The next day I met Jessica at her house and we went to pick up the rest of our friends. We stopped at Jake’s house Jake had been my friend since 1st grade he was 6-feet tall and had blue eyes and blond hair and always had my back no matter what, then Marcus He was 5 foot 11 and had curly black hair with brown eyes and had been my friend since my Freshman year of high school, then Amy she was Marcus girlfriend and had sandy blond hair with blue eyes I’ve known her since 5th grade’, Vanessa was Jake’s girlfriend she had short red hair and green eyes, and lastly Jessica’s boyfriend. Troy a 6-foot-4 tall brawny jock, with cold brown eyes and a  punk rocker mohawk.  He  only made it to college via an athletic scholarship and seemed to hate me with a passion. He would find whatever moment he could to put me down, or embarrass me, no reason really, just because he felt like it.  He was a walking ego storm, that was always heading towards me.
“What’s up nerd?” he laughed as he entered the car
“Here we go again.” I thought
When Troy got in the car he greeted everyone with a “Sup” or a “Hey”  but when he got to me
“And uh, who’s this guy”
“I’m James we’ve met like three times” I responded
Jessica interrupted
“How do you not no JC? he’s been like my best friend since kindergarten, I talk about him all the time.”
“I don’t know I guess I just didn’t remember the dude, JD right?” he asked as if he didn’t know
“JC” I bluntly responded
“ Alright whatever, for now your chauffeur, so let’s get to the boat I want to go party at the island. Am I right guys?”
The crowd in the back hooted and hollered in approval.
“ This is going to be a long trip” I mumbled to myself
I started to drive, In the back of the car people were talking about the colleges they were going to and how one team was better than the other. Of course Troy would always say that his was the best just cause he was on it. I could’ve mentioned the fact that he dropped a game-winning touchdown In the State championship game but i wasn’t looking to get into it with some uneducated jock. After the college talks were over we were at the docks where we would get Jessica’s dad’s boat, to sail to the island.
We got our stuff out of our car and set it on the boat. It was a 4- bedroom yacht called the S.S. Marie. When we were all ready to go Amy asked who would even be sailing us out to the island, Jessica said that she talked to Jake earlier about the coordinates on where to go and how to get there. This meant that her and troy would be spending a lot of time together, great.
         Everyone got in their rooms, so then once everything was settled and everyone was ready to go we set sail.

The island was a long ways out, an hour sail or so, luckily it was only five so we would  be able to get there before sun-down. Everyone was on the upper deck talking about a variety of different things leaving Jake by his lonesome to navigate the seas. The upper deck had a fire pit that everyone was huddled around of,  Marcus had broughten out a case of “Coor’s Light” Vanessa and Amy had one, Marcus had one and was working on a second, and Troy had already downed five. Jessica wanted to wait until we got to the island, and I can’t stand the taste of beer so I didn’t have any. Not having a beer got me a couple jabbers from Marcus, Amy, and Vanessa all in good nature though, but Troy was pouring it on.
“ What’s wrong John? Is Your mommy going to get mad at you for drinking under age, you don’t want to get a little drunk? Maybe put some hair on your chest?” Troy taunted me
I wasn’t going to say anything but Jessica tried to calm him.
“Troy, could you please stop being so mean? He’s my best friend alright? So stop. God, you always act so rude when you’re drunk, and could you maybe get his name right, it’s James.”

“Why can’t you let the little guy fight for himself, you’re always so dang protective over him. Why do you have to be so annoying I sware I’m going to break up with you!”
The deck grew silent .
“Troy, maybe we should talk about this downstairs.”
They went downstairs.
“Well, that was awkward.” Marcus said
I told them I was going to go down and talk with Jake because he was probably bored, but really I just wanted to talk with him.
I walked down into where Jake was steering the boat and talked to him.
“Hey Jake...” I tapped him on the shoulder
“Woah!” he turned around. “ You scared me.”
“You should probably grab the wheel.”
He had let go when he turned around
“Yeah, probably.”
He started driving again.
He pointed toward the seat next to him.
“Sit down, It’s so boring down here I need someone to talk to.”
I sat. “How much farther until we get there?” I asked.
“Just about another half an hour or so, we are going to be going crazy there, Especially Vanessa and I.” he laughed
“It’s funny I’m going to be the only single one there.”
“Yeah, but you’ll still have fun there dude don’t worry.”
It grew silent for a few seconds.
“Did you hear those two arguing?”
He nodded “ Yeah, I didn’t know what it was about though did you?”
“Yup, just Troy being Troy, He got drunk, started acting crazy, and then disrespected her like usual.”
“Classic, well it’s quiet now, so that’s a good sign.”
“She probably let him get away with it again, I swear he doesn’t deserve her, he doesn’t know how special she is, I know that if I were her boyfriend I’d treat her with so much respect.”
“I know man, you’ve wanted to be her boy friend since forever instead you ended up her best friend.”
“I know, I just wish, I wish I could just tell her how I really feel.”
“I think you should just tell her, honestly.”
“I don’t want to tell her and then lose what we have though, and especially with Troy in the picture I don’t know what I’m supposed to do.”
“I feel you, I really do but It would be worse if you spent the rest of your life not knowing what could of happened it you just tried. Maybe she’s realize what she is missing and come to you, you never know.”
“Well, right now I’m just going to not think about it too much and try to have fun on the island.”
“Yeah  you should just think like that honestly I mean maybe you could even have a beer for once.”
“You know what maybe I will why not?”
“Well, I’m about ready to party and I hope you are too, because we are here.”
“Wait really?”
“Yeah look.”
I looked out of the window and saw a beachy shore, and a dock where he was pulling into I could see a wooden beach house, and a couple other little building in the distance, The sun was just about to go down so I
could dimly make out how clear the water was down under.
“Lets go tell everyone else.” Jake motioned for the door.

We walked up to the top deck where everyone, except for Jessica and Troy, were sitting, asked “Are we here?”
Jake and I nodded “Yes.” and everyone hooted and hollered. We all proceeded to get our baggage that we brought from down under the yacht. Just before we were all about to start walking onto the island, Troy and Jessica came out with their things. Troy’s arm around her.
“Well, looks like she forgave him.” Jake whispered
“Figures.” I whispered back.
“You two alright?” Amy asked them.
"Yeah, we are fine we just had to talk about it.” Jessica replied.
“Well that’s good I wasn’t going to be able to party if we didn’t have you two around.”
Everyone cheered.
“Well, let’s go!” Vanessa chimed in.
Jake and I helped everyone on to the dock and they walked to the beach of the isle. Once everyone was out we closed the door to the boat and started to walk on to the island.

I stepped on the soft sand of the beach as some of it ran into my shoes. The island didn’t look like it had been occupied, the only signs of life I saw were the people who came to the island and some birds that were flying above the island. It was surrounded by trees, and the only sounds I heard were the winds pouring through the branches of the trees. The sun was about to set and the light was becoming dim. We all proceeded to walk towards the beach house. The house was very well crafted and was made of very high quality bamboo. There was a doormat that had the words printed “Aloha” and their were chairs and a hammock on the porch as well. Marcus grabbed the door knob and shook it for a little until it finally opened. We proceed to look around. Inside, to the left there was the living room of the place it contained a long L shape couch that  surrounded  a large coffee table and above was a crystal chandelier. Just ahead of their was the kitchen. To the right there was a bar stocked with liquor and down the hall way were four bedrooms.
“There’s no bathrooms?” Marcus asked
“Guess you gottta go outside.”
“Alright well, we got this room.” Marcus shouted
he chose the one in the far left and told Amy to come.
“Jake let’s get this one.” Vanessa motioned for Jake to come along with her.
“We got this one” Troy said
Jessica walked in the room he chose.
“You can have last,” he whispered to me “Wouldn’t be the first time.” he laughed and shut the door in my face.
I was left with In the hall alone the only room left for the taking was the one In the Far right of the hall. I walked to the door and entered. The room was about medium sized and had a, what looked very soft white rug. To the left of the door was a very nice black wooden dresser. There was a desk to your right and the bed I would be sleeping in was king sized and was covered with a silk, red covered cushioner. Also, there was a desk that led out to the beach. I couldn’t shake the fact that so many people have died in this house and this island, yet everything about it seemed so peaceful. I can’t wrap my mind around the fact that nobody is acknowledging some of the very wicked things that had happened here and are instead just partying like animals. I didn’t dare want to let these thoughts out, for the criticism I would receive for ruining a good time would be tremendous so I just went along with everything.
Once everyone had finished unpacking we all headed outside. The sun was almost completely down and we were left with very little light to work with. We decided to start a fire that we could stay by, but with no firewood we could use we all chose to head into the forest and look for some. Everyone headed separate ways, most likely so they could make out in the forest in privacy, so I knew that inevitability I would probably be the only one searching for firewood. I headed Into the forest scanning the ground for wood and separating out the wet wood from the dry mumbling to myself how Troy didn’t deserve Jessica every so often. After travelling for about a good five minutes or so I found that this forest on the island went pretty deep, maybe a mile more or so It would go before land turned to water again. I looked up and I had forgotten where I had went, In a panic I began to search for where I entered the forest spinning left about and right about until I finally saw again where I had entered. I calmed, I noticed that there was nearly no sun left and that I should probably start heading back, when I saw a shack about a football field ahead. I peered around a tree to get a better look, when I saw something. A figure moved across the window of the shed. I thought I had just seen something so I rubbed my eyes and looked again. Once more, the figure moved across the window. I thought It could have been one of my friends, but then I remembered I was the only one that had gone this way. That’s when I knew that we weren’t the only ones here. I wasn’t certain of what inhabited the shadowy figure but without thinking I grabbed my firewood and ran to the beach.

When I got to the beach I dropped my firewood and sat down. I was out of breath a little bit because I wasn’t In shape and the other part from terror. When I had regained my breath I saw that no one else was there yet. I decided to start the fire myself. I put a bunch of rocks In a circle and  set some of the wood I had gathered in the middle. I pulled out my lighter and set the bottom of the wood on fire. Once the wood was a blaze I started to stare at the middle of the fire and began to think about what had just happened. I began to think about just what the shadow I saw could have been, “It was dark,” I spoke to myself “Maybe It was something little.” I thought that the shadow I saw could have just been a racoon running along the window sill. I couldn’t help that I was probably over thinking this all but It was the first time I had been on an island with this much of a dark past. I knew that the only one thinking that it could have been something bigger than an animal was me so I decided to just let It go, I didn’t want to get my friends spooked about something that might have happened.
I had been sitting there when I heard something rustle from the trees,
“Who’s there?” I shouted out loud
“Whe.. Whe.. Where are you?”
“Show yourself!”
The trees began to rustle in different places.
“Guys? Is that you?”
No answer
“This isn’t funny,” I said “Seriously stop!”
I felt someone grab my shoulders and begin to throw me about. I screamed.
“Help guys please!”
The man had a mask, he pulled out a knife and began to bring it close to my throat.
“ Help he’s going to kill me!”
“Alright that’s enough.” It was Jessica’s voice
The man revealed himself to be Troy.
“C’mon, babe I was about to make him pee himself he was so scared.”
“Yeah, well, that’s enough.” She said
I shrugged him off.
“Get off of me.” I said
“What you thought I was going to Night Watcher you or something?” he cooed
“No, not that It’s just why wouldn’t I be scared you had a knife to my throat!”
“Yeah, I thought you were just going to scare him you took It way too far.” Jessica said
“I thought it would be funnier.” Troy responded
“Well I didn’t think It was that funny,” She glared at him “You alright JC?”
“Yeah, I’m fine.” I brushed myself off.
Meanwhile, Marcus, Jake, Vanessa, and Amy arose from the bushes chuckling over what happened.
“Hey guys, let’s just all calm down and have fun alright?” Jake inquired
“Fine.” Jessica said Firmly
“Ok, it looks like Jake already started the fire and I don’t think there’s is anything else for us to really do so… let’s party!”
Marcus brought out a portable speaker he took from home and started to play “Turn Down For What?” by Li’l Jon. Amy came around to everyone and passed out a can of beer. I cracked mine open and drank, mad about what just happened and not caring whether or not I liked it. At first everyone was pretty quiet, we felt awkward at what just happened but after about ten minutes of small talk and a couple beers later the party was going at full throttle. I had my shirt off and was screaming nonsense as well as some others were, and was just having fun.
The fire kept seeming higher as the night went on and we all seemed to feed off that energy. We all laughed and Jessica thanked us for coming, and said she was going to miss us all we all shared a hug, my feelings going towards everyone except Troy's and then we partied on.Dazed and confused about what was happening I couldn't comprehend everything that was going on, I still had the feeling that we weren't the only ones on the island, I didn't know that there had been a man watching us from the forest this whole time. The night roared on and eventually it settled and we all went to bed.

The next day I awoke feeling as if I had just been punched in the stomach 50 times. I pulled myself out of bed and onto the ground, I fell,  and then recovered and headed towards the restroom. I looked at myself in the mirror and didn't recognize what I saw I looked drained, I washed my face a couple times until I regained consciousness and then I went and threw up in the toilet. After my little episode I headed into the kitchen to get something to eat, there was a box of cereal and a bowl already out. I didn't think much of it, I figured I must have left it out last night or something, so I just decided to eat it. As I was eating I scanned the room for no reason when something caught my eye. The room was clean but there was one lone drawer open. I put my spoon in my dish and walked over to the drawer. When I looked inside I could not believe what I had found.

            Inside there were notes, they were covered with human blood. My heart began to pound, the notes were all addressed and written in different dates in a cursive hand writing. They all read I'm here and were signed by the Night Watcher. I tossed the papers around looking at all of them each one becoming more blood stained as I went through. I knew that the last date that somebody had visited this island was June 10, 1964 it was the last time the Night Watcher had killed someone here and the last time the place was banned from the  public. So when I got to the paper that was signed in 1964 my heart dropped. Their was another paper under it. I flipped the paper and hoping the papers had gotten mixed up. It read "I'm here." It was signed in the same cursive handwriting and it was from the Night Watcher.  I dropped the paper and began to panic, I didn't know what to do. After a few seconds of indecisiveness I chose to warn everyone else. I went to everyone's rooms awakening them telling them that they needed to see this. Once everyone was up and saw what I saw the room was in a panic.
"That's real blood guys," Jessica said "Did anyone do this last night?"
No response
"I'm not risking it Please go start the boat guys we are leaving, pack your stuff."
Everyone rushed to their rooms.
"James and I will go start the boat," Jake said "C'mon"
I went weary of what might be there. We walked onto the boat and into the boat and Jake tried to start it. Nothing happened.
"Work, work, work!" Jake hit the wheel
He tried to start the boat again. Still nothing.
"Maybe it's something with the engine let's go check." Jake said
We walked down under the yacht in the engine room. I opened the door that controls the engine there were cut wires and a note that read "See you tonight" signed Night Watcher. I fell to my knees. Jake looked at the note and did the same.
"We are all dead." I thought.
We walked out of the boat with our heads down. I was scared, this could be my last night alive. Everyone else had their bags on the beach and were rushing to leave. We told them what had happened and showed them the note. Everyone was silent shocked by what we told them.
“So there is nothing we can do to fix it?” Troy asked
“Not unless there is a boat shop on this island.” Jake responded.
“Why didn’t you lock the boat door!?” Troy snarled.
“I didn’t think that someone would try and break in!”
They drew close.
“Well,  maybe you should have you never no what’s on the island!”
“Oh well  I’m sorry I wasn’t prepared for something like this ok!”
“Enough!” Jessica put her hands in between the two. “We are just going to have to survive, we have enough food for a month and we outnumber this guy if we stick together there is nothing he can do unless he fights us all, James’ mom said she would send out help if we weren’t home in that time, so let’s just calm down and make a plan.”
“Well, maybe if he wouldn’t have made such stupid decisions we wouldn’t have had to!.” Troy interrupted.
“Even if I had he would have just broke the window” Jake yelled
“Jake’s right, he would have just broken the window, but this was all of our fault’s we should have paid more attention to what was going on.” Jessica stated
“I don’t think anyone was paying much attention to anything last night…” Marcus chimed
“Yeah exactly, all of our faults. Let’s go inside and talk about what we are going to do, we only got until midnight til’ I-don’t-know-what happens.”

Everyone agreed in silence and started to head back inside I looked at Jake and Troy the both had their nostrils flared, red-faced, and were eye balling each other. I wached the sky, and almost as if in a horror movie, the sky’s would be painted a gray, ominous hue, that would signal the beginning of a killers onslaught. Except this time it wasn’t some fictional movie fueled by adrenaline and hollywood. No, this  was a real life nightmare, fueled by true fear, and a psychopath.

We walked inside and sat down in the first living room, we all sat on different sides there was some sense of distrust in the air.
“Alright so what’s the plan?” Marcus asked
“I don’t know right now any ideas?” Jessica asked
Amy spoke “ Well I think that we should definitely all stick together if we travel as a pack there is no way he can attack us all at the same time.”
That ignited more ideas amongst the crowd.
"Yeah definitely that has got to be our main focus, we should all have pairs at least so we always have a 2 to 1 advantage on him." Jake said
Everyone shook their head in agreeance
"I think that we should all just stay inside, we have more than enough food and water to survive the week, and we will only go outside if we have to use the restroom or if it is completely necessary." Marcus leaded.
"We also need sleep right so what are we going to do for that?" I asked
"We will have shifts," Jake started "Two people will watch the house while the others sleep. If one of us see something then we will tell yell out to everyone else."
"Why don't we just go after this guy and get him ourselves is the island that big?" Troy stood up
"Actually, it is," Jessica said "The island goes for at least a couple miles each way, he could go anywhere and he probably knows the place better than any of us since he had been here for so long."
"Well, I still think we should do it I could probably take him myself-"
"We aren't leaving here and that's final this is the only thing that we know in the whole island we will just have to survive for the week, than the police will get here, so just have patience, we need to be ready for tonight. What will be our shifts?"
"I've actually been working on that," Amy pulled out a paper with a schedule on it.
"Thomas, Troy, Jessica and I will be on the second shift, James, Jacob and Vanessa will be on the first shift we will all serve five hours a piece.”
Everyone nodded their heads in agreeance.
“Should we keep the lights on?” I asked
“Yes, we can’t let him have the dark.” Jessica responded
“Alright so let’s just try to relax until nightfall maybe he has already had his fun and won’t come.” Marcus said
I hoped that was what would happen.

We all sat, waiting, I don’t know what for the only things that could happen were bad. I felt like we were in a cage, like animals, trapped, and that he was just watching us waiting to pick which one he wants. I wanted to go after the guy, like Troy did, but my hatred towards him would never allow for me to agree with him. Plus, it was a stupid idea anyways, like Jessica said, he’d probably hide. I was still sceptical on if “The Night Watcher” even did this it could have been someone in this very group, however, these thoughts seemed inconceivable, so I let them be. I pondered for a while more as the sun went down, I thought this was my fault, the figure I saw in the shack was it him? Could me running from him, and not confronting him, be the reason this chaos even happened? “I could’ve saved us,” I thought “This is my fault.” Still, I did not say a word. Instead, light turned to dark, and my crew of three prepared ourselves for the next five hours.
Everyone headed to bed leaving me, Jake, and Vanessa to ourselves. We split apart, patrolling different sectors of the house. I had the position by the front door, I didn’t know quite what to do, I’ve never been on watch duty, and I don’t think anyone else has either, so I didn’t ask what to do. I spent my time mostly Just randomly peering out windows, looking for any movement in the distance. Hours were passing and I didn’t know if anything would happen, It had to be some time between one and two, I was getting tired and was ready for a break. I couldn’t see anything outside of the first few feet of the door because of the light inside the house, which made the whole experience a little less ominous than i thought it would have been. It was about maybe three O’clock I was fighting with my eye- lids so that they would stay open, they were getting heavy, feeling like sandbags, I nearly fell asleep when Vanessa woke me from my trance.
“I need to go use the restroom” she complained
“Well, it’s really late and I don’t want you to get hurt, I’ll go out with you.” Jake offered
“No Jake, it’s fine I think i can handle myself out there, and i don’t want either of you hearing me out there, that’s just weird.”
“But-” Jake sputtered
“It’s ok, Nothing has happened all night, and nobody has even seen anything, I’ll go by myself, don’t worry I’ll be fine.” she interrupted
“Ok,  I want you to be safe.” Jake sighed
“I will, I promise” she cooed 
They kissed and she went out the side door. I knew that the decision that they made was not a smart one, given the circumstances. I thought that Jake should’ve went with her, so he could protect her if anything happened. The minutes passed and Vanessa was still not back, I could tell that Jake was getting worried, and so was I.
“‘I’m going to go check and see if she’s alright, watch here, if you see anything call me and I will come running.” He stated
“Alright, I will.” I said nervously

He walked outside and I heard him call out:
“Vanessa?! Where are you?! Vanessa?!”
There was no response.
“Vanessa?! Please respond! Are you alright?!”
He came back inside,
“She’s not responding, she wouldn’t have went far I have to go look for her.” He was breathing heavily.
Everyone came out of their rooms.
“What’s wrong?” Marcus asked
“Vanessa’s gone. I’m going to find her.” Jake said
“What do you mean she’s gone? What happened?”
“I,I,I don’t know she went to go use the restroom and she never came back.” Jake panicked
“You didn’t go with her?!” Marcus yelled
“She said she wanted to go by herself, I tried to go with her, but she didn’t want me to. Look, we are wasting time standing and talking I’m going to find her.” He left out the door
“I’ll go too.” Marcus said
“So will I.” Troy added
“Who will stay with us?” Jessica asked
“James will.” Marcus said as he went to catch up to Jake
“Suits you well, not like you could do anything anyways.” Troy mocked
“Just go.” Jessica said
He left and I was left alone with the girls. I wanted to go along with them and help out, but they never let me, Jake would but he was already out the door. I fixed myself on the couch, anxious over what happened to her.
“I hope she is alright, I’m really scared.” Amy whimpered
“She’s ok, she probably just went a little farther than Jake thought. I know I would.”
Her words calmed me a bit, she always spoke with such confidence, she seemed like she always knew what she was talking about. It was one of the many things I loved about her. I tugged myself back to reality from the fantasies I was having about her. I shouldn’t be thinking about these things when I’m in such dire situations like these. I began to wonder about where Vanessa might be, I obviously hoped she was Ok but I couldn’t help but think that something terrible might have happened. Why would she have gone so far? And also, why wouldn’t she respond to Jake’s cries? They were quite loud and I could very clearly hear them from inside the house. However, even with all these thoughts in mind I pitied my well being into thinking that she was just fine and maybe wandered off. But when, Jake rushed into the door with tears on his face, a bloodied note falling from his hand, and two disgusted looking boys following with their heads down. I knew, that no good had come, and only vicious acts could of caused this level of distress.
Jake fell to his knees, and was in a ball crying on the floor. Marcus was shaken up, and even Troy looked harmed.
“Wha- What happened.” Amy asked
“Let’s just say that the man who did this is a complete Psychopath, he’s a lunatic and a scum of a person. We need to get off this island.” Marcus shot
“Is Vanessa alright-”
“Vanessa’s dead OK?!”
This brought more tears from Jake.
I picked up the note that Jake dropped.
“I told you I’d be back,” The note read.
I threw it down, disgusted.
“What’s it say?” Jessica mouthed
I shook my head in grieve.
“Someone help Jake into his room.” Marcus said
Jessica rose for the chore and helped him.
When she came back Marcus spoke again.
“What kind of man does these kind of things?” Marcus sighed
“What exactly happened?” I asked
“We went out to go look for her, well first we had to catch up to Jake, when we caught up to him he was puking… Behind him, Vanessa was dead behind a bush.”
Silence.
“What did he do to her.” I felt like I was pushing the envelope now.
“He mutulated her,” Marcus sobbed “He took her eyes and stabbed her entire body.” He gasped
Silence.
“Look, I don’t know who this guy is,” Marcus sniffled “But I want to find him, and show him the pain that he has brought.” He stood up
“Yeah!” Troy stood up with him.
Marcus picked up a pick off the fire.
“Guys!” Jessica halted them
"I know that you want to go out there and kill this guy," She put her hands up "But listen even though this happened we have to stick to our plan, if we keep making stupid deductions we are going to end up killing our selves. We stick to the plan."
Marcus stopped breathing heavily, and attempted to calm himself.
"You are right," he said "We will stick to the plan."
"Good, now put the pick down." Jessica said
He put the pick back in its place.
"Alright, James, you should go to bed, you've been up all night." She looked at me "Troy, Thomas, Amy, And I will do our shift, go get some rest."
I nodded and said my goodnights, then headed towards my room. I walked in and tossed myself on my bed, shutting the lights off in the same motion. I knew that it wasn't safe but I didn't care. I was very tired just a few minutes ago, but I couldn't let myself go to sleep. My mind kept running about losing Vanessa. Nobody had seen any sign of  anything the entire night. I nearly, thought that we were safe and we had scared him off. Such foolishness on my part. As I pondered more about how not one of us has seen him the entire night, a strike of possibility hit me.
“He’s teasing us, taunting us, coaxing us into doing what he wants,” I thought
“He knows we are not going to come out, and if we do, he’s more than well abled to kill us.” My mind began to speed up
“He’s been on this island for fifty years, waiting for his next victim, watching them. He is patient enough to wait for his most easy moment to prey.”
I snapped myself from the delirium I was going into, letting out a small screech. I tried to empty my mind and force myself into sleeping. Instead, I found myself tossing and turning in my bed, looking for a comfortable resting position in which I knew I would never find. Finally, I gave up on sleeping and Ended up looking at the black ceiling that would accompany me for the entire night

Once the morning hit, and the daylight hit my face, I pulled myself from the mental conversations I was having with my flat, featureless friend that stared down on me from above and crawled out of bed. I headed toward the kitchen. The crew that was supposed to be surveying the perimeter of the house didn’t give me any sort of morning welcome, for they sat motionless and the only sound they made was a gentle snore. I laughed at the sight, but I knew that they should have been awake. Taking into account that they were protecting the lives of me and Jake. However, If someone were to correct them for the behavior I Knew that, that someone would not be me. I had a normal routine set up, even though it had only been two days. It was pretty simple, grab a box of cereal, get a bowl, put milk on top, then eat. While I was shoveling spoons of cereal into my mouth, I surveyed the room and watched Jessica wake herself up.
“What happened?” She was frantic “Is everyone OK?”
“I’m fine, try not to fall asleep next time.” I tried to joke
She forced smiled, half because It wasn’t the right time to make a joke, and the other half in pity for it.
“Your right, I can’t believe I fell asleep like that.” She said
There was a pause.
“How’s Jake?” she asked
“I have not checked up on him yet.” I responded
“Well, we should, he need us right now. We all need each other.”
“Alright, well I’ll go with you, just let me finish up my breakfast.”
I put the rest of the few morsels of cereal that were, down my throat. I put my bowl aside and walked with Jessica to Jake’s room. We walked to his door and knocked on it, there was no response. We assumed that he was just depressed and headed inside. When we walked in we found Jake lying face down on his bed, his head engrossed in his pillow. He was still, this made me worried. Jessica shook him, I was relieved to see him turn his body over and look at us. His eyes were blood shot. Most likely from crying and tiredness. He looked as if he had lost everything. Which I wouldn’t be to surprised about given what happened to Vanessa.
“We just came to check if you were alright. You want to come out?” I asked
His response was him turning over, back into the position that he was just in.
Without speaking, we decided to leave the room. When we got out Marcus was awake, he was wielding a shovel.
“Why are you holding that?” Jessica asked
“I figure that we could show some respect to Vanessa and bury her, she doesn’t deserve to have her body just lay out like that.” He glumly said
“That’s something I thought I never would of done.” I thought
Burying a body, I couldn’t handle seeing a dead rat on the street so I didn’t know how I was going to cope with this.
“I’ll help if you’d like.” I said
He nodded “One of you should ask Jake if he wants to see her one last time.”
“I will.” Jessica said “You guys go.”
We did, closing the door behind us. Marcus led me to the spot, where the incident happened. He began to shovel, I worked along side.
“She didn’t deserve this,” He said
“I know, she didn’t.” I agreed
“I get why Jessica wants us to stay together, but if we keep at this house… we mine as well just give ourselves to him.”
I was silent, I didn’t know what to say, so I kept digging. Once we had created a hole suitable we knew it was time to bury her. Thomas brought the body over. I haven’t yet seen her now limp, and stone cold body. But once I did it was more gruesome than I could have imagined. Her eyes, were no longer there, instead they were empty and you can see into her. Her body had been stabbed many times, she looked as if an animal had attacked her. I guess, that did happen. Her tank top that she wore that night was blood caked, and was still dripping. As we started to lift her, we cringed at both the sight, and smell of the body. A rush of emotions flooded through me. I never in my life expected for me to be holding one my friends dead bodies. We set gently set her into her dirt confines and began to cover her with dirt.
“Wait.” Jake called “I want to see her one last time.”
We stopped, and let him pass. He kneeled down next to her and sobbed.
“I will always love you.” He whispered to her.
He placed a kiss on her forehead and left. The showing of emotions that Jake displayed moved me. As I helped Marcus bury her, tears rushed down my face.
        The night was fast approaching as the moon began to sink into place, the entire house was one edge. Troy was very ill and Jessica said that he would be in bed all day, so during their watch they would only have three people. Jake and I would be the first shift, we would only have two people tonight. I, along with everyone else, was scared. Tonight, the Night Watcher did not leave a note. We were left not knowing what he might do.  Jake did not seem like him self anymore, he looked worn down, and spoke very little to anyone if at all.
         When the time came for us to watch the house, I mentally prepared myself for everything. I told myself that I would not let someone get hurt, so brutally like Vanessa. I stomped the house looking through every window, patrolling, making sure that nobody was coming near the house. For hours, I kept doing the same thing, watching, waiting for some sight of something. As the night progressed I did not catch sight of anything. Every so often the trees or a bush would rustle, getting my adrenaline running and getting me ready for some sort of confrontation. Deep down I knew that I would probably never see this man unless he is the doer of my death. I knew that I would most likely never spot him, we had payed such careful watch last night and we still lost someone. Eventually, our shift ended and nothing had happened. Jessica, Amy, and Marcus arose to take over. Troy was still sick and he would be staying in his bed for the shift. I didn’t want to leave, for some odd reason I wanted to stay awake and catch this murderer. But instead, I was forced by my friends to take a break and go to bed, Jake was already long gone.
         I sat down in my bed hopeful that someone would catch him tonight. I began to think about home, and college. What would we tell Vanessa’s parents? Would we be charged in her murder? They would have to believe us, none of us would ever do anything so wicked to one our greatest friends. I felt remorse, Vanessa had so much to live for, she was going to college with Jake.
“Poor Jake.” I thought. I wasn’t sure how he was going to move on after this experience, he cared for her more than he did anyone else. I was concerned for his mental stability on this island. I was not certain whether or not he might go and try to attack the Night Watcher, surely leading himself to his demise. As I thought of what might happen, I was not paying close attention to all of the surroundings happening. But I had heard Jake talking with Troy, having a intense conversation with him. Almost as if they were planning something, then the conversation ceased and I heard a window shut as I fell into a slumber.

We walked back towards the beach house, silent. There was nothing we could say, no one we could call, and nothing to do except wait to die. The sky was turning to dusk and it was raining which caused the forest animals to move about. I observed as the water ran down the trees branches, dripping on me leaving a water mark. We approached our beach house and went inside dispersing into our separate rooms. I could not hold back the thought that Troy was dead, and Jessica was single, but it was not the time  or place to be making any type of move. Marcus and Amy had went into their own room, leaving me and Jessica to our lonesome. I decided to try and help Jessica through this tough time. I went to her room and knocked on her door. “Come in.” she whimpered. I entered and sat next to her on the bed, when I did so she broke out into tears and snuffed her head into my shoulder.
“I’m so sorry for all of this,” she tried to say through her cries. “I wish that we never came! It is my fault.”
“It is not your fault,” I patted her “No one would have ever expected for something like this to happen.”
“I just wanted us to all have on last trip together before we came. And now my friends are all dying!”
“Shhhh,” I soothed “Just calm down, this is not your fault and don’t make yourself think it is.”
Her only response was more crying, that hushed as she fell into sleep on my shoulder.
I lay down with her thinking that the only moment in our lives that we were so intimate was in the darkest one too. I began to have flashbacks of all of the times my friends and I had together. The Troy always having something to say to me, Jessica defending me, Jake and Marcus always being someone to talk to, and Vanessa and Amy always giving a spark of Joy to the group. Now three of them were gone, dead, never to be seen again. That night, no one went out to watch the house, no one cared, we had all about given up. I let the darkness of the outside pull me to dreaming. I told myself that I would not let Jessica get hurt.

         I was abruptly awakened the next morning to the smell of burning. I Jolted out of bed and checked to see what it was. I looked out the window in the front room. It was engulfed in flames. Awe were surrounded by fire, there was no safe escape. I turned around and Marcus was there shouting.
“We got to get out of here!”
“Get Amy I’ll get Jessica.”
We retrieved the two women and when we met back in the house, the fire had made progress inside, blockading the front door.
“What are we going to do.”
“Follow me,” I yelled “There is a door in my room.”
We ran into my room, sweat falling, the orange glow of the flames resonating off of our faces. My room had not been completely covered with flames but it had a line just before the door that led out, it was growing. I looked for something to break the glass so that we could dive through, I grabbed a lamp and chucked it as hard as I could at the glass. It shattered completely, giving us a hole to dive through.
“C’mon get through!”
I guided Jessica through the door, then Thomas.
I waited for Amy but as she ran she fell. I went to help her, but as I approached I heard a loud crack, and the roof came crashing down on her. I looked at her face, she was cringing as she tried to get up, and then gazed at me with fear when the roof fell. I evaded the falling wood.
“You got to get out of there!” I heard yells from the outside.
Amy was down under layers of timber with her eyes stuck with fear making no expressions. I had to make a choice and save my life. I jumped through the glass and landed on the beach, the rest of the house coming down as I hit the ground.
Jessica helped me up. “You OK?” she asked
“Yeah,” I said “I’m fine.”
I brushed myself off, and looked at Thomas who was staring at the ruins.
“Where is Amy?” he grinded his teeth
“I couldn’t do anything.” I said
“Where is she, what happened?”
“When we were in there she fell. I tried to help her up but when I did the roof came down.”
“You didn’t try to save her?!” his anger was growing
“I did! But she was to far under if I stayed in there I would of died.”
“You son of a-“ he stopped and headed towards the still burning house with a look of determination on his face. He went and started to pick up burning pieces of wood, throwing them as he went, scalding his hands.
“Thomas stop-“ I tried to turn him
He turned around and punched me, propelling me  towards the ground. My head rang, he mounted me and kept on socking me. I could not feel anything, and my vision was becoming impaired. Jessica came next to him and tried to stop him, he pushed her to the side and kept going on with punching. She came back with a piece of wood, and hit him on top of the head knocking him out cold. His body loosely fell to the floor and Jessica helped me up. I walked around dizzy and tried to regain my grounding, she asked me something but I could not make out what. She motioned for me to help move Thomas from the fire, we did so, heading into the forest. We set him on the ground, and as we did I lost consciousness and fell, blacking out.

I awoke the next day from a tree and my first sight was Jessica and Marcus. They were by a fire eating soup and talking. When I stood up they immediately came over to help.
“How are you feeling?” Jessica asked
“Well, better, I guess.” I said
Thomas stepped forward and I stepped back preparing for some sort of fight.
He put his hands up, “I’m not going to do anything.”
I settled a bit.
“Look I’m sorry for what happened, I know you tried to save her but I just lost it.”
“It’s fine, I get it.” I responded
We man-hugged it out
“You want some soup?” Jessica asked me “There was some on the boat.”
“Sure, thanks.” I said
I began to eat the soup from the can, my face still felt pretty beat up, and by the way Jessica and Marcus looked at it, it probably was.
         Later that day we walked through the forest. We made a group decision that we would keep moving so that we would most likely not be found. We walked aimlessly through the forest passing beautiful trees and seeing animals run across the dirt paths. After so much had happened It is hard to believe how peaceful things can be. We found ourselves doing circles and chose to stop and take a break night had fallen upon us. We started a fire and huddled around it, we had been inside this whole time, and now we had to face the chills of the outdoors. At this point it was just as safe as being indoors.
         The night only got worse when the rain came, filling the sky with dark clouds and lightning. “Great.” Marcus said.  “What are we going to do?”
“We will stick together, we won’t split up just keep on guard” I commanded
We were silent, listening for any noises. Just when I thought we could have one night without danger my hopes were taken away from me. We heard a rustling in a bush. “What’s that?” Jessica said. It rustled again. We could not see a thing our only light were the flashes of lightning.
A flash of light came, a rock rolled at my feet.
Another flash, I saw the rock had a note.
Flash, I picked up the rock.
Flash, I looked at the note.
Flash, I read the note. Flash, the note said “Behind You.”
“Watch out!” I yelled at Marcus.
“What” He turned and looked at me. Everything seemed like slow-motion, I watched Thomas Face me with the thunder’s light on his face, then I saw his face turn into an expression of pain, and then I saw the wielder of the Knife in his body. The man wore a black overcoat, he had gray hair and incredibly dark brown eyes that burned with evil. He was white, and not much taller than me. That is all I could get of the man before Jessica pulled me away and started to run with me. The man called out to us with a raspy voice “You two are next!”
I did not respond to his words and kept running through the night.


When we stopped running we were well beyond when we could have. The morning sun had came, and everything was once again visible. I had my hands on my knees, gasping for air. When we both finally recovered and checked on each other we knew that we had to make a plan. The police would be coming to get us tomorrow, so we had to survive the night and then some. Our odds were not high given what has happened to the rest of our friends. At this point I knew, It was us or him.
         We began to think of our plan.
“What are we going to do?” Jessica asked me
This was a first, her asking me. “I think that we shouldn’t try running.” I said
“Why?”
“Because whenever we run he finds us, if we stay in the open he wont be able to side swipe us.”
“Ok, so should we stay on the beach?”
“Yes, perfect we will stay there and try to lure him.”
“Why do we want to lure him.”
“Because some Justice needs to be served.” I said
Our plan was to go to the beach we would split up, making sure that he would attempt to attack one of us. And when he did, we would attack him.
         The night came across, and we knew that it was right now or never. We met each other in the middle of the beach.
“Good luck.” We said to each other
I felt like this was the time for me to tell her my true emotions for her.
“Jessica?”
“Yeah?”
“I don’t know what is going to happen right now, but since this may be the last time we see each other, I need to tell you something.”
“What?” she looked me in the eyes.
“Jessica, I love you, I have since the day we meant. I have never had the guts to tell you how much of an amazing, beautiful person you were until this point. I know you are upset about Troy, but I figured since I might die tonight, I should just let it out.”
She didn’t respond, she just kept staring at my eyes. Then she leaned into me and planted a kiss on my mouth. She smiled and the walked away signaling that now is the time we initiate our plan.

         Here I was standing here, waiting. I looked around at my surroundings, scanning around. I saw the ruins of our old beach house, I gazed in the direction of the Night Watcher’s shack, and lastly looked at the boat that brought us to this hell.
“Hello.” A voice said “You could not have made yourself more vulnerable.” The Night Watcher stepped from the shadows.
“You bastard.” I hissed
“Did you get me notes? I put them in a place I knew you would find them.”
“You killed all my friends! Why?!”
“To protect my land of course,” he chuckled “And you made it to easy, I could not resist.”
“I will make you pay!”
“Oh really? How so?”
I rushed at him and tackled him to the ground. He punched me in my stomach making me fall off. He came over me and attempted to stab me in chest, I rolled, however the blade struck my finger, cutting it off. The pain was excruciating, I got light headed but could see him coming back towards me.
I hit his ankle with a piece of wood that was near me. He dropped the knife, I reached for it, but he kicked it away. “I have another.” He said as he revealed a small dagger. I tried to get up and run, he kicked me in the face. He stepped over me, and began to draw the knife down towards my chest then he stopped and fell. From behind Jessica was there, she had stabbed him with the knife he dropped. She helped me up and we hugged. My finger bled, so I took off my shirt and wrapped it with it.
         We walked to the front of the beach, and sat and rested. We slept together, holding each other and keeping warm as we waited for the morning and the police to arrive.

                                                                  FIN