Wait

“No, wait a second!” You tell her.

On the boat, both crew members are looking in your direction. You wave. They wave back. Nicole understands. You lay on your back for a moment, torn between the simple pleasure of being rocked by the calm waves of this exceptional location and the anguish built up by Nicole’s attitude.

You hear one of the sailors getting in the water soon followed by the second.

“Now!” You tell Nicole.

She nods and starts swimming through the entrance of the cave. A terrifying scream coming from inside echoes on the walls as you exit into the open sea.

The next twenty minutes are a nightmare. Between the persisting hangover, the serious lack of sleep and the mystery surrounding the scream and Nicole’s fear, you go through probably one of the top three worst times of your life. But at least the sea is relatively peaceful and you eventually manage to reach the mouth of the river Nicole spotted earlier. You swim upstream until you have to walk and you keep on walking for twenty extra minutes. Despite your constant harassment, Nicole refuses to tell you anything until you are both “safe”.

Finally, you find a dirt road by the river and you get out of the water. The large majority of your muscles decide to form a union to protest against what you had them go through for the last forty minutes. Unable to counter their arguments, you grant them a five minute break sitting on a rock.

You look at yourself, half naked with only a tiny triangle of soaked lace covering your mons, you feel defenseless. And all this because of Nicole. She should better have a good explanation.

And she does not.

“Vampires? Seriously? Vampires! You’re fucking crazy! I mean you’ve always been kind of weird but this is simply bat shit crazy! I am fucking naked in the middle of the fucking rainforest in a fucking foreign country, after swimming for a fucking hour in open sea and upstream a fucking river when I should be sipping a fucking Piña Colada on the deck of a Cruise boat while an handsome guy is flirting with me!!!”

“Sam... I am serious, this is deadly serious, you should be dead by now or worse. Deb... Deb is already one of them, Caroline too probably, they are all looking for me... I am sorry.”

“You know what Nicole? You can go fuck yourself! You and your fucking vampires!”

You head off in the direction of the beach.

Twenty minutes later you reach the edge of the forest. Ahead of you, a small resort with a dozen bungalows. Considering the size of the restaurant and the number of sun loungers by the beach, you suspect the place to be a drop point for cruises. You spot a few couples by the beach and a waiter behind a bar. Before anyone can see you, you find a large towel and wrap it around your chest.

“Good morning, señorita, How can I be of service?”

“I’m with the Caron and...”

But the young man does not let you finish.

“The Caron! Wonderful! Welcome to Isla Solar, can I get you anything? A breakfast? Or a Piña Colada maybe?”

That last part, he punctuates it with a wink.

“You know what? Fuck them all, I’ll have that Piña Colada!”

“That’s the spirit! I’ll be back in a minute.”

The Piña Colada tastes like victory. The round flavor of the coconut, the sweet sweet pineapple and the crunchy ice organise a party on your palate. You take a decision as you order a second one: you are going to enjoy yourself for the rest of the cruise, flirt with as many good looking guys you can and Nicole will have to find another dorm to spend the comming year. You are done with this crap, this girl is seriously nuts.

“Señorita? Are you sure you are with the Caron? The boat is not here and I don’t see anyone else.”

“I... swam...”

It sounds stupid.

“You swam?”

“Yes...”

“All the way from the cave?”

“Yes...”

“Señorita, that was very dangerous. There are sharks and the currents...”

“Yeah, I know, but a friend of mine had the idea that it would be fun... to be perfectly honest it wasn’t and we had a fight.”

“I can imagine that. Do you need me to radio them?”

“I don’t know, I feel a bit stupid...”

“Well,” he says smiling and looking at a point behind you, “apparently, it won’t be necessary, the boat is arriving.”

You look back. The boat is berthing at a small dock. One by one the passengers step out of the boat soon followed by the two crewmen.

Suddenly, you do not feel so sure anymore. There is something odd in the way they move... as if they were a pack of hunters. What was that scream you heard as you were escaping the cave?

A few of the passengers are going to the beach, towards the couples you spotted earlier. The crew members and two passengers are heading your way.