He comes back about ten minutes later, armed with some stuff that I can’t see in the dark, and carefully sets them in the pouring rain. On closer inspection, I realize that they’re coconut shells, which he has somehow drilled a hole into at the top. To say I’m impressed is an understatement. Once they’re filled up, he sets them carefully aside and comes to sit beside me under the tree. Now that my thirst is satiated, I’m starting to shiver a little.“Don’t worry. Tomorrow will be better, but I hope that we’re found. I found a cave on the other side of the island in which we can take shelter, but it is too late to go there now.”“Sure thing,” I reply through chattering teeth.Tentatively, he puts his arm around me, and I tense at first but relax after a while. The warmth of his body feels good, so I lean into him, sighing a little. The last man I had been physically this close to is Sebastian. We stay like that for a while before Charles speaks.“How did you manage to fall over the rai

SAMANTHAContrary to what that clueless housemaid of Jessica thinks, I don’t head back to where I live with my tail tucked between my legs. I have a hunch that everything is not all right with Jessica, and when I get a hunch about something, I take it very seriously. The night she refused me from staying over at Jessica’s house, a house in which I’ve stayed more than once before, I check into a hotel. The next day, I go back to the house to ask the maid if Jessica is back yet, or if she’s heard from her and get a no in response.“You must give me Sebastian’s number, or at least call him. If something happens to Jessica, it will be on your head.” I tell her. I hate that I have to beg this annoying human being, but my friend’s well-being is of the utmost importance to me. She calls Sebastian in my presence and puts the phone on hands-free mode. Sebastian assures her that Jessica is most likely fine, because he spoke to Charles a few days back, and Charles told him that she seems fine, w

“That was actually my fault. After I was released, Charlotte got me that apartment to stay in, gave me some money, and asked me to stay in the apartment till she gave me orders on what to do. You see, she had convinced me that Mr. James, your father, was the one who ordered my kidnap and torture because I cheated on Sebastian. She said she was willing to turn on him because he was planning to deprive her of her inheritance and give everything to Sebastian. She also managed to convince me that Sebastian did not care if I was alive or dead, and then proceeded to show me pictures of him and Carol on their wedding day.”“Damn! How callous!”“Yeah. So her grand plan was to get revenge on your father, and I was to help her in getting her revenge in exchange for my freedom. I was desperate to get out of that hell hole, so of course, I agreed and stayed in the apartment awaiting her instructions, but as the days passed, thoughts of Sebastian being married and having the time of his life while

By the time I wake up the next morning, feeling sore in every good way, Charles is still asleep. Sometime during the night, we had rolled away from each other, and the fire had gone out, so I’m a little cold. I stare at his handsome, sleeping face and begin to regret the fact that we had sex last night. I had enjoyed every second of it, but now that it is morning, I wonder if there would be any awkwardness and if he would be weird about it.I pick up his key holder, which has something like a small knife attached to it and quietly head out of the cave so as not to wake him up. Then I look for a suitable stick and begin the slow and long process of turning one end of it into a sharp and pointed end. I don’t by any means know a single thing about fishing, but I had seen some movies in the past in which people were stranded somewhere there is a big body of water and they used sticks to catch fish. There's no harm in trying.I’m almost done sharpening the stick when I sense that someone i

As Charles predicted, his condition worsens over the next two days. It’s unimaginable to think that we’ve been here for seven days, over a whole damn week, and yet, we’re yet to be rescued. I live every second in fear. What if the people on the ship think that we got down at one of the destinations where the cruise ship was supposed to stop, and then something happened to us thereafter? Charles is rich, after all, and some shady characters might like to kidnap him to fetch a god ransom. Or what if they had been searching for us, having realized that we must have fallen overboard, but have now decided that maybe they’re too late and we’re dead? I have no way of knowing anything, as we’re cut off from the entire world. “How’s your head, Charles?” I ask him. “It’s horrible. It hasn’t stopped pounding since the day before yesterday. At the end of all this, I’m afraid that I’ll give Frankenstein a run for his money in the looks aspect.” He says weakly, trying to joke, but I’m not findin