A Search for Paradise (On Hold)

Chapter 16

Finally an upload!! Sorry for the long wait :)

The video on the side is Keep Holding On by Avril Lavigne. I chose it because of some of the last words ;) read to find out why!!!!!!

ENJOY!

Chapter 16:

The boat roared underneath me. I subconsciously gnawed on my fingernails. This boat was very unlike to our old one: this one was magic – it could move without needed to be paddled and much faster than any boat I had ever seen or been on before.

“Better sit up the front if you’re nervous,” the man we met on the island said to me. He had introduced himself as Gary – a very strange name in my opinion. I had never met anybody before named Gary. The woman said her name was Jan, which was another strange name to me.

I shuffled along the side of the boat with Tristan and Jayce following me. I could tell from their tensed arms and expressionless faces that they were both as apprehensive of this boat as I was.

“Ready to go fast?” Gary asked us. All three of us (David was sitting with Gary, seeming unaffected by the boat) nodded our heads and braced ourselves.

The boat lurched forwards quickly and tipped in the air. I could now see why we were better off at the front; the back of the boat was tipping into the water.

“This is so scary,” I said through gritted teeth. Jayce nodded and I noticed a slightly green tinge to his face. Tristan held me against him and I could feel him quivering in fear.

All in all, the boat trip to Anya wasn’t a pleasant one, but it was getting us there faster than I could ever have imagined.

“There it is!” I shouted, jumping up and down and pointing the shadow looming on the ocean, getting larger as we got closer.

Gary slowed the boat down so we wouldn’t stand out too much approaching the island and we drifted towards Anya, closer to Forbidden Cove than the main part.

“We can swim the rest of the way,” I told Gary, hopping onto the edge of the boat and preparing to dive. Tristan, Jayce and David copied my stance.

Gary moved closer to us and whispered, “I’ll move the boat to behind that island.” Gary pointed to STJ Island, and I noted with relief that while Anya was still burning, our island was safe. “Good luck!”

Jayce dove in first, and then David. Tristan and I both dove together after them.

The cool water was a nice relief compared to the hot and dry day. I paddled underwater for as long as my lungs would allow, but when they felt like they were about to burst from lack of air, I had no choice but to break back up to the surface.

I saw all the boys in front of me, so I hurriedly swam to them, not focussing on the water much as it was too much of a distraction. As I caught up to them, they all shushed me and ducked under the water. I did so too, but kept my eyes above so as to see who was there.

“Intruders!” I heard a too familiar voice bellow. Konan clasped his hands together as he squinted his eyes and looked out over the ocean. “I saw them, just a second ago. Keep searching the water.”

Splashes from dozens of people wading in shallow water began to disappear, as they got deeper out – closer to us.

I grabbed Tristan and Jayce’s hands and tried to get further away from the searchers, but it was no use. They had an advantage over us as they could make as much noise as they wanted, but a single splash from us and we were caught.

A hand reached out and I tried to shrink away from it. Instead of catching hold of my shirt as the person was originally going to, they got my hair. I let out a yelp of pain and tried to swat the hand away, realising too late that I had just given us away.

“Found them, sir!” exclaimed the person who was still holding my hair. Jayce punched them in the stomach and Tristan put his arm around my waist as we walked to the shore together. We knew that if we tried to escape we would just be in even more trouble. Sometimes it was better to follow the rules – it saved us from something much worse.

Konan gleefully smiled, baring all his teeth as he recognised me.

“Sara, Sara, Sara,” he said, pulling me away from my friends. “How nice to see you again.”

I struggled against his powerful grip. “Get off me,” I spat. He let go of me and glared down at me with distaste.

“If you want it that way…” he began before raising his voice to address his ‘minions’. “Take them to the prison! All of them.”

The ground beneath me vanished as I was lifted into the air and slung over somebody’s shoulders. I punched their back, but they wouldn’t let me go.

“Have fun,” the man who carried me said carelessly, waving as he left. My eyes narrowed at his taunting.

Konan’s face appeared in the small hole used for looking into the prison cell. “Ah, how sweet revenge is,” he sneered, addressing the fact that I refused to marry him and disobeyed the law. “Have a nice sleep, Sara, I will see you in the morning. Hopefully a night in this place will shock some common sense into you.” Konan’s face disappeared and I shrank into the shadows.

“Sara? Oh Sara, thank goodness you’re okay!” Jayce exclaimed, lifting me into a hug. Something in the way he was talking made me think that something was wrong… something bigger than being trapped in a disgusting prison cell.

“Jayce, what’s wrong?” I asked, shivering. The cold in the cell was affecting me immensely as I was still wet from swimming to the island.

“It’s Tristan,” he sighed, sounding as though all life had been sucked out of his voice. “He says he’s feeling sick again. He told me he’d been feeling off all day but didn’t want to mention it. I’m worried that he’ll get… the sickness again.”

“Tristan,” I called, my voice reverberating off the mud walls. “Answer me if you can hear me.” Nothing but silence greeted me.

“He’s over here,” Jayce said, leading me over to a corner. I squinted to see in the dark and saw Tristan propped up against the wall, his eyelids shut and his face as pale as a ghost. My breath caught in my throat.

“Is he…” I asked, leaving the question hanging. David looked up at me from where he was crouched beside Tristan, placed cool mud on Tristan’s forehead.

“He’s okay,” David assured me. “For now at least. But I don’t know whether he’ll last the night.”

A sob escaped me as I threw myself beside Tristan and rested my forehead on his, clutching his icy hands in mine, trying to warm them up. “Keep holding on, Trist,” I ordered in a weak voice. “For me.”

Yes, its a little sad, I know. And it's a bit of a cliffhanger too! Don't ya just love me? Hahahaha, sorry bout all of that :)

Please comment and vote!!! They make me upload faster ;)

Emily <3