Wild Oak hums the way heat hums off asphalt—low, constant, alive. The trees sway like they’re listening to something just out of reach, branches brushing each other in soft warning. A bird cuts across the trail in a sharp burst of wings, chasing a squirrel that disappears up a trunk like it’s been there before.
Leaves snap underfoot.
James Davis wipes his palm on his shorts. Vincent Edwards walks slightly behind him, squinting through his glasses as the sun fractures through the canopy. TJ pushes ahead like the forest owes him something.
“Yo—this way,” TJ calls out, already turning down a narrower path that looks more like an idea than a trail.
James exhales. “You said that ten minutes ago.”
“I’m right this time,” TJ says without looking back.
Vincent steps over a root that rises from the ground like a knuckle. “You’re always ‘right this time.’”
A rush of water grows louder as they climb, folding into the air until it feels like it’s inside their ears instead of ahead of them.
TJ stops at the top of a ridge.
“We’re close.”
“I hope so,” James says, breath pulling heavier now, sweat darkening his shirt.
Vincent drags his sleeve across his forehead. “If this is another one of your ‘trust me’ situations, I’m throwing you in the river.”
TJ grins. “You’d miss me.”
“Not even a little.”
They crest the hill and the world opens.
A small lake sits caught between rock and forest like it’s been hidden on purpose. A waterfall drops from a jagged ledge, breaking into white noise and mist that hangs in the air like breath you can see.
And on the boulders above it older kids.
Too loud. Too sure of themselves.
TJ freezes. “Holy shit…”
James follows his gaze.
“That’s the Lost Angels.”
He says it like it means something he already understands.
“Yeah,” James adds quietly. “My dad says they’re trouble.”
Vincent is already pulling his shirt over his head.
“Bro, it’s too hot to be stressed,” he says, kicking off his shoes. Before either of them can stop him, he runs and drops into the water like he’s falling out of his own body.
The splash rises, cool and immediate.
TJ laughs once. “He’s insane.”
James watches Vincent float up, arms spread, face turned to the sky like the sun owes him something personal.
Then TJ goes in too—hard, loud, competitive even in water.
James hesitates only a second longer before the heat wins. He dives in after them.
Cold wraps around him. The noise of the world dulls instantly.
For a moment, there’s nothing but breath and blue-green light shifting under the surface.
Then
A shout from above.
One of the older boys steps onto the highest rock.
“Watch this!”
He launches.
A cannonball cracks the lake open.
Laughter erupts. Another jump. Then another. The air becomes rhythm: run, leap, impact, splash. Each one trying to outdo the last like the water is judging them.
“Who the hell are these kids?” TJ shouts, half-laughing, half-awed.
Vincent wipes water off his glasses, squinting through the distortion. “They’re not kids. They’re, like… advanced teenagers.”
A girl’s voice cuts through the noise.
From the path that winds down the cliff, three girls appear, laughing as they take their time coming down instead of jumping. They move like they already belong here.
One of them looks over.
Her eyes land on Vincent first.
“Yo,” she says, smirking. “How’d these kids find our spot?”
TJ straightens in the water. “Our sisters told us about it.”
He points between himself and James. “They’re in high school.”
“Gina and Denice?” one of the girls repeats, amused.
“Journalism girls,” another says. “Always chasing stories.”
TJ and James say nothing, just watch the way they say it like their sisters are a known rumor that walks around the Westside.
TJ nods quickly. “Yeah. That’s them.”
From deeper in the water, one of the older boys swims over.
He’s closer now confident, studying them like they’re not fully real yet.
“Y’all cool?” he asks.
TJ answers too fast. “Yeah. We cool.”
A beat.
James hears himself before he decides to speak. “We were just leaving.”
TJ turns sharply. “What? Bro, no—”
“We do have to go,” James insists.
The boy tilts his head, smiling like he’s not used to being disagreed with.
“Y’all don’t wanna hang with us?”
Something shifts.
Not danger. Not yet.
Just possibility.
TJ hesitates.
Vincent lifts his chin like he’s making a decision that matters more than it should. “Let’s stay.”
James turns to him immediately. “What are you doing?”
“It’s chill,” TJ says, already drifting back toward the group. “We won’t stay long.”
“Don’t be shy,” one of the girls says, eyes flicking to Vincent. “The one with the glasses is kind of cute.”
“Ew,” another girl cuts in. “He’s like twelve.”
“I’m thirteen,” Vincent snaps, louder than he means to.
That makes them laugh.
“Big man,” one of them teases.
And just like that—Vincent swims closer.
TJ follows.
James stays still for half a second longer, watching the distance between him and the shore feel suddenly larger than it should.
Then he follows too.
The water becomes warmer with bodies, louder with voices. Laughter starts to overlap until it feels like it’s always been this way—like they’ve always known these people.
Names are thrown around.
Stories begin without endings.
Time loosens.
And somewhere in the middle of it, Earl is talking.
“…there’s a cave behind the waterfall,” he says casually, like he’s not changing everything.
James hears that part clearly.
TJ turns. “A cave?”
Earl shrugs. “Old story. Pirate stuff. Gold Rush guy robbed mines all up and down the coast. Vanished somewhere around here. People say he hid it in Wild Oak.”
Vincent leans in. “That’s not even statistically impossible.”
Earl laughs. “There was also a park ranger in the sixties who went crazy looking for it. Never came back.”
The group laughs with him.
It feels like a joke everyone already knows the ending to.
Then they start talking about the treasure.
One by one.
“What would you do with it?” someone asks.
TJ doesn’t even hesitate. “I wouldn’t have to listen to my parents anymore.”
Vincent looks up, eyes bright with something half real. “I’d build the world’s biggest telescope… no, wait—I’d build a rocket. I’d go see it myself.”
A few people laugh.
Then they look at James.
He feels it before he hears it.
“What about you?” the girl Syd asks.
James stares at the water. It reflects the sky in broken pieces.
“I don’t know,” he says finally. “I feel like if someone had that much money… they wouldn’t even know what to do with it.”
A few nod like that makes sense.
Someone mutters, half to themselves, “Tell that to Oliver Crosby.”
The name lands heavier than the rest.
A couple of the older kids snap their fingers. Others scoff.
Like it’s a warning disguised as history.
Above them, the sun begins to drop.
Orange spills into the lake. The waterfall turns gold at its edges. Shadows stretch longer across the rocks.
Eventually, someone starts moving.
Then everyone does.
The group pulls itself out of the water, dripping, laughing, shaking off the day like it’s something they can leave behind.
They start walking back through Wild Oak together.
The trail feels different now, less like a path, more like something being followed.
They walk ahead in clusters.
TJ, Vincent, and James drift behind.
“You think that map is real?” TJ asks.
James kicks at a stone. “A pirate, gold, a hidden cave… you hear how that sounds, right?”
Vincent tilts his head. “Bill Nye said something about alternate dimensions once.”
“This isn’t science,” James says.
But TJ isn’t listening.
Neither is Vincent.
The forest around them gets quieter.
Not instantly.
Slowly.
Like the world is stepping back.
The group ahead is gone.
Not far gone.
Just gone.
The path is empty.
“Uh…” Vincent slows. “Guys?”
TJ stops walking.
James does too.
The forest holds still in a way that feels deliberate.
No laughter. No footsteps ahead.
Just wind.
“We’re okay,” James says, though his voice sounds like it belongs to someone else. “We just… go back the way we came.”
Vincent starts breathing too fast.
“No, no, we’re not on the trail anymore.”
TJ turns in a slow circle. “We are. We are.”
But the certainty doesn’t stick.
They move anyway.
Phones come out.
Flashlights click on.
Three small beams cut into a much larger dark.
James leads without asking.
Vincent stays in the middle.
TJ takes the back.
“We’re going in circles,” Vincent says.
“No we’re not,” James answers immediately.
But even he doesn’t sound sure anymore.
The forest begins to speak in other ways.
Owls somewhere above.
Insects thick in the air.
Branches shifting like something passing through them just out of sight.
James finally stops pretending he knows.
His phone drops to ten percent.
Then lower.
Then—
A shape appears between the trees.
A structure.
Vincent squints. “That’s… a house.”
TJ steps closer. Recognition hits before certainty does.
“This is the old ranger station.”
Silence.
Vincent swallows. “The one from the story.”
TJ nods slowly. “The guy who went crazy looking for the treasure.”
They stand there too long.
The house doesn’t move.
But it feels like it’s watching them anyway.
“What are the chances the map is still in there?” TJ says.
Vincent shrugs.
A beat.
Then TJ walks up the porch.
James moves instantly. “TJ, wait—”
Too late.
TJ reaches the door.
Locked.
He jiggles it once.
Twice.
Then disappears around the side of the building.
“TJ,” James whispers now, sharper. “TJ!”
Vincent doesn’t move.
Neither does James.
The forest tightens around them.
A sound from the side of the station.
A pause.
Then—
The front door swings open.
TJ stands there, grinning like the night didn’t just shift.
James and Vincent hesitate.
The house is dark behind him.
TJ steps inside first.
And after a moment that feels longer than it should—
they follow.