood fading. "Yeah. It's like everyone's moving in slow motion. And where are the tourists? The boat wasn’t supposed to leave yet."

Bryce and Cortney walked past a shuttered ice cream stand, its cheerful neon sign flickering weakly. The distant sound of laughter caught their attention—unnaturally high-pitched, almost forced. Then they saw them: a family of four—John, his wife Rebecca, and their twin girls, Wendy and Anna—standing frozen in front of a souvenir shop. The parents’ smiles were firced, their eyes glassy. The twins clutched matching stuffed dolphins, they look to be 18 years of age. "Hey, you okay?" Bryce called out, stepping closer. John turned his headslowly, his smile stretching unnaturally wide. "Oh, we're just fine," he said, his voice unnervingly cheerful. His wife, Rebecca, mirrored his expression, her fingers tightening around her daughters' shoulders. The twins—Wendy and Anna—giggled in unison, their laughter too sharp, too synchronized. Bryce exchanged a glance with Cortney. Something was very wrong. "Uh… great," Bryce said carefully, taking a step back. "You guys enjoying the island?" "Loving it," Rebecca replied, her eyes glazed. "The show last night was amazing, wasn’t it?"

Bryce and Cortney both stopped and looked back at the family. The twins' giggles cut off abruptly, their wide eyes locking onto Bryce with unsettling intensity. John griins again "You should come with us," he said, voice smooth as honey. "The next show starts soon." Cortney’s fingers brushed Bryce’s wrist—a silent warning. "What show?" she asked, feigning casual interest. Rebecca tilted her head, her neck cracking audibly. "The best one," she whispered. "You don’t remember? But you were there." Bryce’s stomach twisted., theirs marks on Rebecca’s shoulder he didn't notice at first, and the twins eyes seem hazed like their parents.

Bryce’s pulse spiked as he took another step back, pulling Cortney with him. "We, uh—we’ve got other plans. Maybe next time." Rebecca’s grin didn’t waver. "There is no next time," she said, her voice suddenly hollow. The twins took a synchronized step forward, their stuffed dolphins dangling limply from their hands. Cortney tightened her grip on Bryce’s wrist.

Cortney- why don't you remind us , we really don't remember much past fucking each other

Says Cortney, not knowing why she told them.Rebecca’s grin faltered for the first time. The twins froze mid-step, their hazed eyes flickering with something like confusion. John let out a slow, wet chuckle. "You don’t remember?" His voice was suddenly less polished—raspy, like something scraping against bone. "The sweet smell… the lights… the way it made lust until you gave in and fucked..the chosen tooke on stage to trancend?" Bryce’s breath hitched. Fragments of memory surged—flashing colors, a stage drenched in unnatural violet light, hands grabbing at him, Cortney’s moans mingling with a chorus of others. His skin crawled. Cortney’s grip loosening slightly on his arm. "

Then what?" she demanded, her voice sharp with defiance. "What happened after we... after the show?" John’s grin returned, The twins swayed in place, their hollow eyes locked on Bryce. "You joined," Rebecca whispered, her fingers twitching at her sides. "You gave yourselves to the island. The hunger took you, and now it’ll never let you go." Bryce’s blood ran cold. The fragmented memories surged again—hot skin, tangled limbs, but not just his and Cortney’s. Others had been there. Rebecca face along with the twins flash in his mind being their with them. Bryce’s breath came in short gasps as the realization hit him Cortney- okay..show us the way Replies Cortney as a sweet aroma hits her nose, clouding her mind slightly.

John grins "This way," he said, turning stiffly toward a narrow alley between two boarded-up shops. The twins followed, their steps eerily in sync, their stuffed dolphins dragging against the cobblestones. Bryce hesitated, but Cortney’s fingers dug into his arm. Her pupils were dilated, her breath shallow—the sweet aroma was getting to her. It’s happening again, he realized with a jolt. As they followed the family, flashes of the previous night tore through Bryce’s mind: —A crowded pavilion, bodies pressed too close, the air thick with that same cloying scent.

Bryce’s vision blurred as another fragment of memory clawed its way forward—teeth, too sharp, glinting under the violet lights. A figure with black eyes and crimson irises leaning over Rebecca, breath hot against her shoulder before the bite came. She melted into pleasure melted into pleasure Cortney swayed beside him, her fingers loosening their grip. The sweet scent clung to her, making her eyelids flutter. "Bryce," she murmured, voice thick. "I remember... their mouths. The blissful look on their faces as they —" Rebecca turned, her grin stretching impossibly wide. "You do remember."

Bryce’s stomach twisted as he watched Cortney sway, her pupils swallowing the last of her defiance. The scent thickened, wrapping around them like invisible hands. He gripped her shoulders, shaking her gently. “Cortney, focus—we weren’t bitten. We weren’t.” Her lashes fluttered, confusion flickering behind the haze. “Look at me.” Bryce pressed his forehead to hers, desperation clawing up his throat. “No marks." Rebecca- mm..bit, yes. Some of us were...meaning, john...the twins...it felt amazing, this explains why you don't know about this show, only those chosen by shiki, those that received the initiation was told.

Bryce’s pulse hammered in his throat as Cortney’s body went slack against him. The scent—thick, syrupy—coiled around them, seeping into their lungs like poison. "You don’t remember the bite?" she murmured, stepping closer. "But you remember the pleasure, don’t you?" Cortney whimpered, her fingers twitching at her sides.

Cortney’s breath hitched as the scent coiled deeper into her lungs—sweet, rotting, irresistible. Her fingers twitched toward Rebecca’s outstretched hand. Bryce grabbed her wrist. "No." His voice cracked. "That’s not us in those memories. That’s them." Rebecca’s smirks, "But it could be." Her tongue flicked over razor-sharp incisors. "The island chooses. The hunger remembers." A shudder ran through Cortney. Bryce sees her eyes have changed, so haste twins eyes, black with crimson irses. John fades away like he never was their, but just a mirage.

The twins stepped forward in eerie unison, their hollow eyes fixed on Cortney. One reached out a pale hand, brushing her cheek with cold fingers. "You felt it," whispered Wendy—or was it Anna? Their voices blurred together, a dissonant harmony. "The teeth. The surrender. You want to remember." Cortney’s breath hitched.Bryce’s grip on Cortney tightened as the twins’ whispers slithered into her mind. Their voices were honeyed poison, unraveling her resistance stitch by stitch. "You want to remember," they murmured, their lips barely moving. Cortney’s breath shuddered. The scent—thick, intoxicating—flooded her senses, dragging her back to the pavilion. The press of bodies. The bliss. Bryce shook her again. “Cortney, no—” But her fingers were already lifting, trembling toward the twins. Rebecca’s grin widened, her teeth glinting. "Join us, and then we head to the show"

Rebecca whispered, her voice curling around them like smoke. The twins echoed her, their words overlapping in a hypnotic rhythm. Bryce’s grip on Cortney tightened, but her body was already swaying toward them, her breath shallow. The scent—thick and cloying—wrapped around her thoughts, dissolving resistance like sugar in water. "You remember," the twins murmured, their hollow eyes reflecting the dim glow of the island’s unnatural twilight. " The surrender." Cortney’s fingers twitched at her sides.

Bryce’s pulse roared in his ears as Cortney’s fingers slipped from his grip. The twins circled her, their stuffed dolphins leaving wet trails on the cobblestones. Their whispers slithered between them, stitching the fragments of last night into something monstrous—something beckoning. "You remember the blissfullook i ha," Rebecca murmured, stepping closer. Her breath smelled of salt and spoiled fruit. "The bite feels amazing, dark blissfil pleasureyou cant imagine...only experience" Cortney’s lips parted. A moan escaped, weak and wanting. Bryce lunged, but John’s hand clamped onto his shoulder—cold, impossibly strong., wait we're did, I thought je wasnt..real Bryce thinks as he is held in place with one hand. The cobblestones beneath Bryce’s knees burned as John’s grip forced him down. His vision swam—John had faded moments ago, hadn’t he? Yet here his fingers dug into Bryce’s collarbone, cold as dead tide. Cortney’s whimper snapped his attention back. The twins pressed against her now, their hollow eyes reflecting the pulsing violet glow that seeped from the alley’s cracks. One traced Cortney’s jugular with a fingernail—blackened, too long. "You resist because you fear the bliss," Rebecca crooned. Her teeth glistened. "But the island always wins."

The twins' hands moved in unison, their fingers hooking under the hem of Cortney's shirt. Fabric tore as they pulled, buttons scattering across the cobblestones. Rebecca's dress slithered down her body like a second skin shedding, pooling at her feet to reveal pale flesh marred only by the jagged scar of an old bite on her collarbone. Cortney gasped as cold hands mapped her bare skin, the twins' hollow eyes drinking in her trembling form. Their stuffed dolphins lay discarded now, forgotten as they pressed closer, their now naked bodies cool against hers. Bryce strained against John's grip, his throat raw from shouting. "Don't worry..she'll be back with you in a bit after my girls and wife converted her to shiki"