Drift

A lone cloud brings a small trickle of rain. You wait under a hut as it passes. You're traveling from one end of the island to the other, bringing with you fruits your mother's mother. She's too old to walk across the sand, so you make sure she doesn't have to.

You take a moment to look at the sea. Three different shades of blue. The sand meets light blue meets dark blue. There's the horizon, and then an even lighter blue takes over the rest of your view - seemingly endless.

Something catches your eye. Red. A red dot on a blue canvas. This isn't natural. You step out from under the hut - the lone cloud floats passed - bringing the rain to the other side of the island.

Your foot touches the damp sand, your eyes fixed on this red dot. It's so unnatural. You've seen red before, but cooler shades of reds from pomegranates and dark cherries, not this bright, harsh red.

You're afraid but your curiosity pulls you closer. Your heart beat feels a bit off.

As your toes hit the water, you realize it's a person. There's a person completely covered in this red. It's fire.

There's a person on fire. You scream for help. You turn your back and make eye contact with your little brother. You yell at him to get help. You watch his skinny, long legs take off towards the trees. You get closer to the body.

It's a girl. But you don't recognize her. You try to grab her, but you can't. She's on fire but the water does nothing to lessen the flames.

You're desperately swimming back to shore, trying to find a raft or something to grab her with. You see your cousin grab a raft and head towards you. The waves are calm, but for some reason you feel out of breath. As if you've been running across the sand all day.

You see your brother on the shore, looking back at you with wide eyes. You want to tell him it's okay, but all of a sudden you feel dizzy. Your feet hits the sand, but they feel heavy.

"Help her," you tell your cousin as he paddles the raft towards you. He nods his head and tries to paddle towards the body on fire.

Your brother runs toward you, but pauses right before colliding with you.

"Hey, it's okay. We'll get some help," the way he's looking at you makes you feel tiny, but you act brave so he won't be so fearful.

You reach out to try to hug him, to ruffle his hair a bit, but you look down at your hand. There's blood. You start to fall. The last thing you remember before seeing black are the fruits your grandmother gave you lying underneath a hut. There's a little girl taking a few apples while the crowd stares at the sea.

---

You wake up and it's dark. The light from a fire keeps you warm, but there's still a slight chill that goes through your body.

Your cousin looks at you.

"Hey, are you okay?"

You nod, and try to speak but your voice sounds raspy.

"Don't try to talk," says your cousin. He looks sick, almost green.

You look at him, questions flooding your brain but no energy to ask them.

He seems to know what one of them might be.

"The girl wasn't alive," he says. There's a beat and he wants to say more, but you realize there might not be more.

"The fire eventually went out, and her body washed up on shore. No one's touching it until we go through protocol."

Someone's coming to the island. The off-islanders. That's why he looks so tense, maybe even sick. They only come to collect bodies. The last time they were here, they took your mother, father, and sister.

Your mother and father were dead, but your sister was still alive. Although they said she wasn't there anymore. Something inside her died when mom and dad passed away. So they took her too.

You just want to sleep, so you close your eyes. You let the heaviness take you and drift to black.

---

You're sitting on the shore, watching the girl's body. No one has touched her since she's been here. You're not supposed to touch dead bodies. People have also been a little off since the body washed on shore. Some people haven't been able to keep down their food. Some are dizzy. Many are in their huts, sleeping while their bodies fight the chills that rack them. A strange phenomenon since it's never cold here.

Everyone deserted this part of the area once they realized off-islanders could be here at any moment.

The girl has golden hair, almost as brilliant as the sun. You continue to examine her. Her skin looks like ash, her legs are bloodied and bruised. Her arms are covered, but her neck and shoulders look just bruised. She doesn't look burnt, just pale and bloodied.

You wonder how that could be. No one has said anything about the fire. About how this girl was consumed with flames, and yet, nothing of her appears burnt. You see something wrapped around her wrist. A metal chain. But there's something hanging from it.

Your curiosity peaks again. You look out towards the sea, and don't see any ships on the horizon. You inch closer to the body, about two hundred yards from where you're at now.

You're going to take it. You decide in that moment you're going to run across and take the chain.

You count to three. No, don't do it. But then all of a sudden your feet propel you forward. You're doing it, you're doing it. You stumble a bit on the sand, hyper aware that there could be people watching.

You get to the body, and you realize it's a necklace, with a heart dangling from the end of it. You pick up the hand, and then quickly drop it. It feels limp, and cold. And slimy.

You gather the courage to lift it again and grab the necklace. Your stomach churns with the thought of touching a dead body. You run back towards the trees, hoping that no one saw you take this girl's necklace.

---

You open the necklace. There was a face, one you don't recognize. You've never seen such detail on an object before, and anyone on the island will know that it's not from here. You have to hide it, you want to throw it away, but you can't. You want to own it now. To forever remember that this strange girl once washed up on shore.

You see the off-islanders in the distance. With actual boats, not rafts. You stay where you're at. You've been told not to talk to them, unless they approach you.

They fascinate you and scare you. Their bodies are long and slender. Their eyes are cold. Their teeth are rounded.

Your parents once told you that there's many more of off-islanders than there are islanders. You can't imagine that since you've only seen about ten at a time.

Their boats finally hit the shore. They jump off, wearing body suits and helmets. They never take those off when they're on the island.

They stand around, talking amongst themselves. They look angry, one appears to be screaming at another.

Someone from the crowd looks over at you, and watches you staring. Another follows their eye contact, and sees you as well. They both quickly look away.

The one yelling stops. Starts walking around the girl's body. Finally picks it up and rolls it into a blue tarp. You see people try to help, but they wave them away. This person wants no one to touch this body. You catch a glimpse of the blonde hair before it's zipped away forever. The idea that the sun will never cast a glow again on this girl's golden hair saddens you.

The off-islanders start heading back to their boats, but they're leaving behind a few things. Black, circular objects, just lying in the sand.

You wait until the off-islanders are in their boats, a few hundred yards out into the sea. You step onto the exposed sand, to take a look at the objects. You touch one, and it opens up. Gas comes out of it.

And then, a few yards out, another of the black object opens up. Pretty soon it sets off a chain reaction.

Your heart drops. Now, there's hundreds of these objects going off. And the gas that's coming out, it burns. Your body feels like it's on fire. You look at your body and it's covered in white, welted blisters.

You drop to the floor. You can't breathe, your throat feels like it's swollen shut. Now you can't move. You can only close your eyes. Your head is pounding, and when you try to get up, your heart beats even harder.

You hear screams from all over the island. Pain fills your chest from what you've done. Your body lays heavy on the sand, and your hand lets go of the necklace that you took from the girl.

You see the boats coming back. But they're off shore. You drift in and out of consciousness, each second skipping a beat from existence.

You see the boats, and then black. You see the sand, and then black. You see the off-islanders. Then black. You see the heart-shaped locket in your hand. Then black. You see a man looking over you. You see the same face looking back at you from the locket. Then black. You see the man grab the heart shaped locket. Then black. You see the off-islanders on the boats. Then black. You see flames. Then black.