Siren Island

An Island with a fondness for attracting ships.

Deep in the Gulf of Mexico is an island surrounded by a reef not known of in those waters. No one ever sees the island from the water or air. The only time to get to the island is when it storms. There is the legend of the Bermuda Triangle, but that pales in comparison to the legend of Siren Island or the “Storm Island.” It is the unsung legend. It has been three hundred years since the last ship went missing, claimed by the island, but soon it will claim two more.

 

Dark clouds began to form overhead. The thunder was a deafening roar in the sky. The wind bent the palm trees to the point that Kenny thought they might break. The storm was going to be a rough one. It had only been two months since they became stranded on the island after their boat sank in the reef off the coast. Eric was the oldest with Kenny and Charlie only months younger. Ryan, Eric’s little brother, was five years younger than the other boys. He was only fourteen.

 

Eric and Ryan were both slender and lean. Charlie was the tallest with a lean, muscled build. Kenny was more heavy set, but by far not fat or slow. They all had shirt cropped brown hair. One would think they were all brothers, and not two brothers and their two friends.

 

Kenny and Eric waded out into the water to cast their nets for the nights dinner. The waves threatened to pull them under and hold them fast. Eric was too good a swimmer and Kenny to much like a stone to budge. Charlie and Ryan stayed on shore reinforcing their wooden shack they had constructed from the boat’s remnants. They had given up on trying to flag anyone down. No one had passed by since they became stranded.

They were content to live out their lives on the island. They preferred life like that over life in the small towns they came from were everyone knew your business and their was no privacy.

 

“It is going to be a rough night tonight,” Kenny said to Eric as he hauled in his load of fish. Eric looked up at the ominous clouds.

 

“Not much we can do about it now,” Eric replied.

 

“I know Bub. Just saying,” Kenny said dragging his net to shore. They had gathered enough fish for the weak.

 

“I’m just wondering how we are going to cook the fish when it rains. How are we going to stay warm,” Eric asked Kenny as they began sorting the fish into baskets they wove. Kenny had taken several fine arts classes in high school and college.

“I have a fire going if you want to start cleaning the fish. Ryan is finishing up on the Shack. It should stand fine. We have already built wind breakers and made a second wall out of the bamboo,” Charlie said as he strode over to them. The boat they were on had had a treasure trove of survival equipment to their luck. They still had no clue where the other where. They had found no bodies.

 

It was an hour later that the storm hit. They had finished their meal and were laying on the floor of their shack talking, when the winds really began to start slamming into the side of the shack. The howling outside grew more deafening as the time went by. Two hours into the storm the boys began to worry. The walls shook and the rain pelted the roof leaking in several spots. Ryan and Eric had moved all the supplies to one side of the shack to keep them from having water damage.

 

“We forgot to bring in the food baskets,” Ryan said. Looking outside seeing the baskets behind an overturned table lodged by an tree.

 

“If the table stays then they will be fine. There is to much debris to get them now,” Charlie said.

 

“No man, it took us too long to get that food, I can grabbed them and be back before two minutes passes. Time me,” Ryan replied.

 

“First off, no one has a watch. Second off, this isn’t a game,” Eric said to his brother. Ryan winked at him and dashed out the door. Kenny immediately followed him.

 

“Ryan! Yo, man get back here,” Kenny screamed. The wind carried his voice off before Ryan ever heard. Ryan slid behind the table and tied rope around the basket handles. After he was sure the knot would hold he drug the baskets back to the shack. Kenny stood outside hand over his eyes to protect them from the sand. Charlie held the door open against the wind as Ryan brought in the baskets.

 

“See told you,” Ryan began before his older brother hit him across the face.

 

“If you ever do that again, I swear,” Was all Eric could say before his mouth fell open. he could only stare on as the wind picked up a limb and sent it towards Kenny’s head. A splash of blood hit the sand as he was knocked unconscious. Charlie started to go after him when the wind blew the door shut. Charlie slammed on the door, but to no avail. The wind pushed him back every time he tried to open the door. More debris began to pile up around the shack barricading the occupants inside and leaving their friend outside laying in a pool of his own blood.

 

“Oh my god! Kenny’s dead. He’s dead. He’s dead. He’s dead. Why the hell did you go out there Ryan. If you had just stayed put he would still be alive,” Eric screamed at his brother. As Ryan began to cry Eric apologized and held his brother. Charlie just at there with his head down.

 

“Son of ahhh! This isn’t suppose to happen! People just don’t die like that. One minute he is standing there and the next minute he’s gone. He didn’t even see it coming. He was alive! Alive! And now,” Charlie yelled as he pounded his fist on his knees.

Several hours of silence pasted before they fell asleep. The storm had not yet let up. The rain fell just as hard and the wind was just as unforgiving as it had been when it the limb on its path that led to Kenny’s brutal wound.

 

The rain washed the blood from his face as Kenny laid there in the sand. He was staring blankly at the sky. The red vision had passed and his head pounded with such ferocity that he wanted to just curl up and cry. Crying however was beneath him so he just didn’t move off his back. He lay there in a pool of his own blood and admire the force of nature.

 

Kenny was always quirky at best. The boys inside would say he was the strongest of them all, the smartest, and the coolest when they were back home. He thought different. He believed each one contributed to their survival just as much as he did. The greatest thing he had was his pain endurance. His headache would stay for a while. The swelling would stay for a bit. There would be a bruise, but the bleeding was already gone. The head bled so much, even from a scratch. When he thought he could move without a pain shooting into his skull he rolled over and crawled to a small covering that housed his area of expertise.

 

Three of the four of them were soldier. Eric was an administrative assistant, Charlie was aeronautic repair, and Kenny was a medic. As he rummaged through one of the boxes he looked over to see the door barricaded. He spared the guys inside a few seconds thought and then began stitching up his head wound using a silver plate as a mirror. Their boat captain liked fine dining on his island tours. Well he had liked. He was probably food himself Kenny thought. The thought itself along with the image made him chuckle causing him almost to reopen the wound. The rain pelted his back and the wind threw sand at him.

 

“You can beat at me all you want, but I danced in the rain during Katrina and Rita. You are nothing,” Kenny said to the storm.

 

The wind picked up almost as if it had heard him. The wind did not get his attention when he turned around. It was the beach wrecked boat that did. The large hole in the side and the rock protruding from the hole made it unworthy to use and Kenny began cataloguing the uses he and the other would put it too. That was the time he saw the captain and several others strewn about.

 

With a sigh he picked up his pack and he said a prayer while hoping to God he had enough supplies. As he approached the captain he spared him one glance before passing him up. The board through his neck was going to have to stay. The gentleman with no head was passed up and was the woman with the broken spine protruding from the back of her neck. Kenny stopped for a second and berated himself for both his immunity to death and his nonchalance at doing his medical duty.

 

He found four girls who survived. One red headed girl had a bump on her head. She must have passed out on impact. A young girl with dark hair and chocolate skin had a gash on her leg alongside being unconscious. Kenny quickly tended to the wound before infection set in. A younger teenage girl with blonde hair had a nasty cut across her stomach. Kenny spent most of his time cleaning the wound and stitching it back up.

 

“This is going to be one terrible scar. Sorry I can’t do more kiddo,” He said as he kissed her forehead and carried her over to the makeshift shed he had retrieved him med-kit from. The other two girl were already under its cover.

As Kenny went to round four he noticed a survivor awake and sitting on a rock watching him intently. She was a blonde headed beauty with blue eyes with not a single scratch on her. She got off her rock and walked over to him seemingly oblivious to the torrential downpour around her. She spared no second glance to the bodies. As she approached him she fingered his stitching.

 

“I did not know we had a boy on our yacht,” She said.

 

“Sorry I was shipwrecked here first. Beat you to the island,” Kenny replied in a sarcastic tone.

 

“Thank you for helping my friends. I’m Elizabeth. I did not mean to be cold,” the girl whispered to him as she flung her arms around him and cried.

 

“Thought you would be above the tears the way you sat so regally on that rock. Guess not. Ok well, my little stranded goose, I hate to be forward, but your hot, shipwrecked, and I have a terrible headache, so If you will follow me to my shack I shall dislodge the debris from the door and get you and those girls under more appropriate cover.

 

“You are forward,” Elizabeth said with a surprised look.

 

“Not really. I’m very shy, I just wanted to see if I had the brass to say it,” Kenny replied.

 

“Gutsy. I do like that,” Elizabeth said as she took his hand and let him lead her to the other girls. The rain started to subside and the wind died down as Kenny, Elizabeth, and Sarah, the red headed girl moved debris from the door. When the threshold was clear Elizabeth picked up Elli the youngest and Kenny carried Tanya the girl with dark hair and chocolate skin.

 

“There are more,” Sarah said in surprise eyeing Eric. The boys were sound asleep and snoring louder than the wind was howling. Sarah was the most forward one and went directly to Eric and curled up beside him. She was asleep in second. Elizabeth laid down Elli next to Sarah and consequently next to Ryan.

 

“I want that one,” Tanya said in a tired voice pointing at Charlie. Kenny and Elizabeth both laughed. Kenny set her beside him and she winced as he touched her leg. He looked it over one last time while she dowsed off before he was satisfied. He laid on his cot he made and motioned for Elizabeth to come to him. She cuddled with him and after a while asked a myriad of questions. Kenny had to explain most of their past leading up to the wreck just before he could explain how they got here.

 

“So there is little chance of going home,” Elizabeth asked.

 

“That is correct. I’m sorry,” Kenny replied in a whisper.

 

“Then I guess this is home then,” Elizabeth said.

 

“Welcome home Elizabeth,” Kenny told her. She feel asleep then, but he didn’t dare sleep for fear of a concussion. When dawn arrived the storm left. Kenny tried to slip away from Elizabeth without waking her, but she was too light a sleeper.

 

“I didn’t want to wake you. I need to bury,” Kenny stooped when she put her fingers to his lips.

 

“I will help you, I did not know the Captain, but they were my parents,” Elizabeth said as she shed a single tear.

 

“Your stronger than I thought,” Kenny told her.

 

“Your stronger than I knew was possible. You didn‘t even wince at what washed up on your beach,” Elizabeth replied as she lied her hand on his muscled chest.

When Charlie woke he jumped at seeing two pair of almond eyes staring at him. He looked around the shack and smelled fish cooking over a fire. Two girls were sound asleep next to his surviving friends.

 

“Oh my God. We have all died and gone to Heaven, except Kenny. I don’t see him. Wait, Eric was atheist! Hey your prety hot for a demon chick,” Charlie said to Tanya.

 

“Wanna see how hot I can get,” Tanya purred back.

 

“Let’s save that for when we turn that yacht and this shack into a nice comfy house. We were adding rooms to this one anyways,” Kenny said as he and Elizabeth brought fish and set it on the inside table. Charlie stared for a bit before smiling.

 

“You know, I always knew you were Irish. You get your head knocked, you don’t die, and you bring girls to our island. What did you fight the storm and make it rain women,” Charlie teased.

 

“You already knew I was Irish. My voice is enough to tell you that. As for the girl, you should see the graves I dug for the ones that didn’t survive the fall,” Kenny with his usual sarcastic voice.

 

“Holy hell a girl! Holy hell more girls! Holy hell Kenny! I’m dreaming still,” Eric said as he shot up straight off his pallet.

 

“Morning Eric,” Kenny said.

 

“Holy hell,” Ryan began.

 

“Save your breath kid. Been there done that, and we ain’t dreaming,” Eric said.

 

“Boy meet Elizabeth, Tanya, Sarah, and Elli,” Kenny said introducing the girls.

 

“I’m going to have fun with you,” Sarah said to Eric putting her finger under his chin. Eric just stared and smiled. When Elli began to stir Kenny went over and knelt beside her. He placed his hand on her stomach above her wound and on her knees. Elizabeth cocked an eyebrow, but soon found the reasons he did what he did. When Elli woke up she bucked hard against his hands swinging her head this way and that until Elizabeth calmed her down.

 

“I hurt! Where are we Lizzy? What happened,” Elli said with tears in her eyes.

 

“I will explain it later,” Elizabeth told her.

She looked up at Kenny. “Hi. I am Kenny and I am currently the person caring for your health and I would be very pleased if you went easy and did not open the cut across your abdomen,” he instructed. She just nodded. Everyone sat silent for a minute.

 

“Now what,” Tanya asked.

 

“We build,” Kenny replied.

 

After a few weeks the Shack was a quaint little house with four bedrooms for the four couples. It wasn’t long before their wounds were healed and progress really got going. They built a wind wall in hopes of it buffering them the next time a storm came through. Tanya turned out to be the best cook among them. Elli was good at making clothes and soon had them all in a tribal islander look. Sarah was a fireball to be around, but knew how to build and knew it well. Elizabeth brought in more fish than Eric and Kenny combined. Kenny began making there tools and started a garden with his free time, while Eric and Ryan made odds and ends. Charlie cut the wood and tended the fires. This was how life went and after a few month things got a little crazier. You try being on a deserted island with three pregnant girls.

Author's Note

Kinda rushed at parts to me, but then again you might not think so...
I added an intro and just decided to make a series of stories like I did with Raven and Hammer

Reviews

[Mary Evans]

Its not really my type of fiction but anyhow. IT sounds pretty good and the story is interesting. Reminds me of Lord of the Flies" a bit, just a bit though. The descriptions and actions are ok, but you have quite a bit sentences that need rephrasing. I didnt spot anything grave as grammar.
Its good as a short story but I'm not sure its complete, maybe you can tweak the ending a bit?

[Ashimoto]

Nice story. Great job!

[Carolina Kel]

I never read Lord of the Flies, but that was the first thing to come to my mind too.
I like the concept of this story. Could be something really great with some editing for grammar and stuff like that. Also, I notice a lot of writers doing this and I've done it myself, but there is the issue (at least to me) of awkward wording when trying to explain everything at the beginning of a story. I noticed it with this story. I hope that makes sense. :)
Hope all the above helps and I really do like this story. Would love to learn more about the island itself. :D

[Ruth]

There is always time to tweak material, the essential idea is a really good piece of work hon! I say, stick it up and see what people think lol I like the story, the ending leaves intrigue and opens up for more!
Look forward to the next part!
xx

[FocusedAmnesia]

"They preferred life like that over life in the small towns they came from were everyone knew your business and their was no privacy." This is my favorite line. I do not know how it feels to be stranded on an island, but I do know how it is to have everyone watching every movement you make.

The story is a bit rushed, but it kind of works for the plot line. I'd like to know a little more about the island: ex., if there are any signs that someone had been there before, especially since the boys and the girls both got shipwrecked there. That could turn into a whole other story though.

And I'm rambling because... well I'm not really sure. Anyhow, good read.

[Arctic Fox]

was very rushed and I do plan to revise and expand after the next Raven and Hammer, and Astarte ch. 6, and my untitled ch.2

[M Garcia]

I like it. You can tell its a bit rushed, but hey it works for the story. I think if you went back and read it a bit, that it would be even better than it is. I also think that maybe you should add more to it. Another story maybe.

[Arctic Fox]

Just a fun write that I got inspired to do from a friend while at the lake. The girls in the story are over the ages of 18 so don't think that there is any underage illegal stuff. One girl is under 18, but is not involved in the incident i am refering too. kk ^_^