June 20th, 2024

Kinsky, California, USA

Utopia

Maria’s eyes slowly rolled open. She found herself on a bed she did not recognize, lined with soft white bedsheets she knew weren’t hers. As she came to she heard the door to the room creak open, and footsteps approach. Still in a daze she suddenly shot up in the bed to see who might be there.

“Oh, sorry. Didn’t mean to wake you up. Made breakfast a little early – was just going to leave it for you on the table.”

It was Cole. But it also wasn’t. His face was the same, but the features were different. Almost as if he were much older. But the details Maria could not parse out in her half-sleeping state.

Cole held two plates in his hand. At first Maria couldn’t make it out, but as he approached the vision – and the aroma – gave way to what they were. It was Maria’s favorite breakfast: rancho huevos, the way her father used to make them, with a side of small pastries she remembered getting from the bakery when she was little.

“The eggs I made myself,” Cole clarified. “I followed the recipe just like how you told me, but I think I still might’ve messed up some stuff. The pastries are just the ones we got yesterday.”

Maria sat up in the bed, and took the plate with the eggs. She pushed a fork into one of the tortillas and ate a small bite. It tasted wonderful.

“Th… thank you,” Maria responded.

Cole smiled at her in response. “Just be careful, they’re still a bit hot. Well, for me, anyway.” As he began to walk away, he suddenly stopped and turned back around. “Oh! Your sister called. She’s in town today and wants to know when you want to meet. I told her you’d just call her back when you woke up.”

Maria’s eyes widened in shock. “My… sister?”

Cole must have not heard her, as he just walked back out and closed the door behind him. Quickly Maria set aside the plate of food to take her phone off the charger, looking through her contacts until she found the one she was looking for.

ANITA CORTEZ LAST CALL: 8pm JUNE 19th 2024

Maria quickly tapped the call button and put the receiver to her ear. Almost as quickly, she heard a voice on the other end.

“Geez, about time you woke up,” a young woman on the other side responded. “I’m at my hotel room now. We still going to the pier today?”

“A-Anita?”

“Uhh… yeah?”

Maria’s eyes lit up, so much so that tears began to flow down her cheeks. Her face motioned into a smile, until she felt herself begin to laugh uncontrollably, putting her hand to her mouth.

“Oh… oh my God! Oh my God, it really is you, isn’t it? You’re really here.”

The Anita on the other end seemed confused. “I mean… of course I am. I’ve been planning to do this trip for like, a month now. You… you doing okay, Maria?”

Maria quickly brushed her enthusiasm off. “Yes, yes. I’m fine. Totally. You said the pier, yeah? That sounds wonderful. Let’s go to the pier.”

“Sure thing. It was your idea, after all.”

“I’ll see you there?”

“Yeah. See you there, too.”

The call ended. Maria felt a huge weight off her shoulders. It was the happiest she had felt in a very long time. The relief had set in. Everything that had happened before was just one really, really bad dream…

…

Things must have rushed by for Maria, because the next thing she knew she was at the pier. It was the Kinsky pier, as she remembered it, though some things were different: buildings shifted to where they weren’t before, new additions had been placed such as a rollercoaster and movie theater. She assumed this all just looked new because she hadn’t been to the pier in a very long time.

Ahead of her was Cole, who looked more or less the same as he had that morning, and next to him – a sight Maria could barely believe when she saw it – was Anita, much older than she had remembered, almost to the same age Maria was back in 2017. She dressed much more brightly than Maria ever did, with a pink tank top and denim shorts. Maria thought she had grown to be a beautiful young girl.

“Sooo… mind if I ask you two a question?” Anita brought up as the three continued to make their way down the pier.

Cole let out a chuckle. “Better not be what I think you’re going to ask.”

“It probably is, but can I ask you anyway?”

Cole sighed, shaking his head, but in his voice he relented. “Go ahead.”

“So, the two of you… been together since high school… lovey-dovey all this time… when are you gonna, you know, get married?”

Maria felt her heart skip a beat, but didn’t say anything. Unfortunately, Cole turned back in her direction.

“I don’t know. You’re going to have to ask her,” Cole responded, pointing at Maria.

Anita turned back, the bucket hat on her head shrouding the smile on her face. Maria just shrugged.

“When we’re ready, I guess.”

“Oh, come on!” Anita let out desperately. “How ready can you be?”

“Hey! It isn’t your relationship, now is it?” Cole came to Maria’s defense.

“Fine, fine. I just want to make sure I get prime action at the wedding. Right-hand bridesmaid, third biggest slice of cake, all that jazz…”

As Cole and Anita continued to talk, Maria felt her cheeks begin to warm. She was living her dream life – her sister had grown up to be her best friend, she shared a house with the love of her life, they walked down one of her favorite places in the world, the Kinsky pier…

Wait. The pier.

Maria stopped walking. She remembered the conversation she had with Rose. Something wasn’t right.

“No… this can’t be real,” she muttered.

Cole and Anita stopped walking too, but they didn’t turn to face her. It was as if all of time had stopped. Maria looked down at the pier’s damp wooden plank floor.

“It’s too good to be real.”

The world suddenly began to darken. Maria heard the sound of raindrops – soft at first, but slowly convulsed into a torrent. All over the floorboards, spots of rain began to appear. But they weren’t clear like water. Instead they were as red as blood.

Maria looked up. Cole, Anita, and the rest of the pier were gone. A long – infinitely long – stretch of dock pierced into an unfathomable fog. Trying to outrun the rain, Maria trudged down its path. It was hopeless. Her legs felt stuck in mud, paralyzed, unable to move. Eventually though the fog cleared and she saw that the dock finally led to one specific monument in the distance: a large marble staircase which, at its end, held a large throne. And although the throne was large, in its seat was a small child. It was Anita. But it wasn’t. Her skin was pale and cold, as if she had already died. And her eyes were the pure white with no pupil or iris to be seen. Yet Maria could tell that this phantom was looking at her, beckoning her to approach. And once she finally reached the foot of the stairs, The Anita she saw leaned her head on her fist, looking down at Maria expectantly.

“You’ve forgotten about me, haven’t you?” the thing that looked like Anita spoke. “You’ve outcasted me, left me to suffer.”

Maria tried to speak, but couldn’t. It felt as though something was grasping at her throat, preventing her voice. Anita continued.

“And for what? Because you loved my abuser, didn’t you? The one who tormented me each and every night, you would want nothing more than for him to still be alive, to be able to caress his skin, to kiss him, to make love. That monster, who had defiled me, you would want nothing more than for him to defile you too, don’t you?”

Anita got up from the throne, but her feet did not touch the ground. She floated down the stairs, until she reached the point where she was right up to Maria’s face. Maria noticed this figure did not smell like Anita – it smelled like sulfur, and decayed flesh.

“You may have forgotten me, but I have not forgotten you. Give me my justice, my retribution. Until every single person on Earth spits at the sight of his name, until every single achievement he made is destroyed, until everyone who ever loved him is either dead or has grown to despise him – I will haunt you. Every single night. Until it is done.”

Maria shot up from her bed. She clutched her chest, as she felt her heart pound. She looked around the room, and saw she was back in her house. It was all just a dream. But, in some ways, it felt all too real.