The Cursed Ruins of Pōmaikaʻi

Chapter 7

"So this is what green tea tastes like," Kame remarked after taking a sip of the stuff. "I like it—" His attempt to lighten the mood in front of Julie had failed miserably.

She sat in her chair, a thousand-yard stare on her face. Though she was responsive, the shock of seeing Kainak possessed by some kind of evil spirit right out of one of his stories must have been a shock to her system. And granted, he understood that she probably would recover from that shock in such a short amount of time, but seeing this woman, who thought of herself as strong and independent, in such a sad state was depressing.

But he also understood that he would probably feel the same way if he was in her situation.

The medicine man walked over to her, took her hand and led her away from the chair so they could both sit on the floor cross-legged (or "Indian style", even though Native comedians have made a killing parodying that whole idea) across from each other.

He knew there was not much he could say to her to get her to feel better. He could not apologize, because not only was it not really his fault (at least directly), but it wouldn't help. He couldn't promise to get Kainak back, because he knew she would doubt them. And he knew that he couldn't say he knew this was coming, because she would lash out at him. He had no real way of getting her to cheer up, and the only course of action would be honesty, simple as that.

"I should have known this could happen," he said.

"Then why didn't you do anything?" Julie asked.

"There are many reasons, but sadly, I believe you would consider them all to be mere excuses and not genuine reasons," he said. "There are a lot of things in my life that I should have seen coming, but I did not. And when they happened, I was caught off guard before I realized I should have done something.

"But the past is in the past, and there is not much I can do about it in the future," he continued. "It is far too easy to feel sorry for yourself in a situation like this."

Julie sniffed. She had been crying for a while now, so much so that she looked about ready to fall asleep. Kame snapped his fingers in front of her a couple of times to get her attention. It worked.

"Concentrate," he said. "Are you alright?"

"Alright?" she asked. "My boyfriend just got possess by something right out of a fucking Stephen King book and I don't even know what's going to happen to him! I'M JUST FINE AND DANDY!"

She was still Julie.

"Glad to know you're still you," Manti chuckled, drinking some of the tea he made. "I saw the etchings you made at the ruins. What possessed you to go there?"

"I was curious," she replied.

"Ah," said Kame.

"Is that bad?"

"Coming from you? Absolutely not," he replied.

"I guess," she said sadly.

"Look, I don't expect you to feel better this instant," said Kame. "I can understand. I remember once when my daughter was kidnapped by a renegade band of Paea warriors; I was so despondent, my wife got sick worrying over me and not our daughter. Thanks to the Gods and the Spirits she was found alright."

Julie huffed.

"If you're going to do nothing but feel sorry for yourself, then why don't you just give up?" he snapped. "You CANNOT let this affect you so much! You told me once that if Kainak did die, you would move on, did you not?"

Though Julie nodded, it wasn't much. But, Kame decided it was time to tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth. And it started with the obvious. "Kainak is still in there."