B

arry wakes up to the feeling of waves crashing his feet. . The cool, light ocean breeze sent chills down his spine, and the scent of the washed-up waves tangoed with his senses. Even before he opened his eyes, he knew where he was. The tantalizing scent of washed-up waves was hard to ignore. He felt the millions of grains of sand, hot against his fingers and the cool breeze against his face acting as a relief from the sweltering sun. He heard the sea crawling onto the sand and, further away, the same monster dashing against the rocks.

Thick chunks of sand tucked away in Barry’s pockets; it was as if he was abandoned like a lost child who doesn’t know his way back home.

Standing up, Barry feels light-headed as he tries to stay on his feet. He opens his mouth to take in a gulp of air and tastes salt in his throat. Not the same taste as on the cruise when he looked over into the sea, but a fresh, clean one, as if taking in pure oxygen.

“Wha-where?” Words came out of Barry’s mouth before he even realized.

Barry was in a state of trance, trying to differentiate between fantasy and reality at that moment. It was like continuing a dream after waking up. As he lifted his eyelids, the barrier between his imagination and actuality was removed; the accuracy of his prediction astounded him as he gasped. The sea in front of him went on and on without ending and behind him was a forest. He stood on the sand barefoot, looking around hysterically for a hint of human life.

“Tim?” He shouts at the top of his lungs only to be greeted by complete silence other than the sound of waves crashing, “Malcolm? Uncle Josh?” he called out, only for his voice to disappear into thin air.

Nobody answered. Nobody was going to answer. It was just Barry, alone, lost, and confused.

Barry shuts his mouth when he hears a weird noise coming from near him. It sounded like a bee buzzing. He looked around, and it wasn’t long before he realized it might be his phone. Running on the sand barefoot, he looked around out of his mind.

‘If it is vibrating, that means I can call someone!’ He thought to himself.

He spotted the phone near his shoe. Running over, he picked up the phone. ‘Unknown Caller’ being flashed on the screen.

“Hello?” He says, placing the phone near him, “No, no no no!” He adds when he realizes he is losing signals.

Without a second thought, he starts panicking and running here and there to catch signals like a mad man. He raises his phone in the air, trying to catch signals.

“Shit!” he finally exclaimed when he lost the signal completely.

Barry starts tapping on the screen hysterically to make it work. Instead, the phone begins to glitch and shuts down completely.

“No, no no no!” He exclaims again as he taps his phone gently to make it work. Instead, the phone glitches and Barry feels a shock of current run through his body. Taking a step back, he drops the phone. Rubbing his arm, he falls to his knees in pain, and before he knows it, the waves washes his phone with it.

“NO!” Barry screams and runs towards the waves, but he knew it was of no use. He wasn’t going to get the phone back no matter what he does.

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Barry loses all hope at the thought of his phone being out of his reach now. He starts looking around for his friends and Uncle Josh again. But all he could see was water in front of him and trees behind him. It was an entirely different world. He was shocked that Uncle Josh never mentioned any Island near them for someone who had been coming to the sea so regularly. Barry tries to remember what made the cruise sink, but despite his hard thinking, he couldn’t organize his scattered thoughts. He remembered the tidbits and snippets of what happened but not the whole story.

He walks near his shoes and starts wearing them. He had a plan—at least he thought he did. He started collecting all the scattered items on the sand he could find. He found his shoes, a bar of chocolate, Uncle Josh’s hat, and a life jacket. None of the things would prove to be helpful in finding his friends.

“I can walk to the other side of the Island.” He whispers to himself and turns to take a glimpse of the forest that stood behind him, “Is that a good idea, though?” He asked himself before he let out a big, disappointing sigh, “For God’s sake, I’m talking to myself now.”

He looked at the forest again with doubt and second-guessed himself. The forest looked like a forgotten land with its huge trees overgrown grass. It looked dark inside, and Barry couldn’t imagine what it would feel when the sun sets. But there was no point in staying at this side of the island anyway.

Barry was no longer unfamiliar with the thought that he is now marooned on this island, and he needs to find a way out.

As soon as Barry made up his mind to go inside the forest, he heard a loud bird shriek. He started shaking his head with his eyes growing wide with fear. He comes face-to-face with the sea and could see the large tides making their way near to his feet now.

“Should I?” He whispers to himself, looking back at the forest, “What if Tim and Malcolm didn’t go into the forest…?”

His frustration grows when he hears another shriek and watches the waves take away the life jacket.

“Fine,” He takes a deep breath and stands in front of the forest, “I’ll do it.”

He nods his head before sighing, “Stop talking to yourself, Barry.” He says before making his way inside the forest.

The thick fog, in all its glory, made it hard for him to see, but he did not stop walking. The forest, being open from all sides, helped Barry take a peak. As he moved further, the ground, very unequal and rough and in some places perfectly riddled with holes, made it extremely painful for Barry to walk.

It looked more like an enchanted forest—majestic trees, with long branches everywhere. Mushrooms grew under the shady roof of the forest, and you could hear the distant squeaks of scurrying squirrels. Even though, after every few steps, Barry felt a little reluctant to keep going, something about the forest made him want to keep exploring.

Suddenly, a deer appeared in front of him out of nowhere. Jumping a few feet back, Barry stumbled a little. The deer looked magical, to say the least. Barry thought he was hallucinating because the deer in front of him was glowing. It looked completely normal, but the subtle white glow made it looked phenomenal.

Dumfounded, Barry took a few steps near it in order to take a better look. It was hard for him to believe his eyes. He had never seen something so…intriguingly beautiful. Before Barry could take a closer look, the deer ran away, leaving behind a startled Barry who could not stop questioning his eyes.

“Did I really just see…a glowing deer?” He asked himself, “I-I-I think I need to rest.”

It wasn’t hard for him to blame his tiredness for what he witnessed. Besides, it was easier to accept that his eyes were lying than accepting what he had just seen.

Barry looked around to spot a tree.

“I’ll rest a little. My mind is playing games with me… I need to rest.” Barry starts trying to convince himself.

It didn’t take him long to find a tree under which he can lay down for a bit to rest. He starts walking towards it. He couldn’t help but observe the beautiful elder tree white blossom that stretches skyward in a lace of silent bark, the brown wrapping each as the most beloved of skin. His eyes, so fixated on the faintly green tree that before he knows it, he stumbles upon something and falls down.

“Shit!” He cusses, holding his ankle and hoping he didn’t twist it. “Oh thank God!” he exclaims when he stands back on his feet and his ankle doesn’t hurt.

Barry looks around to see what caused him to stumble. His eyes lands on a heavy stone in between the path. As he turns around to leave, something catches the corner of his eye. Right beside the big, heavy black stone, there lay something shiny. Barry twitched his eyes to take a better look at the gem that rested a few feet far from him. His curiosity gets the best of him and he starts walking toward it to look at it closely.

The oval shaped violet gem looked stunning. The black stone behind it added to the dark purple gem’s beauty. Barry looked at it with doubting eyes, asking himself, ‘should I keep it?’ ultimately being followed by the question, ‘what if it’s harmful?’

Barry knew he’d regret not keeping the gem with him, besides, ‘how can a stone harm me anyway?’ he thought and almost laughed at himself for being so skeptical.

“This Island is driving me insane,” He said out loud while picking up the gem.

“Good God!” he exclaimed, holding the shiny, purple gem. The cold rough surface of the stone rubs against Barry’s warm hand. He couldn’t help but notice the soothing color. He almost mistook it for a holographic shade but it was just violet—a beautiful, light and magical shade of violet.

The wind made the tree’s branches dance along with it. It almost felt like it was calling Barry toward it.

Barry kept the gem in his coat’s pocket and walked toward the tree. Before he knew, he didn’t even need to count sheep. He slowly drifted off to Dreamland.