Chapter 5

The aroma of the spices in the kitchen filled my nostrils. We were having dinner at a restaurant beside the office of the resort. This time I got to see all the visitors and residents here who were either on vacation or just seeing the place for what it is. The bright yellow lights really lit up the place. I was sitting down patiently at the table, browsing through the menu and admiring all the various dishes they had. Most of our orders had already arrived, we were just waiting for the giant cheese-melted lobster and shellfish. They were presumably still being cooked since many orders came in consecutively.

At least I got to see the faces of people again, I had been wondering where everyone went. So rest assured, there were people here so I had no reason to be sceptical of this place anymore.

By the time our lobster came, I was no longer in the mood to eat for some reason. I was hungry but, seeing mom and Jonathan made me feel out of place a little. Dad was just happily eating his food like nothing happened during our time here. I don't know why but despite what happened, everyone was still happy-go-lucky and that was actually a good thing. Maybe I was bringing the mood down, if only it was that easy to apologize but I hadn't exactly done anything wrong. Since yesterday I have been questioning myself if I was repelling everything away from me. Unhappiness was taking over my beating heart and I sincerely don't want it to ruin my relationships.

Mom noticed me staring at my place. "Honey are you OK?" She asks with softness in her voice. I met her gaze and nodded, wanting to avoid any further questions but she's bound to ask anyway. So I clenched my fists to prepare for her possible next question, but to my relief it was just about the food. "Eat your food sweetie before it turns cold."

Like a wreck, I looked down at the food on my plate in pity and grabbed my fork. There were small pieces of fish and leftover clam meat. "We don't have much time, it's going to be 10 soon, Jonathan can't stay up late." She went on trying her best to seek my understanding, I could tell from the tone of her voice. My fingers gripped the fork tighter, my mind was mad at what I just heard.

Before I could kick my chair all the way to the back and stomp out of the restaurant, something on the walls caught my eye. Normally people would just look at it for a few seconds and maybe shrug it off, but for someone like me, I had questions and I wanted answers as to what I was seeing right now. The frame had a black and white picture of a lake in the middle of a forest. In the center of the picture was a dark prehistoric-looking animal with a long neck and almost unseen body due to the water. I thought I recognized the picture, it could be one I've seen somewhere.

Was it real? An actual dinosaur roaming the 1800s waters? It sounded merely impossible but considering the fact that this did involve a waterbody than it wasn't shocking, not during that time especially. The other pictures I could see were fishermen holding huge fishes, fossils of other prehistoric marine life and one more which looked something like a shark of some sort, I couldn't tell because it was further from where I was, perhaps another monster of some sort. I squinted my eyes and sighed. How silly of me it was just a colossal squid, the head took me by surprise there, it looked like a snout. Well the picture was dark so it was understandable I hope. My mind was really playing tricks one me.

This was another proof as to why I was scared of the water we drank every day. Who knows what could be lurking down there, you could be the prettiest mermaid I've ever seen, but as long as you're from the ocean, that's a big nope for me.

I was curious to know if there were any lakes here, I get the main attraction was the beach which was absurdly empty every day, but it was possible if there were other terrains here too, this was technically a town district. It was funny how no one was concerned about the beach being deserted, let alone my parents who noticed this but decided to go on with the thrill and excitement. The other families here were busy laughing and joking around with another, but unlike us they probably didn't even visit the beach. Unless they knew something, but if that's the case, why wouldn't we know about it?

Scanning through the environment of the place, something caught me off guard again. The staff, there's not many here and we didn't bump into one yesterday despite spending a lot of time outside. And my goodness, there was no lifeguard here, was it just me or is the management of this place horrendously awful? Now I was starting to think that even the infrastructure of the resort wasn't maintained well. I wish I had guided dad while he was looking for the perfect place for vacation, he seriously needs that. Poor Jonathan, this was the definition of a vacation gone wrong, but not to worry about it he probably won't remember a thing after this trip. We won't have to ever bring it up again when he's older, now I just had to remind my parents.

Speaking of parents, dad looked at me while chewing his food. When my eyes met his, he instantly looked away. A spark of fury snapped in my temple. What was dad trying to do now? Im doing an investigation here! He probably thinks im weird now after what's happened, and now this.

I took up the courage to just speak. Im aware that I've been quiet recently, breaking the ice would ease everything I guess.

"Dad.." I slowly called out to him.

He looked at me and then mom and Jonathan, before getting up and excusing himself to the bathroom. He reminded me to have the lobster while hurrying off which sent a shock through me. The lobster!

I was afraid it might turn cold, so mom helped me get some on my plate as I quickly peeled of its shell and dug in some savory cheesy lobster meat. It was so good. While I was gobbling up all my food, I had completely forgotten about my analysis. Mom told me to slow down but I was completely out of touch with reality at this rate. Surprisingly, I still had the capacity to wonder why mom was no longer in a hurry to get back to our challe. I shrugged it off and continued eating, maybe she was never in a rush to begin with, I'll never understand she and Jonathan's relationship. But still, everything was for him I guess.

Once I was done eating, I washed my hands at a nearby sink and decided to go for a quick walk. Mom told me to be careful and avoid wandering too far, just outside the restaurant will do. Nodding in uncertainty, I took off walking into the night, leaving the restaurant and coming to a stop when I saw the sea again from where I stood. It still looked dark and murky, there was nothing on the shore. We didn't spend our day at the beach today, we just walked around the resort, admiring the beauty of the scenery, particularly outside the challes and within the resort. Not long later after that, we headed back and mom prepared the scrumptious meals.

As I was strolling down the wooden flooring, I heard dad's voice from one of the clearings. I turned around and saw dad talking to someone, who I supposed was the manager of the restaurant. His appearance seemed formal. A minute ago dad was in a hurry to go to the bathroom. Thinking back now, it hadn't been a minute and there he was looking calm and talking to the manager like nothing happened.

I was planning on eavesdropping however there was nowhere to hide so it would be pointless they probably might have seen me already. So I tiptoed towards them and smiled gleefully at dad when he saw me. Just start a normal conversation. I reminded myself that as the manager looked down at me without saying a word. Did mom know about this? Was dad hiding something from her? She seemed calm but I still had to find out. We normally don't keep secrets from each other. I was thinking, that if dad had something to ask abruptly at a time like this, maybe he too had doubts about this place, it was not too long ago where he noticed me staring blankly into space at our table back at the restaurant. If so, im glad things are starting to make a lot more sense now, about time one of us noticed something.

"Why are you all the way here honey? Did you finish your food? Don't leave mom alone like that."

I frowned. There was nothing much to do out here and im sure mom really wanted to talk to me, besides, we haven't talked much for the past two days. Dad was right, what was I doing in the middle of the walkway when I could've just sat down with mom and talked.

"Well…" Was all I said, I didn't know how to put it. My hands were at my back, people would see me as a little girl embarrassed by something. Should I ask him now? Clarifying with dad would be the best option since it so happens he was here.

Dad furrowed his brow and tilted his head in confusion. "Do you want to talk about something?" He asked trying not to offend me, he might have understood how I was feeling right now. No I wasn't entirely offended, just embarrassed. I had completely forgotten about the manager there, I noticed dad scratching his head with a guilty look on his face. Of course there was no way we could talk now, way to go dad.

"Oh sorry, this is Mister Keith, the manager of this restaurant." He signaled to me and I gently waved at the other man who nodded in approval.

"Hello." I said, hoping my words didn't come out as a stutter. I certainly wasn't prepared for this.

Mister Keith coughed before clearing his throat to speak. "I heard you're Lucinda, im sure you're having a great time with your parents and little brother, you don't experience sights like this every day." He said.

The word 'sight' was a turn off for me. It wasn't pleasant for me and I didn't know why, my parents brought me here, if I had to choose we wouldn't go here. I can't seem to enjoy myself, im trying to but those feelings wouldn't arise, every day was mundane.

"Ah, where were we sir?" My dad suddenly spoke again.

I looked at him dumbfounded and then I remembered what I thought they were initially talking about. Which was true, because what Mister Keith was about to say probably summed up everything. I could tell from the automatic transition from a friendly tone to a serious tone.

He adjusted his tie and didn't see me anymore, maybe this conversation was something that I shouldn't interfere with. Funny, dad didn't try to chase me away or anything, he was totally fine having me here, I was expecting something like, "I'll talk to you later honey I've got something important here," or a simple "Not now honey." Coincidentally, dad looked at me and smiled. My eyes lit up in awe. Was I really going to hear their secret conversation that could be of upmost importance? I didn't mean to sound like a busy body but I was just so curious to know why dad was being so secretive. I even forgot to ask him about the bathroom rush, but I guess I didn't want to make him feel bad in front of another stranger.

"This desolated location you were saying? Well it's more of a town area, so it's no surprise if not many people come here."

"But why is the beach always empty if you still have visitors? Especially people staying at the resort, are we prohibited from going there?" Dad asked cautiously.

My heart jumped for joy upon hearing dad's question. I couldn't be more thankful for dad asking that, I've always wanted to know why, and tonight, I was finally going to clear my doubts.

So I listened carefully.

"The beach has always been like that."

Dad and I looked at each other in confusion. Huh? People don't go there? This is a resort, the logic behind that is obnoxious. What do people do here then?

"Are you saying the beach is-

"Redundant? Non-existent? Invisible or abandoned? Haha no. It's just for some reason people just don't go there. I don't have an answer to this it's what I see everyday, all I know is that the storms there are terrible, the staff probably know of something, I just happen to own a restaurant here."

Dad was flustered. I could tell he was at a loss for words. I too actually but I did have another question to ask.

"I was going to say haunted, because there's no other explanation as to why it's left like that." Dad went on, trying not to shame the manager since he worked here. I don't think he took that as an offense, I mean it does make sense why wouldn't people go there.

Mister Keith laughed. "You could say that, still, this resort's old, so the beach isn't significant anymore." He says. "Try asking the townfolks around here, they might know, but people mostly stop by to dine in. Maybe the beach used to be the opposite of what it was a longtime ago."

I blinked. That still didn't answer my question.

"If I could be specific, I'd say decades ago, I've been working here for almost an eternity, all I can say is, back then the beach was more lively than it is now."

What happened then? Mister Keith either had no idea what was going on at this place or he was hiding something. Or maybe that's just how things are here. Regardless, I still wasn't convinced, they could always close it down, this was infuriating. Since the ocean was my deepest fear, this conversation made me even more terrified, it gave me a reason not to leave the challe now. I didn't feel comfortable here I just wanted to go home.

"Is that why there are no lifeguards here?" I blatantly asked, unsure if that was an absurd question or not.

"Perhaps."

That was his response. I couldn't blame him if he didn't have the answer to everything. Even then I didn't fully trust him. Let's say something happens at sea, who is gonna come to the rescue? There were no lifeguards and there's hardly any staff here.

After our conversation, we said our goodbyes to Mister Keith and proceeded back to the restaurant. I was surprised when dad told me not to tell mom about this. Truthfully, I could see why, mom would not only be furious with him and the entire trip but worried too. That was on dad's mind to, in fact he didn't want mom to be so worked up over this, he wanted her to have a leisuring time for now.

"I don't want your mother to start panicking and overthinking again."

I nodded even though I didn't like the sound of this. It was true, sometimes when mom overthinks, she gets so worked up that she'll be in a bad mood for the whole day which I guess is normal, so I could understand if dad didn't want her to know what was going on for now, especially with Jonathan there, he didn't need to be dragged into this.

So we agreed to tell mom after this entire trip.