Page 3 of Vying Girls

I open my camera and aim it. It links me to an app, the icon just a black circle.

‘If this puts a virus on my phone, I swear…’

‘Wouldn’t worry about that. Worry about hackers.’

I wait for the thing to load. It’s not much as interfaces go. Just a black screen, some typewriter typeface.

The others crowd me as it continues typing.

‘This is creepy,’ Elly murmurs. ‘Like Anonymous-type crap.’

‘I think it’s ace,’ Haz counters.

I run my eyes over the minimal white text. ‘Says it’ll tell us where we need to go, when we need to go. And something’s going to happen at each place. Like a riddle to solve, or a challenge. Oh, I’m excited. Look, here’s the first one:Ten glass skulls, scattered across the isle. Better move quick, they’ll take you a while.’I lower my phone. ‘Glass skulls? Don’t get it.’

‘I do.’ Haz grabs my phone, skimming the riddle herself. ‘Elly, remember last year when Nic was doing her weird initiation shit? She brought back that drink, that black stuff?’

‘Oh, shit, yeah. The bottle was a skull. Think that’s it?’

‘Yeah. Reckon they’ve buried ten bottles of it.’

Elly shakes her head. ‘Man, that stuff messed me up.’

‘Yeah, was rank. But fuck it, I want one.’ She taps the screen with a blunt nail. ‘Wanna take a clue each? Split up?’

‘Hang on. Let me read them again first.’

A couple are obvious.If you don’t win, you draw. Enter the castle’s giant maw,is clearly the drawbridge.People are hurrying past now, no doubt on the way to the treasure. Some clues are more obscure, taking us a while to decipher.

‘I’ll take this one.’ Haz taps the fourth clue.Where stone wolves leer and the rest of us fear. The beginning of all is buried here.‘Gotta be the crypt, right?’

‘Better hurry,’ Elly says. ‘That one’s pretty easy.’

‘I’ll fight them,’ Haz calls back, already on her way.

‘God help them.’ Elly turns to me. ‘We splitting or staying together?’

‘Splitting,’ I say quietly, staring at the tenth clue.Up high, with the wailing wind. Look across where the rocks are twinned.The most ambiguous, but I know it. I bloody know it.

I also know who’s going to be up there with the wailing wind and twinned rocks. And she doesn’t like people knowing where her tent is.

‘Ouch.’ Elly puts her hand on her heart. ‘Don’t ever wanna hear that in any other context.’

I smile, kissing her hard on the lips. ‘And you never will. Race ya? You picked a clue?’

‘Picked, yes. Race, hell no. If it’s meant to be, it’s meant to be.’

‘Alright, little turtle. See you back at the lodge? Hopefully with pre-drinks!’

Nic

I can hear it. The wailing wind. It’s fierce up here today. I hadn’t needed the clue. Wouldn’t have bothered considering who texted it. Those twinned rocks are out there too. From my place perched on the cliff edge, they protrude from the sea like two devil horns, waves an angry froth around them.

Can’t believe the storm hasn’t broken yet. I want to light a cigarette to go with the drink in my hand. Too blustery for that. Cheap lighter from the student shop wouldn’t be up for it.

The glass skull is cold in my hand. I place it between my boots instead, tongue still burning from my latest glug. It’ll be black now, that’s what this shit does. Fuck knows what it’s doing to my insides.

I keep drinking anyway, because here’s something else I can hear today: the snap of my arm, my own short scream.