The body had been removed from the cabin already. The crew found an open area just near the shore wherein they could bury the corpse along with his head. Other passengers were still crying about the incident in their makeshift tents while teacher Samuel, who was out gathering food inland for everyone to eat during the time the men wrecked the door of the cabin, was shocked and could not accept the news. Our only hope of getting out of the island was far-fetched by now.I peeked outside my tent and spotted teacher Mary at the far corner of the shore, near the coconut-looking trees (as the beach was surrounded by lots of them). She was surveying the area and trying her best to pinpoint the suspects who could have done such an act. The thing was, she perhaps still could not believe that something like that happened here, but the experience was not out of ordinary for her.She shared with me a bit about herself before we got down from the barge after finding the body of the late captain. I

Red. Blue. Yellow.After coming up with a decision to group the crowd into three to do different tasks, I immediately went back to my tent and slumped heavily on the makeshift bed. I couldn’t believe what was happening right then. Everything here was traumatizing. Everything was unreal.Was it too much to ask God just to meet someone romantically?I never asked to have this kind of situation.First of all, the main reason why I agreed to join the retreat was that I was expecting that I’d be able to meet someone—of course, romantically—on the island and have some fun. I wanted to at least be held by a guy even once in my life. That was the only thing that I was asking for. I didn’t care if the guy would be handsome or not as long as he was a guy then it was all good. Damn, I was desperate about finding one.Instead, this happened.I noticed that I was shivering, which I suspected was because I still couldn’t forget what happened in the captain’s cabin. It would surely haunt me for life.

While the men were burying the body of Alyssa near a coconut-looking tree, the three of us bawled like children a few meters away from the cliff. We couldn’t fully process everything that had happened with the captain yet—and now this. What else could possibly happen? Both Vhina and Ritchelle were staring at nothingness with gaping mouths after they emptied their tear glands. Out of us, they were the most affected because it looked like it was their first time seeing a corpse such as that. Vhina got up to her feet first.“This is stupid. So stupid. How could something like that happen in such a way?” she cried. Her eyes were all swollen. Ritchelle followed suit, and with clenched fists added, “That’s right! It looked like someone has pushed her and arranged her shoes in such a way that gives off a message.”“But who?” I wailed. Before anyone could answer, teacher Norkie returned alone. He looked lost and drained. His cheeks were damp and sunken. He didn’t look at any of us and jus

It was our second day of being stranded on this island, yet no rescue had come. We didn’t find any locals as well. The sun was at its peak, indicating that it might be noon already. Rico was walking ahead of me, leading the way to the unknown territories. The foliage here was thicker and the coconut-looking trees were much taller compared to the ones at the beach.Now that I had a good look at them, and for the first time that I ever gave focus and attention to the details of the trees, they looked familiar. “Jelly, check this out.”Rico called me out from where he was standing, which I supposed an opening just outside the foliage. I quickened my pace and for the first time since being stranded here, finally found something beautiful and mesmerizing. We were standing on a wide cliff, wider than the first one Alyssa fell from. The memory struck like lightning and got me sobbing again, but I nodded it off. I needed to always remind myself to move on. I might not be able to forget, but

“Chevonne! Look at this!” How could I not wonder at this scenery? The picturesque view drenched in the moonlight was so majestic that it sipped all my worries and fears that were caused by everything on this island. I had never seen such a bright night in my life. Everything was glowing in lavender, and I could clearly see the details of the area: darkness didn’t mean anything at all. I squinted and found out that the cocohairs were the ones responsible for the wonderful light display. They looked like those candescent Christmas trees in P-mall that were displayed early in September. The silence of the waterfalls never bothered me that much ever since knowing about strange powers and whatnot from Chevonne, so anything else that would happen that was not normal, was going to be normal for me. I wouldn’t intend to get surprised every time my mind couldn’t perceive nor accept things that normal human beings couldn’t normally do.That was because I was also not normal. I had a power. I w