The spacious cul-de-sac where the empty Pacifico store stood was just as deserted and quiet as before. I touched my hand to the shop window, but still, nothing. No orca sounds or sudden visions like the one I had in Elliot’s Emporium just a few minutes earlier.

I sighed and let my hand drop from the window pane. As I paced the length of the shopfront, my gaze wandered up to the atrium ceiling. The tops of lush, yet perfectly manicured palm trees brushed the cross-panels of the transparent dome. It made me wonder if those trees were real or simply manufactured to appear that way. 

The more I walked along the pastel terrazzo avenue, the more I had the urge to try something…

There was absolutely no one around, but I checked anyway. When I confirmed that the coast was clear, I made my way to one end of the store. Then I pulled my shoulders back, leveled my chin and started walking like I was on the runway again.

Something split the air and a thick fog settled over the avenue. The light coming from overhead became enshrouded in it. 

I kept walking. Kept imagining that this was a real runway show. 

As above, so below…

My thoughts were followed by a fresh mist curdling around my ankles. It only took a glance to see that the vapor was seeping out from under the entrance of Pacifico. 

I’d never seen a mist like this. True blue – aggressive and somehow ancient. Even as the pathway extended itself, traveling on and on into the distance, the mist never thinned.

So this was it. Whatever realm I had unlocked before could only be done via modeling for the catwalk.

As soon as I made the connection, the orcas were there. Undulating in and around my periphery, they moved as a whole herd. I wish I could stop and marvel at their black and white forms, but my gut propelled me to keep going. To keep walking. 

Even though I knew they were only ghosts, I couldn’t help the urge to hesitate – to move out of the way whenever they swam so frighteningly close to me. They seemed so real. Like aquatic monoliths… or gods. 

The clicks and chirps made by the pod made me suspect that they were amused by me.

Still, I kept walking. 

…. I probably would have walked forever had Sean Mori not stepped out in front of me.

He wasn’t wearing any shoes this time.

“Whoa.”

Sean caught me by the shoulders and I stopped abruptly.

“Aqua?”

Strangely, he looked like he had just woken up from a deep sleep, even though he was the one trying to snap me out of a daze.

I blinked to clear my vision. The orcas were gone. So was the blue mist. The avenue had shrunk back to its normal dimensions.

Once he was sure that I was all there, Sean let go of me and took a step back. 

“What are you doing here?” he asked.

“I wanted to practice my runway walk somewhere private.” It wasn’t a complete lie. “Not to be rude, but where have you been?”

“I just got back today,” he said, averting his eyes. Yeah, judging by his body language, that was definitely a lie.

I shook my head as I dug his cell phone out from my pocket.

“Here.”

I held it out for him to take.

“Is that mine?” Sean’s eyes went wide. He hesitated before taking back the phone. “How did you get this?”

I told him the truth. 

After Sean processed all the info about the paranormal investigator, he worked his jaw and shook his head. “Those guys…”

“What do they want?”

“Not sure, but they’ve been here before. I think they want me to trust them. But I don’t.”

Then Sean shot me a weird look that had anxiety written all over it. It was like he wanted to ask me something, but there was a chance he might spontaneously combust if he did.

I think I knew why he was so on edge.

“I didn’t watch the video. The investigator told me that I should.”

Sean’s face went from anxious to incredulous. “You didn’t?”

I explained, “I wouldn’t do something like that without your permission. I still want to see it, but only if you say it’s okay.”

Sean looked up at the paned ceiling. His throat bobbed. “None of what’s happening is okay, Aqua.”

“Yeah, I know,” I said, my voice rising higher despite my will to stay calm. “But I said – we said that we would talk about these things. Things don’t have to be the same as they were, but I want to help you.”

There, I said it. Bobby once said that I was the one making a big deal out of relaying this information to Sean. Standing there, outside of the Pacifico store where I’d had my first real moment with the guy I very much liked but was afraid of scaring away, I prayed he understood where I was coming from.

It was clear my words were not what Sean was expecting. Still, there looked like so much he wanted to say. His hands couldn’t stay still. He dragged both of them through his hair, fighting every feeling that passed through him.