May 13 • General discussion
Chapter 10 - Secrets
The storm didn’t stop.
It only shifted.
Now it sounded less like weather and more like something circling the island—moving around them, testing where the walls were weakest.
Inside the ruins, the group stayed close together, huddled in the driest corner they could find. The air smelled of wet stone and salt, and every sound seemed louder than it should have been: dripping water, shifting debris, distant cracks of thunder.
No one slept.
Not really.
Alyssana sat with her knees pulled close, staring at her hands. The memory from the storm still clung to her mind like a stain she couldn’t wash off.
Scarlett.
The boat.
The fall.
And Jack remembering too much.
She glanced at him.
He was sitting a little apart from the others, watching the entrance like he expected something to walk in at any moment.
Emma broke the silence first.
“We can’t keep pretending nothing’s wrong,” she said quietly. “We all remember pieces. We all know that.”
Charles let out a short laugh, but there was no humor in it. “Yeah? And what exactly do you remember, Emma?”
Emma hesitated.
Then she pulled something from her pocket.
A small, water-damaged bracelet.
Alyssana leaned forward slightly.
“I found this near the wreck,” Emma said. “I didn’t say anything before because I didn’t know what it meant. But I think it belonged to someone on the boat.”
Alyssana stared at it.
Something about it felt familiar.
Not clearly.
Like a word she almost remembered.
Jack finally spoke. “We were all on that boat. That’s the only thing that makes sense.”
Charles shook his head. “Or we washed up from different places. We don’t even know if we knew each other before this.”
“That’s not true,” Alyssana said suddenly.
All eyes turned to her.
She swallowed.
“I remember him,” she said, looking directly at Jack now. “Not just the storm. Not just the beach. I remember him before all this.”
Jack didn’t look surprised.
That bothered her more than anything else.
“You do,” he said quietly.
It wasn’t a question.
Alyssana frowned. “What aren’t you telling me?”
Silence.
Rain tapped harder against the broken roof.
Finally, Jack looked down.
“I didn’t want you to remember everything at once,” he said.
Emma straightened. “Jack—”
But he kept going.
“You weren’t just passengers,” he said. “None of us were.”
Alyssana’s stomach tightened.
“What do you mean?”
Jack hesitated again, then forced the words out.
“That trip… it wasn’t normal. It wasn’t just a vacation.”
Charles muttered, “Great. Here we go.”
But Jack ignored him.
“You were invited,” Jack said to Alyssana specifically. “By him.”
A pause.
Alyssana felt something cold spread through her chest.
“By who?” she asked.
Jack finally looked at her fully.
“Your boyfriend.”
The world seemed to narrow.
Alyssana’s breath slowed without her meaning it to.
“That doesn’t make sense,” she said. “Why would he—”
“I don’t know all of it,” Jack interrupted. “But I know he planned something on that boat. I know Scarlett wasn’t the only one involved.”
The name hit again.
Scarlett.
Alyssana pressed her fingers against her temple.
Fragments flickered behind her eyes.
A toast.
Her boyfriend smiling too wide.
Scarlett standing beside him.
Whispers she couldn’t quite hear.
Jack’s voice softened slightly. “And I think… something went wrong. Something none of us were supposed to survive.”
A long silence followed.
Emma looked unsettled. Charles looked angry.
Alyssana felt something else entirely.
Not just confusion.
But betrayal trying to take shape inside her mind.
She stood up abruptly.
“I need air,” she said.
“Alyssana—don’t go out there,” Emma warned.
But Alyssana was already moving.
The storm hit her immediately when she stepped outside.
Wind slammed into her like a physical force, pulling at her clothes, pushing rain into her eyes. The ocean was louder now—angrier, closer.
But she kept walking.
She didn’t know where.
Just away from the others.
Away from Jack’s voice still echoing in her head.
By him.
Her boyfriend.
The one she couldn’t fully picture anymore, even though she knew she should be able to.
A branch snapped somewhere nearby.
Alyssana froze.
For a second, she thought she saw someone between the trees.
Not moving.
Just watching.
She blinked—
And it was gone.
Her heart hammered.
“No,” she whispered to herself. “No, I’m not imagining it.”
But the island didn’t answer.
Only the storm did.
And somewhere deep in the jungle, something moved again—closer this time.
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Chapter 10 - Secrets
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