This was inspired by me_love_elmooO and I's conversation after a terrible test.
It is yeah. Hold on tight and don't read this on a plane. I'll try to add humour but it is going to be hard to do.
The scene with the bushes is heavily inspired by my phobia of snakes and how much it impacts my anxiety and mental health as a whole.
Shout out to the Ophidiophobia girls out there. And google for spelling that for me. And my hand to cover the snake.
Lord of the Flies/ Society of the Snow/Yellowjackets are the inspirations for this
TW: Panic attacks, blood, dead person, snakes, mentions of self-harm
--
Stranded.
That's what the triplets were.
Stranded.
The plane was somewhere in the ocean, along with about 200 people. All dead.
The triplets happened to be on the plane. Let us turn to the island that they landed on, shall we?
One of them was lying down in the sand, barely breathing. One was nowhere to be seen and one was pacing.
"In for four, out for four c'mon Matt, breath" Chris urged, pacing around, sand getting in between his toes. His shoes and socks are over by a tree, accompanied by his shirt.
Matt was fully clothes, with footwear and everything, lying on his back in the sand, having a panic attack. He tried to follow Chris's instructions but it was a bit hard to do when the voices in his head and the flashbacks were so overpowering he had a headache. More like a migraine.
Chris walked over to Matt, put him in a sitting position and kept coaching his breathing until he did it fine on his own. Tears ran down Matt's face and he regained his senses completely.
"Chirs" He choked out before falling into his brother. Unplanned embrace for Chris but he couldn't complain. He was scared himself. "Where's Nick?" Matt then asked.
The ball dropped. Where was Nick? It had been about five minutes since the plane fell out of the sky into the ocean. Not that he could have gone that far. Who knows, maybe he didn't survive the crash?
"I don't know" Chris admitted. He was the least injured out of him and Matt. He was walking around fine, with just a bit of blood trickling out of his head.
Matt apart from the migraine and panic attack was pretty good. Something told him once the adrenaline wore off, he would be in pain. "We have to find him Chris" Matt pleaded.
Chris took a deep breath, he loved his brother but his anxiety was sometimes too overbearing when he was feeling his own. "Matt can we just, find survival things first then our brother?" Chris tried to reason.
Matt looked at him shocked. "You rather find water and food, or Pepsi actually than find Nick? Our fucking brother"
Chris bit his lip and thought about what Matt just said. "Ok fine, you go find Nick, I'll set up survival shit"
Matt went over to Chris and slapped him in the face, the noise drowned out by the sound of the waves crashing upon the shore. "You aren't thinking straight"
"Nick never thought straight in the first place" Chris joked, trying to ease the tension.
Another slap from Matt, three in two minutes, Chris would be knocked out in about three more minutes if Matt kept this up.
"Not like slapping me is going to help" Chris shot back, trying to slap Matt back but missed.
Matt rolled his eyes as he dodged Chris, "I'm slapping my sense into you!"
"Go find Nick by yourself. You won't die doing it"
Matt was astonished. He had never heard such stupidity coming out of his brother's mouth. "You have to be kidding right? Have you never watched a horror movie in your life? That is how everyone dies"
Chris shrugged and started walking around trying to find a solid place away from the ocean.
Matt trailed behind, complaining about Chris's words to his face. "I'm not going alone"
"I'm not going with you"
Matt slapped Chris in the back. "Listen motherfucker. In case you didn't notice, we are stuck on an island. We don't know where Nick is and the plane is burning in the ocean. I don't even know how we are living at the moment, so listen to me. Put off this whole tough guy act, that is my thing, and help me find our brother" He cried out.
Chris laughed. "Nah"
Matt took off his shirt and wrapped it around his wrist. "Fine, but when you're the only triplet left, my ghost will say 'I told you so'"
And with that, Matt Struniolo trekked into the trees of the island by himself.
--
"Nick buddy make a noise or something" Matt called out. It was like a giant game of hide and seek apart from the fact his brother's life was on the line.
Comforting.
"Nick please" Matt begged.
He was sweating buckets, it had to be at least a million degrees. The adrenaline was starting to fade away and he was weary about the fact his head was still killing him.
A rustle in the bush caught his attention.
Little known fact about Matt, he hated snakes, like purely hated them.
So his head turned sharply towards the bush, and Matt edged further from the bush, even though every muscle in his body told him to run.
Another rustle.
Matt's once steady breathing was as unstable as everyone's mental stability.
Another rustle.
Flight mode was turned on and Matt ran. Deeper into the forest.
He stopped after a minute to catch his breath, too hot to run anymore.
Hiss
Matt's head whipped towards the hissing noise, making eye contact with a legless lizard.
"Shit that is not a legless lizard, Nick hurry come help snake. Nick, there is a snake" Matt didn't know why he was talking but he had to. He looked at the snake.
He didn't know what type it was and he didn't care. But his brain automatically went to the thought that it was a venomous snake that would murder him.
So he ran some more.
Then stopped for a breather, thank god he didn't leave his shoes with Chris's
If the author was in this situation she would have twisted her ankle, cried, ran off a cliff and died. Continuing.
Then the hissing sound got louder, like painfully loud. And something sharp was in Matt's leg he was well aware.
Matt looked down. The snake. The snake was on his leg, wrapped around his leg. The snake was on his leg, wrapped around it, biting into him.
The scream produced by Matt made the birds leave the trees.
Tears ran down his cheek and he shook his leg around to try to get the snake off him. Didn't work.
He fell to his knees, in pain, in fear, and the fact he could not breathe.
By some miracle, the second today, another rustle in the bushes caught the snake's attention and it slithered off into the bushes.
Matt got up and ran a bit, his leg didn't feel numb, nor like it had poison running through it but he didn't know. He just had to find Nick.
"Nick" He whispered. His voice was barely audible. "Nick please where are you"
Matt then found an opening to a clearing. He had to be on the other side of the island by now he thought to himself.
He went through the clearing. Seeing nothing but open sea. It was intermediating and reality began to kick in.
He was stuck on an island alone, with his brother who was being a dick and his other one was missing.
Another tear fell down his cheek, and Matt quickly wiped it away.
"Mum, Dad, Justin, please" He sobbed. Standing there on the open island.
--
Chris had been productive while Matt was having the time of his life partying with all the wildlife in the bushes of a deserted island.
He had set up some sort of tents, three of them. Just in case he thought.
He also found a stick of carved SOS in the sand. He knew a thing or two about survival.
If the plane went down nearby, they would have called Mayday, meaning they would know where the plane was right? He'd only be stranded with anxious Matt for two days Max. Right?
But they meant they had two days to find Nick. If he was on the island.
He was trying to make a fire when Matt walked through the trees onto the beach. "Hey Matt" Chris waved.
Matt sighed, "Looks like someone had a mood swing"
Chris nodded proudly. "Anyways. I made some tents and tried to start a fire. Drew an SOS symbol in the sand. Hopefully, that's enough."
"Well, I got chased by a snake to the point it bit me. I cried. Didn't find Nick" Matt ranted, shuddering as he looked down at his leg. There were two red bite marks, raging with colour.
Chris had also looked down at Matt's leg. "Was the snake venomous?" He asked.
"How would I know?"
"True"
That's how the triplets spent the evening. Either in dead silence, trying to make some kind of food out of the berries Chris had found or swimming in the ocean.
Then it became dark.
The only thing keeping the place alight was the fire.
Not that that was too comforting for the triplets anyway.
Matt and Chris laid in the same tent since they didn't want to sleep alone.
Chris got to sleep pretty quickly but every gust of wind or rustle in the bushes made Matt more awake.
First sleepless night for Matt on this island.
--
"I'm not going" Matt stood his ground. Chris had asked Matt to accompany him in 'Nick hunting' the next morning.
"C'mon Matt. What's going to kill you?" Chris pleaded.
"Snakes" Matt reasoned.
Chris couldn't win this argument. "Matt I'll physically carry you into the jungle if you don't put your shoes on in the next five minutes"
"Sorry mum" Matt mumbled, going over to the wardrobe of the island, under a tree to retrieve his shoes.
Chris waited. The days seemed longer. His phone had no battery left so he had no idea what time it was. Matt's cracked from impact so there were little shards of glass where he landed from falling out of the plane.
The thought of Nick was still the main focus. It hadn't set into Chris's brain that he was stuck on an island and that his plane had crashed. Into an ocean. With 200 people presumed dead.
One of those may be Nick.
A shudder went down his spine as Matt came back to Chris.
Matt had his shirt on, and his shorts were now filthy black. His shirt, also black, loosely swung off him.
Something shiny was shining out of Matt's shorts pocket. The sun made direct contact with it.
"What's in your pocket?" Chris questioned and Matt was tying up his shoelaces.
Matt hesitated for a second. "Nothing"
"Wrong. Matt, what's in your pocket?" Chris repeated.
"Nothing, your seeing things"
"Am not" Chris went over to Matt and reached into his pocket, grabbing the shiny thing. "A shard of your phone glass?" Chris studied it for a second.
Then it clicked.
"Matt" He trailed off studying Matt's arms. There were no marks though. Neither on his legs meaning he wasn't taking off his shirt for the rest of the private island stay.
"I didn't sleep, Chris. I'm stuck on an island, I'm a survivor of a plane crash. I don't know where my brother is. I got bit by a snake. Let me off this time" Matt begged weakly.
Chris didn't reply.
The two walked into the island's tree mess together, on a hunt for Nick.
They walked around, Matt getting piggybacked through the path he ran from the snake. It was stupid but he didn't feel like having a panic attack.
Then they walked by the opening Matt found yesterday but didn't explore it. Matt was happy about that. That was his little 'I need a moment' area.
The sound of water splashing hardly got the boy's attention.
"Am I going crazy or do you hear a waterfall?" Matt said, looking towards the direction of the sound.
"You're sleep-deprived so you are going crazy but I can hear it too" Chirs replied.
They wandered towards the so-called waterfall, forgetting all about Nick. Matt went first into the bushes, hoping to see a clearing. He was going to give Chris the all-good.
But instead of an all-good, Chris heard a scream.
"Matt, you didn't fall off a fucking cliff right?" Chris said concerned, edging closer to the bushes opening the clearing.
No response, just rushed breaths.
"Ok Matt keep breathing I'm coming" Chris announced, going through the bushes.
The waterfall was beautiful, something out of wonderland. The flowers blossomed, and the trees were the pretty green we all like.
And there was a dead body floating in the middle of the lake.
Something right out of Wonderland!
"Chris, Chris, that, that isn't Nick, right? No, it's not, Nick isn't dead" Matt's words were cut off by harsh gasps. Matt reached into his pocket for the glass but Chris stole it out of his hands and chucked it into the river.
Matt, against all his fear, sat on the floor and tried to compose himself.
"We need to swim out there and drag that body in" Chris stated.
"Are you an idiot?" Matt spat out.
"Yes. Why?"
Matt wanted to punch his brother. But instead slapped him in the leg. He was sitting down so it wasn't like he could reach his face.
"You are slappy on this island. That better change when we get home" Chris whined.
Two-quarters of the triplets looked out to the waterfall, seeing the potential third one floating beneath the waterfall.
Another rustle in the bushes.
"Matt don't panic there are other things on the island apart from snakes" Chris fired quickly, not wanting to deal with an even more panicky Matt.
"Comforting Chris"
The rustles weren't a snake-like rustle. It was something bigger. Like a bear or an oversized caterpillar. Possibly even a spider with 15 legs.
"Hey, guys" The bush called. It's voice oddly high pitched and cracking.
"Matt I think I'm drugged, the bush talked" Chris stated.
Matt nodded, turning his head to the bush as he got up. "We are both drugged then"
"You aren't drugged, it's me!" The bush called.
"Do we run or what" Matt questioned.
Chris shrugged, a talking bush was pretty enticing to him. There wasn't much entertainment on the island anyway. "Can't we talk to the bush some more?" He pulled out the puppy eyes and all as he looked at Matt for confirmation.
"Chris the bush is talking to us and there is a dead body in the lake. And you want to stay here?" Matt summarised the events from right then and there.
Chris nodded. "I do"
"We aren't getting married so don't say I do but are you hearing yourself?"
The bush groaned. "Y'all are boring as fuck"
"Shut the fuck up bush," Both of them said in unison.
"Did we just tell a tell a bush to shut up?" Chris pointed out.
Matt nodded.
"The bush has a name" The bush announced.
It rustled and a shadow formed behind it.
Arising from the bush, low and behold, Nick Sturniolo.
Matt cried. He cried when he saw Nick.
Chris ran up to Nick and hugged him. "You do such a shit bush impression" he whispered.
Nick, with Chris attached to his arm, went over to Matt and hugged him as well, feeling Matt's tears run down his arm.
"I got you guys good" Nick joked.
Matt's face went serious. "I thought you were dead Nick"
Nick shrugged. "And?"
Matt slapped Nick and went back to crying.
"He is in a slappy mood" Nick recalled what he overheard earlier.
"SEE" Chris yelled, fully agreeing with Nick.
"Wait so. If that isn't Nick. Who is the dead bitch in the lake?" Matt pointed towards the lake.
It went silent. Who was the person in the lake?
"Well we can leave the floating there" Nick said, dismissing it. He hated anything dead so he was fine with pretending it didn't exist.
"We should eat him" Chris joked. He was hungry. Starving actually.
Matt shook his head quickly. "We aren't cannibalising, let's find some fish or something since we are surrounded by water"
"Fine" Chris pouted before taking one last look at the waterfall and walking away.
The others did the same and followed Chirs back to the main spot on the island.
--
Matt was making the SOS sign stand out a bit more while Nick sat down and watched. Chris was coconut hunting since that was the only source of water they were going to get.
"Where were you, Nick?" Matt asked, the question finally falling off his tongue.
Nick sighed, "When we fell out of the plane, I landed in the ocean close to the shore of the island and I swam here. I was going to just drown but I didn't cause I could hear you and Chris and I knew I was safe. So I swam, somehow ended on the other side of the island, and walked here, through the bushes. Got lost. So I stayed the night near the waterfall. The man's body was already in the lake but I didn't go near it. Then the next morning, I heard you and Chris and I thought it was a perfect opportunity to scare y'all"
That was a lot of information for Matt to take in. "So we are the only people left"
Nick nodded sadly. "Yeah"
Matt went over to Nick and laid his head on Nick's shoulder. "I want to go home, Nick"
"Me too Matty, me too"
--
The triplets sat around the campfire that night, eating the only fish they could find.
Nick was picking at it, not wanting a fish for dinner. Matt had half of it but got full. He was preoccupied by his thoughts. Chris was eating it all though, starving to death.
The was a distant sound that no one could put their finger on. They were playing Guess the Sound. They were bored ok.
"I think it is just the waves crashing" Matt guessed, done with this game.
"Matt, I'm telling you, it's not waves, it's a whale call!" Nick said excitedly.
"Could be a whale concert and the whale is singing" Chris suggested.
Matt put his palm to his forehead, feeling embarrassed for absolutely no reason.
Nick nodded, "The whale would have a cool name I reckon"
"Something like lil Whaley or something" Chris agreed.
"Nah, Whaleana Grande" Nick bounced off Chris.
Matt mocked Nick and looked up at the stars. "I think the noise is a helicopter"
Chris laughed, "Nick, Matt didn't sleep at all last night, he is a bit crazy"
Nick shook his head, also hearing the helicopter noise.
Then he spotted it. "OH MY GOD. DOWN HERE DOWN HERE. CHRIS, MATT WAVE YOUR HANDS WE ARE BEING SAVED"
--
That's how the triplets spent their weekend, stranded on an island.
They rated the island a 3/10 on TripAdvisor. The waterfall gave the island an extra 2 points.
Matt ended up getting bit by a non-venomous snake. He would have been dead already if it wasn't.
The dead person was identified as someone on the plane, everyone but the triplets died.
It was truly an experience the grandchildren would hear about.
--
DONE AND DONE.
Fun fact: When I wrote the snake scenes, I kept looking down at my leg to make sure there was no snake.
Then the triplets vid came out and they were holding a snake. So that defeated the purpose. Don't reread shit at 9:30am when triplet videos are cmg out
Love y'all. Dont die. Do drugs.
-Bon