Tug of Fate | When Stars Align Book one

Bizarre happenings

Liam

We make our way out the back as James had instructed, and make our way down to the road. Logan and I are happy that we're back and safe, but this gnawing feeling in my stomach is not letting me rest easy. What are we supposed to do? I know we're supposed to do something. But I cannot put my finger on what. It's the first time that Logan is not striking up a conversation or talking about anything. First time since Angel died.

I don't bring up anything either. We walk for half an hour, until we reach the hike office – or what should have been. Both of us stop in front of a dilapidated looking office, with signs falling off, roof down and wild weed growing everywhere around it. What in the hell... this is the same place I saw Ananya for the first time, a few days ago. And it already feels like an entire lifetime has passed.

"What the fuck? Am I seeing what I think I am seeing?" Logan asks.

"It looks like it.. I don't understand." I trail off.

This is... Nothing is left of the office. It just looks so..so..haunted.

"Do you think the earthquake affected it this bad?"

"What else could it be? It had to be the storm and the thunder that followed that ten-minute earthquake. Even the cave was quaking! This was just a wooden structure."

"But where is everybody? There has to be a notice or something right? Or someone standing here?"

"Come on. Let's go to that diner and get some food and try to find out where these guys are."

A few places around the office, like the diner, look decent enough. While most of the other places are closed. Not closed like dilapidated closed, like the office but closed. We made our way to the diner. It isn't as full as diners usually are. I glance at the clock hanging behind the counter. It shows the time to be 3:00 pm.

"Hey guys what can I help you with? Not much on the menu, as we just reopened just a few weeks back. Take a seat someone will be with you shortly." The guy at the counter says. He is wearing a surgical mask sort of a thing and gloves. Eh. Weird.

"Hey. We would like some take-out please. How about 6 grilled cheese sandwiches, 3 portions of pancakes with chocolate sauce, 3 chicken sandwiches, and 6 Flat Whites, with extra shots." I tell him.

"Sure. Please take a seat, your order will be ready, shortly. "

He turns to place the order, when Logan asks, "Hey man what happened to that hiking office over there?"

The man turns back around, and now I see his name tag. It says Matt. He is looking at us wide-eyed. "That office has been closed for some time now. It was a major scandal. Turns out that a few of their hikers never came back. One of the missing one's husband came and created an uproar. Some major hotshot he was. It was really tough, even they were perplexed." He shrugs.

"What? How is that possible? And what about to the other hikers? We thought it happened because of the earthquake.." I tell him,

Matt looks at us again. "Which cave were you in?" he asks us. It sounds like sarcasm, but of course it couldn't be. Right?

Logan and I point behind us at the direction of the cave. He shakes his head and smiles.

"Well, after the virus and all, the businesses have been slow to get back on their feet. Talking about that hiking business is not a good idea, because the locals are pretty pissed off about it. Most of their guides just left overnight to avoid people's wrath. Excuse me, I have to go help in the kitchen. Even the help is scarce after the virus. You would have thought once it was over, more people would be coming out!" he just shakes his head and heads into the kitchen.

Logan and I just look at each other baffled.

"Some people never made it back? What the fuck? And they just left us over there to defend for ourselves? Were they even concerned that one of them couldn't make it back?" Logan is almost screaming by the end of the question.

A gentleman, sitting next to us turns to us and says, "Them hiking men, right? Atrocious, if you ask me! Serves them right. I cry for the souls who didn't make it." He says this, then gets up, leaves a tip on the table and turns to leave. But before he leaves, he turns to us and says, "I hope you find strength in this loss you are facing. I heard the ending of your sentence. I am sorry. There is a sort-of-a-shrine outside this diner, just round the corner. Most of the people we lost during the virus and the hike, their photos are pinned over there. You can go there and put up the photos of the ones you lost, or just pay tribute to the others." With this he gives us a sad smile, squeezes my shoulder and leaves.

Did he lose someone too? Poor guy.

Logan and I sit there fuming. Fifteen minutes later, our food is ready, and we get up to collect it. He tells us how much we owe. Logan hands over his credit card. And we wait for the transaction to be over.

Transaction declined. Huh?

Logan hands him over another card.

Card expired. I snicker. That is so Logan!

Logan takes the card back and is about to give Matt another card, when I hand over the cash I have in my wallet, collect the receipt, take the stuff and head out.

"Maybe we need to get all our cards reissued, you know. With that amount of thunder and lightning, maybe something went wrong. Ahh man please, how many times have I said do not carry expired cards!"

"Yeah yeah. I forgot. I seriously don't remember any of my cards expiring so soon..." he frowns.

"But that's the point, isn't it? That you NEVER remember."

We both laugh. It feels good to laugh a little. Not too much, because laughing too much feels like we're betraying Julian. We round the corner and come up short, at the shrine. There is a pin-tuck board, size 5 feet by 5 feet, and photos and messages are pinned to it. So many photos! How many people did these guys lose? There must be thousands of the photos, all stacked up haphazardly. Some new, some old, some dusty, some pinned recently. Fuck...

There, in the midst of all the photos, beneath a few layers of pinned photos, I catch sight of a smile. My heart slams in my chest. I rummage through removing the photos above it, pinning them aside carefully, I look at that photo. There in front of me is the smiling face of Julian. Tears start rolling down my face.

They found his body. Did it fall over a cliff or something instead? Just how long were we in that cave?

This makes it real. This makes it so fucking real. He is really gone, isn't he?

I am sobbing at this point. Logan places a hand on my shoulder but he's sobbing too. I don't know how long we sat there, just looking at his photo, and at the countless other photos that have all blurred for us. We sit in solidarity with this man, who despite having been with us for just a little over a day, had felt like one of us. One of us.

After what feels like ages, we get up and make our way back to the cabin. To break this news, the proof of his death, to the girls and James. To Ali. I look up and offer a prayer to the sky, to the stars, please help me through this, give me courage and strength.