Ethan
I didn't expect to see anyone else.
After everything, the beach, the forest, the creature that watched us and then vanished, the world had begun to feel empty. Like the island belonged only to the things beneath the ground now, and we were just trespassers waiting to be noticed.
So when I first heard footsteps that didn't belong to us, I thought it was them.
I stopped walking.
Alexa bumped lightly into my arm. Alex squeezed my hand so tight his knuckles went white.
"What is it?" Alexa whispered.
"Quiet," I said.
The word came out softer than I meant, more like a plea than a command.
We waited.
The forest breathed around us. A leaf dropped somewhere. A distant gull cried from the direction of the sea. My heart hammered in my ears, loud enough that it felt like the island should hear it too.
Then I heard it again, the soft rustle of movement through leaves. Not heavy. Not dragging. Not the deep shifting of earth before the ground opens.
Too careful.
Too human.
My throat tightened.
I turned slightly so Alex was behind my arm, my entire body wired and tense. I didn't know if I was getting ready to run, to fight, or to freeze only that I would not let anything take them.
When they stepped into view, it didn't feel real.
Two girls.
The older one, dark hair tied back, dirt streaked along her cheek like a bruise from the world. Her eyes were tired but sharp, scanning everything the way mine were. The younger one stayed close to her side, fingers curled around her arm like she was the last solid thing left.
And my chest tightened.
Because I knew her face.
Not enough to claim it. Not enough to walk up to her in the hallway and say her name without rehearsing it in my head first.
But enough that I had noticed her. That I had let my eyes stay on her a little longer than they should have in class. Enough that she lived in the edges of my thoughts.
Lila.
The name echoed in my head, loud and quiet at the same time.
I didn't say it.
If she recognized me, she didn't show it. She just looked at us the way we looked at her, scared, cautious, calculating the distance to safety while pretending not to. Ready to run if the ground decided to open again.
I gently moved Alex a little behind me. She shifted the younger girl behind her in the same movement.
Like we had both practiced being shields.
Nobody ran.
Nobody spoke.
The silence stretched so long it became its own presence between us. I could hear Alex breathing. I could hear my own pulse. I could hear the trees whispering things I could not understand.
Finally I said, "We're not going to hurt you."
My voice sounded rough like it hadn't been meant for normal words anymore. Like it belonged to someone older, someone who had already lost too much.
"I know," she said.
Just that.
But the way she said it steady, quiet, certain. made something settle in my chest. Not comfort. Not relief.
Recognition.
Someone else understood.
Alexa stepped closer to me, her hand still trembling even though she tried to hide it. "Did you see them too?" she asked, her voice barely more than air.
The older girl nodded once. The younger one pressed closer into her side, eyes wide, lips pressed tight.
None of us asked what "them" meant.
We didn't need to.
The wind shifted, carrying salt and damp earth. Leaves scraped across the ground like dry whispers.
And then the earth trembled beneath our feet.
Faint. Distant.
Alive.
We all froze at the exact same moment. Five statues in a forest waiting for the world to decide what came next.
That single movement said more than anything we could have said.
The island wasn't done with us.
My chest felt hollow and heavy at the same time. I looked at her again.
Lila.
And even though this was the worst possible way to meet her, even though my father was gone and the world had cracked open and nothing was normal anymore, one thought came quietly, uninvited:
I had finally spoken to her.
Not about school.
Not about anything small or ordinary.
Just survival.
Just staying alive long enough to see another dark sky.
Without needing to say it aloud, we both seemed to reach the same silent agreement.
Whatever was happening…
We would stand a better chance together than apart.
So we stepped closer.
Five strangers.
One island.
And the ground beneath us, still awake.
Still listening.
Still hungry.