Trifonic

A short story about an island, and a deadly secret.

No one could really tell what was beyond the noise of the sea water. Just that the land that was in the far off distance was the mainlands and that it was more important than all our lives combined. Everyone worked their hardest to please the mainland, ever since the bridge was torn down. The beaches were sealed off due to harm of the environment. Airplanes with large symbols of the mainland would land to make sure that the island was doing what it was supposed to. As a child you were taught to work for the mainland and nothing else. Who knew, it could have been a much better place than this one. 

I pulled my book up after the bell rang, simply dropping it on the desk as I looked out the window. The class was on the third floor, which made for a bit of a view, even though there wasn’t much to look at on the island. So much for the future huh? I sighed and sat back in my chair. The island had one main school, made up of four buildings separated by grade. And it went all the way up to college. I was in my last year of high school, studying law, in the hopes of moving to the mainland. The current weather was misty as it always was, but we never got much rain. Finally after a while I heard a tapping on my desk, looking up I saw Quincy standing there. She was my childhood friend since our houses were right next to each other.

Quincy was thought to have been a boy when she was born hence her name, but the tall brown haired girl was very much feminine. With dark green eyes, and a beautiful body type she was popular in school and at the top of her class. With excellent art skills, she dreamt of drawing comic books like the ones she read that came from the Mainlands, but unlike me, she didn’t want to go there, very much hear about it since it had taken her father away. 
When someone dies on the island, their body does not stay here. A funeral is held at the airport, and the body is shipped to the Mainland to be buried. Known as the final dream since you were taught as a child to ONLY think about the Mainland that is where everyone ends up. That was why there was no cemetery here on the island.  No one can afford to move to the Mainlands, just to see their dead loved ones. 

“Quincy what are you doing?” I asked as I picked up my notebook and tucked it in my armpit standing up. I was taller than her by a foot, but that was because most guys on the island were taller than the girls.

“I thought we could drop by the beach, it’s only a week until finals, we could use the time together to study Rylee?” She smiled at me as I sighed and brushed my hand on the back of my blonde hair. 

Within thirty minutes, we had snuck into the beach section of the island. Sandy we watched the water wash up on the shore and Quincy sat down in the sand pulling out a sketchbook in her bag before starting to sketch. I went along the shore picking up shells that would skip across the water for a few minutes before the waves would eat them up. 

Me and Quincy would come here a lot when we were younger. Often sneaking away from police because of the boring life we had. I dreamed of giving my sister a place to live, after all our parents had died when I was twelve and she had been five. Quincy’s mother had helped our family ever since then and we had been best friends. Knowing everything about each other like twins. Whenever we broke up with someone or dated someone we knew. But there had never really been a romantic connection between the two of us. 

“Say Quincy, why don’t you wanna go to the Mainland.”

Quincy put down her pencil for a moment and looked up at me. “The Mainland doesn’t care about us, we do everything and they do nothing. What about you?”

“They give us a chance to live there, if that’s enough. If I move there my sister gets to move there and it will protect my family. I’m sorry for everyone else, but that’s how I feel about it.”

“And what if someone else got to go there instead of you.” I turned towards her and dropped a shell.

“They won’t, I’ll get to go myself.” Quincy sighed and stood up, taking her sketchbook in hand. 

“Rylee......if I pass finals, the principal gave me permission to enter the Mainlands.....I’ll be transferring the day after if I pass.” I shivered and looked at her, but before I could say anything else Quincy ran off. 

That week I didn’t see Quincy at all, silence dragged on like a plague. I tried calling her multiple times, but every time I pressed the go button I found myself pressing the end button. Once finals came that was all I could think about, Quincy, how she would get a good life, her and her mother. I would be left alone with my sister, but I felt happy for her. She deserved better than I did, but what was the point of sending someone to the Mainland who didn’t want to go. 

I stood in the hallway ignoring the people as I always did staring at the scores. At the top was the name Quincy Arlador, with a perfect score. Right below her was mine Rylee Ioc. I sighed and lowered my eyes as I turned around Quincy stood staring at the board with empty looking eyes. I went to speak to her, but nothing came out of my mouth as she turned around and walked the other way. That was it? I would never see her again? She would just vanish along with her family off of this island?

“There's some things that don't happen, no matter how much we wish, and it won't matter if it's unfair, because they control everything and we are powerless against a system that our parents were entrapped in.” I said out loud stopping her in her tracks as she turned towards me. Quincy shivered with a sigh, as other students started mumbling among each other. I turned the other way and walked down the hall, heading towards my house. 
I sat inside my room staring at the clock after that. Listening to nothing but the constant ticking of the clock. I was ready to doze off, before my phone startled me awake. I picked it up and I could hear Quincy heavily breathing through the phone. 

“Ryleeee.” She sobbed as I sat up suddenly, she sounded like she was in pain, and crying too. 

“Quincy, Quincy where are you, what happened.” I started to move through my stuff to get my pocket knife. 

“I-I’m at the airport, there are a lot of men here but I don’t know what they want, they stabbed me in the back and now they’re setting up a table of some sort I don’t know what going on Rylee.” I grabbed the knife and headed down the stairs running down the street.
“Just stay on the phone with me, can you do that hmmmm.”

“Y-yea.” I turned the corner and headed towards the docking station of the Airport. 
“Can you tell me where you are, like what’s around you.”

“I think we’re in one of the planes, I’m not sure, the inside looks like it’s made of metal. Wait hold on they’re coming.” She sounded startled as she went silent. I could hear the stomping of feet as I pressed against the fence. Crouching down as I listened to their voices. 

“You think She’ll be any different?” I could hear a large mans voice through the phone.

“You think that anyone will ever realize that the Mainland doesn’t even exist anymore? What are you thinking. All we do is transfer these people when they are seen as a threat to the system. No one even runs this country but we follow someone who died a long time ago.”

“Like a ghost isn’t it.” There were two of them. 

“We study their brains in the hope of genetically engineering ourselves to be smarter so that we can finally step up to rule this place and actually build the mainland.” I snuck through a section of fence and headed towards the only plane parked there. Placing my hand on the door softly. 

“Well hurry up and find her then.” The two of them sounded like monotone beasts. They didn’t even sound human. Their footsteps got closer and Quincy was choking as she covered her mouth from the sounds of it. I slipped inside the plane, and all the technology seemed like the ones at the train stations around the island. Automatically going where it was programmed to go without a driver. 

“I’ll be right there Quincy you just sit tight.” I hung up the phone and stood up. There were no seats here just a room in the back. As I followed the blue light, and stepped into the room, the two men were holding a needle and a saw. I tripped back noticing the two of them, were missing their eyes. Was this some kind of sick fantasy I was unaware of, or something this world could have just conjured up from the beginning. The two men started towards me. “What the hell are you” I screamed out loud and threw a nearby bar at them. It hit one in the head and he fell to the floor. The other grabbed my foot, and Quincy appeared out of her hiding place grabbing the saw out of the other one’s hand. She stabbed him in the back and he didn’t make any noise of pain. Just the sound of a sickening sawing of flesh and blood spraying across the two of our faces. I grabbed the bar again and brought it down on his head hearing a large snap as he fell to the ground unresponsive just like the other one. 

Me and Quincy have never spoken of that night since. We escaped the plane, and washed ourselves up at the beach before returning home. It’s been nearly a year since then, and there isn’t one night when I don’t have a nightmare. And there was a name that had been in my dreams constantly. I heard a knock at my door, and when I opened it a very well dressed man was standing with his arms crossed. The last thing I heard was. 

“Rylee, we have found the two bodies, we want to congratulate you, on becoming a Trifonic.” I pulled out my pocket knife I never used that night, and cut out my own eyes.

Author's Note

I am not proud of this one, but thought I'd share it anyway.

Reviews

[Astro]

You should be proud girl, I really think that this story is excellent and made me think of the works of Aldous Huxley(Brave New World) and John Wyndham(The Chrysalids, Day of the Triffids). There were some problems with some run-on sentences and messy grammar in a "few" spots but overall, you're story telling is getting much better and the departure from the more fantasy driven genre of your earlier pieces seems to help as far as clarity goes with your story in this more psi-fi type of storyline. Great ending, very chilling and graphic. Sorry I took so long to read it. Here are a couple weak spots.
"With excellent art skills, she dreamt of drawing comic books like the ones she read that came from the Mainlands, but unlike me, she didn’t want to go there, very much hear about it since it had taken her father away. " This section could easily be made into two sentences. After the word "Mainlands" the rest of the sentence is messy and unclear.
"I pulled out my pocket knife I never used that night, and cut out my own eyes." This sentence is vague and confusing. It would make more sense if you simply said, "Then I pulled out my pocket knife and cut my own eyes out." The part about "I never used that night," makes no sense in this way, because it is vague. If you said "I pulled out the pocket knife I had the night I saved Quincy, and cut my own eyes out." it would be more clear. Do you see the difference? Great job though. Keep writing!!