Chapter 3
A Sickening Sweetness
A tourist falls ill after eating ice cream from a rival shop. August and Bree notice the tourist's reaction seems unusual, sparking their suspicion about the boardwalk's underbelly.
The afternoon sun beat down on the boardwalk, turning the salt-laced air into a warm, humid blanket. August, her blonde ponytail bouncing with each scoop, handed a triple-chocolate fudge cone to a giggling toddler. The familiar rhythm of the ice cream shop – the whir of the blender, the clink of spoons, the murmur of happy customers – was usually a soothing balm. But today, a knot of unease tightened in her stomach, a sour counterpoint to the sugary sweetness of her family’s business.
Yesterday’s cryptic note, tucked into a crumpled dollar bill, had been a pebble dropped into the calm waters of her summer. *“The sugar hides the rot. Look past the shimmer. They watch.”* It was nonsensical, yet it clung to her thoughts like sticky cotton candy. And then there was Captain Finnigan. Gone. Just… gone. His weathered fishing boat, the *Salty Dog*, bobbed empty at its usual mooring. The Coast Guard had searched, the local police had shrugged. A fisherman went out, a fisherman didn’t come back. It happened. But August felt a prickle of something more sinister.
Bree, her best friend and partner-in-scoops, was currently wrestling with a stubborn spigot on the soda fountain, her brow furrowed in concentration. “This thing is possessed,” she grumbled, giving it a final, forceful twist. A stream of fizzy lemonade sputtered out, missing the cup