Anna woke up to waves lapping at her feet; her skin was burnt and tingling, her hair disheveled, and she felt like she'd been in a marathon and a boxing match at the same time all night. She blinked twice, trying to clear her vision and her memory, both of which were fuzzy. The bright sunshine wasn't helping matters, as it made it difficult for her to fully open her eyes.
Anna raised a hand to block out the sun, then groped around with her other hand and legs, looking for somewhere where the intensity of the sun wasn't so harsh. After a while she noticed she was touching cool sand and that the rays of the sun were less intense. She slowly opened her eyes, groaning in pain as she tried to sit down. At first all she could see was the black sand at her feet, but as her eyes adjusted, she gazed in wonder at where she was.
In front of her was an endless ocean and a shore that stretched along the edge with sand as dark as a starless night. The air was foggy and thick, and the wind seemed to whisper. She gazed behind her, and her eyes widened as she saw huge mountains and trees behind her. They looked like misshapen figures with eyes that watched everywhere she looked. Where am I? And where is everyone, she thought to herself. Anna slowly got up and winced in pain. She looked at her skin, which was now very red from sunburn.
Only God knew how long she had been lying in the hot sand, wearing nothing but shorts and a tank top. She cried out in pain as she tried to remove the sand stuck to her body. “Hello,” she called out with a voice that was now raspy and a throat that was parched. “What in God's name is this place?” Anna whispered to herself as recollections of where she had been came back to her memory.
She had been on a yacht with her boyfriend, Zack, and her other friends Zoe and Alma and their boyfriends too. The yacht belonged to Anna's father, and he'd given it to her to celebrate her 18th birthday. They'd been out at sea, having fun, drinking, and partying. Then Zoe had drawn their attention to something in the water. It looked like a dark circle, and it was turning and forming a little whirlpool.
The captain had been ordered to steer the yacht closer, and initially he'd refused, but they had pressured him to do it, and that was the last thing she remembered.
“Anna, thank goodness you're okay. I was so worried!” Anna heard Zack shout from a distance, and she turned to find her friends running towards her. She sighed in relief, and tears of joy streamed down her cheeks. She wasn't alone after all; she hugged each of them fiercely as they barreled into her, welcoming the pain that hit her body as they squeezed her back.
“How did we end up here? And where are we?” Zoe whined as soon as the group hug ended. A discussion ensued that clarified that after they had edged the yacht closer to the whirlpool, no one knew how or when they'd ended up here. Their boat was crushed and battered on the other side where her friends had run from, and they couldn't find any other person from the boat.
“It's a very deserted and distant place, that's for sure,” Zack said, looking around.
“Yeah, it's a strange deserted island,” Zoe's boyfriend, Luke, replied.
“Well, whatever it is, a deserted island or a distant shore, I just want to leave here,” Anna cried out.
“Right… So we're stuck here, without the yacht or the captain. No phones, even though I'm very certain we wouldn't even have a network connection. The colour of the sand is off, everything here is weird! What do we do?” Alma asked. Looking at the others with fear in her eyes. They all looked back at her helplessly, not knowing what to do. They finally decided to explore the place to see if they could find something to help them.
The sun was beginning to set, so they tried to move fast. The group walked towards the mountains, and since they couldn't climb, they had to walk around them. They were drawings etched on the mountain and written words that neither of them could understand. The trees looked eerily scary, tall, and heavy with fruit. They cast shadows whose presence could be felt but never fully seen. The fruits that had dropped were rotting and filled the air with the stench of decay.
They walked around for what seemed like hours, but it was as if they hadn't moved at all; they somehow always returned to where they'd begun.
“What is this place? It's almost as if I can feel it breathing, watching our every move,” Zoe whispered as chills went down their spines. The others had felt it too but were too afraid to say anything. They were also hungry and tired and knew they wouldn't survive here for another day. When they tried to pluck some fruits, they discovered they couldn't due to the height of the trees and decided to give up after several attempts.
“So what do we do now?” Alma's boyfriend, Jade, who had been silent since they'd found themselves on the island, asked. “Because nobody knows where we are, and for some reason, I don't think we're going to survive this.”
The others gasped, but deep down they knew he was right. Whatever they'd gotten into was beyond their understanding. As nightfall came, the group was quiet, each one of them reminiscing about their lives and the people they'd left behind. The ocean shimmered with strange colors and made sounds that had them terrified, cold, and clinging to each other, saying their last prayers.
Whatever this island was, it was alive and sinister, and it scared them. At some point at night they all eventually fell asleep, each person holding on to the other tightly, searching for comfort and warmth. As a chill breeze swept the air and the waves became more violent, the six of them woke up screaming and gasping. They all looked at each other, and without speaking, they somehow understood that they'd all had the same dream and the same message.
There was no escape, no help was coming, they had been sucked into a cursed shore, and the only way to leave was to make a sacrifice. A sacrifice that they couldn't bear the thought of: they had to pick one person to be left behind. It was either that or they were all stuck there until whatever it was that plagued the island came for them. They all looked at each other with fear in their eyes, tears streaming down their cheeks as they realized the gravity of the choices they had ...