Walter planned the whole trip on his own as his birthday gift to me. In our whole 3 years together it was the nicest most thoughtful thing he had ever done. But I am sitting here with 3 missing fingers and a giant stab wound in my leg so it didn’t end up so nice.
Let’s rewind to figure out how I got myself in this situation shall we? Walter and I met 3 and a half years ago on a hike. I had just moved to our city and had a hard time making friends considering I was in my late 20’s and worked from home, so I joined a hiking club. Walter was the founder of the group. He’s also a park ranger so he made me feel safe. I think that’s why I liked him so much, the feeling of safety.
In the past, Walter was never the best gift giver. He usually gave me very practical gifts. One year he gave me a first aid kit, it was huge and definitely helpful, but as a birthday gift? For Valentine’s Day, he gave me a set of walking sticks. I loved him too much to say anything about it but I am very sure he could see the disappointment in my face.
This year he did something completely different. He took me to my favorite ramen shop, then frozen yogurt and at the end of the night he handed me an envelope. Inside were two tickets to my dream vacation; Fiji.
He explained we would be staying in a remote villa and hiking through the beautiful tropical rainforests. This was the nicest thing anyone had ever done for me in my life.
After a few months of waiting and a long flight from Seattle to Fiji, we had finally made it. The trip to the villa was a solid 3 hours. Away from any resorts or towns. Truly secluded. It was like being in a dream. All I could hear was the trilling of insects and caws of tropical birds. It felt like life couldn’t get any better than it was at that moment.
We spent the first day lounging around the villa and exploring the surrounding area. We kept seeing signs but none had words, just strange drawings of little people and animals. We honestly just assumed they were old and didn’t have much meaning to them. The first night we went to bed early to get an early start on our hike.
This is where things start to get slightly strange. We woke up at the crack of dawn, it was still dark outside. As Walter gathered our supplies, I was taking in the incredible view from our villa. I noticed an almost purple glow coming from deep inside the forest. It started to change to blue, then green and eventually dissipated into white then just gone. I wasn’t sure if maybe there was another villa close by that I didn’t notice on the way up, so I ignored it. Walter shouted he was ready a few minutes after so I kind of forgot once we started the hike.
The beginning of the hike was super easy, I thought to myself that Walter and I have done much harder hikes back in Washington. I would regret that just a short hour later when Walter started to bring out climbing gear. This portion of the hike was almost a full 65-70 degrees up. I stood there thinking what have we got ourselves into and was this safe? But Walter was a ranger. I trusted him with my life.
We started the climb up and made it about 150 feet up before I started to get cold feet. I was taking long pauses to breathe and calm myself down. Walter tried his best to encourage me to keep going but I really needed a break to sit down and breathe. Walter decided to go ahead of me to try and find some flat land for me to sit and collect myself. I think I stood there for less than 10 minutes when I heard Walter yell “ I FOUND A CAVE!”
He pulled me up and sure enough, hidden behind lots of shrubbery, was a cave. A very large one at that. Walter looked like he had just struck gold. He barely pulled me up onto the ledge before he started to GO INSIDE. I thought as a ranger, he would be smarter than that but boys and their excitement for caves must have taken over that part of his brain. I told him to slow down and wait for me but I was extremely hesitant to go into a cave where there could be bats or some kind of Fijian monster.
Walter shouted into the cave and waved around his flashlight to make sure nothing was hiding. The cave was huge but not deep. It went into the mountain side about 75 feet give or take and was dimly lit inside. There were some rock formations that looked oddly like an altar, with small rocks surrounding. I started to get a really bad feeling and told Walter that we should leave. He agreed but asked to just stay a few more minutes for him to look around. I begrudgingly agreed and stood at the entrance.
“Babe, Come here! Look at this!” The words I did not want to hear. Walter found a hole under the altar. I sarcastically told him to jump inside and I think for a moment he took me seriously but realized I was not digging this cave. I finally dragged him out and we continued our hike now that I was composed. The rest of the hike wasn’t too exciting but it was absolutely stunning.
We ended up back at the villa before 6 PM and sat down for dinner. This is when Walter started to act differently. Obsessive would be the best word to describe it. Even his face started to look different, twisting and contorting while he spoke. He started rambling about the cave, and how we had to go back and check out what was in that hole. I stopped him before he got too far and let him know that was out of the question. He then said something Walter would never say. “ I would have never taken you on this trip if I knew you were gonna be such a boring bitch.” I didn’t say a word, dropped my fork, and went right to the bedroom, slammed the door, locked it and cried myself to sleep.
I woke up with my eyes crusted over and looked over at the clock. 2:26 AM. I crept out of the room to get some water and to see if he was still awake. To my surprise, Walter was not in the villa. I stepped outside to see Walter standing on the roof with binoculars, staring at the same color changing lights I saw before. I called his name a few times before he finally looked over. He slowly made his way down from the roof, walked past me without saying a word and walked into the villa. I stared at the lights in the distance now fading into red, then orange, and eventually white. I followed Walter into the villa hesitantly.
He sat down on the couch, moved his legs over and closed his eyes as if he was sleeping. I knew something was very wrong and just stood in front of the couch staring at him in disbelief. It felt like “Invasion of the Body Snatchers” and I just knew I had to do something before he woke up, though I seriously doubted he was even really sleeping. I walked into the bedroom and closed the door behind me. I sat on the bed and started to plan my next steps but heard the front door slam. I jumped up and ran towards the door to see Walter sprinting into the forest with his backpack and flashlight.
I stood there in shock momentarily. A million thoughts were running through my mind. Before I knew it my legs were running after him. I decided to not shout for him because I did not know who or what was lurking in the dark. Luckily, I could see his flashlights glow in the distance. And the route he was going was all too familiar. He was running towards the cave.
Running is not my strong suit, and Walter was apparently Usain Bolt because I could no longer keep up. I stopped to catch my breath and looked down to realize that the ground was moving. Not like bugs but almost like there was something very large underneath me. I did not want to find out what that thing was so I continued on my trek to the cave.
I was about halfway to the cave when I heard a deep, guttural growl. I stopped dead in my tracks and froze. I could hear whatever it was behind me, stalking me. I stayed as still as possible and squeezed my eyes shut in fear of these being my last moments. I think I even prayed to God, something I haven’t done since 5th grade. I felt something brush my leg and with as much courage I could muster, I opened my eyes and looked down. I felt like I died because what I saw was something out of a fairytale. It was a very tiny person. About the size of a watermelon. It had its finger on its mouth, signaling to be silent and pulling on my pant leg to follow it. I did as it said and crept slowly and reluctantly to a hollow tree. I sat inside the tree and watched a huge, scaly looking creature walk past me.
I nearly screamed when I saw it and the small person put its tiny hand over my mouth. Everything that was happening was too much. My brain was having trouble comprehending the situation and I passed out. Next thing I knew I woke up restrained and was being carried by multiple of these tiny creatures. I tried to scream but it felt like my vocal cords were paralyzed.
In fact, everything but my eyes could not move. Not even a faint twitch of the finger. I guess I was too optimistic to think that creature was helping me out.
I started to panic internally and started to pray again. These things were moving me uphill and I immediately knew where I was. I was going up the hill to the cave. Hopefully, Walter would be there too. Though he was out of his mind, at least I wouldn’t be alone. Me and these things were nearly at the mouth of the cave when they dropped me right at the ledge. Smart, because if whatever they gave me wore off and I tried to escape, I would roll right off the ledge and tumble down the hill to my possible scaly monster death.
These things all walked into the cave and I waited outside (like I had some kind of choice.) Then I heard Walter’s voice. It was a little different but nonetheless it was him. He walked towards and crouched down to touch my face. His clothes were off and all he had on were his boxers, a knife around his neck and a glazed over look in his eye. He grazed his hand over my cheek and wiped away one of my tears. He then licked my tear off his finger and his face twisted and contorted into a twisted smile.
With one hand he picked me up and carried me into the cave. He set me down on the stone altar and started to paint my skin with something. Whatever those tiny creatures gave me started to wear off but I made sure to stay as still as possible so they wouldn’t catch on. Whatever possessed Walter was now sniffing me and licking off whatever he painted on. I knew if I somehow held off from twitching or moving I could wait long enough to gain full control of my body once again, rip the knife off his neck, and escape.
What happened next is something I will never forget, mostly because I will have the constant reminder on my body. He took the knife from around his neck and swiftly chopped off my pinky finger on my left hand. I knew I had to stay still but I let out a tear and soft groan. Then the next one and the next one until I only had my pointer and thumb left. After each one he promptly swallowed them with a big gulp. My blood was pooling into a small bowl that was carved into the altar. Once full it was poured into the hole under the altar. That’s when I heard it, the same growl from earlier. “Walter” and these creatures never had the intention of saving me from the scaly monster, but had every intention of using me to lure it to this cave, and possibly sacrifice me.
Hearing the growl awoke something in me. Call it adrenaline, I guess. I knew that if I didn’t move quickly I was going to be that thing’s next meal, or “Walters”. I knew I had feeling back in my body because the tingles stopped but was I 100% sure? No. But I had to try. I moved my leg slightly (BINGO) which surprised Walter and then I grabbed the knife from his neck and pulled. He pulled back and managed to snatch it out of my hand. He immediately plunged the knife into my thigh and I screamed. Then the thing came crawling out of the hole from under the altar. Walter started to laugh maniacally and that is when I booked it towards the mouth of the cave. I jumped over the tiny creatures and found myself tumbling down the hill. I tumbled for what felt like an eternity. When I reached the bottom of the hill I was bruised, battered and bleeding out.
I limp ran into the forest to find somewhere to hide momentarily. I found a ditch hidden by some bushes. Half my fingers on my left hand are missing and a knife in my leg. I tore off my shirt and wrapped it tightly around my leg to create a tourniquet. I bit down on a stick and ripped the knife out of my thigh. At least I have a weapon now. Though I don’t know how helpful it will be with tiny men, some kind of lizard monster and my possessed boyfriend coming after me but I digress.
I army crawled out the ditch and listened carefully for even the slightest sounds of movement. It was quiet…too quiet. Not even the sound of insects chirping. I didn’t even blink out of fear that they were somewhere close. That’s when I heard it. A deep, bellowing laugh. I carefully looked to my right and made direct eye contact with him. SHIT SHIT SHIT. I got up and started to run again. This time I ran towards the villa. I could at least lock myself inside and barricade the door in hopes of making it through the night.
I looked behind me and he was walking. Straight up like Michael Meyers. To be fair I had lost a lot of blood and was barely running but damn. I kept running until I reached the sign with the little men we saw on our first day. Would have been nice for the sign to say “ STOP HOMICIDAL GNOMES ACCOMPANIED BY LIZARD MONSTER.”
I eventually made it to the Villa and ran inside and locked the door. I pushed the small dining room table in front of the door and sat for a moment to collect myself. That’s when I heard him. My Walter. “Babe. Please open the door. I’m scared. I’m hurt. I don’t know how I got out here.”
I started to push the table out the way when I heard a small voice inside my head “stop. It might not be him.”
He started to knock. Slowly. Every knock felt like a step closer to heaven. Then it just stopped.
I looked out the window and he was just standing there, staring at me without blinking.
I ran to the phone to try and call someone. Phone line is dead. I heard a tiny knock on the window and one of those little gnome shits was standing there holding the phone line. Fuck.
Where is my phone?
Then I remembered Walter had brought a satellite phone with us in case of emergencies.
I dialed 911 ( Yes it’s 911 in Fiji, too.) I calmly told them there was an emergency and to come to the Villa. Once I hung up the knocks were more aggressive. It felt like the whole villa was shaking with every knock.
I sat on the ground with the table against my back and clutched the satellite phone to my chest.
I waited until the knocking stopped to look outside again and this time I saw someone other than Walter. It was the police. I threw open the door and screamed for help.
As I am being patched up the police are questioning me and everything that happened just sounded more and more unbelievable. People from surrounding areas were starting to circle around the villa to watch all the hubbub. One woman looked particularly interested and seemed to be arguing with the police to speak to me. Considering nobody could find Walter and the police thought I was insane, I figured I might as well speak to her.
I told the police officer that was questioning me to let her through. He rolled his eyes and let her through.
“Hello ma’am.” She said in a thick accent. “I believe I know what happened.”
The police officer looked at me and then looked at her and motioned a twirl near his temple to indicate she was crazy.
“Um hello, thank you for the concern, but if you do know that would be a miracle.”
She leaned in closely and whispered in my ear “You saw lights.”
My face dropped and my eyes widened. “Yes..I-I did. How did you know?”
“There is an ancient legend here on this island. If you see the lights, and you go to them, the lights will take over you. You will be possessed and be forced into killing for Moko. Your soul will be lost and dance around the cave. I am very sorry for your loss.”
I sat there in disbelief. “And who is Moko? Is that the lizard?”
“Yes! Yes! You know. I think it is best if you leave this island. Moko will not stop.”
“Thank you for this information. I think I will leave, yes.”
The police are still searching for Walter.
I am now sitting in my Villa writing this wondering what I should do. Do I leave and put this whole thing behind me? Do I stay and get Walter back? I technically have a whole week left here. Will Moko come back for me if I stay? Maybe I enlist help from the woman if I can find her.