After they had finished their lunch, and the teacher knew that they were all there, they moved back to where the statue was. When the group got there, Keira noticed how the street was much busier. There were people walking up and down either side of the cobbled road and the stores that had been previously shut were now open. A few of the residents were even walking into them. Keira’s attention was pulled back to the teacher who had pulled out some coloured pencils and was handing them out.
“The second part of your survey, the human part, is after the physical part. Please speak up if you don’t have it.” No one said anything. “Good. I’ve already mentioned the basics before but to put it in more detail, I want you to make a key and shade in what buildings are residences and what are residential, mixed can be any colour as well as anything that deviates. I also want you to ask the questions on the survey sheets to the locals, do not harass them if they don’t want to answer. We will meet back here in three hours to get on the coach to leave, and I will be here during that time so come to me if any more of you feel ill. Everyone okay with that?” The teacher was answered with a chorus of agreement and then they scattered. Keira and Iris went to the end of the main road. Much like with the beach protection techniques they wanted to work backwards to avoid the rest of the class. This also meant that Iris had an end of the street covered where the residents hadn’t yet had their mood soured by interacting with the class.
Which should be pretty useful as even though it was supposed to be the main street, it was still fairly quiet. Not as much as when they first arrived, but the main square did have a few more people in it. Iris pulled aside an old couple and started talking to them. Keira took this as a sign that she should also start on her task, which was to colour in boxes. It might have been more boring if she didn’t get to choose the colour scheme.
When she looked across the road to fill in those houses, she noticed the boy that had been complaining about feeling ill earlier was now standing stock still at the back of his group of friends as they interviewed another resident. It was rather interesting to watch, she felt. How he stood there with an ever growing smile on his face, occasionally nodding along to what someone was saying. Keira paused in her colouring and really began to focus him. The way his head moved like it was attached to a pivot point. His eyes suddenly snapped to hers and Keira quickly looked away. Iris gave her a strange look before turning back to the old couple who were beginning to move on. One of them gave her a hearty pat on the shoulder before they left.
Iris approached Keira, scratching the back of her neck.
“That was a little weird… Are you okay there?” Keira nodded, so Iris continued. “Good. Because someone here needs to be. I’m too spooked.”
“Oh? Did they remind you that we’re all going to grow old and die one day?”
“Why would I need them to do it when you’re good enough on your own? But no. They just kept on looking at each other and giggling like some idealistic newlywed couple.”
“Maybe they just found your questions funny.” Iris gave Keira a flat look before she exaggeratedly looked at the survey sheet.
“Question one: how would you say the implementation of coastal preservation techniques have impacted tourism?”
“See? Comedy gold.” Now that Iris had mentioned it though, Keira was starting to notice strange things about the inhabitants herself. They were smiling widely and walking around in brightly coloured tropical shirts and shorts despite the fact that the rain was still a cold mist in the air. “Now that you mention it though, everyone seems to be cosplaying a holiday brochure... If it bothers you too much, I could handle the surveys for you.”
"No. I can manage it. Carry on with that shading thing." She did so with only mild hesitation, edging closer to Iris when she pulled aside someone else. It was a middle-aged man that was dressed in the same attire as everyone else, including the wide smile that never reached his eyes. In fact, Keira wasn’t sure whether or not his gaze was reaching Iris. He seemed to stare right past her and into the grey stone of the pavement.
"Oh! Are you here to ask about the tourist industry?" His tone was far too cheerful for the type of weather they were in. Keira adjusted her grip on the clipboard, ready to wield it a bludgeoning weapon if need be.
“We are… How did you know?” The man blinked a couple of times, expression frozen before he seemingly found his answer.
"I was just answering the same questions of your compatriots further down the road."
"Oh... well. I hope you don't mind being asked them again?" Iris replied, completely skipping over the fact that he approached from the other side.
"Of course not! Ask away." Iris asked the first question and the man nodded along. "Oh! It has certainly made the town less popular, but it has brought you here. And may yet bring many others." Iris's face froze and she nodded slowly making some notes, taking a break in between notes to scratch at the back of her neck again. She then began to ask the ones that requires a numerical response. Once she began to ask those, the man stopped smiling as much and the responses became robotic. Most of them were a neutral five, but occasionally different ones were given. Keira found this a little strange so she came in from behind Iris and spoke.
“Would you mind giving detailed explanations for your answers? There’s an optional sections that I think we should fill in.” She got a look from her friend that said ‘there is no section like that,’ but Iris didn’t say it out loud. Then she finally got a reaction that wasn’t suspiciously happy or robotic. It seemed like panic for a moment before the expression he was holding before crashed back down and settled on his face.
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“If I don’t have to explain, then I won’t. Will that be all?” Iris nodded slowly and watched with curiosity as the man backed away with speed. Keira narrowed her eyes at Iris.
“That was a little shorter than the other one.”
“Yeah… I skipped a few questions.” If Iris didn’t look disturbed before she certainly did so now. Keira decided to have a shot at lightening the mood with a fake gasp.
“Not doing your work? What will the teachers say?”
“I don’t think you can say anything. Did you do anymore colouring while I was talking to him?”
“Don’t change the subject.” Iris laughed a little and scratched the back of her neck.
“Sorry. It’s just that his answers were almost exactly the same as the other two I interviewed, and it started to feel like a waste of time.”
“Understandable.” Keira felt like Iris had relaxed but then her eyes to widen and she looked around in a panic. Then, without warning, she took off into a sprint. Keira stood there in confusion before taking off after her, falling far behind due to her lacklustre running skills and late start. Fortunately Iris hadn’t ran a long way, stopping at the mouth of an alleyway after a minute which allowed Keira to catch up and put a hand on Iris’s shoulder. Iris looked at Keira and frowned.
“What are you doing?”
“What- am- I…?” Keira swallowed, taking a moment to catch her breath. “What are you doing? We’re supposed to stay on the main street.”
“I wasn’t going to leave unless I had to. I just had to help…” Iris turned her gaze back to the alley. “Do you know where they could have gone?”
“Who?”
“The person who screamed!”
“I heard nothing.” Iris whipped around to face Keira fully.
“How could you have heard nothing? It was so loud!” Keira frowned.
“Are you sure you’re okay?” Iris blinked a couple of times before shaking her head.
“The headache is gone but… maybe I really do just need to sit down.”
“Maybe we could take a wall that’s to the side of the park. Or we could head into one of the gift shops. I’m sure at least one of them has a stool or something that you could sit on.”
“That… sounds like an idea. Let’s not wander too far though.” Keira nodded and the two headed down the road, closer to the meeting point. She noticed that her teacher was busy talking to someone, so she didn’t call out. Instead she made a mental note to go and bother her if Iris started to feel any worse. As they walked down the road Keira looked into the stores to see if they had anywhere to sit. On the third window she checked, she found what she was looking for. Someone was just walking back behind the cash register, the wall behind him was covered in seaside memorabilia, chocolate and cards. More importantly though, there was a stool in the corner.
Keira tugged Iris into the store and shared a smile with the clerk. Both of them were forced, but the clerks was significantly more stiff. Not that it mattered. Keira sat Iris down on the stool and then pulled out a water bottle from her bag. Iris offered a small smile.
“Thanks. I don’t think I should be drinking the water here.” Keira huffed a small laugh and looked over to the clerk to check that he wasn’t offended. He was still smiling and staring at them. She would have read the smile as offended if she hadn’t just been receiving the same one from everyone else. It was a little concerning that he was still staring at them though, he hadn’t moved since they had entered the store. Keira doubted that he had moved at all, judging from his clean white shirt that had yet to earn any wrinkles, the only accessory was a name tag that read Jake in semi-neat cursive. A little disturbed she turned her attention back to her friend who was starting to look pale and had taken to holding her head in her hands, resting her elbows on her knees.
“Maybe we should get some sugary food in you.” Keira eyed the chocolates on the shelves and grimaced when there was thick layer of dust on the packaging. None of the other pieces of merchandise were fairing any better. “Or maybe not.”
“It’s fine… It’s just a headache.”
“Are headaches supposed to make you hear screaming?” Iris scratched the back of her neck again and sighed.
“It’s… not just screaming now. At first, I thought it was something like tinnitus as it was similar to a muffled ringing. But it’s progressed… It- It’s voices now. Whispering and I can’t make too much out, but what I can is telling me to run.” She noticed that Iris was starting to shake a little now, so Keira covered Iris’s hands with her own.
“You’ll be fine. I’ll-“
“You’re not supposed to be here.” A man’s voice sliced in before she could finish her sentence. Startled, Keira turned to look at the person who had spoken and was surprised to see that it was the clerk with his perfectly styled hair that had seemed as static as the rest of him. She frowned.
“What do you mean by that?”
“You’re supposed to stick to the main road, no? One of my previous customers mentioned it.” The sheen of dust over everything showed that no one had shopped there for a while, but instead of mentioning it she tugged Iris up. Her friend stumbled a bit and wrapped her arm around Keira’s shoulder in order to stop herself from falling over.
“I suppose you’re right there… Excuse us while we take our leave.” The man nodded and continued to give them a wide-eyed stare as they left the store. Keira turned to Iris. “Should we go and talk to the teacher?”
“No, no. I don’t want this trip to be called off because I’m ill. Just… give me a few minutes out in the open and hopefully I’ll start to feel better.”
“Okay… The park should be open and have benches, even if they’ll be a little wet.”
"Isn't that off of the allowed area we can be?"
"Since when did you care about that." Iris laughed a little and adjusted her grip on Keira's shoulders.
"You were never one for flights of fancy." She knew what Iris was talking about. Keira didn't think that they were at the point where they could joke about it, mostly because it was still an active threat in her life. Her jaw clenched slightly. She hated to admit when she was wrong, and she knew that she was right on this. And it wasn’t like Iris was faring any better, with hearing voiced and such. But her friend was ill and in pain, so she didn’t argue. All she managed was a deadpan response.
"I suppose kidnapping would do that to you."
"I didn't... we've just spent so much time apart you know? We've both changed."
"Enough for you to care about coming off the beaten path?"
"Absolutely not. Break those rules." Keira chuckled and put Iris on one of the benches in the park, noting with pleasure that there wasn’t any animal waste. The silence permeated for a beat, the only thing breaking it was the occasional rustle in the leaves. Then there were scraping footsteps up the path. It was another person from their class.
Iris offered them a tight smile and they returned a sympathetic nod. Then she growled and moved her hand to the back of her neck and began to scratch more vigorously. Keira moved to take the hand away.
“You’ll hurt yourself if you keep doing-“ She cut off when her hand made contact. Suddenly, all she could feel was searing pain.