"Tommy, it's me" I said with a smile enveloping my face.

"Ben! Tommy!" I heard Mikey yell to my right before full sprinting to hug our two teammates.

"Mikey! Is that really you? Are you really here?" Ben asked with tears in his eyes as the two boys broke apart.

"It's me. After the wave, we didn't know what happened to you two" he replied as he hugged the other boy. I closed the gap.

"What about everyone else?" Tommy asked with urgency.

"Everyone from our life boat is here too. Safe. But we don't know where the other boats washed up"

"Hey, I'm glad you're both safe" I said.

As soon as their attention turned to me, they asked Mikey "who is she?"

"That's uh, that's Jo"

"Jonathan?" Tommy asked

"Yeah it wasn't my idea" I added.

I felt Ben's eyes linger on me as if with distrust but he didn't say anything.

"Coach?" Ben asked.

"Yeah come on, let's go meet everyone"

▼・j61;・▼

The walk back took much less time because we now walked with more certainty and urgency. Mikey, Ben and Tommy remained in conversation the entire journey back and I noticed Ben would occasionally turn to stare at me.

Mikey filled them in on the state of the group and what we had done and been through so far. When he explained why I was dressed the way I was, Tommy laughed. Ben didn't even attempt to hide his stares.

"Ben?" I started. He turned again to me but didn't say anything. "When you first saw me, you kept saying 'why won't it stop'. What did you mean by that?"

He looked over at Tommy before answering "I uh.. I thought I was hallucinating"

"Have you been hallucinating?" Mikey asked him.

"Sometimes" he replied.

No one said anything until Mikey added finally "Hey I can't even begin to know what you two have gone through so no judgement"

"Yeah, and seeing a girl like you in this forest, of course the guy thought he was hallucinating" Tommy added laughing.

I let out a small awkward laugh.

▼・j61;・▼

The entire group was wide eyed as we came into view.

"Look guys, we found Tommy and Ben!" Mikey shouted cheerfully.

Coach put a hand on his head and let out an exasperated sigh. "Oh thank God you boys are okay". His voice was filled with relief. He walked up pulled both boys in for a hug.

The conversation didn't stop even when we all got back to the cave.

"It's been so long since I ate any meat" Ben exclaimed as he tore into the piece of dried rabbit.

"Yeah" Tommy agreed "we've had to live off fruits and mushrooms"

"Maybe that wasn't such a good idea" Gabe chimed in "lots of mushrooms are poisonous you know?"

"Yeah we know" Tommy replied "we did that skin test, we chewed and spat, and then we ate in small amounts until we were sure it was safe"

"And we're not dead yet so it obviously worked right?" Ben asked rhetorically as he chewed right down to the bone.

"Well you have been hallucinating though" Mikey said with a laugh.

Coach who stood beside Ben in the cave placed a hand on his shoulder and said "you boys did good. I never lost faith in you"

"Thanks coach. You taught us well" Tommy replied.

It felt good to have this moment with the team. We'd all been through so much and the fact that we were all here, alive meant so much to everyone.

"It wasn't the shrooms making me hallucinate" Ben said as he let the bare rabbit bone fall to the floor. His face was more serious than I'd ever seen it.
"It's this island. There's something wrong with it".

▼・j61;・▼

No one had said anything since Ben dropped that bomb.

"It's not normal" he continued.

"Wait what do you mean?" Tate asked him.

"Tommy's hallucinating too you know? It's not just me"

"You've both been through a lot" Tate replied.

"No! It's not that!" He protested adamantly. "Haven't you noticed that the island is a little too perfect? There are zero predators. And where did the animals here even come from? It's an island! Did they swim?"

He was shouting at the end of the sentence.

"Dude calm down, it's okay now" Doug told him.

"No no listen to me" Ben seemed unhinged "you have to be on your guard or else it'll change you".

What he was saying was starting to scare me but I didn't let it show.

"It's why the previous guys left in such a hurry" he said finally.

"Wait, who are you talking about?" Mikey asked.

"There were people here before us. They took off without even getting most of their stuff" Tommy told us "We think something horrible happened to them"

"Where?" Coach asked

"They had a compound" Tommy replied "that's where we're staying"

"Show us"

▼・j61;・▼

The journey took no more than 20 minutes to get back to the path we found earlier and only 5 minutes down that path to get to the compound Ben and Tommy had spoken of.
What we found was a settlement that that would have taken some time for even a large team to build.

There was a short fence no more than 4 feet probably there to keep animals out and not people. The compound consisted of three buildings made of stone and thatch forming a semi circle with what looked to be a well in the middle.

Tommy pushed the small gate open and walked up to the door of the largest building pushing that open. We all followed. It felt strange to be walking into a building. None of us had even used a door in a while.
The interior much like the exterior was very bare with two of the 8 foam beds sprawled across the floor, 5 in a stack in the corner and one resting against the far wall covered in blood.

"It was like that when we got here" Tommy said without waiting for us to ask.

"We'll burn it boys don't worry" Coach said simply "let's take a look around".

The building had wooden windows much like the doors and the thatched roof looked like it did it's job.

"What do you think they were doing here?" Tate asked "I mean they went as far as to build all this stuff"

"We think they were studying the island" Tommy was the one to reply. "We've found maps of the island, they had caves just like that one y'all were staying in marked"

He moved to raise one of the beds and pulled out sheets of paper, one of which was a map with spots marked all over. He placed the map on the floor and we all huddled around like we had done so many times in the past.

"There's the spring" I pointed out.

"And there's our cave" Mikey added "there's more caves too"

"Here's the compound we're in" Tommy pointed to a spot close to the center.

Dead center of the map, there was a circle and an inscription next to it "cause?"

"What do you think that is?" Doug asked.

Tommy looked to Ben before repeatedly tapping on the spot. "They obviously thought something at the center of the island was making all this stuff happen"

"Guys there's nothing wrong with the island" Doug interjected while laughing it off "it's a perfectly normal island. What are you even talking about?"

Tommy moved in closer as if needing to get his point across. "So none of you have had any behaviour changes? Acting differently? What about weird dreams or even started seeing things?"

"No! Nothing like that" Doug replied sharply "right guys?" He asked turning to the rest of us.
Some mumbled "no" and some simply shook their heads.

"See?" Doug said triumphantly.

"I thought I saw my mum once" Mikey said finally. "I didn't get a good look so I didn't think anything of it."

The room is quiet for a while.

"You know me Jo. We're not super close but you know I would never do that to you" It was the first time I'd heard Ollie's voice in a while. It made me angry.

"You don't get to blame what you did on some fucking supernatural bullshit" I snapped at him. My voice was so high, it cracked half way through.

"I'm so sorry for what happened" Ollie replied with his voice filled with remorse and it just made me even angrier. Just being near him threatened to send me into a rage.

"Fuck you!" I said sharply.

"Okay chill out Fahey! You fought, get over it" Doug jumped in.

"Fuck you too Doug! You know, I'm sick and tired of your shit!" I didn't know when I got to my feet. I felt a hand grab my shoulder and I swung wildly catching coach with a palm across his face.

The group went quiet. When I realised what I'd done, I froze. My anger dissipated and I withdrew the hand into the other.

L"I'm sorry" I said simply.

"Take a walk" Coach said and that was it. I turned and left the building.

▼・j61;・▼

Taking a narrow path leading left after the gate, I eventually came to a small lake. It was clean and beautiful and it reminded me of a similar lake in our city.

I sat beside a tree overlooking the lake and tried to process what had just happened. I'd just slapped coach. No other student in the entire school or even staff had so much as talked back to him.

These shorts had quickly gotten uncomfortable as they didn't stop riding up my legs. Sitting like I was, they barely even covered my butt. I decided that as soon as I got the chance, I would change into a dress.

I thought back to what Tommy had said. Even though I hadn't gotten the chance to tell them, I'd had that crazy dream. I wondered whether that could have been connected.

I was pulled out of my thoughts when I heard footsteps approaching. I turned to see Gabe approaching.

"Coach took all the strongest guys to go get our stuff"

I nodded.

"That leaves just you and I. The girl and the weakling" he said as he took a seat beside me.

"You're not a weakling, Gabe" I said.

There was a pause.

"And you're not a girl right Jo? I think you forgot that part" he said with a weak smile.

"Yeah. Sure. I'm not a girl".

We sat there for a few minutes before either of us spoke again. "It sure is beautiful out here isn't it?" He asked.

"Yeah it really is"

"You know, if I pretend hard enough, it's almost like none of this ever happened and I'm on a date with a pretty girl"

I gave him a look but didn't say anything.

"You know what the worst part is?" He asked and I slowly shook my head. "The worst part is that no one is looking for me. Like your family is probably out there doing everything they can to get you back but I don't have any of that. My dad might not even know and my mum probably doesn't even care"

I didn't know how to respond to that so I just placed a hand on his lap.

When it seemed like he was okay, I moved my hand and he stood right after.

"Coach said we should burn that last bed so why don't you help me find some wood. There should be some lying around".

I nodded.

▼・j61;・▼

We found a good spot far enough away from the compound and Gabe worked his magic with the ferro rod. As the flames engulfed the bloodied bed, I couldn't help but wonder what had happened here.

By the time we got back to the compound, the boys were back and having fun. We caught Tate heading for the lake path in a hurry.

"We're getting in the lake, hurry come join us"

"Oh shit, I'm coming" Gabe replied excitedly before hurrying into the house to change into briefs and run out.

I did change too but only into a white and green summer dress and brown boots. I combed my hair using the trunk mirror and even applied a bit of lip gloss. I couldn't help but notice that I looked a lot like my mum did in one of her old pictures.

I approached the lake self consciously but no more than before. Doug, Tate, Ollie, Gabe and Tommy were already in the water having what looked like a good time. Coach was nowhere to be seen but Ben sat close to the lake watching our teammates.

I scanned the view for Mikey but couldn't spot him and suddenly two hands covered both my eyes.
"Guess who?" Mikey's unmistakable voice came from behind me. I smiled widely and turned to look at him laughing.
"You're actually supposed to guess" he said light-heartedly.

"Does this mean you're done avoiding me?" I asked.

"I wasn't avoiding you"

"Yes you were"

He suddenly grabbed my hand and pulled "come on".

We walked past the lake and into the sparse trees away from sight of everyone.

"I wasn't avoiding you" he repeated "I just needed time to think"

"And what did you think about?" I asked. A sudden gust of wind blew through picking up the leaves around us and my dress skirt. I quickly held it in place.

He smiled at me.

"What?" I asked embarrassed.

"You really are so beautiful" he replied very smoothly.

This caught me off guard and made me turn red.

"I do think so and I do... I like you that way but I just don't want to lose our friendship" his face was full of so many emotions. "You're my best friend Jo" he said as he placed a palm on my face, "But I think I'm falling in love with you".

I watched him close the gap between us and kiss me deeply. I put my arms around his neck and pulled myself closer. I shuddered with every breath. My hands rubbed his neck and chest and back as we kissed with more and more intensity.

I felt his hands move down my back as they became more explorative but we were both pulled back to reality when we heard a twig snap loudly.

We turned to see Ben standing by a tree closely watching us.

▼・j61;・▼