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Post by Kal on Apr 20, 2022 1:51:54 GMT
As you may have noticed, there are no descriptions for the chapter or for the story of Lightach Island in general. This is intentional! Lightach Island is something that I'll be working on in my free time, which I have a lot of. I've honestly lost the drive for Voyagers and want to begin something new. For starters, Lightach Island has no ending in mind and is being written freely! Lightach Island is one hundred percent revolving around choices that will influence the story in any direction possible. Lightach Island had 50 characters and is set in an apartment building on, you guessed it, an island. The layout of the residents can be found right here!Next, a document of the characters that I'm currently working on updating can be found here! And to reiterate, I am currently working on this and my goal is to have this finished so everything can be a bit more clear. With no more to say, I do hope this story is enjoyed because I'm really excited to be working on it. I'll answer any questions to the best of my ability! |
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Post by Kal on Apr 20, 2022 1:56:55 GMT
Six in the morning is when the sun started to rise on Lightach Island. Six in the morning is also when the first islander woke up to go open the shops up by seven.
There was no assigned shop keeper but the islanders knew and trusted that someone would always be there to open the shops on a daily basis. Whoever opened the shops would stay there until it was eight in the evening. Their meals would be prepared next door by Rocky and delivered by Amos, straight at five past seven for breakfast, five past one for lunch, and then they would go to meet the rest of the residents at the apartment building for dinner at eight.
The opener for the day was Mindy, which meant that her sisters would go to the shops to help her so there was no concern about having someone else coming to help once things got busy.
By eight in the morning, every resident was out of their apartment and walking about the island, just as they did every single day before today and it’s what they would do every day after today.
Couples like Bryce and Lucille walked with their children, some residents like Leo walked to their destination on their own with their heads to the ground as they walked, some people like Oliver couldn’t help but make conversation with everyone they passed while they walked with no destination in mind.
Everyone on the island had history together, even if they didn’t own up to it.
Leo kept his head down on his walks to avoid the shame he felt as he passed other residents. Every day he would have to pass someone like Oliver who would try and make casual conversation and accidentally bring up Melanie. He was grateful he still hadn’t run into Melanie or her new husband, Norris, on any of his walks yet but he knew it was inevitable on the island.
Oliver spoke to everyone he passed as an attempt to finally meet his neighbor, who he had lived next to for over a year now and still not even spoken to. He knew she had mutual friends but never could figure out why it seemed to be only him that she didn’t have any interest in meeting.
Purna lived between Oliver and Leo and had yet to meet either of them, but she knew a lot of them. Flora had told her about Leo’s divorce whenever she first arrived as a warning to be careful when talking to Leo, which never came up because Purna never ran into Leo. She was also pretty close friends with Oliver’s sister, Olivia, who moved to the tenth floor after her marriage.
Other island residents had a deeper history, such as Steven, Wes, Ciara, and Dexter but they didn’t know that. As far as they knew, Steven and Ciara just briefly met before the island and the pair met Dexter and Wes after their arrival to the island. Some other residents knew differently but didn’t feel the need to question the group.
The apartment building itself didn’t seem normal, it was ten stories high and only about four and a half floors were being used. The building and its rooms, along with their occupants seemed to change very frequently and it was always overnight. Nobody could explain these shifts and most of the residents couldn’t even stay awake past eleven at night to make an attempt to find out what happens in the building at night.
Oliver and Olivia were siblings, Olivia was older by three years. By the time Oliver had managed to find the island, Olivia had already gotten married and started on a family of her own. She gave birth to a baby boy named Gavin about four months after Oliver arrived on the island.
Today was the day that the siblings were supposed to go to the shops with a list of things from the residents of the tenth floor who were unable to leave their apartments. There were only two families that the two were heading out for, the Provost family and the Cambell family. The Provost’s had just delivered their first child and the Cambell’s their second daughter. Olivia was very firm in saying they should spend time at home with their babies as time on the island went by rapidly.
She had gone to her brother’s apartment at about seven forty-five after she had stopped and visited Purna, first asking her if she would go with her. Oliver was already about to be out the door when his sister got there so he agreed to go with her.
Olivia could already tell her brother was bothered by her asking Purna to go before asking him and she already knew it wasn’t because she didn’t ask him. “Oliver, if you’re that concerned with knowing her then knock on the door. She has lived less than a minute from you for over a year now and all you’ve done is been bothered because you haven’t met her, either change it or stop being bothered by it.”
Her brother laughed, knowing that she was only joking. “Maybe you should be a good friend and encourage her to knock on my door.” He paused. “You know what’s crazy? The entire floor shares a bathroom, nobody has ever gone to the bathroom at the same time as her. Olivia, your bestie might not be human.”
Olivia smirked and rolled her eyes. “Or it’s like she’s identified everyone else’s bathroom habits over the year and intentionally goes later in the night to avoid having those awkward interactions. Also, she’s Flora’s bestie, she would never stay over at my apartment until two or three in the morning.”
“Do you ever think that that might be a courtesy thing? You know, because you have a child and Flora doesn’t.” The comment started a fit of laughter between the two siblings.
The siblings passed by Leo who had his head hung low as he passed them, the laughter of the two fading away as he went on his way. While he walked past Steven and Ciara, he heard the couple talking quietly amongst each other. “Do you think he’s jealous of Norris? How do you think he’ll take it when they decide to have a baby?”
Leo let out a sigh and put his hands in his pockets, his pace picking up as he hurried towards the apartment building. On his way in, he ran into Melissa and Knox, the young couple likely heading to the performance hall so that Melissa could practice.
He went past the two and started up the stairs, knowing that the elevator was a sure way to be trapped into conversation.
Reaching the third floor, he heard a door open and shut. He already knew who it was; the third floor residents were all usually out of their apartments as soon as the doors unlocked, the only exception to this was his neighbor, Purna. His head shot up to see that it was exactly who he thought leaving the apartment.
He didn’t mind passing people like her, she never tried to bother him and she didn’t particularly seem to care about the personal aspect of people’s lives. She gave a small nod to him as he reached his door and she went for the elevator.
As he reached for the handle, he spotted something that caught his eye. A piece of paper sitting on top of his doormat. “Purna, hold on a second!” Leo only called out to her because of the overwhelmingly negative feeling that hit him.
Purna stood in place, the elevator she was waiting on had opened in front of her. A younger boy with dyed blue hair stepped out, Nolan. The two watched as Leo picked up the paper on his doormat and slowly approached him as he unfolded it and read it.
Nolan went across the elevator to his door, grabbing a piece of paper that was left on his doormat and unfolded it. Purna looked over his shoulder and then went to her own door, grabbing a piece of paper that she had stepped over on her way out.
Leo folded the paper in his hands and looked at Purna. “I’ll tell you what mine says if you tell me what yours says.”
She shook her head, still watching the letter as if the words on it were going to change. “I don’t think we need to do that, I think they say the same thing. Nolan’s letter was worded the same as mine.”
Nolan pointed out the letters that lined all the doormats on the third floor, folding his own. “I guess we’ll all see each other at dinner then?”
Leo nodded, reaching for the door handle of his apartment again. “Guess so. I don’t want to be the one who finds out what happens if we don’t go.”
One by one, each resident returned home to find the same letters on their doormats and a feeling of unease became the universal feeling for the residents.
Eight thirty was when every resident was to meet in the dining area where Rocky and Amos already were. Nolan told them about the letters and brought them theirs when he had gone down for lunch.
Oliver was the last person on the third floor to get his letter and he only noticed it because of Leo. Leo knew he wasn’t going to notice so while he was on his way down to the meeting, he snapped at Oliver and pointed out the letter. The two caught the elevator together and were among the last residents to get there.
Mindy, Tracey, and Rosey had come back from the shops and joined the residents, it was after that that the residents began separating themselves based on which floor that they resided on, much to their own dismay. They only did it because the man who had identified himself as the property manager told them to do so.
Oliver and Leo sat on each side of Purna, who was already eating and didn’t really acknowledge either of the two men who had sat next to her. Amos and Rocky were the last two to sit since they had been serving the other residents, but the property manager only started speaking when they had sat.
The residents were all very quiet, the only exception to this being the younger children who didn’t really know how to read the room. The man at the front of the room didn’t pay any attention to the children, he also didn’t single out any of the ten tables as he started addressing the residents.
“Good evening to all of you!” His greeting was met with silence and flat faces as he gave a nervous chuckle. “Alright, bit of a tough crowd. First, thank you all for coming to dinner tonight under such a short notice. Especially the Cook sisters and the families with children, I’m thrilled that you guys could be here after the day you guys have had, I really am.”
Mindy, Tracey, and Rosey looked among each other before looking down at their plates and nodding. “Thank you for inviting us.”
The man clapped his hands together and let out a sigh of relief. “Thank you for breaking that silence, I hope others soon follow your lead.”
“It’s not a silence if you’re talking to yourself, it’s a monologue.” Wes was a director before he had come to the island and had a difficult time separating himself from that part of his life.
The comment got a couple of chuckles from the resident as the man himself gave a laugh. “That’s a fair point. I believe it’s time that I introduce myself, my name is Nathaniel Parson and I’m the property manager, I’m in charge of the building that you guys have made your home.”
Leo leaned close to Purna’s plate, whispering just loud enough for her and Oliver to hear him. “Do either of you remember signing a lease?”
The two shook their heads, Oliver leaning down next. “I don’t even remember how I got here. Olivia says it was by boat but I swear that I drove.”
“You can’t drive to an island, it’s in the middle of the ocean.” Purna snickered, keeping her voice low. “Also, I haven’t seen a car here before.”
“That’s his point.” Leo briefly looked at Nathaniel, seeing that he was still addressing the residents and not paying any attention to the three of them yet. “Purna, do you remember how you got here?”
Purna set her fork down on her plate, staying quiet for a minute and then letting out a sigh. “I don’t, actually and now that it’s something I’m thinking about, Flora and Junior don’t remember how or when they got here either. What happens if you try to leave the island?”
Oliver looked to Leo, knowing that if he answered the question that he would end up offending him so he stayed quiet to let Leo answer. “Melanie’s first ex-husband tried to leave the island and tried convincing her to go with him. They divorced because she wouldn’t go and he made a plan to leave, swore to write to her when he reached the mainland and nobody heard from him again. It’s been three years since that happened.”
Leo and Oliver sat back up straight, going back to eating their meals while Nathaniel walked around the room and came to a halt behind Nolan’s chair. “I want to build a relationship of trust with you all and I know you all have your own questions.” His eyes wandered to Kelly, who sat at the end of the first table. “I know some of you have done some investigating and for transparency, I’ll say names. Kelly and Melanie, stop what you’re doing.”
The change of tone startled the trio and they immediately knew Kelly was going to say something when she needed to be quiet. Leo looked down the table and pointed at Nolan, motioning for him to move his chair.
Nolan shook his head, obviously startled by Nathaniel. Rocky was watching the exchange and ended up doing what Leo was instructing, the back of his chair just barely hitting Nathaniel’s toes. He got out of his seat with his empty plate, turning to Nathaniel. “My bad, didn’t know you were there. While I have your attention, you shouldn’t single people out, they don’t take kindly to that.”
Nathaniel watched Rocky go into the kitchen and return with another plate of food, getting back in his seat and scooting back to the table. “Thank you for telling me that, I’ll keep it in mind.”
Leo hadn’t broken eye contact from Nolan, who now looked disappointed in himself for not doing what he was told. He mouthed an apology to Leo and looked at his food. Leo turned to his right to see Ronnie, the only child on the third floor, staring at him.
At the tenth table, Flora cleared her throat to break the silence. “While you’re here, I want to bring a problem to your attention and I want you to tell all of us how you’re going to solve it.” Nathaniel turned to look at her, waiting for her to go on. “By my count, there’s five people under the age of eighteen who are living in apartments by themselves and two of those five are about ten years old. That’s not legal, it’s not moral, how are you going to fix it?”
Nathaniel looked to the ground, then scanned the room. “Some of them have been given the blessing of their parents, I can’t go against their wishes. The rest don’t have parents so I can’t reach out to get a blessing from them.”
“The only one who has been given a blessing is Zoey, which I think should be invalid since it was only from her mother. Mark wants her back home now that her mother has passed, you need to enforce that.” Flora wanted to say more, but stopped herself. “Please, do right by your residents as the property manager.” She finished with a smile and got out of her seat, taking her plate and Junior’s plates to the kitchen.
There was a lot of whispering at the second table that stopped when Flora went to the kitchen. The residents from the second floor seemed to have reached an agreed conclusion on the property manager. Rosey was whispering to Julio, who sat at the end of the table and very often spoke up for the residents of the second floor.
Julio nodded, standing out of his seat. “Oliver, Boris, George, and Steven.” The four other men stood at Julio’s order. Flora returned from the kitchen, taking her seat and whispering to Junior as she handed him his plate.
Nathaniel walked around the tables, shaking the hands of the men who were standing. “I was aware that you five were the ones who spoke for your floors and I was hoping you would all agree to speak tonight. The first table, Steven, how are you all thinking?”
“We would like for Flora’s issue with the children to be addressed.” Steven took a seat, Nathaniel nodding and then turning his attention to Julio.
Julio looked over the second floor residents, giving them all a reassuring smile. “The second floor would like to know how you know all of us already when we’ve only met you tonight.”
As Julio sat down, eyes went to Oliver. He thought back on what he, Leo, and Purna had talked about earlier. “We want to see proof that you’re the property manager and the specific proof we’re asking for is the leases that we’ve signed to live here.”
Oliver sat down, watching Nathaniel as he now listened to Boris. “The fourth floor has had no issues with the discussion that’s taken place tonight.” Boris sat, leaving George as the last to speak.
“The tenth floor obviously wants the issue with the children sorted out, we agree with the third and second floor. We’re calling for a rapid answer to these questions and requests.” George and Nathaniel maintained eye contact for about twenty seconds before he spoke again. “Like a tonight kind of rapid, in case that wasn’t clear to you.” George sat down, leaving Nathaniel standing alone in silence.
Oliver leaned towards Purna, Leo doing the same once he saw him. “I don’t think there are leases. I don’t think he can provide any proof to this claim but we also have no counter-claim because we don’t have a lease.”
Purna looked back as the second floor began leaving their table. “Leo, you stay and talk to him. Try and see if he’ll talk to you, I’ll talk to Kelly and see what she knows that got her called out.”
“What do I do?” Oliver stood and grabbed the plates that sat in front of the three of them, his head staying low enough to talk with the two.
“Nothing, you’ve done enough for today.” Purna stood. “For now we need to act silently, keep the same kind of interactions we did before tonight.”
Nathaniel was walking by as the third floor got their table cleaned up. He stopped next to Leo to introduce himself as Oliver took the plates he had into the kitchen and Purna followed Kelly out of the room.
The first choice present is going to be on who to follow for the rest of the chapter. Yes, other characters may have a part or two but the character chosen will be the primary focus for the subject of this chapter!
[Follow Oliver’s perspective]
[Follow Leo’s perspective]
[Follow Purna’s perspective]
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Post by LiquidChicagoTed on Apr 20, 2022 22:20:07 GMT
Oooh, a new story, I like that! It's a shame about Voyagers as I was really getting back into it, but I completely understand your decision and you can bet that I'm going to support this new story as well  In any way, I really like this idea of a more freely written story, that's a nice change of pace. I also dig the characters and layout documents, that should help a lot with remembering who's who, especially if all 50 residents play a role at some point in the story. Also, I dig the story in general, there's something about the characters and the premise that really intrigues me and I'm looking forward for learning more about all of this. As for the choice, I say [Follow Leo’s perspective]. I was kinda torn between his and Purna's here, but I want to learn more about Nathaniel and Leo's the one who's going to talk to him, so that's what I'd like to see. Really though, I'm fine with either of those three, but I have the feeling that Leo's perspective could be the most intriguing in the immediate future. |
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Post by Kal on Apr 21, 2022 0:44:05 GMT
Oooh, a new story, I like that! It's a shame about Voyagers as I was really getting back into it, but I completely understand your decision and you can bet that I'm going to support this new story as well  In any way, I really like this idea of a more freely written story, that's a nice change of pace. I also dig the characters and layout documents, that should help a lot with remembering who's who, especially if all 50 residents play a role at some point in the story. Also, I dig the story in general, there's something about the characters and the premise that really intrigues me and I'm looking forward for learning more about all of this. As for the choice, I say [Follow Leo’s perspective]. I was kinda torn between his and Purna's here, but I want to learn more about Nathaniel and Leo's the one who's going to talk to him, so that's what I'd like to see. Really though, I'm fine with either of those three, but I have the feeling that Leo's perspective could be the most intriguing in the immediate future. Hey, Liquid! Glad to have you on board! Voyagers was getting to the point where I was even having a hard time following along, there were so many hard resets that it was getting tough, not even going to lie to you but I do still love the story because I truly had a great time writing it and it will be missed. One thing I'm actually excited for is that a lot of these relationships are already preset so all 50 people will play a bigger part in their own way. I'm also just super excited to see how things play out because I can fully say that right about now, I haven't got a clue either  |
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Post by Kal on Apr 22, 2022 0:40:03 GMT
So! The next part from Leo's perspective is ready to be posted, it does not have a vote but the part coming in the next few hours does. The voting will be left open until the end of my work week, so Tuesday and then I'll close it and we'll go from there!
Leo watched as Purna followed Kelly out of the room and Oliver went into the kitchen, talking with Erica as he went.
He stood across from Nathaniel, forgetting about his role for a moment before he turned to Nathaniel and patted his shoulder. “Hey man, I’m sorry they were so hard on you. These people don’t like change and they don’t like being told what to do, they’ve never had to deal with an actual property manager who cares about their job before.”
Nathaniel gave a smile and shook his head. “It’s no big deal. In my line of work, I’ve dealt with people who are about ten times worse than Flora or way snarkier than Wes. This place seems easy, you guys seem to do a lot of the talking over yourselves and my job is just to make sure that the building and the land are untouched.”
Leo motioned to Purna’s empty chair next to him. “Would you like to take a seat?”
He shook his head in response. “I’m afraid I don’t have time to talk tonight, I have a lot of catching up to do. Let’s take a rain check, though.”
Leo looked to the doors of the kitchen as Oliver walked out, Nathaniel heading towards the kitchen doors himself. “Don’t let him through.” Leo mouthed to Oliver, who gave a nod and stayed planted in front of the kitchen doors, refusing to let Nathaniel into the kitchen and by a result, Erica out of the kitchen.
Nathaniel chuckled, looking back at Leo. “What’s the deal here? I heard you guys on the third floor were strange, but not letting me go to my office? Haven’t had that one happen before.”
Oliver reached out, put an arm behind Nathaniel’s back and guided him back to the third table where Leo remained seated. “We just want to get to know you better, we want to be able to trust you and have you trust us so we think that the best way to do that is all sit together and just talk, don’t you agree?”
Nathaniel sat down as Oliver pulled out Purna’s empty seat and then sat himself back in his former seat. He looked between the two men. “I was told that you two don’t even like each other, I don’t trust this.”
Erica left the kitchen, immediately getting shushed by Oliver as she went to say something. Leo looked at Oliver and shrugged. “He’s okay. Too much energy for me, but I know he means well.”
Nathaniel had his eyes focused on Leo. “That’s not what I was told. I was told that you don’t like him because his best friend is the husband of your ex-wife and you see him hanging around with your ex-girlfriend pretty frequently.” He turned and pointed at Erica. “What I’ve heard about what she did to you is wrong and as another guy, I’m sorry for you.”
“Excuse me?” Erica furrowed her eyebrows as she stayed in place. Gary was waiting for her at the door to go out to the lounge, listening to the conversation as well. “What do you think I did? Who’s telling you these things?”
Oliver reached out, setting his hand down in front of Nathaniel. “Maybe we should just drop the conversation, if nothing productive is going to come out of it then it doesn’t need to be brought up.”
“I disagree because she completely humiliated him and he did nothing to deserve it.” Nathaniel shut down Oliver, actually seeming a bit angry with Erica. “I was told that you cheated on Leo multiple times and to top it off, you agreed to be with another man before you ended things with him. If it sounds familiar, you did the same thing to Chaz and that’s why he lives with Mark.”
Erica looked between all the men in the room and let out a somber sigh. “That’s not how things played out and you know that, Leo.” She hurried out of the room, holding back tears. Gary shook his head as he looked at the property manager and followed after her, leaving Leo and Oliver alone with Nathaniel.
The three of them stayed quiet for about five minutes until Nathaniel got out of his chair. “You didn’t disagree with what I said so I’m going to guess that that’s exactly how it played out.” Nathaniel got up and left through the kitchen, leaving Oliver and Leo at the third table.
Oliver left the room first, not saying a word to Leo on his way out. Leo followed him and caught the same elevator.
Leo broke the silence as the doors to the elevator shut. “He knew what he was doing. He wanted to get everyone worked up and worm his way out of talking to us.”
Oliver nodded, still not saying anything as the elevator stopped on the first floor. He moved to the far right of the elevator to allow the person entering to stand in between him and Leo.
The doors opened and Purna entered the elevator, a look of defeat on her face as she stood between the two men.
The elevator shut once again and went straight to the third floor. The three exited once the doors opened and split up, Leo and Oliver going to their rooms and Purna going to the shared bathroom.
At six in the morning, the sun rose and today Nolan went to the shops, he took Ronnie with him to help and eventually Robert joined them whenever it started to get busy.
The third floor was the first empty floor of the day, Leo was the last out of his apartment. Leo’s day started down on the dock.
For the past three years, the first sight posted on one of the support beams was a poster of Jerry, Melanie’s first husband. It was a sight that made Leo sad and a bit uncomfortable the entire time he was married to her, but it was something she hadn’t given up, even in three years.
When Leo reached the end of the dock, he saw Nathaniel was there, talking with Bryce, Lucille, and their young son Henry. The conversation seemed to be going well, they were all smiling and laughing with each other. It made Leo wonder if he was in the wrong with how harshly he judged Nathaniel and if Nathaniel really was just a property manager who cared.
Leo pulled his hat down as he walked past the four of them and grabbed one of the fishing rods that sat at the end of the boardwalk, casting it into the sea. He would reel in his hook, attach some bait and then cast it back out. That was his normal routine and nobody bothered him while he did it.
He was left alone for about two hours before someone joined him at the edge of the dock, leaning on the railing and looking out at the ocean. Leo turned to see that it was Nathaniel who had joined him. He gave a slight nod to him when they made eye contact and then went back to watching his bobber.
“I wanted to apologize to you about last night.” Nathaniel looked at the bobber, realizing that Leo wasn’t really fond of eye contact. “You and Oliver were just trying to make conversation and I brought up a bad situation that you didn’t want to remember, I upset the both of you and Erica. My job is to be here for the people that live here and I failed you guys last night.”
Leo nodded, keeping his head facing forward but his mind racing, not even thinking about fishing anymore. “You’re fine.”
“Would you like to have that talk now?” Nathaniel tapped his fingers on the railing of the dock.
“Before we get into it, do you happen to know where everyone else from the third floor is right now?”
Nathaniel pulled out a notepad from his back pocket. “I actually keep note of who I see and where just to see who frequents what place, just so I can better understand their interests. Nolan, Ronnie, and Robert are in the shops, Rocky is in the kitchen, Don was at the park with Julio, Oliver was on the roof of the building, and Purna was…” Nathaniel quickly shut the notepad and put it back in his pocket. “I haven’t seen Purna today, actually.”
Leo reeled his hook back in and set the fishing rod where he had gotten it, going to a nearby bench with Nathaniel. “Where are you from?”
“Wisconsin, I was a realtor before I joined the company that oversees this land and they sent me this way.” Nathaniel got his phone from his jacket pocket and brought up a picture of himself holding a certificate, a woman standing next to him beaming with joy. “This was after I completed my training and that’s my mom.”
Leo looked over the picture, something in the background hitting him as odd. “That’s a nice picture. Do you have any siblings?”
“Nope, no siblings and no dad.” Nathaniel chuckled, putting the phone away. “The realtor thing is what my mom wanted me to do, I didn’t actually even feel good about it, I just didn’t know what I wanted to be.”
“You care a lot about your mom, why’d you leave her on the mainland?”
Nathaniel’s smile faded, his answer delayed. “I was assigned, I had to go and they wouldn’t let her go with me. She also had a lot going for her back home so it was important that she stayed, you know?”
“Yeah, I get that.” Leo could tell that the answer he had just been given was a lie but he wasn’t going to push it. “You’ve already met a decent amount of people, what are you thinking so far?”
“I think I have a lot on my plate, if I’m being honest with you.” Nathaniel put his hands in his lap. “I think that I was just tossed to a group of forty-nine people who all know each other and are very close and told to monitor them. They didn’t need a proctor and they didn’t want one either.”
Proctor. Leo found it weird that of all words that Nathaniel could have chosen, he chose that one. “What do you mean by a proctor?”
“It’s just a figure of speech in my family, you’re not being tested or anything.” Nathaniel chuckled and got up from the bench. “If you’ll excuse me, I feel that I need to apologize to Oliver now, he wasn’t ready to talk to me when I tried earlier.”
Leo thought it was an odd choice to end the conversation there, but from there he went back to fishing. He would stay fishing until it was time for dinner.
On his way back to the apartment building, he ran into Purna on the beach. She and her clothes were soaking wet as if she had been in the water, she seemed exhausted and as if she was having trouble standing on her own.
He kept his distance, remembering what she had said the night before about maintaining the same relationship that they had had previously, but he continued to watch her. About halfway to the apartment building, she took a seat on the sidewalk. It was only after she sat down that Leo approached her, kneeling down next to her. “What happened to you?”
Purna turned to see his face and smiled, immediately seeming relieved as she laid on the ground. “I’m not that strong of a swimmer, apparently.”
“Why were you swimming in your clothes?” Leo looked towards the apartment building, hoping that someone would come out to look for them and he wouldn’t have to deal with Purna on his own.
“Kelly told me to look under the dock, she said something was at the bottom and so I dove to try and find it. I was under the dock for hours.” Purna looked at the sky, watching the clouds fly by. “What time is it?”
Leo looked at his watch. “Eight twenty, someone else should be coming out to help soon.” He lowered his watch and sat on the ground next to her. “You had to have gotten there before I did and I got there about twelve hours ago, why were you in the water for so long? Why didn’t you call for help?”
“Because I needed to find what Kelly was talking about.” She shook her head, a frown coming over her face. “I couldn’t find it. She said it had something to do with Jerry and that it has been there for the past three years.”
Leo looked at the sidewalk ahead, seeing Oliver and Flora were hurrying towards them and he didn’t have long to talk to Purna alone. “You’re not going alone next time, you’re either taking Kelly to prove her claims or you’re taking Oliver since he knows what’s going on.”
He got up off the ground, dusting off his pants and helping Oliver get her up once he and Flora had reached them. Flora seemed very panicked as she asked question after question, the panic getting worse when Purna wouldn’t reveal what she was doing or why she was doing it.
Leo and Oliver each had one of Purna’s around their neck as they carried her back to the apartment building. Flora rushed back to the dining room, Nathaniel and a small group of others coming back to the lobby with her.
George was the first to approach Purna, immediately taking her head in his hands and moving it around until she pulled away from him. “I’m okay, I just had a little slip up at the beach.” She smiled and slowly pulled her arms back from Oliver and Leo, carefully standing on her own. “I’m going to go change and I’ll be down for dinner, is that okay?”
She looked past George to make eye contact with Nathaniel, he nodded. “You don’t have to-”
“I don’t want to miss dinner and offend Rocky and Amos, they put so much effort into their meals and it’s important to them.” Purna cut him off, putting her hand out so George would step back and let her walk through.
George seemed suspicious of her, but turned his attention to Leo. “You and Oliver take her up and bring her back down, she shouldn’t be left alone this soon after an incident like that.” He shook his head and went back into the dining room, the others following him.
The trio went into the elevator and to the third floor. Leo and Oliver were both watching her carefully, noticing that she was walking with a limp. They looked to each other to confirm it before Oliver said something. “What cut your right leg?”
“Probably one of the dock’s support beams when I started struggling. There’s metal at the bottom of the beams.” She went to her door, leaving it open but stepping behind the wall to change so she could continue talking to the two.
“And how were you under the dock for twelve hours at the same time that I was? I’m asking because I didn’t hear anything under the dock, definitely not a struggle.” Leo crossed his arms, knowing that now was the time to question her.
“I don’t know how you didn’t know, but I was there. I knew you were there, you were fishing the entire time and talked to Nathaniel for like five minutes.” After changing, she left her room and closed the door behind her, leading the two to the elevator. “To prove it, Nathaniel is from Wisconsin and his mom wanted him to be a realtor, Oliver was on the roof and Don was with Julio. I heard the conversation.”
Getting onto the elevator, Oliver seemed to be deep in thought. “Leo, you’re fishing every single day. Have you ever heard anything under the dock?” Leo shook his head in response. “Purna, did you try to swim past the edge of the dock when you had trouble staying above water?”
“No, that’s when I started having trouble. I was okay until I reached the end of the dock, I couldn’t think and my body just got super heavy after I tried to pass the end.” She paused until the elevator reached the ground floor. “Thank you for helping me, though, both of you.”
The three went into the dining room and sat with each other, seeing that it was once again sectioned by the floors. The rest of the third floor had already heard what had happened with Purna and continued to question her on if she was okay and what she was doing in the water if she was struggling.
Leo started thinking about the interaction he had with Nathaniel earlier, knowing what he knew now made it even more off putting to him. Did Nathaniel know that Purna was under them the whole time? Did he know what she was under the pier for?
He turned to Purna, visibly distressed by the thoughts. “Did you see Nathaniel before you went under the dock? Did you see him at all before coming back here tonight?”
“Yeah, I saw him while I was going into the water. He made a joke about me going in with clothes on and said that it was a recipe for disaster because it’s harder to swim with clothes weighing you down.”
Leo looked back at the fourth table, seeing Nathaniel looking over at the three of them. He then turned back to Purna. “He told me he hadn’t seen you at all today when I asked about where everyone else was.”
She nodded. “I know, I heard the conversation.”
Leo froze, seeing the look of shock on Oliver’s face that perfectly represented how Leo was feeling himself. “Purna, you can’t be that calm about this. You almost drowned today and the one person who knew where you were was going to let it happen, you need to react a little bit.”
“No, I don’t.” She took another bite of her food and put a napkin to her mouth.
“We need to start asking ourselves why he was going to let it happen.” Oliver chimed in, Purna nodding in agreement as she finished wiping her mouth. “If he really did know that she was struggling, he pulled you away because he knew she was trying to go past the pier and that you would notice someone in the water. What was she going to find?”
Leo looked at his food, feeling nauseous just by the look of it. “Kelly said it was something related to Jerry, right? I’m going to dive for it tonight.”
Purna and Oliver both turned to Leo. “That’s not a solution, Leo. Risking your life isn’t going to help any of this, Purna needs to get specifics from Kelly and from there we can decide what we do.”
“His concern is that it has to do with Jerry, he feels obligated to solve this for Melanie and he’s willing to put his life on the line for her.” After Purna finished talking Leo got out of his seat, knowing that he didn’t have much time to act before the doors to the apartments locked.
The two watched him walk out, quickly getting out of their seats and running after him. “Leo, stop! This isn’t your decision!”
Knowing that the two were chasing after him, he ran down to the beach and onto the pier. He stopped at the end of it, grabbing onto the railing. “What am I doing? I don’t want to drown, I never even met Jerry, I can’t be willing to die for him.”
It was then that he knew what Purna was talking about, his limbs felt heavy but he continued to move. He climbed up and put his feet on the top rail, the ocean’s breeze hitting the back of his body, almost roping him into the water.
Before he could commit to falling, Oliver grabbed onto his legs and tried pulling him back onto the boardwalk, neither of the men moving despite the both of them pulling back towards the pier with all their force.
Oliver and Purna started pleading with Leo, begging him to step back but their pleas were drowned out in a matter of seconds by Melanie’s voice. “Leo, get down!” He looked back, knowing that a group of twelve people ran after him but she was the only one he could see.
He stared into her eyes as he stopped pulling towards the pier and he slipped out of Oliver’s grasp, diving down towards the ocean water.
Leo hit the water, his body being pulled straight down. He was only in the water for a few seconds before he heard the water above him splash, telling him that Oliver had jumped in after him. A few seconds after that, another splash that was likely Purna. A few seconds after that, another splash that quickly brought Leo to his senses.
He was down there to find what Kelly was talking about. He risked Oliver, Purna, and now someone else who had dove into the water. Four lives were at risk, and for what?
Leo reached out to the pier’s support beam, his hand grabbing onto something metal and sharp. He took his hand back and the object began to sink. Purna was wrong, it wasn’t a support beam, it was what Kelly was talking about.
As he reached down to grab the sinking piece of metal, he felt someone grab his right arm. He fought it long enough to grab the metal and then he started for the top of the water with Oliver, who had grabbed his arm.
Leo broke the surface to see that the others in the water had formed a chain that started with Leo, then Oliver, then Purna, and then George Lim. George was the only one who wasn’t coughing as they swam back to shore, likely because he wasn’t under the water as long as the others. He held onto Purna while they swam back, knowing she was still tired from her first trip into the water.
Getting back to the shore, the rest of the group that had run after them stood waiting. Flora and Sierra grabbed Purna and George, Olivia and Abram grabbed Oliver, and Melanie and Nathaniel grabbed Leo.
George wasn’t having any issues standing, but the trio laid in the sand and tried to catch their breath. Leo turned to look at Purna as George went over the three and checked them for any injuries, giving a weak chuckle. “You weren’t lying about it being hard to swim with clothes on.”
Kelly stood next to Leo, looking at the piece of metal in his hand. “You found it.” She crouched and looked over it. “Purna, you couldn’t get it because you didn't have any reason to find it. Did you guys notice that when you opened your eyes in the water, you could only see what you went in for?”
George furrowed his eyebrows, very clearly frustrated with everything going on. “What are you talking about?”
“You didn’t really get deep enough, but what I’m saying is that because Purna went into the water to get Oliver out, all she could see when she was under was him, all he could see was Leo, and all Leo could see was the shrapnel. That was their only purpose down there and they could only see to fulfill their purposes.” Kelly took a stand and looked at Nathaniel. “You know something’s going on with this island, that’s why you told me to stop yesterday and I’m not going to stop until I figure out what’s going on.”
Flora took Kelly by the arm and started back to the apartment building, the rest of the group followed them until it was just Oliver, Leo, Purna, George, and Nathaniel left.
Leo pushed himself to sit up, Oliver and Purna following his lead. He looked at Nathaniel, the other man seeming to already know what Leo was going to say. “Why did you lie about not knowing where Purna was?”
“Because she was supposed to drown today, someone interfered. Everyone here has a specific way and time that they’ll die and I can’t step in the way of it. I couldn’t let you interfere but because someone else did, she’s got a new date and method.” Nathaniel looked to be ashamed of himself but he stood in front of the group, admitting that Kelly was right about the island.
Purna looked confused, shaking her head. “Nobody was there all day, how could it be considered interference?”
“Oliver was supposed to find you. I told him that I would be at the beach today, he avoided it because he didn’t want to be around me after last night and so you couldn’t die because he couldn’t find you like he was supposed to.”
George crossed his arms, shaking his head. “Then you interfered, if you made a statement that deterred Oliver then that’s on you. What happens to you now that you’ve interfered?”
Nathaniel’s face fell as George’s words sunk in. “I don’t know, actually. I suppose we’ll all find out together, won’t we?” Nathaniel and George helped the three to their feet then left them on the beach to talk among each other.
Leo looked at the metal in his hand. “What do you guys think it’s from?”
“It’s Jerry related, didn’t he try to leave on a boat?” Oliver took the metal from Leo and looked over it for himself. “Maybe it’s a piece of metal from his boat.”
“Then how did it end up at the pier?” Leo took it back and started walking towards the apartment building. “Melanie watched him leave, he was nowhere near the pier when he was last seen.”
Purna took the metal from Leo and pushed it together, the piece folding in half after a bit of force. “It’s a hinge from a door, it’s just been rusted over. Mark’s wife, was she buried or cremated?”
“Buried, why?” Leo took the hinge back and put it in his pocket.
“Do either of you know where?”
Purna looked at the two and they both shook their heads, Oliver going into explaining when he noticed Purna looked confused. “Mark’s a private guy and he only wanted her close friends and their daughter there. I barely knew her and Leo had only just arrived when she died. Most of us don’t even know how she died, they don’t talk about it.”
She sighed and nodded. “Figures. I want to know more about how she died and where she’s buried, which of you is closest to Zoey?”
“I could probably talk to Mark myself.” Leo held the door to the apartment building open for the other two, seeing a set of wet footprints leading to the elevator that were likely left by George. “His roommate and I share a few similarities. Unfortunate ones, but it bonds us.”
They got on the elevator, Oliver quickly changing the topic since they didn’t have much time left. “Purna, are you okay? You’ve almost drowned twice today and learned that you were supposed to die. How are you taking it?”
“The best that I can. I already avoided it so there’s no need to be afraid of it for today.” She paused. “I’m glad we got the hinge and that Nathaniel talked a bit, we got a decent amount of information today but now George knows what’s going on. If he tells Sierra and she tells everyone else, there’s going to be a massive panic.”
“I’ll talk to George tomorrow. Leo, you talk to Chaz and Mark.” The elevator doors opened to the third floor, the three going to their doors. “You should probably rest tomorrow, Purna. We can handle it.”
She looked at Leo, getting a nod in response. “I’ll consider it. There’s a lot we need to find out and I’m afraid that we’re all running out of time.”
Leo looked at Oliver and shrugged. “Well, if you decide you want to help tomorrow then you can help by trying to get access to the office. Nathaniel interfered for you today so he’s clearly not opposed to helping you, use it to your advantage.” He paused. “Oliver, you may want to make things right with Erica tomorrow, too. I have a strong feeling that we’re going to need her help sometime soon and right now she can’t stand any of us.”
“On that note, you should probably talk to Melanie. She thinks you tried to off yourself tonight by jumping in the ocean and she freaked out when you jumped and she grabbed your hat.” Purna ended the conversation by going into her room, Oliver and Leo going into their own rooms immediately after.
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Post by Kal on Apr 22, 2022 2:04:41 GMT
The day started with Leo and Purna meeting in Oliver’s apartment as they worked to plan what they were going to do for the day.
Leo was struggling with what he was going to say to Melanie and how he would talk to her if Norris was around, which is what he wanted to talk to Oliver about. Purna wasn’t dealing well with the idea of talking to Nathaniel on her own and Oliver didn’t really feel like he had to apologize to Erica, but he had invited her over to do it anyway.
After they discussed their plan, Leo and Purna stayed around at Oliver’s request. Leo had noticed that Purna had spent a good majority of the discussion staring at him and at this point was confused as to what was going through her head. “Is there a reason you’ve been staring at me for the past forty minutes?”
“Have I?” Purna looked at Oliver, who nodded to confirm that she had been. Her face turned red and she looked at the ground. “I’m sorry, I’ve just never been so close to a bald person, it’s interesting to me.”
Oliver started laughing, Leo’s face seeming overall unimpressed. “Thank you, Purna, I’m really happy that I’m the first live bald person you’ve seen.”
“Do you shave? Like, was it your choice?” Purna questioned, trying to take his attention away from the original statement.
“No, losing my hair as I got old wasn’t my choice.” Leo crossed his arms, turning his attention to Oliver. “You keep laughing, you’ll get yours soon enough.”
Purna didn’t say anything, knowing she was only digging herself into a deeper hole.
After another five minutes of waiting, there was a knock at the door. Oliver went to answer it and Leo grabbed Purna’s arm, pulling her into the closet and leaving the door cracked a little so they could listen.
Seeing her confusion, he whispered to her in the last few seconds they had left. “We need to let her talk to just him, she doesn’t like either of us so she won’t talk if she knows we’re here.” Purna nodded and the two began listening as soon as Erica came in.
“What’s the deal?” Erica’s tone was immediately confrontational, which struck a nerve with Leo and Purna both. “You didn’t have anything to say the other night so what changed?”
“The deal is that I want to apologize to you for not having anything to say the other night. As your friend, I should have defended you whenever Nathaniel started badmouthing you and I didn’t do that. I feel bad about it and I’m sorry.”
Neither of them said anything until Erica spoke again, her tone drastically different from her first words. “Be honest with me, do you feel bad because you failed me as a friend or because it tainted your image?”
“How did it taint my image?” Oliver immediately went to defend himself, which is one of the things Leo was afraid of.
“And now you’re asking for validation. You know how it affected you and you want to see if I see it the same way because you don’t want to believe that it’s true.”
“I’m not asking for validation, I’m asking for clarification because I really don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Erica scoffed. “Because you think that Leo sees you as someone who I cheated on him with. He was already accusing you of it, you just didn’t know. I know you, you don’t want that kind of conflict with someone that you live so close to.”
Purna looked at Leo, a look of disbelief crossing her face as he slowly nodded to agree with what Erica was saying.
“Wow.” Oliver sounded farther from the closet than he originally was, which told Leo and Purna that he was pacing. “I really don’t know what to say here.”
“Just admit that you’re being selfish and that this apology you’re offering me is to make yourself feel better.” Erica was moving around, at this point she was close to the apartment door and likely about to leave. “Everyone has noticed you’re trying to be closer to him and we all know it’s because you feel bad for him.”
The door to the apartment opened and then slammed shut, the apartment remained silent as Purna and Leo left the closet. Oliver stood next to the window, seeming to be completely in shock.
Leo could tell that Purna was angry, more than likely over what he agreed to in the closet. She went to the door and waited. “Leo, leave. I need to go talk to Erica myself and you need to go talk to Melanie so let’s go.”
Going to the door, Leo waited for Oliver to object to Purna going to talk to Erica, but he didn’t say a word. Instead, he left the apartment with them. They got on the elevator that went to the fourth floor where Oliver got off, then to the tenth floor where Leo got off. He knew Purna was going to the first floor to talk to Erica, so he left on his own.
He went to the last door on the tenth floor, waiting in front of it before working up the courage to knock on it. The knock was weak, but it was heard.
The door was opened by Melanie, who stood there with Leo’s hat in her hand. She held out the hat to him, allowing him to take it and put it on. He didn’t know how to even start the conversation with her. “I wasn’t trying to kill myself, I’ve been hearing some stuff about something under the pier being connected to Jerry and I was trying to check it out.”
“Why were you doing that when your neighbor almost drowned just about an hour before you jumped in? I think that’s a clear indication that the water wasn’t safe to be in, so why did you do it?” Melanie leaned on the open door, her blonde hair falling to rest on her shoulder. “Why did you do it when Oliver was clinging to you and begging you not to do it?”
“I don’t know why I did it. As soon as I heard about it, I felt like I had to go find out for myself. I felt like I had to solve what happened with Jerry.”
Melanie’s eyes hadn’t met Leo’s before that moment, they looked sad. It was a look that Leo could never handle while he was with her. “Jerry is gone, Leo. That’s undeniable. Jerry is gone and drowning yourself to chase some fairy tale is not doing right by him.”
“I understand.” Leo turned to the elevator to see Oliver stepping off and going to George and Sierra’s door. He turned back to Melanie and nodded. “I won’t take any more of your time, but thank you for grabbing my hat.”
She stood straight and held onto the door. “You’re welcome, try not to be so stupid going forward.”
As Melanie went to shut the door, Leo held out his hand to stop it. “Melanie, wait. You saw Jerry’s boat, did he have any doors on the boat?”
“Why?” She watched Leo pat his pocket only to find that the hinge from the night before wasn’t with him anymore. “No, there were no doors. There was a hatch so he could go under if he caught bad weather or needed to sleep but it was secured with a rope. If it were shut, you would have to release it from the inside and if nobody was inside, it wouldn’t shut. I have to go now but I could probably make you a diagram of his boat.”
“Please, I need to solve this and I need all the pieces that I can get.” Melanie nodded and shut the door. Leo walked to Oliver, who hadn’t knocked on the door yet. “Why did you get off on the fourth floor?”
“Purna won’t talk to Nathaniel because she’s scared about what happened last night so I did it.” He pointed back at Melanie’s door. “How did that go?”
“About as well as it could have.” Leo shrugged. “It’s hard to reach her.”
Oliver chuckled, finally knocking on the door. “I’m starting to think that we may just not know how to communicate properly.”
Leo gave a soft smile, a bit relieved to have Oliver chuckle or smile after how his talk with Erica went. It made him wonder how well Purna’s conversation with her was going and why Purna was so adamant on including herself in the situation.
“Good luck with George.” He patted Oliver on the back and went to Chaz and Mark’s door, knocking as he got there.
“And to you with Mark and Chaz.” Oliver turned to see George had opened the door and allowed him inside.
Chaz opened and allowed Leo inside, Mark wasn’t there which made Leo believe that the conversation with Chaz would go easier.
They sat on the couch for a while and made conversation about what’s been going on with Leo lately. He told Chaz about the pier, Nathaniel, and what he had experienced the night before.
Chaz seemed confused but he was willing to play it out for Leo. “What do you need from me?”
“This is going to sound bad and I’m aware, but Purna thinks she’s onto something with the hinge and she wants to know where Brianne is buried. I can’t ask Mark that because I have a strong feeling that knowing the location is going to lead to her being dug up and I can’t hurt Mark like that.” Leo kept his voice low so he wouldn’t be heard through the walls.
Chaz got up from the couch and went into Mark’s room. He stayed there for a few minutes before coming back with a binder. “You may not have to dig her up. He might have pictures of the casket and you could probably match it from the pictures.”
“That’s a better idea.” Leo got up and Chaz held up a piece of paper that was from the binder, handing it to him before he walked away. “I need to go get the hinge, what do you want me to do with this?”
“On the off chance that you can’t, that’s exactly where she’s buried and I’m giving it to you now just in case Mark comes back before you do.” Chaz looked up from the binder. “If he does, I can’t help you with this anymore. I already feel wrong giving you the location.”
Leo folded the paper and slipped it into his pocket, leaving the apartment and getting into the elevator. He went back down to the third floor and into his apartment, looking through his pants from the night before for the hinge to no avail. He searched his apartment for half an hour before he left and knocked on Purna’s door, getting no answer and then knocking on Oliver’s door, also getting no answer.
He hurried back to the elevator, going to the ground floor and straight to the office to talk to Nathaniel.
When he got there, Nathaniel briefly looked up from his computer and gave him a nod to acknowledge him. “How can I help you today?”
“I need to know where Purna and Oliver are and I know that you know where everyone on this island is.” Leo could tell by the sound of his own voice that he was coming off as desperate.
“I don’t know about that, I already talked to Oliver today and told him more than I should have. I need to become uninvolved in whatever you guys have going on before I get unassigned.” He looked at Leo, seeming a bit apologetic. “I can say that if something went missing from your room, nobody here would have taken it and it went missing because you weren’t supposed to have it.”
“Alright, I still need to know where at least Purna is. She had an issue with Erica this morning and I need to touch base with her to make sure that they’re okay.”
Nathaniel studied him for a minute before sighing and pulling the notebook out of his back pocket. He went to the third page and nodded. “Lucky you, she’s with Oliver so you’ll still get to ask about your missing thing. They’re on the pier again.” Nathaniel shut the notebook and put it back, briefly looking at Leo. “I’ve got a question for you. Are you afraid of heights?”
Leo looked suspicious but thought nothing of the question. “No, I’m not. Thank you for telling me where they are.”
On the way to the pier, the only person that Leo ran into was Nolan. He stopped him from walking away by grabbing his arm and turning him to walk with him towards the pier. “Do you need something?”
“Yes. You stay up super late at night, right?” Nolan nodded. “What time was the last time you heard the elevator stop on our floor? What time was the last time you heard a door on the third floor open?”
Nolan continued walking with Leo and looked at the clouds. “The last time the elevator opened was around midnight, the last door that opened was Amos leaving Ronnie’s room. He’s also the one who got on the elevator at midnight.”
Leo let go of Nolan’s arm and continued on to the end of the pier where Oliver and Purna were looking over the edge. “The hinge is missing.”
Oliver turned back to Leo and nodded. “Kelly told us, it’s back down there. We’ve been trying to figure out how to get it back without you and George.”
Leo looked back down the pier to see that Nolan had followed most of the way, he took the paper that Chaz had given him out of his pocket and went to Nolan, guiding him to the edge of the pier. “Nolan, listen to me. I need you to hold onto this, do not leave this spot, do not unfold the paper, and do not give the paper to anyone else, no matter what. Leo took off his hat and gave it to Nolan, climbing onto the top rail.
Oliver and Purna climbed up, one on each side of Leo. Leo jumped first, Oliver followed a few seconds afterwards, then Purna. The same order as the night before.
To account for George not being there, Purna went as deep as she could before latching onto the pier’s support beam. To put more distance between herself and Oliver and give him more space to grab Leo, she grabbed his ankle. He followed her lead and grabbed Leo’s ankle.
Leo had less time to act than he did the night before, he could tell by the pressure building up around his body. He turned back to Oliver and slid his ankle out of his grip, giving him a thumbs up to make an effort at communicating with him.
Oliver did the same, swimming deeper with Leo and attempting to help him relocate the hinge. The two dug around in the sand for a minute before Leo hit something metal. He took Oliver’s hand with his right hand, the metal object with his left hand and Oliver’s right. The two pulled as hard as they could until the metal emerged from the sand.
They swam up, holding onto the metal piece and using the support beams to help them to shore so they could continue to hold onto it. After breaching the surface, the two looked for Purna seeing that she hadn’t swam back up with them.
“Leo, get out from under the pier. Nolan’s still up there, he probably saw her but nothing from under the pier breaks the surface.” Oliver let go of the support beam that he was holding onto and pushed off of it, going to the side of the pier.
Leo stopped next to Oliver, still holding the metal piece. “Nolan!” He saw movement on the pier and the blue haired boy looked over the edge to see Leo and Oliver. “Did you see Purna get out from under the pier?”
He could see Nolan’s face fall from on top of the pier. “No! I thought you guys were going to stay together!”
“Put the letter under a rock so it won’t fly away and jump in, I need you to help Oliver get this to shore so I can go look for her!”
Nolan quickly did what he was told, putting the paper under a rock and then leaping off the edge of the pier. Oliver let go of the piece as soon as Nolan hit the water and started swimming back under the pier, diving back under to go to where they had originally found the hinge.
Diving for Purna, Oliver’s biggest fear was what Nathaniel had said the night before.
‘Oliver was supposed to find you.’ What if Nathaniel had lied and it was supposed to be today? Oliver already knew the safest bet would have been to let Leo go but he didn’t have the time to wait for Nolan and he knew he couldn’t hold the piece up by himself as long as Leo could.
Reaching where they had found the hinge, a hand reached out to Oliver from behind the support beam. He took it and quickly got pulled behind the support beam himself. He found himself staring straight into Purna’s blue eyes, she didn’t seem to be struggling at all and in fact seemed very calm.
She put a hand to his chest and then pointed up, telling him to leave. She then pointed at herself and then pointed towards the hinge at the floor of the beach. Oliver shook his head and she grabbed his hand, swimming to the surface.
The both of them took a deep breath when they reached the surface and grabbed onto the support beam. Purna moved some hair out of her face, a very stern look in her eyes. “You need to get out of the water. So long as you’re in, I can’t grab the hinge because it’s not my main priority. I jumped in to make sure you got out and until you’re out, I can’t move anything under the pier.”
“How did you stay under the water the entire time?”
“I didn’t. I went back to the surface when you guys dove and then I dove when you went up. Now go, let me do this.”
Oliver looked at her, a sudden wave of nervousness crossing him as he turned to the shore to see Leo waiting with the metal piece and Nolan going back onto the pier, likely going to get the paper that Leo handed him earlier.
He turned back to Purna with a sigh. “Fine, but you understand that we don’t see or hear you so long as you’re under the pier, right? You know the risk that you’re exposing yourself to?”
“Yep, fully understand it and I’m willing to chance it.”Only knowing her for two days, Oliver had picked up on the fact that Purna was very head strong and determined. He wasn’t going to be able to talk her out of this and he knew it.
He let go of her hand that he didn’t even realize that he still had and pushed himself off of the support beams so that Leo would see him. Nolan gave Leo his paper back and met Oliver halfway, mainly concerned that he wouldn’t be able to make it back on his own.
Straight out of the water, Oliver stopped by Leo for a minute. “Stay with whatever that is. She’s trying to get the hinge.” He turned to Nolan and waved him along. “Come with me, Nolan. Leo, if you see her then you need to call it out because I’m going to take Nolan to the pier and if she’s not up by the time we get to the end, he’s going in.”
“I’m doing what?” Nolan gasped, stopping in his tracks. “I can’t do that, what if I get lost or something?”
“Not going to happen, she’s at the very edge and if you go into the water with the intention of getting her out, your purpose is going to be to help her. You’ll only be able to see her. You’re going to be fine.”
Nolan looked at Leo, waiting for instruction from him. “You’re the only one who can do this, Nolan. I don’t want to stress you more than you stress yourself but at this very moment, Purna’s life is in your hands. If you don’t come up in a minute or two then Oliver will go back in for you.”
“Okay… I can do it.” Nolan followed after Oliver, keeping his head down as he whispered to himself to try and hype himself up. “Is the water colder at the end of the pier?”
“A little bit, but it’s not terrible. It’ll only bother you for a minute.”
The walk to the end of the pier was taking a little bit longer than it normally would because Oliver’s clothes were wet and Nolan still wasn’t ready to jump.
By the time they reached the end of the pier, Nolan climbed onto the rails and started a countdown for himself. As he reached one, Leo let out a shrill whistle from the beach.
Nolan let out a sigh of relief as Oliver held out a hand to help him down from the railing. They looked over the railing to see that Purna was already almost at the shore with something metal in her hand.
They started walking back, Nolan still seemed nervous. “What would you like to say, Nolan?”
“Today I held onto a paper that I didn’t even read and swore to hide it. I jumped off a pier to help carry a hunk of metal to the beach, I almost jumped off again to help Purna. I’ve done a lot today that I’m uncomfortable with and I don’t even know the situation that I’ve been dragged into.”
Oliver nodded. “I understand. Tonight we’re going to be at the fifth table, just the three of us and George. Because you were thrust into this situation today, you’re more than welcome to join us and let us explain what we know to you.”
The invitation visibly eased Nolan, the boy finally cracking a smile. “Alright, I’ll be there. Thank you.”
Before dinner that night, Leo and Oliver took the metal piece to Leo’s room. They cut out a space under his bed and slid it under. Purna eventually caved and let them put the hinge under there as well.
They blocked it off to look as it did before, got changed, then went down to dinner. George and Nolan were already at the fifth table by the time they arrived.
On Purna’s suggestion, Leo invited Chaz and Melanie over to the table and she invited Kelly.
The table was full with eight people and it made for a difficult time to talk over each other, but they each gave what piece of information they had.
“We’ve all seen these strange things happening on the island and I’m going to bring up something that I’ve only heard of, maybe someone else can confirm or deny this. Ronnie has been here for four years, right? Nobody can confirm or deny it because we don’t know. George, you’ve been here for almost fifteen years now, did Ronnie arrive or did he just start showing up?” Purna looked to George, who thought over it before shaking his head. “There’s something wrong with that. Robert says he showed up with Keith and that they’re the same age. Obviously not.”
Nolan nodded. “I’ve heard that same thing. I’ve also heard that Wes got Ciara into hardcore drugs and that Dexter once got into a fist fight with Steven on Steven’s show. They don’t act like it and they all deny that they knew each other before we got here.”
Melanie took a piece of paper out of her bag and slid it across the table to Leo. “The diagram that I said I would get you.”
Oliver and Purna looked over Leo’s shoulder at the diagram and shook their heads. “The metal and the hinge aren’t from Jerry’s boat.” Purna sounded a bit disappointed. “I’m sorry, Melanie, I really thought that we had this sealed.”
Chaz noticed Melanie’s face fall as she cleared her throat but she didn’t say a word. “What about Brianne?”
“We still don’t know what’s under the pier and that’s where our day was spent today, we didn’t get the chance to check on her.” Leo folded up the diagram of Jerry’s boat and put it under his plate.
“I’m going tonight so I’ll need the paper you got from Chaz.” Purna spoke up, keeping her head down.
George responded before anyone else could. “I would like to go with. I want to see what this island is doing to our dead, if anything at all.”
Oliver looked at Leo, giving a shrug. “I’ll go along. Plus, if you’re ever going to dig up a grave, it should be at night. It’s your choice if you want to give up the paper, though.”
“What if we get locked out? What if Nathaniel catches us? There’s too many variables that you guys aren’t accounting for.” Leo patted his pocket to make sure that the paper with the location was still there, admittedly feeling a bit nervous after the hinge’s earlier disappearance.
Melanie, Chaz, and Nolan looked at each other before Melanie shrugged. “Chaz and I can keep Nathaniel distracted and accounted for, Nolan can wait for you guys to come back so he can let you guys in.”
Kelly sat at the end of the table, taking in everything she was hearing. “I would like to go with you guys to dig up Brianne, but I’ll stay with Nolan so nobody has to be alone. I think you guys would be better off with a doctor since nobody really knows what happens out there at night.”
Nathaniel already knew that six of the eight of them were investigating and that he, Oliver, and Purna were being very active in their searches. He would definitely know if they all went, but Leo didn’t feel right just leaving Oliver and Purna to do it themselves. He knew they could handle it, but he’s the one who started this and he felt an obligation to finish it.
All eyes fell on Leo once again. The group around him had made a plan and were waiting on him to decide if now was the time. There was still so much for him to consider but no time remained.
[Allow the group to go but stay behind]
[Go with the group]
[Refuse to hand over the location]
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Post by Tales93 on Apr 25, 2022 5:32:35 GMT
Wow, a new story, this is unexpected. I'm enjoying this new story, but I have to admit that I'm sad that the Voyagers is officially ending. I really enjoyed that story; especially since I submitted most of your characters for that story. I'm probably the reason the story got so confusing, sorry about that. I probably can't submit any characters for this story since it seems like you have a cast set. I like the setup for this story. Who doesn't enjoy a good mystery. I'm looking forward to finding out what exactly is going on, on the island with the characters. Anyways, for my choice.
[Go with the group]
I just feel like something may go wrong if he isn't with them.
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Post by Kal on Apr 27, 2022 0:11:07 GMT
Wow, a new story, this is unexpected. I'm enjoying this new story, but I have to admit that I'm sad that the Voyagers is officially ending. I really enjoyed that story; especially since I submitted most of your characters for that story. I'm probably the reason the story got so confusing, sorry about that. I probably can't submit any characters for this story since it seems like you have a cast set. I like the setup for this story. Who doesn't enjoy a good mystery. I'm looking forward to finding out what exactly is going on, on the island with the characters. Anyways, for my choice. [Go with the group]I just feel like something may go wrong if he isn't with them. Hey, Tales! So glad you can join! I wanted to throw this in here real fast, your characters actually were not confusing to me at all! Voyagers got confusing because I would take notes and after moving around so much, I would lose them. It was actually extremely helpful to have submitted characters in google forms. The breaks I took also did not help at all so honestly, it's on me. Character submissions are not at all off the table, there's a full cast but there are empty spaces in the layout that are intentional to leave room for submitting characters. It won't happen immediately but a form should be set up prior to Act 1, Chapter 2. It's now Tuesday evening so instead of quadra-posting, I'm also going to use this comment to close the vote. That being said, voting is closed! Leo is going to go with Oliver, Purna, and George. |
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Post by Kal on Apr 27, 2022 2:04:29 GMT
Leo looked over the rest of the table and gave a sigh, immediately feeling defeated.
“I’m going to take you guys there, but I need the group staying here to be on top of their roles.” He looked at Melanie’s hands, finding himself unable to meet her eyes. “If need be, Kelly and Nolan can help you guys with Nathaniel. I would rather they do that instead of bringing attention to the doors.”
With the entire group now in agreement over a plan, they all went to their rooms as they would on a normal night.
Before the doors locked at eleven, the group of eight met at the ground floor. They quickly found that Nathaniel was in his room on the fourth floor, so Chaz and Melanie went up to visit his room. Nolan and Kelly stayed at the door while Leo led Oliver, Purna, and George out of the apartments.
They waited until they were a decent way away from the building before turning on any flashlights or speaking to each other.
Leo stayed focused on the instructions from Chaz, listening in to bits and pieces of the conversations going on. Oliver and George were doing the most talking, Purna was staying a few feet back from the three of them.
Halfway through the walk, Leo slowed down to pace with Purna. He never looked up from the instructions while he talked with her. “What’s got you slowed down?”
“I’ve been needing to talk to you alone today, I just haven’t found the right time.” Her voice was quiet, which was unusual for her. She was never really quiet when she spoke, it’s just she rarely spoke before becoming involved in the trio. “I know you already know what it’s about, you’re not stupid.”
Leo squeezed his eyes shut for a moment, feeling as if his chest had just fallen. He opened his eyes again and nodded. “The Erica thing, right?”
“Yes.” He could tell by her tone that what she was going to say wasn’t going to be good. “You did both yourself and Oliver a disservice and I want you to know that.”
“I understand why you think it, but I want you to say it. How did I do him a disservice by having a theory?”
He could feel her eyes on him, which made him focus on the instructions even more. “You had a theory; a hypothesis. You did nothing to prove or disprove your theory, you didn’t talk to the person you had suspicions on and instead chose to air your grievances with someone who had already checked out of the relationship and lied to you plenty of times. You incriminated him based on the doubts you had of another person and to be honest with you, I’m grateful that it was just you and I in the closet, I’m grateful he didn’t get to confirm his own fears with your reaction to Erica’s statement.”
Leo looked up, seeing that Oliver and George had made it about thirty feet in front of him and Purna. He turned to Purna, seeing her face had gone red since he had last seen her. “Fears?”
“Yes, that’s what I said.” Purna stopped walking, Leo stopped soon after her and the conversation quickly turned into a confrontation. “In the same way that you were afraid Erica was sneaking off with him, he was afraid that that’s what you would think of him. In the entire year that I’ve lived between you guys, I had to listen to the same situation so many times. Erica would get upset with you, go to him and try to hook up with him, he would shut her down, she would start a fight with him, he would make her leave. I can’t even tell you how many times that happened.”
“So now you’re admitting that you knew something was going on behind my back, he also knew and neither of you said a single thing.”
Purna looked dumbfounded for a moment before she shook her head. “Leo, if another guy came to you and said that your partner was cheating on you, the implication is that he’s the other guy. He didn’t want to be seen as the other guy because he wasn’t. You went into the relationship with Erica knowing that there was a very slim window between her relationship with Chaz. Put together a timeline, Leo. You were the other guy and you didn’t say anything to Chaz so before you come to me about morals, recognize that you did so much worse.” Leo went to try saying something, but Purna quickly cut him off. “Chaz knew you were actually the other guy and he forgave you without you actually owning up to what you did to him but here you are, holding a grudge for something that didn’t even happen.”
Guilt was the only thing Leo felt at this point. The anger quickly faded when he realized that Purna’s anger was going to be stronger than his so he could only take in what she was saying. “Be honest, did your talk with Erica go worse than this?”
The two started walking to catch up with George and Oliver, Purna took a minute to calm down before she answered him. “Way worse. She tried to argue with me about it as if I didn’t hear the entire conversation they had. She tried to turn it around on me like you did except she didn’t understand that she was in the wrong, no matter what I said.”
“Do you really think I’m in the wrong?”
Purna nodded immediately, seeming very confident as she did so. “Undeniably. I fully believe that you owe an apology to Chaz and Oliver but I also believe that that’s not going to happen because you’re too prideful.”
Leo looked over to see she was smiling as she went on. “You’ve been wanting to say this for a while, haven’t you?”
“One hundred percent. It’s been building up for months and I’ve just been listening to it through the walls and it feels great to finally have all that frustration out.” She paused, looking straight ahead of herself. “Don’t think it’s just you that I have very strong thoughts on. I’m just waiting for the others to slip up.”
He chuckled slightly, looking back down at the instructions. “Good to know I’m not the only resident on your list. Thank you for telling me how you feel though, you’ve given me a lot to think about.”
The walk to the burial site was about an hour from the apartment building. Upon reaching the site, the group ended all conversations and got straight to digging. With all of them working, it took about thirty minutes to reach the casket. They used the handles to lift it out of the ground and set it on the surface.
Purna walked around the casket, dragging her finger along the sides until she reached what she was looking for. “The hinge to the top door is gone.”
Leo stood next to her, seeing exactly what she was talking about. “Only the hinge. The screws are still in, so how did the hinge get in the ocean without the screws being taken out?”
George waited on the opposite side of the casket until they seemed ready, then he slowly opened the bottom door. He and Leo lifted the top door off to make up for the lost hinge.
The group of four looked into the casket, each of them feeling concern and guilt for their own reasons. The first thing they all noticed is that after years of being buried, Brianne hadn’t decayed at all. She still looked as she did when she was buried.
As unsettling as it was to George, he put a pair of gloves on from his pocket and started to examine the body in front of him.
He remembered the first time he had seen Brianne’s dead body and every mark she had on her, which were very few bruises on places like her knees or elbows. This time was different.
Lifting her shirt, George found a hole about the size of his fist that started at her stomach and went through her back. There was no blood in the casket and the hole itself looked perfectly circular. “There’s no way someone did this to her prior to her death. This was post-mortem and done with care.”
The hole in her torso was the only thing that had changed since she died so George took note of it and started to put her body as it had been before they opened the casket.
“How did the hole show up and the hinge disappear?” Oliver watched George carefully get her body back into place, his arms crossed and clearly uncomfortable. “The ground was painful to dig up, I don’t think anyone has touched this site before us.”
When George was ready, Leo and Purna helped him lower the casket back into the ground. Oliver was distracted by something in the distance, his level of distress soon becoming contagious.
They hurried to cover the casket with the dirt they had brought up and then started the walk back, leaving the shovels they had brought at the grave site and all of them knowing that it was likely that Nathaniel already knew of their departure by now.
Leo and Purna noticed about halfway through the walk that Oliver and George had both changed their demeanors from the walk to the grave site. Leo addressed it without stopping, knowing that they didn’t have the time to spare. “What happened with you two?”
It was when Leo started to actually listen that he heard George was in physical discomfort, he sounded like he was struggling to continue walking. Leo turned to see George had gone completely pale and was sweating heavier than any of the trio.
Purna turned back then looked to Leo for instruction. Leo went back to George and waited for Oliver to catch up to them before holding out his arm to stop him.
“Purna, you need to run back and I mean run, don’t stop until you reach the building and get help, I don’t care who but we need someone.” She nodded and started running back in the direction of the apartments. Leo studied Oliver for a moment, seeing he was in a trance-like state and wasn’t really focused on what was happening.
Leo moved to stand directly in front of Oliver, the two of them looking at each other but Oliver seeming to look right through Leo. Leo stared into his eyes for about a minute and a half before Oliver squeezed his eyes shut. “Have you not seen it?”
“No, I haven’t seen anything unnatural but right now George needs us, I need your help.” Leo reached out to Oliver, who still hadn’t opened his eyes.
After a few deep breaths, Oliver opened his eyes and looked around. “Where’s Purna? What happened to George?”
The two went to George’s side and lifted him from the ground, starting their own walk. “Purna went back to the apartments, you were right there when it happened.” Leo thought back to the last time Oliver had been his usual self that night, recognizing that it was right before they had dug up Brianne and that Oliver was the first person to start digging because he wanted to get it over with. “What have you been seeing?”
“I haven’t seen anything, it’s the middle of the night so it’s dark.” Oliver shook his head. “What kind of question is that?”
Leo let out a pained sigh, now realizing that something had happened to Oliver and George at the grave site and that he and Purna hadn’t noticed or been affected. “I shouldn’t have given up the location, we shouldn’t have done this.”
They had about ten minutes left of walking before Purna returned with Nathaniel in tow. Nathaniel took one look at George and Oliver before taking George from Leo and Oliver, laying him on the ground. “Why did you touch the body?” He looked up at Oliver, seeming genuinely angry. “And why did you dig it up? Do you guys know what you’ve done?”
The trio watched as Nathaniel lifted up George’s shirt, exposing a developing circle in his torso in the exact same place where Brianne’s hole was. “We all dug…” George refused to look at his torso, acting as if he already knew what was going on.
“But Oliver dug first.” Nathaniel pulled George’s shirt back down and put pressure on where the circle was. “Oliver touched the ground first and that disturbed the spirit. The airheadedness that’s going on at this very moment is because Brianne is using him as a host. George touched the body and inadvertently allowed his life to be taken from him and given to her.”
Leo shook his head, looking at Oliver. “But he was talking just fine before you and Purna came back, he was acting relatively normal.”
“Did you explicitly say his name when you were talking to him?” Leo nodded. “Then it’s because you were directly talking to Oliver, you were opening yourself to Oliver and not Brianne. There was no confusion between them so she backed off.”
“How do we send her back?” Purna kept her eyes on Oliver, her voice sounding very disheartened and hopeless.
Nathaniel briefly looked up at her, biting his lip and then looked back down to George. “You can’t. Brianne was the first person on this island to die so she is the island’s spirit. Oliver will be rid of her whenever her switch with George is complete, that’ll be a few hours from now. George will be dead and Brianne will be here in body but in spirit and mind,” He shook his head. “In spirit and mind, she’s completely gone.”
“If he’s going to stay here to die, someone needs to go get Ciara so she can say goodbye.” Leo sat down on the ground next to George.
“No, that can’t happen.” Oliver responded before Nathaniel could. “The three of you have already caused enough trouble. Accidents happen and people die, that’s what happened with Brianne, Jerry, and it’s what will happen to George. I promise to you that it’s in your best interest to forget about it.”
Purna crouched next to Nathaniel, putting herself between him and Oliver. She felt something was horribly off with the situation and that Nathaniel was in trouble. “When we try to reach Oliver, we say his name but do we refer to the island as Brianne?” She looked at him and he nodded, prompting her to stand back up and face Oliver. “Brianne, why do you think we should just forget about it? What is it that you’re afraid of us uncovering?” She took a few steps closer to Oliver, making a conscious effort to keep her hands to her sides. “What can you do from inside someone else’s body, Brianne?”
Nathaniel jumped to his feet, grabbing Purna’s arm and pulling her back. “Are you trying to get yourself killed? What part of you thinks that it’s a good idea to disrespect the spirit of the island?”
Purna took her arm back, glaring at Oliver. “They’re genuine questions, I'm a curious person.” She looked down at George then turned around and started walking to the apartments. “I’m going home.”
“You get a man killed and you just walk away from it. Interesting.” Oliver had his arms crossed as he watched Purna walk away from him. Once she was gone, he tilted his head to look at Nathaniel. “You talking about disrespecting the spirit of the island is ironic. You’re the reason they’ve uncovered so much and you’ve helped them in many aspects. You managed to fail the island, the residents, and yourself.”
Leo and Nathaniel watched for the next hour as George slowly slipped away, his physical person becoming Brianne. Brianne stayed tethered to Oliver until her body was ready, then she attached herself. Oliver lost consciousness while Brianne gained hers, then was back up and on his feet within the next ten minutes.
After Nathaniel knew Brianne and Oliver were fully separated and able to maneuver on their own, he led them and Leo back to the apartments. “I’ll only say this because nothing is a secret from the island, Purna didn’t go home. I made sure everyone was in their rooms before I left and I have the keys, she had no way of getting in. I have no idea what she’s doing but she’s on her own mission, she’s extremely lucky she didn’t get killed tonight for disrespecting the spirit.”
“No, she’s lucky that there was split control.” Brianne’s tone was very firm and hostile, the look on her face was one of anger. “I wanted to and I was going to but because it wasn’t my body, I could do nothing against her.”
Leo briefly looked at Brianne, turning away because he felt as if he shouldn’t even be able to look at her. “You wanted her dead before tonight, we’ve all seen how you tried to kill her. Is it because she knows something or because you’re afraid of her finding something out? How do you assume that it would be her to threaten you, not one of the many other people involved?”
The group stopped in front of the doors to the apartment building, Nathaniel went into his pockets to grab the keys and found his pockets were empty. His eyes widened as he turned around and faced Brianne. “She took my keys.”
Brianne nodded. “I could have told you that. When you pulled her away from Oliver, you pulled her right arm and she slid her hand into your pocket. She did go back to the building but she never went back to her room.” She scoffed as she reached past Nathaniel and opened the unlocked doors. “How many times have I told you that you cannot trust those three? How many times do I have to tell you before it finally sticks?”
Nathaniel and Brianne went into the building, finding the keys set in front of the elevator. They left Leo and Oliver at the door, Leo seeming far more concerned than Oliver did. “She went into the office and I’m going to make a guess based on what Brianne said, the door being unlocked, the keys being in direct view that she’s not even here anymore.”
“I think you’re right, but where would she go?” Leo backed away from the doors, waiting for Oliver to answer.
Oliver spun on his heel and started back in the direction that they came from. “The grave site. She’s going to try to banish the spirit.”
“How do you know?” Leo followed after him, realizing that there was a sense of urgency in Oliver’s tone and movements.
“When she was talking to Brianne, I could see everything going through her head. She already knows more than Brianne wants her to and I’m not sure if Brianne knows that I know now.” Oliver seemed greatly concerned as he was processing his own thoughts.
They made it to the point where George died where they found Purna, standing on her own and looking ahead of her. They hurried to her side, seeing she looked fine. “She put a limitation on me…. I can’t go any farther than this.”
Leo and Oliver shared a look before Leo sighed, resting a hand on Purna’s shoulder. “For the time being, that’s the best thing. You can’t get rid of her on your own and she’s afraid right now. She’ll let her guard down and then we’ll be able to bring George back.”
After a bit of coaxing, the three went back to the apartments and entered the building as the sun began to rise.
Nathaniel requested the residents meet in the dining room for breakfast.
“I want to take this moment to remind all residents that the building is locked at eleven at night for a reason, the island is simply not safe to be explored at night.” Nathaniel looked at Ciara, seeing her concern as she sat alone at the tenth table. “Last night a group of four residents went out before the doors locked, I was completely unaware of their departure. When they returned, they had brought Brianne Ross back with them and it was then that they told me that George Lim had fallen off of a steep drop a few miles deeper into the island. They tried to reach him and when they did, he was already gone and unable to be resuscitated despite their efforts.”
When Nathaniel had said George’s name, Ciara had started hyperventilating, which could only be heard by the rest of the tenth table, but when he had revealed George’s fate, she broke out into sobs with a shrill scream that pierced the room.
Leo looked across the room, watching Ciara sob into the sleeves of her shirt as she crumbled in front of all the other residents. Sierra got up from the first table and went to her side, wrapping an arm around her and talking to her quietly, other residents soon following her lead and going to console her.
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Post by Kal on Apr 27, 2022 21:29:55 GMT
After leaving breakfast that morning, Purna had gone to open the shops, bringing Oliver and Leo with her since it normally took three people to maintain and run the shops throughout the day.
Towards noon, Mark brought Brianne and Zoey into the shops to buy new clothes for Brianne. He looked thrilled to have her back, but Zoey seemed a bit suspicious of it and a little uncomfortable.
While Oliver, Purna, and Leo were waiting for the family to checkout, Leo was reminded of his conversation with Purna the day before. He briefly looked at Oliver before looking down at his feet. “Oliver, I want to apologize to you.” Leo looked up to see both Purna and Oliver looked absolutely stunned at his words. “Erica was being completely truthful whenever she said that I suspected you. I’m sorry that I never made an effort to clear your name when you were doing everything in your power to do right by me. Thank you for that, by the way.”
Oliver nodded, a smile fixed on his face. “Thank you and I’d also like to apologize to you for not saying anything directly to you about what I knew.”
“We’re all good, don’t worry about it.” Leo chuckled and shook his head. “I’m going to guess that Purna also went off on you for not saying anything?”
“Yep. Did she tell you that you were on a list of people she’d been waiting to slip up?”
Purna listened to the conversation as it carried on, a smile on her face with an odd sense of accomplishment.
The next few days went on as normal days on the island would for most everyone besides the Ross family, Chaz, and Ciara.
With Brianne being back, Chaz had to move out of Mark’s apartment and so he went to stay with Ciara and help her through her grieving in the same way that he had helped Mark through his grieving.
Chaz had talked with Leo about how Brianne ended up coming back and learned what really happened to George, which only made the situation worse for him as he had been instructed to not tell Ciara what really happened.
He asked to meet with the three in private, having had an idea. They agreed to meet in the library after dinner, knowing that it would be completely empty.
The four of them sat around a table and Chaz began the conversation. “Leo told me that George’s life was traded for Brianne’s, would someone be able to trade their own for George’s life back?”
Leo and Purna looked at Oliver for answers, hoping that he would be able to tell them since he was Brianne at a time. He thought for a moment before nodding slowly, looking a bit unsure himself. “I think that would be possible, but I don’t think he would retain his memories, personality, anything that actually made him George.”
“What if someone gave something up to the island? Would an island even consider a trade? Is it capable of that level of thinking?” Chaz looked around the table, now seeing Purna was stuck in thought.
“Considering Brianne is the island, I think it is capable of higher thinking but the only thing it wants is for our investigation to stop and our knowledge to be gone.” She paused. “Well, my knowledge. I’ll see what I can do.”
Purna left the library first, going straight to the office to see if Brianne would be there with Nathaniel, which she was.
Brianne turned to Purna, studying her body language before raising an eyebrow. “You want to give up your knowledge for George Lim?”
She nodded. “I want to give up my knowledge. Every person I’ve met, everything that I’ve learned, every relationship that I’ve built up. I want all of it gone so that George can be here.”
“You’re willing to lose everything and allow Chaz to lose his life just so another man can live? You would truly do that?” Brianne stepped away from Nathaniel, seeming genuinely curious of Purna’s request.
“I would do that now, I would do it tomorrow, I would do it any time. This is the decision that Chaz and I have come to on our own, this is what we want.” Purna turned to look to the left of herself, seeing that Oliver and Leo had followed her to the office. “Would you even be able to give George his memories back?”
“Of course I could. Nobody really ‘dies’ here spiritually, physically is a different story.” Purna never stopped looking at Leo and Oliver. The two of them looked distraught, which told Purna that they had heard the entire conversation. “You do understand that just because you lose your relationships and memories with the people you’ve been interacting with for the past few weeks, they’re not going to lose those memories with you, right?”
She took a moment, looking both of them in their eyes. She closed her own as she turned back to Brianne and nodded. Her fists were clenched shut and she refused to open her eyes. “Yes, I understand that.” She unclenched her fists and took a deep, shaky breath. “I’m making my sacrifice for George, Chaz is making his for Ciara. I want to ask you to make one for me. Grant me just two nights before we go through with this, one to recuperate from this decision and one to properly part. I swear to you right now that I won’t say anything about the island or what goes on here and I know that you’ll know if I do. If I do happen to say anything, I’ll give my life for George instead.”
Purna finally opened her eyes to see that Brianne was less than a foot in front of her. “This matters to you quite a bit, and I can’t help but wonder why. Regardless, I agree with these conditions. Nathaniel, Leo, and Oliver are our witnesses.”
That was the first time Leo and Oliver had seen Purna cry. The second time was when she told Chaz of the outcome of her conversation with Brianne.
Chaz seemed upset by it, tears welling up in his eyes as he sat across from her. “Why would you do that? This looks like you’re giving up.”
“I know what it looks like, Chaz, and I’m going to have to give up but I’ve served my purpose in this search. I no longer have a place in this investigation and I need to tap out while I still have the chance to stay alive.”
While she and Chaz continued talking, Leo thought over what she had meant. The decision was completely out of the blue and only really occurred whenever she believed that he and Oliver were finally seeing eye-to-eye and comfortable with each other. Was that her purpose? Did she really believe that?
Leo looked across from him, seeing Oliver had completely checked out of the conversation. He was looking at the table in front of him, not saying a word and not showing any reaction to what was being said. He knew that Purna’s decision was hitting Oliver as hard as it could. In the short time they’d been conducting the investigation, the three of them had become closer than they could ever imagine.
Leo leaned forward, resting his arms on the table. “She’s not going to die.” He thought about what he said for a moment, letting out a bitter sigh. “Unless she says something she’s not supposed to.” He bit his lip, knowing that he couldn’t really put a positive spin on that part of the deal she had made with Brianne. “Her stepping away is crucial, we need to work together from here on out. She was here to make sure that was in the realm of possibilities and because of her, it’s highly likely that we’re going to.”
Chaz and Purna were listening to Leo, whispering to each other as they listened in. “Are they really going to have to do things alone?”
She shook her head in response. “No and I can say this because Oliver already knows, three is always going to be the number. There will always be a trio.”
“Do you know who’s going to take your place?” Chaz asked, prompting Leo and Oliver to look at her. They all wanted answers but didn’t want her to share anything, fearing that with one slip up, she would permanently be gone.
“I do and the person replacing me also knows. Leo and Oliver do as well, they just haven’t put it together yet. Of the guesses that have been provided, Leo’s been the closest.” Purna got out of her seat, clearing her throat. “This is one of two nights that I have left, I’m afraid I don’t want to spend it like this. I recommend you also get your affairs in order, Chaz.”
Chaz got up and followed Purna out, leaving Oliver and Leo at the table, Oliver looked just as confused as Leo felt. “Who have you guessed? What is she talking about?”
“I never made any guesses because I didn’t think she would split from us.” Leo furrowed his eyebrows, getting out of his seat. “I’m going to go ahead and call it a night. Maybe if I sleep on it then I’ll have some answers in the morning.”
Leaving the library and going to the third floor by himself, Leo realized that Oliver stayed downstairs and when he last saw Purna and Chaz, they were heading towards the front door of the building.
At this point, Leo knew that if they wanted to be found then they would have told him where they had gone and that he shouldn’t worry too much about it. With that thought in mind, he went into his apartment and went to sleep.
The next day started as they all did, except Leo had no idea who opened the shops as it wasn’t at all important to him today.
Today was the day that after dinner, Chaz wouldn’t be there physically and the Purna that they had gotten to know over the weeks would be gone. Leo couldn’t really decide if it was worse to lose someone altogether or have them still around but know that they wouldn’t remember anything about you.
Purna was spending the day with Flora, which Leo couldn’t blame her for. He knew that deep down, she was scared and she wanted to leave the people close to her with as many good memories as possible before she forgot everything herself.
Brianne was making rounds to the people who had witnessed the deal she made with Purna; she had already talked to Oliver by the time she got to Leo. He was fishing at the end of the pier, not paying much attention to the people around him as she walked up behind him, very cautiously taking a place next to him.
He looked at her for less than a minute before returning his attention to his fishing. It seemed to him like she was waiting for him to say something to her, which he wouldn’t do. “After George is brought back, Purna won’t remember her time with you and Oliver. The two of you are forbidden to share any knowledge of the past few weeks with her. She’s not going to know you or him and it’s to stay that way.”
“How do you plan to enforce that?” Leo refused to look at her.
“Did you know that I’ve had the ability to take away your knowledge this entire time? I’ve had the power to stop your investigation from the very first day and I still hold that. If you go against what I’m saying, I’ll gladly take away what you know.”
“Why haven’t you done it then?” He shrugged. “It sounded like you were super concerned with us digging around at all, so if you had the capability to stop it then why didn’t you?”
“What’s the fun in that?” Brianne leaned on the railing. “You three aren’t the first people to try and you haven’t made it nearly as far as other people have. It’s quite a treat for me to see how much people can figure out and how quickly it happens. Some people like Purna have reached dangerous territory where it becomes a requirement to wipe their knowledge, but you and Oliver are no threat to me at the moment.”
Leo stayed quiet for a moment, setting his rod down and turning to Brianne. “What Nathaniel told us about her drowning and Oliver being the one to find her, why were you going to do that?”
“Of your trio, she knew too much and was a threat physically and I could stop that by taking her body. Oliver knows just a little less than she did and so regardless of whose body I took, he needed to be my host just temporarily so I could change a few things, erase a few things and set him back a little.”
“Stop referring to her in a past tense, she’s still here and alive.” Leo lashed out at Brianne, startling her for just a moment before she regained her composure.
She gave a forced smile and tilted her head. “Anyway, my business here is done. I expect to be seeing you later tonight and that you’ll remember this discussion when it’s important.”
At dinner, the rest of the residents seemed overjoyed to interact with Brianne.
Chaz spent the entire dinner talking to Ciara, trying to boost her mood without revealing what was going to happen in the next few hours.
Leo chose to sit with Melanie and Norris in an attempt to make his relationship with the couple better, knowing that that’s one of the goals Purna had set for him earlier on.
Flora and Olivia, along with their families, were sitting together at the tenth table. The two women had been recommended to each other by Purna earlier in the day.
Oliver sat with Nolan, talking to him about whatever came to mind. That eventually led into a discussion of Nolan’s anxiety and methods that Oliver thought would help with his tics.
From the third table, Purna watched every single one of them and how they conducted themselves through their conversations. She knew that she had a lot to do with what they were doing and at the end of the day, she was grateful that they had listened and decided to go forward with their investigation without her.
While watching Chaz and Ciara, she saw Ciara laugh for the first time since George’s death. It was immediately followed by her breaking into tears and saying thank you to Chaz, giving him a long hug.
While watching Leo, Melanie, and Norris, she could see that Leo was opening up to Norris and Melanie, Melanie was being very receptive and seemed overjoyed to be talking to the both of them, Norris was cracking jokes with the two of them and looked to be enjoying himself with the company.
While watching Flora and Olivia, she saw the two women talking to each other without any breaks. They had a lot in common but had never actually reached out to each other, which is why Purna had encouraged them to meet tonight. Olivia eventually offered to let Flora hold Gavin, which she took and seemed very content with as they continued on with their conversations.
While watching Oliver and Nolan, Purna saw Nolan fully open up about his insecurities to someone else. She had known prior that Nolan never really opened up about his anxiety because he was afraid of being judged for his fears. She could see that he now fully trusted Oliver and Oliver was set to helping the boy with his issues. By the end of dinner, the two were playing cards with a deck that Nolan carried around with him so he could run his thumb through the cards whenever he needed to fidget with something.
As the dining room cleared, Brianne and Nathaniel stayed until it was just Purna, Chaz, Leo, and Oliver left in the room. They didn’t announce their departure, knowing the group of four would follow after them as they had accepted what was going to happen.
On the way out the building’s door, Purna stopped Oliver and Leo. “You guys don’t have to come. I know it was difficult to watch this time so I understand if you guys would rather stay behind.”
“Why would we stay behind?” Leo retorted, putting his hand behind the small of her back and pushing her forward a bit so he and Oliver could leave the building with her. “You’ve been with us the entire way, we’re going to be with you.”
The two walked past her, she remained at the door and seemed stunned as she looked at them. Oliver reached back to her, taking her hand and easing her along. “You’ve still got one more person to help, your work isn’t done yet so you can’t just stand at the door.”
Leo chuckled, walking ahead of them. “That’s ironic coming from you.” The chuckle turned into a genuine laugh. “I’m sorry, but you blocking the door to the kitchen with Erica on the other side has got to be one of the funniest things I’ve seen.”
Oliver laughed along with him, shaking his head. “You already know she was fuming over that. I really didn’t mean to, though. I thought she had already left the kitchen because she wasn’t talking to me anymore.”
He let go of Purna’s hand and Leo slowed down to walk alongside them. There was idle talk among the three of them until they reached the grave site. Nathaniel and Chaz had already started digging, Oliver and Purna joined them once they reached them.
Leo switched out with Nathaniel, seeing he was sweating pretty hard and digging in a way that made it more taxing for him with fewer results.
After digging up the casket, Leo, Oliver, Chaz, and Purna lifted it out of the ground. Purna refused to switch out with Nathaniel, saying that if Chaz was going to help in his last few hours then she was going to as well.
Purna focused on the missing hinge for a moment before Oliver asked her for help in lifting the top door off of the casket while Leo and Chaz unlocked and opened the bottom door.
Once George’s body was revealed, Brianne stepped forward and asked Leo and Oliver to step back while she instructed Purna and Chaz on what they had to do. They stood with Nathaniel, keeping their own voices hushed. “Nathaniel, what would happen if one of us intervened here?”
Nathaniel turned to Leo, confused by the question. “In Chaz’s case, you would have to touch the body before he does and that would lead to you dying. For Purna, I’m not sure. She may lose all her knowledge, you may lose all of yours, she may lose half and you lose half, you may completely stop the process. There’s a lot of possibilities and if I were you, I wouldn’t even try to intervene.”
Brianne reached into the casket, being very careful of what her hands touched. She lifted George’s shirt to expose the hole in his torso. “Chaz, you can go ahead and touch the hole. It’ll take about an hour before you’re gone and he’s back.”
Purna turned to her right to look at Chaz and offered a kind smile before she hugged him. “This is how you’ll be remembered, I promise you.” He held on to her, crying into her shoulder. “I may not remember you or what you’ve done, but they’re not going to forget and I know they’re not going to let George and Ciara forget. What they do from now on is going to be because of the sacrifice that you’re making tonight.Thank you for everything you’ve done and what you’re doing now, Chaz.”
After a few moments he pulled away from Purna and looked her in the eyes, nodding to himself as he took a deep breath and faced the casket. “Thank you, all of you. I’m thankful to be able to spend my last hour with the three of you.”
He reached into the casket, touching the hole in George’s torso, leaving his hand there for a minute until the hole in George’s torso began to shrink to make sure that the switch started.
As Chaz took his hand back, Brianne went to Purna’s side and crouched down next to her. “What you have to do is release any tension and negative energies before putting your left hand on his temple. That’s how I know you’ve committed to allowing your knowledge to become his memories and his personality.”
Leo and Oliver watched Purna reach into the casket, resting her hand on George’s temple. They then looked at each other, both of them seeming to wonder the same thing. “It’s now or never, I’ll follow your lead.”
[Intervene]
[Stay put, don’t intervene]
Alright, so! This is actually the final part for Act 1, Chapter 1. This choice is going to carry over into the next chapter and the voting will be closed this upcoming Thursday!
As I’ve mentioned, I’m going to set up character submission and we’ll very hopefully have that up and running by the time I get the next chapter started. My primary goal at this very moment is finishing the character guide and then the character submission so we’ll see how far I get.
I’d like to set up post-chapter questions, which I do think I’m going to work on right now because after this part specifically, there’s one question that I’m actually very eager to know the answer to.
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Post by Kal on Apr 27, 2022 22:28:10 GMT
Chapter two previews under the first spoiler tag!"Something isn't right with my mom and I know that you guys know what it is. I would appreciate it if you could tell my dad or me because I'm really worried about her and if she's going to be a problem for my dad then I need to know." Zoey and Keith blocked the doors to the elevator, Zoey's eyes unwavering from Leo.
Leo backed away, trying to regain his balance as he walked the tightrope that was the edge of the ten floor building. He heard a voice in his head, whispering to him as he backed away. "Do you remember when I asked you if you were afraid of heights and you said no?"
Watching Olivia's face twist in pure agony was the hardest thing that Oliver had to watch, knowing that he had caused it and there was nothing he could do to stop it was only matched to one feeling he'd experienced. He cupped his hands together, looking straight at the floor. "If you don't tell Zoey, I'm going to."
"Do we know what's past the grave site?" They looked at Oliver and Leo, waiting for a response that wasn't going to come. "Then that should be our first goal. We've barely touched the island because we've stayed towards the beach, we need to branch out and we'll be able to learn more. I can have a group ready to go as soon as the shops open in the morning, we'll be out without raising any eyebrows."
The trio watched as Brianne and Nathaniel continued to push Purna for answers to their questions, her pale face growing red as she continued to become frustrated with their presence. She got out of her seat, standing face to face with the two of them. "Can you guys just back off already?! I don't even know what you're talking about!" As Purna had switched to defending herself, the three others snuck out of the room.
Brianne stood on the pier's railings next to Oliver, studying his thoughts and his actions. "You could just do what Purna did and give up your knowledge, that completely removes you from the situation." She leaned forward to be able to look into his eyes without falling into the water. "That would fix just about all of your problems, wouldn't it?"End of chapter questions under the second spoiler tag!1) Thoughts on the chapter?
2) Favorite character? Why?
3) Least favorite character? Why?
4) Based on the information uncovered so far, what do you believe is going on with the island?
5) Who do you believe that the newest member joining the trio will be?
6) Of all 50 characters, which are you most interested in learning more about?
7) From the trio, whose perspective should lead the next chapter? The unknown third person is an option, Purna is no longer an option.
8) Is there any speculation you'd like to provide on the next chapter's previews?
9) Any questions, thoughts, theories, comments that I may not have addressed in this post?
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Post by Tales93 on Apr 29, 2022 20:03:22 GMT
[Stay put, don’t intervene]
I think there will be worse consequences than what's already happening if they try to intervene.
End of Chapter Questions:
1) Thoughts on the chapter?
The chapter is really good. I enjoy the characters so far and the mystery of the island keeps me guessing and is very intriguing.
2) Favorite character? Why?
We haven't seen much of most of the characters so far. From what we have seen I'm curious about both Kelly and Purna for the knowledge they have already about the mystery of the island. Purna seemed to know the most so far and I'm curious how she gained the knowledge and what exactly she knew. However, she's about to forget everything, so we probably find that out for awhile. So, I guess you can say Purna for now.
3) Least favorite character? Why?
I don't know enough about most of the people to really decide. From what I've seen, Nathaniel seems to be more complex than he originally appeared.
However, I'm not sure if some of his actions and emotions are just a front to gain their trust or at least try to appear that he cares about the residents. So, I guess for now the vengeful spirit inhabiting Brianne's resurrected body is my least favorite character.
4) Based on the information uncovered so far, what do you believe is going on with the island?
I'm not sure what my original theory was, but it wasn't a vengeful ghost was manipulating events on the island. However, this seems to be the case. From what we've seen so far this spirit has immense power. According to the bios of some of the residents, people have lost memory and some have even had their age reversed. Nathaniel can also apparently know the future of residents deaths. I believe this spirit is responsible. I also believe this spirit is not actually the spirit of Brianne but a more ancient force that controls the island. Also the residents of the island react to events in very odd ways. Hardly anyone questioned Nathaniel's ability to see how the residents die or how he does it. The one's who knew about that fact seemed to just accept it. Also, the residents hardly reacted when Brianne returned from the dead. Like people coming back to life was an everyday occurrence. I feel like somehow the spirit is also manipulating peoples emotions and how they process information and possibly even their perception of reality. Making it so they can accept these types of events more easily than normal. It's also interesting that the shop will always have a resident open and run it, even though there is no set schedule. Perhaps the spirit is also manipulating people's behavior. I'm also wondering if their are others beside Nathaniel helping the spirit in whatever this experiment or scheme is happening.
5) Who do you believe that the newest member joining the trio will be?
I'm not sure, but Purna said Leo made the closest guess? He even didn't know what she was talking about. My guess is it's one of the remaining residents that knows a little bit about what's going on. Maybe George after he is brought back?
6) Of all 50 characters, which are you most interested in learning more about?
From what I've seen in the bio's, Keith has an interesting reason for being there. I think there was also another that was helping him whos age was reversed but I forgot who that was. I also had an idea for a character to submit that was similar to Keith in a way. So, it would be cool to see them interact if things go well for him. My answer is Keith.
7) From the trio, whose perspective should lead the next chapter? The unknown third person is an option, Purna is no longer an option.
Although, the unknown third person would be interesting. I think want to see things from Oliver's pov. Especially, since he gained more knowledge about the mystery of the island after the spirit possesed him.
8) Is there any speculation you'd like to provide on the next chapter's previews?
Well, apparently Oliver is confronting Olivia about something. Also, Nathaniel and the Spirit is interrogating Purna despite her lost memories. Perhaps, they believe Purna has quickly uncovered the secrets of the island that she originally forgot. They probably wonder how she keeps doing this so fast. Purna is obviously claiming she doesn't know what their talking about. Not sure if she is telling the truth or lying. Also, the spirit is offering the same deal to Oliver that happened to Purna. Thus suggesting Oliver knows a lot of info he doesn't want to know.
9) Any questions, thoughts, theories, comments that I may not have addressed in this post?
No, I think this covers everything.
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Post by Kal on May 15, 2022 23:32:15 GMT
Alternate Choices!
About ten minutes ago, I realized that I never posted the alternate choices for the chapter so I'm sparing a moment to do that right quick before I start working on the upcoming release!
[Follow Oliver's Perspective]: Following Oliver's perspective in the first chapter would have introduced a lot of the other residents and Nathaniel a bit more personally. It wouldn't have gotten much done for the investigation besides opening the opportunity for more accessible alliances with other characters in chapters.
[Follow Purna's Perspective]: Following Purna's perspective would have solely focused on the investigation as Purna isn't much of a socialite. Nathaniel wouldn't be involved in the investigation at all due to her refusing to associate with him, however he still would have prevented her death at the dock. Her fate would have remained the same at the end of the chapter, but it would have been explained in deeper detail why she chose to do it.
[Allow the group to go but stay behind]: As Tales said, bad things would have happened if Leo stayed behind. If he gave up the location but stayed behind, Purna would have had to handle George's transformation and Oliver's possession on her own. It most definitely would have been traumatic for her and she would have blamed Leo for what happened until the very end of the chapter where she would admit she was in the wrong and apologize to Leo before giving up her knowledge.
[Refuse to hand over the location]:If Leo refused to give up the location, Chaz would have taken the paper back from Leo and given it to Oliver and Purna long after dinner. Oliver and Purna would have gone alone, Oliver would have taken George's place and Purna's would have taken Oliver's place as the spirit's temporary host. At the end of the chapter, Chaz would have still given up his body so Oliver could come back but Leo would have to give up his knowledge since Purna wouldn't be able to.
[Intervene]: Intervening would have caused a big mess. The trio would only lose a minor part of their knowledge, however because of Oliver's involvement, Purna and Leo would have unintentionally ended up possessing his gift. Nathaniel would have tried to stop Oliver and Leo from getting involved and his attempt would have resulted in his own knowledge being partially lost. The spirit would have blamed Nathaniel for the incident and he would refuse to assist in the investigation any longer in fear of being dismissed by the spirit, which would kill him.
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