Trenton

I sat with Kylie under the stars after Kathryn had gone to sleep in her tent. Dawson and Nathaniel were skipping stones, and Aly, Serena, and Eric were hanging out away from us. Kylie and I had found the best view of the sunset and sat hand in hand watching it set. It was getting cold, so I let Kylie borrow my jacket. A light breeze had picked up, ruffling my hair, and the trees whispered behind us. The sun had just gone down and a few twinkling stars made an appearance, slowly coming out one at a time. Soon, stars were everywhere, filling the night sky, swirling with color. Constellations popped out and Kylie was pointing some of them out to me.

“…and there’s Orion’s belt, and if you look carefully, just under the star on the left, you can see the nebula,” she was explaining to me.

“Wow, that’s amazing. Sometimes it’s nice to be quiet for a while and just watch nature show its wonders.”

“Yeah. I especially love the stars. Just all the different colors of the night sky are spectacular. Just look at it! It's not dark and black and without character. The black is, in fact deep blue. And over there is a lighter blue, and blowing through the blues and blackness the winds swirling through the air and then shining, burning, bursting through are the stars! And you see how they roar their light. Everywhere we look, the complex magic of nature blazes before our eyes. It seems to me there's so much more to the world than the average eye is allowed to see. I believe, if you look hard, there are more wonders in this world than you could ever have dreamt of,” she finished, tears sparkling in her eyes. I loved it when she went off like this. The stars twinkled in her eyes, lighting them up, giving them more depth.

“Every night,” she continued, “I would go outside late at night and just look at the stars. They mean so much to me. I can’t explain it, it’s just a feeling I get.”

“I totally understand that,” I replied. I looked back at the stars, my mind simply not caring about anything right now. I heard Aly announce that she was going to bed, then she turned and walked to her tent. She looked at me and waved. Kylie and I stood up, brushing the sand off our backs, and I waved back. After she had gone, I turned and saw Kylie frowning. She punched me in the arm- hard.

"You have a girlfriend! She's trying to steal you away!" Kylie growls and clutches my arm.

"Please, she doesn't even know me, let alone like me," I say defiantly. I see Eric and Serena laying on the ground laughing.

"Trenton you are so thick sometimes," Serena calls to me.

"She doesn't!" I retort to everyone. Kylie and I start walking over to them.

"You're an idiot!" Kylie huffs. "Goodnight."

“No wait, Kylie,” I call after her, but she’s already gone. I stand alone, confused.

“Yeah I'm checking out too," Eric announces following Nathaniel and

Dawson up to the tents. "Night guys!"

"Night!" Serena and I say together. After about five minutes of silence, I finally say something.

"Does Aly really like me?"

"By the looks of it, I guess."

"But I have a girlfriend."

"I don't think she knew that when she bumped into you," she replies with a wink. I sigh and look into the ocean.

"What's wrong?" she asks me. "You've been acting differently lately."

“I feel really out of the loop.”

“That’s not an excuse.”

"Well, I almost died."

"That's everyday life for us."

"I'm really tired."

"I understand, but that's not it."

"I don't know!" I yell at her, forced to lie. I had been thinking about the vision again. I feel her eyes piecing my back.

"Why can't you just be honest with me? Is it really that hard? We probably only have a little while to live, Trenton. Heck we could die right now, but just tell me. Please."  I don’t say anything, not sure how to go around this. I finally answer.

"There are some things I can't tell you," I sigh. I see her clench her fists, and I go sit down next to her and hold her hands in mine.

"Serena, I'm sorry. I just can't do it. I don't want you hurt."

"I'm not weak! Yes I cry a lot! I know that, but this isn't exactly a perfect situation to be in! I'm not weak and you can tell me anything," she says. I take a deep breath, feeling so hopeless in this situation. I wasn’t sure how we were going to survive. Tears threaten to fall, but I hold them back.

"Trenton, I'm sorry I didn't mean t-"

"I CAN'T TELL YOU. IT'S OUR FATE AND I CAN'T SAY!" I snap and tears roll down me cheeks.

"I didn't mean to upset y-"

"This is all my fault!” I yell and jump up and walks to the shoreline. I hear her feet shuffling in the sand behind me. “I haven't done anything right!” I continue. “I just want to go home!!" I say.

"Trenton. This is all we have left. This little group is home. No family left. All we have now is each other. We can't go back."

"Y-yes we-we can!" I say.

"Our families are dead! There is nothing to go back to! We are all we have left!" I stop, shock filling my mind. My family is dead? It takes a while to say it.

"My family is... dead?" I say softly.

"Oh. Oh no. Did you not know?” she asks worriedly. I ignore her completely and look out into the ocean again.

"Trenton, we love you and we care about you. If you ever need anything, we’re here. I’m here!" she says, sobbing. I made up my mind and turned to go to my tent.

“Trenton! Please listen to me! You can’t just tune us out!” she pleads. I continue to ignore her, almost to the tent that I was sharing with Eric.

“Send Eric out here at least," she calls after me. I make no indication of hearing her, but I go into the tent to see Eric sitting up.

“Your girlfriend wants you,” I spit at him. He figures it’s best to leave me alone and he does. After about ten minutes, I get up and leave the tent. Time to go explore the island.

Hours of not sleeping finally takes its toll on me as I’m walking. I can't get the vision that I saw on the last island out of my head. I feel betrayed by Serena for not telling me that my family is dead, but I realize that I’ve been doing the same to her, if not worse. I was walking through thick underbrush, with a tall canopy of trees over me. Vines hung low, and I saw multiple frogs, spiders, and other animals. I turned and saw Kylie.

“Kylie? What’re you doing here?” I asked.

“Trenton, you can’t do this,” she says, but she’s not looking at me. She’s looking behind her at someone else. This is all vaguely familiar.

“But I have to,” another voice says. Another person comes into view. Me. I remember now. It’s the vision. The other me turns to her and hugs her tightly and when he pulls away, I see tears in Kylie’s eyes. I look at the other me and see tears in his eyes too. He runs out of the clearing and I see Kylie fall to the ground weeping.

“Stop!” I yell, but I’m not sure whom at. I close my eyes, wanting it to be gone, but when I look back I see Serena facing down the Slenderman. I try to move, to look away, knowing what’s coming next, but I can’t. I’m transfixed by this scene before me. Slender starts reaching towards her, but, just as before, the other me bursts out from the trees and jumps in front of Serena. The Slenderman’s arm, in the shape of a spike, plunges into my chest and exits through my back. The other me gasps and crumples to the ground as Serena screams. Slender pulls it out and dissipates as Serena crumples next to my fallen body.

“STOP!” I shout, but suddenly, the wind gets knocked out of me. I can’t breath, and I double over. I don’t know how long I’m down for, but I hear a small sound. I slowly stand up and see a pool of water, big enough to swim in, with a waterfall pouring into it. I realized that I should mark this place somehow. An idea came to me. I concentrated hard, and a spike of my power was drained. I left a telepathic imprint in the ground that only Serena and I could find. I started walking back because dawn was breaking.

I finally arrived back to camp when everyone was just waking up. Serena avoided eye contact with me, so I called Eric and Nathaniel to me.

“Take Serena and tell her to look for a telepathic stamp. Then have her lead you guys to it. It’s a water supply. We don’t know how long we’re going to be here, so we might as well get water.” They both agreed and got Serena. They explained the situation to her, and I saw her glare daggers at me. She finally agreed and they set off with the canteens.