Bound to the Island: Our Family of Seven Is Marked

Mom was red in the face as she argued with our tour guide, Alex Prentiss.

Alex stared at her coldly. "What are you afraid of? There are hundreds of people here, dozens of families. The root of this disaster is a family of seven. Or… are you the family of seven, ma'am?"

Mom didn't dare argue. She quickly lowered her head like an ostrich burying itself in the sand.

The people around us started chattering.

"We're a family of four."

"It's just the two of us."

"There are only three of us here. So, who here exactly is the family of seven?"

"Whoever the family of seven is, can you please step forward and kill yourselves? Give the rest of us innocent people a chance to live!"

Clutching my older sister, Mable Carter's, hand tightly, I tried to disappear behind several tall people. Her hand was sweaty, showing just how nervous she was.

I whispered in her ear, "It'll be okay. No one here knows each other. As long as our family of seven doesn't gather together, no one will ever know."

I didn't believe anyone was actually going to dig into our family history. Besides, how would they prove it, anyway?

People buzzed around, asking questions left and right, but no one could identify the family of seven.

Right then, the floodwater rose a few more inches. The dry part of the land was shrinking fast, and the water at the edges was almost up to people's heels.

Alex's voice grew heavier. "Whoever the family of seven is, step forward now, and you'll get a quicker death. Otherwise, everyone on this island is going to die one by one."

No one dared to come forward and admit it. Everyone kept deflecting, accusing, and trying to deduce who the suspects might be.

Still holding Mable's hand, I snapped at Alex, "What superstitious bullshit is this? It's just rain causing the flood. What does that have to do with a family of seven?

"You're spouting nonsense. Just put out a few boats, and we can all leave. We don't have to be trapped by the flood at all."

Alex's gaze met mine straight on. After a while, he murmured softly, almost off-handedly, "Oh? Am I talking nonsense?"

Suddenly, a pale hand, with long, black nails, shot out of the water. The hand was extremely strong, curling and slicing through the water. It would disappear for a few seconds before resurfacing again, leaving everyone's hearts pounding in fear.

Mable trembled.

"Vivian," she turned to me, shrieking. "This place really is cursed. It's a ghost! A ghost!"

I slapped my hand over her mouth. She loved horror stories. She was always easily scared, but she loved them nonetheless. Seeing the real thing now, she was scared out of her wits.

"Don't be scared. There are so many of us here. What's there to be scared of?"

Normally, having so many people around would make ghosts less frightening. But right now, the sky was dark and overcast, and fog was rolling in.

Everything was hazy. People couldn't see each other clearly. It was the kind of bone-chilling terror that made everyone's skin crawl and even made their sense of self slip away.

"Damn, this fog is so thick! I can't see anything!"

"Must we die? Who exactly is this family of seven?"

"That family of seven is going to get us all killed! Are so many of us supposed to die just because of those seven people?"