I redden a little. Chase glares at his phone. “Alon’s the only local who’s willing to talk to them about this place; everyone else won’t. You guys wanna come and hang out? I don’t think Dad would mind much, but you gotta sign the usual clauses.”

“Oh, hell, no!” That from Jordan. “Not on your life are you gonna find my Black ass on some ghost beach with a body count. That’s a white people vacation spot right there.”

“Well, you’re not going to believe this, but literally minutes after we arrived here, a sinkhole took out Dad’s cabin, and there was an actual corpse at the bottom of it. Suspended on a tree.”

Both boys stare at him. “And you’re staying?” This from Jordan again.

“Yeah, no. I’m gonna need some pics,” Rory insists.

“I can’t—NDA—but you’ll see it when the show premieres. It’s just—it’s unbelievable.”

“No, it’s not,” Jordan says emphatically. He quiets down. “Hey. This is—I’m looking it up, and—this isn’t where your mom died, is it?”

Chase takes a deep breath. “The plane crashed near here. Why do you think I came?”

“Yeah, yeah. Sorry, man. Didn’t mean to joke earlier.”

“No prob. Appreciate you, dude.”

“I’ve found a short article about the island,” Rory says. “There’s some strange curse? A sleeping god? Sacrifices?”

“Five sacrifices. But at least fifteen recorded deaths. The others don’t count toward the curse because they don’t fit the god’s requirements or something.”

“Oh, no,” Jordan says. “Hell, no. Chase, your dumb ass better be careful. And they got tourist guides in this hellhole?”

“Just Alon.”

“I’m here to warn people away,” I say dryly. “So far no one’s acting on my advice.”

“Reuben Hemslock’s on this show, and he lives for this stuff. You can pry the cameras out of his cold dead fingers before he’ll wrap.”

“They only found half of one victim’s body?” Rory bursts out, still reading the article. “The lower half?”

“Alex Key? Yeah, I don’t know much about that, though.”

“Chase,” Rory says, “there is a hottie in your room right now and you’re talking to us? I’d be hitting on that, man. Oh wait, shit, are you still on speaker??”

“Yes, you fucking pigeon brain,” Chase retorts, and then lowers his voice. Rory’s reply, on the other hand, is loud and deliberately so. “You know what they say. What happens in Kisapmata, stays in Kisapmata.”

“Rory!”

“Has Riley been trying to call you, by the way? She’s been blowing up Josh’s phone.”

“Yeah, and I’d appreciate it if Josh tells her to go to hell for me again.”

“You know that the best way to piss her off is to get with someone else, right? You’ve never tried to be with anyone when y’all were on and off, so she assumes you’re waiting around to forgive her. Show her she’s wrong this time. Anyway, I gotta go. Josh’s waiting outside for me, but I’m gonna call you once I’m back. And by the way—even Josh thinks this is for the best.”