Stranded

Chapter 10: A Change

Cassedy's POV

I opened my eyes to see Marianne and Suzie calling Justin and Logan's name. And when I noticed the two boys were nowhere to be found, I knew why.

"What's going on?" I asked groggily.

"Justin and Logan are gone," Suzie said. "I woke up and found that they were both missing."

"Weird," I muttered.

Marianne waved us over, "Hey, come here. I think I found something."

Suzie and I both approached her, as we got nearer I saw what she'd found. Footprints and some sort of . . . trail, I guess. Like something or someone had been dragged across the sand. When I retraced where the trail and footprints started, they both began from Logan and Justin's spot (that they had slept in).

"Do you think Logan dragged Justin into the forest?" I asked. Only I realized too late how dumb that sounded.

Suzie raised an eyebrow. "Why would he drag him into the forest, to eat him? And besides, Logan's footprints only go in one direction: the trees. How would he have dragged Justin?"

While we were talking, Marianne started to follow the trail into the forest. 

"What are you doing?!" I cried, rushing to stop her.

"I'm trying to follow the path so we can find our friends." 

I bit my lip for a moment before saying something again. "But it's dangerous."

Marianne's face turned into a scowl, "Yeah, well everything on this island is dangerous!"

I let go of her, there was no point in fighting Marianne. She was too stubborn and wouldn't have listened even if I were her closest friend, which I'm not. Suzie followed suit as her friend walked into the trees. I stayed behind, reluctant to go back in. 

I have to follow them. I have to save Logan.

Suzie's POV

I would've never expected Cassedy, of all people, to follow us. But she did, and that blew my mind. Perhaps Logan was right saying that she wasn't a bad person. 

"I thought you said it was dangerous," Marianne said with a hint of annoyance in her voice.

When I looked over at Cassedy I saw the determined expression on her face. Her hazel eyes met mine, and for the first time, I saw the good in her. She turned to Marianne.

"I know you think I'm a snob. I know you think I'm rude and obnoxious. You see, I was—"

Marianne snapped, "I don't want to hear your life story."

Cassedy ignored her statement. "I don't care if you wanna hear or not, I just want to say that I'm sorry and that I am willing to change if it means being your friend." after a moment she added, "Both of you."

I gave a small smile, "Well, I'd appreciate if we could stop all this hate." Marianne seemed to give no sign of a smile or grin or anything really. She was emotionless as we walked deeper into the forest, following the trail. 

"What do you say?" I asked.

Marianne grunted, "The footprints stop here."

Cassedy's shoulders fell, but she put that determined look back on her face. "What should we do now?"

Marianne's POV

I was quite irritated that Cassedy followed me and Suzie. And when she said she wanted to be friends, I didn't know how to react. So instead I just focus on finding the boys. When the footprints stopped, I decided to look around, leaving Suzie's words hanging in the air. I felt bad to not reply, but I'm not good when dealing with these situations. I mean, I've never actually been in this situation. So I can't exactly say that I'm not good. I just never have dealt with this type of situation. 

"What should we do now?" Cassedy asked.

I examined our surroundings, just in case someone was hiding in the leaves.

"I say we—" 

Something whizzed past my ear, only narrowly missing by an inch. The thing missed the other two girls as well. Again, only by an inch. When it implanted itself into a tree, we got a good look at the thing. It was an arrow. More arrows were fired from a distance.

"Run!" I yelled.

The three of us ran for our lives—literally—in the way we came from. Thankfully none of us were hurt. Except it didn't help when we saw letters drawn in the sand.

Suzie panted, "What the?"

I read the message written in the sand:

T H I S 

I S

O N L Y

T H E

B E G I N N I N G