I noticed them the first night when we went to dinner at the resort. A man and a woman in their swimwear lying on the sun loungers that we had been sunbathing on hours earlier. Only, it was dark, so they were effectively moon-bathing.
“What do you think their deal is?” my husband asked.
“I haven’t got a clue,” I responded.
If it had been sunset, I might have hypothesised that they had sensitive skin, but I could not wrap my head around what they were doing. None of the appeals of sunbathing existed at night, not the warmth of the sun, its tanning properties or even the vitamin D it provided.
At dinner, our waiter must have noticed us glancing over at the couple.
“Very strange people,” he said. “I saw them pouring something from their own class, but this is an all-inclusive resort, I can make them any drink they want.”
As our drinks and food arrived, our attention quickly drifted away from the odd couple.
We had both been in need of a holiday pretty badly. My husband and I were a pair of workaholics whose hobby was over-analysing. The week earlier, we had stayed up for hours discussing a film we had watched. The 90-minute movie resulted in a conversation that only came to an end because we heard birds chirping and saw the first rays of the morning sun peaking out from the horizon.
After a wonderful room, we made our way back to our suite. We were both already in our pyjamas when we heard the doorbell. My opened the door, to see a man and a woman standing there.
“Hello,” said the woman, her voice was soft almost more breath than sound. “We’re staying next door, we thought we would say hello.”
“Hello,” my husband said hesitantly.
“It’s a lovely night,” the man at the door said. “Do you have any plans this evening?”
“It’s almost midnight,” my husband said.
“The night is young,” the woman at the door said with a smile. “We haven’t had much of a chance to meet anyone at this resort yet.”
“Can we come in?” asked the man. “We would love to hear about how you’re finding the resort so far.”
The question hung in the air between the four of us. It felt like more than a question. I could feel the hairs on the back of my neck stand up, and as I looked into the eyes of the woman, I sensed something that chilled me.
“No,” I said firmly. “We have an early start tomorrow for a day of activities.”
A dark look of disappointment fell across the faces of the man and the woman.
“Good night,” I said as I closed the door.
The next morning, we were going to breakfast when we saw a woman from housekeeping run out of a room onto an upper balcony and scream, before fainting to the ground. We later found out that a young couple had been found dead in their suite. All the guests were gathered in a banquet hall for questioning. Two couples were missing. The dead couple, and the couple we had seen bathing in the moonlight.
