Chapter 13: The Truth of the Island
"Whelp…" I said sighing as the 4 of us stood up from our desks. Melanie avoided eye contact with me as we did.
"I'm… I'm sorry you all had to hear that," I said awkwardly.
"It's alright dipshit, it's not your fault. Ned made you read such an obscene poem," Paula said, "I mean, we're just following the prompt so I can't really blame ya."
"Yeah I mean it was only 5 minutes, I'm surprised you came up with an actual poem in that time Paula."
The curly haired blonde looked at me with a puzzled expression.
"Come up? What do you mean come up? Didn't your prompt say to just read the poem already written down?"
"Wait what?!?!"
I quickly ran over to Paula's desk looking at the prompt that she had. True to her words, the prompt simply read, "Do not actually write a poem, simply read the following poem out loud."
"Yeah I mean, there's no way I could have thought of these line by myself," Paula said, "is that not what your prompt said too?"
"Ahhh well…"
"List fruits," Fiona interrupted, "mine says list fruits."
"What…"
"And mine said write a poem as if you were a Soundcloud rapper!" Melanie added, "Yeah I tried my best on that one, it was pretty difficult. Wait Xavier, what was yours if pegging is what you wrote about? Write a poem about your biggest nightmares or something?"
"Uhhh…" I hurried back to my original desk and tore the prompt paper apart, "yeah yeah let's go with that!"
"NONE OF THAT MATTERS SINCE IT'S ALL SUBJECTIVE, I JUST THOUGHT IT'D BE FUNNY WATCHING ALL OF YOU COMPLETE THIS CHALLENGE."
"Sigh… do we get a mini-prize at least for that humiliation?"
"SURE YOU GET…"
A podium popped up from the ground in front of us with another item on it.
"A BLANK NOTEBOOK."
"Ehhh… one of you can have this one," Paula said.
"Huh, well it would be pretty cool to start a…"
"Mine!" Fiona said snatching the notebook before I could take it.
"Need for drawing."
"YOU MAY TAKE ONE OF THE PENCILS ON THE WAY OUT AS WELL. OKAY, THAT'S IT FOR TODAY, ONLY 3 TRIALS REMAIN, COME BACK AGAIN IN 3 DAYS."
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "Only about a week left huh?" I thought to myself looking at the rock that now had 28 markings on it as I lay down alone on a grassy field. Melanie and Paula were on fishing duty for the day. Fiona apparently said she wanted to do some nature sketching so she had wandered off somewhere by herself.
"It's been fun so far hasn't it, away from the world, away from worries, and away from responsibilities."
The prospect of returning to college and eventually back to the daily routine of serving customers at my family's bar had begun to dawn on me. 3 trials meant there was less than a week left on the island. It wasn't true at the beginning, but the three girls on the island had begun to grow on me. Melanie's eccentric nature, Fiona's calm demeanor, and even Paula's delinquent attitude had become the standard energy I had become accustomed too.
"You know, maybe I shouldn't wish for a way off the island after all," I thought to myself. It seemed that everyone else was enjoying themselves as well while here. And plus… I'm not sure I could properly explain to Melanie's parents what exactly happened to us. And I'm pretty sure Paula would be going to prison. Yeah… what if I didn't wish for a way off the island, what if… I wished for something else instead?"
"Xavier,"
I sat up as I heard my name uttered by a soft voice. It was Fiona with her notebook in hand.
"Oh back already? Find anything interesting today Fiona?"
"Yes," she said continuing to stare at me blankly, "come see,"
"Where are we going again?" I asked following Fiona. It must have been something significant as Fiona had decided to grab the maple syrup bottle she had with her from her tent. As we walked, she took a deep breath and gulped down a swig of the syrup.
"Okay don't panic Xavier, but I feel like I just made a pretty incredible discovery."
She opened her notebook and showed me a drawing she had made. It was what looked to be a drawing of a number of people with seaweed skirts and wooden tribal masks on talking to each other.
"Wait a minute… I'm pretty sure I've seen this, or heard about this before."
"Yeah that pervert Paula got captured by these guys remember? Yeah serves that bitch right, but that's not the point. I stumbled upon another cave not too long ago and saw a few of them talking to each other just like this."
"Wait wait what? You mean we're not alone on this island?"
"Yeah and I think we never were. There were at least 5 of them and they were talking just like in this picture I drew!"
I stopped in my tracks for a moment.
"Shouldn't we talk to Melanie and Paula before going back to the cave you found them at then? If there're 5 people there. it might be dangerous if it's just the 2 of us."
"Melanie's going to faint before we reach the cave and do you really trust Paula in a situation like this?"
"That's true."
"It's safer if it's just us for now. We should at least try and observe further to see what their deal is. Maybe they're connected to Ned or the secrets of this island or… or…"
Fiona's speech paused for a moment. The frantic expression she had on her face suddenly turned back to her usual blank one. It appeared the maple syrup's effects had worn off.
"Fi… Fiona?"
"Yes?"
"You were saying something about the masked people possibly being connected to the secrets of the island or Ned or something?"
"Yes."
"Never mind…"
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"Say, where did toots and dipshit go?" Paula asked when she and Melanie returned from their fishing trip.
"Yeah I don't know it's almost sun down. It'll be too dark to explore the island soon." Melanie replied.
"That dipshit better not be doing anything to toots," Paula said, "she's mine!"
"Ohhhhh someone's jealous," Melanie said, "wow Paula, someone you call dipshit really just stole your girl!"
"Pshh… I bet you're just as worried as I am," Paula said, "I see how you look at Xavier."
"Wh… what? Me? No," Melanie said blushing slightly, "he's cute but… he's just someone that I feel needs to be pegged! But since he said he doesn't want to, I don't know if we're a good match."
"That's how I know you're interested. You think he's cute even though he doesn't want to get pegged."
"I mean he did put up with me even though it was my fault why we're here. That was pretty cool of him to jump into the sea and save me."
"Ewww… okay that's too much mush for a conversation," Paula said, "makes me sick to my stomach."
"Yeah you're right, I'm sure Fiona and Xavier just got lost somewhere, they're survival noobies after all! If they don't show up by tomorrow, we'll go look for them."
"How are we supposed know where they are though?"
"Because did you forget Paula…" Melanie said once again doing her trademark pose, "I'm a survivalllll extraordinaire! That means I can sniff out the presence of anyone from miles away!"
"Fair enough."
"Well, since it's just the two of us here, let's talk about I don't know… giraffes!"
"Why would we do that?" Paula asked bemused, "that's so random and those things aren't even real."
"We have to pass the Bechdel test somehow," Melanie said, "notice how the narration has shifted to 3rd person so this is the only opportunity to do so."
"You know Melanie, that is completely logical but we can do better than talk about giraffes. Those things are just too unrealistic. Long neck horses, what the fuck? That's not possible. What about aliens? You know sometimes I have dreams that they somehow control every part of our lives from the shadows and secretly manipulate everything. What are your thoughts on that?"
"I just know that crazy haired dude on the History Channel to be honest. Something something ancient astronomic theorists. Those shows were never as good as the ones on Discovery."
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Fiona and I had been walking for about 2 hours at this point when we finally arrived at the new cave she had found.
"It's pretty dark Fiona," I said, "let's just take a peak to see what's going on than report back to the others."
Fiona nodded as we entered the cave. When we did however, it appeared completely dark and empty with no signs of the masked people.
"Fi… Fiona," I said looking at her with an annoyed expression, "Is… is this some kind of prank?"
Fiona shook her.
"They were here."
I sighed…
"It's probably just that we've been on the island too long and you're starting to see things. Come on; let's go back to camp with…"
"Xavier."
"Yes?"
Xaiver…"
"What is it Fiona, you're going to tell me the masked people are behind me right now? Nah no way, that's way too cliché of a gag. There's no way that'll…"
However, just like spinning red 5 times on roulette does not guarantee a black spin the next time, a common cliché used in many of the stories I had read did not prevent it from happening again in my reality as indeed behind me suddenly popped up a group of people in wooden tribal masks.
"Oh hi…" I said as they stared down at us. Most of them were quite large and at least a foot taller than I was.
"I didn't see you guys there. With your uhh… cool masks! Yeah, I'm sure it took a lot of craftsmanship to make those!"
My flattery however did not seem to impress the masked people as they simply whispered to each other in a language I didn't understand. After several seconds of discussion, they tied Fiona and my hands up with rope.
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"Where… where are we going?" I asked as the masked people led Fiona and me into the cave near us. We could not understand a word they were saying as they talked to each other.
"You… you're not cannibals are you!?!?" I asked in horror, "I know there are some indigenous people like that but I promise you I don't taste good. I just taste like uhhh… dipshit! I taste like dipshit."
"I taste like snow," Fiona said next to me.
The masked people however, simply stared at us as we kept walking deeper into the cave. One of them had a torch on him providing us light on our journey revealing the areas inwards we couldn't see before.
"Oh god or jesus or whoever is running this place," I whispered to myself, "please please let these masked people be friendly."
We kept walking a bit until we finally reached the end the cave with a wall. There we saw… just as we had when we entered the first cave Fiona found with Ned in it… a single rectangular touch screen on top of a podium.
"Wait… what the?"
One of the masked people walked up to the screen and pressed on it. The wall behind it immediately spread apart revealing a small room. Inside that room, we saw what appeared to be a cubic speaker. Behind the speaker, an oval the size of a large mirror with the color of a black abyss appeared against the wall. To me, it looked like a portal to another dimension.
"OH LOOK AT WHO WE'VE GOT HERE," a voice from the speaker said. A voice we had gotten very familiar with at this point.
"Ne… Ned?"
"IT IS INDEED I, NED, THE MAGICAL BEING."
"Okay… that's clearly an electronic speaker. That aside though, what's going Ned, why are there masked people here on this island?"
"I'M GLAD YOU ASKED XAVIER, THIS IS 2 TRIALS EARLIER THAN I ANTICIPATED BUT I SUPPOSE IT IS TIME TO TELL YOU THE TRUTH ABOUT THE ISLAND."
"Are… are you all ali"
"WAIT FOR ME TO ANNOUNCE IT DIPSHIT."
"Okay… go ahead then."
"WE ARE IN FACT… ALL ALIENS," Ned said. As he did, the masked figures all took off their masks to reveal… nothing underneath. The sight of 5 headless bodies surrounding me and Fiona terrified me and made my stomach churn.
"Jesus Christ, the alien part wasn't too surprising but you guys are creepy as fuck!"
"THAT'S JUST THE OPINION OF YOU INFERIOR HUMANS," Ned said. As he did, the figures all placed their masks back on top of their heads.
"And I'm guessing that's the portal you guys entered in to get to this pocket dimension?"
"THAT IS CORRECT; YOU'RE QUITE CLEVER I SEE XAVIER."
"Meh… pretty unoriginal,"
"SAYS THE MC WITH NO PERSONALITY."
"Anyways… so what's your deal then Ned? What do you aliens want? Why did you create this as you say… pocket dimension here on the Bermuda Triangle with cave trials? What's the point in all of this?"
"WELL XAVIER, I AM ABOUT TO REVEAL TO YOU THE OTHER SHOCKING TRUTH."
"Do your worse… nothing is more shocking than the things Melanie says in her sleep."
"THE TRUTH IS XAVIER AND FIONA… THE TRUTH IS..."
As he said that, a TV screen suddenly floated down from a hole on the ceiling of the cave and hung in front of us.
"THE TRUTH IS… YOU GUYS ARE ON TELEVISION."