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Stranded in Thoughts Prologue
He was coming. Fast.The pain in my left shoulder throbbed relentlessly as I caught my breath. I was running away from the onslaught that was happening in the hotel where we were staying. The smell of blood and flesh had clung to me. I feared that it might linger on until my last breath.I stubbed my toe on a rock, tumbled on the muddy ground—face first—and swore. I brought my right elbow at my side and pushed myself up, hardly noticing my quivering fingers, only to stagger at my left side and drop on my knees. Even with how groggy I felt, I still forced myself to crawl forward. The winds were blowing angrily; a premonition that it would happen to me as well. I’d be next. And then the gruesome scenario flashed back.Everything played in reverse and I was stuck on my knees, finding it hard to get up. I pounded the ground, splashing mud around and onto my face, and screamed out loud like I didn’t care anymore if he’d catch up. I couldn’t believe myself that I left her—that I left her w
Stranded in Thoughts Chapter 1 - The Secret
I hated schools the most.I was just having a splendid dream about my crush, who—by the way—was the most beautiful girl I found in that boring school when an earthquake woke me up. Not a destructive one, but it would surely spring you up and out of the bed and make your knees wobble.Earthquakes were recently occurring here in Cebu.It made me nervous because I was kind of an irrationally anxious person. A paranoid who always thought the world could end any minute. Not to mention, I was sentimental and sensitive. Yes, you could judge me, but you couldn’t actually judge me. I mean, you had never been with me my entire life, so how in the name of Karens could you say something negative about my personality? If you were to know me, though, there was only one notable thing that you would always remember. I had a natural sloth, and yes, I’d admit it. I’d love to procrastinate and not do things in haste as I believed all things would come in due time.In fact, I was known as Josh the lazy b
Stranded in Thoughts Chapter 2 - The Hopeless Romantic Girl
“Hand me some buwad, Olly.”“Why are you the one who always orders around here? Would you just stand and help yourself?”“Come again? Remember the Penshoppe bag I bought you?” “Okay, okay. I know it’s coming. You’re always making use of your trump card. In fact, it’s more of a normal one now.”“Are you still flapping those lips?”“Nope. Here’s your buwad, ate.”It was a sunny afternoon, flabbergastingly serene weather, for the two of us. Christmas just went by. Lots of firecracker wastes and party poppers dotted the streets and canals. Leftovers of Piccolo, Sinturon ni Hudas, and lots of trash littered the whole sitio. It was an extended season of family love and merrymaking, yet for me, it was another season when I’d look after my silly sister, and I didn’t want to be a babysitter.My name was Jelly and I was a twenty-two-year-old Science teacher at Arullina National High School who advised tenth graders. Molly, my sister, was a twenty-year-old call center agent who was the t
Stranded in Thoughts Chapter 3 - The Back-to-School Hassle
Mondays.Freaking Mondays. Why were Mondays created?The sizzling sound of the onions being sautéed and of the birds chirping outside our apartment brought a relaxing and calming effect on me as I cooked our breakfast in our makeshift kitchen, yet the day being a “Monday” drowned all of it.I hated Mondays the most.Others would see a teacher’s job as much easier than a worker in a convenience store or any fast-food chain because, according to some people who thought highly of themselves, we were just teaching students. One of my students once said that we were so lucky we just needed to sit to get paid. The audacity of the child made me mad; however, I had to cool my head, so I just let it pass through my other ear as a professional.They were wrong.I might be too lazy to think through this, but all the same, still had an idea as to how it worked. They didn’t know what was happening in a teacher’s schedule. Imagine having to bring all your paperwork at home just to finish them all, w
Stranded in Thoughts Chapter 4 - The Troublemaker
“Okay, class, you’re dismissed.”I went straight to the faculty office to drop off my instructional materials and joined my gang at the cafeteria. Around the table were Ritchelle, Vhina, and Alyssa. Every lunchtime, Ritchelle would get our reserved food ahead of time because she was the first to dismiss her class. She had her classes only in the morning. A month had already passed since then.“Hey, why is the you so late to sits here by the us?” Ritchelle asked just seconds before I settled on my seat. “Me is the stressed by the students, but I scolded them, which make me the stresser,” I replied, following with the flow of the joke. “Wow, I’m impressed that both of you can understand that kind of English,” Alyssa commented as she professionally sliced off the egg white of her sunny-side-up, to be given to Veruca later who notably liked it. Our conversation low-key annoyed her because she was an English teacher.“Join we. We is the teaches you how to says we is the language,” Ritche
Stranded in Thoughts Chapter 5 - The Short Meeting
Friday.Blessed Fridays. Why couldn’t all days in a week be Fridays?The day of the retreat had finally come. I had been waiting for this day in like, forever. Finally, I’d be able to go back to Bantayan and experience the beaches I had been planning to go to but failed to do so because of time constraints and the people who I was supposed to go with. Sure, I was into traveling but I just couldn’t do it without a friend or two to accompany me. All the teachers who were assigned to attend the retreat were already in the audio-visual room for the meeting and the final preparations. The school bus would pick us up at five, taking us to Hagnaya port in more or less four to five hours. The student council officers were ready with their things and had had their consent forms all signed. I’d surely enjoy myself even with the cumbersome conjunction of minding the students’ security.Including Finlay. Especially Finlay.The school’s AVR was not spacious; they had to move the equipment to the s
Stranded in Thoughts Chapter 6 - The Incident
The dawn was surely majestic and wonderful when I arrived at Hagnaya Port. The sky was painted with distinct shades of orange and red. It looked like a painter had thrown his palette out of his well-crafted anger, which depicted the rashly-made-but-awkwardly-stunning atmospheric skies. The vicinity was filled with the cries of deafening waves retreating to and fro and mumbles of soggy tires of trucks and buses against the dirty-wet soil. The area had been swept already, but still some types of trash lay dormant in every nook. The cleaners were surely not paid handsomely for the job. A nostalgic, mossy smell and the stingy, salty sea hit my olfactory nerves, which brought me down memory lane. Ah, those were the days.Hagnaya Port was the only port to receive passengers going to Bantayan Island—forth and back. The retreat house we would visit was situated near Kota beach. The earliest trip going there was at four-thirty, but we had all agreed we would have the nine-thirty trip. The call
Stranded in Thoughts Chapter 7 - The Island
My head hurt. My surroundings were a blur, and I found it hard to stand. My ears were ringing. I felt like there was blood flowing out of them. I tried to lean sideways using my right arm, and I touched my head with my left to check any injuries. It hurt. I twisted my hip and noticed that something was lying on my lower body. No, someone. And it hurt. I shook my head a little bit, and gradually, the environment became clearer. I first noticed that everything was blue. The person dangling limply on my legs was my student—Finlay. His disheveled, smooth, black bangs were complementing the overall shape of his small face that consisted of wide eyelids, broad nose, well-shaped lips, and a firm jaw. I had never been this annoyed with such a handsome face before. I remembered what happened. All my pure concern with this student turned to a feeling that I neglected for a long time, which I should have accepted all this time. I was enraged, and I badly wanted to shove this disrespectful
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Stranded in Thoughts Epilogue
The sunshine was pouring down the holes of the windows right through the translucent curtains of the room. I couldn’t even look outside of it, nor appreciate how picturesque the scenery would be.I couldn’t move at all. Literally.I could hear a couple of footsteps outside the room—coming closer. A smile was supposed to flash on my face; however, with my condition, it would be impossible to do so.Bringing a bouquet of roses and chocolates with her, the person opened the door and sighed slowly and carefully. I knew this because my peripheral vision stretched up to its limits, allowing me to see the person outside. Somehow, she was not blurred. My sight had been improving without my glasses lately. It had been months since it happened. I could still remember the day of the departure, and the following days I had been here on this bed after what happened on the island.The person at the door was someone I cared about: my little sister, Molly. I even wished to go back in time and change
Stranded in Thoughts Chapter 21 - The Beasts of the Realm
I opened my eyes to the view I had once seen. Every detail of the island had never been clearer than the last time, and I could make out the beach from where we got stranded and also the end part of the island we didn’t explore yet. I frantically searched our place and found out Rico at my side. The pistol was in his hand, and he was more than alert than anyone could be.I couldn’t help but smile. Priscilla was shackled beside him, and Dr. Shawn was lying next to her; his shoulder was bleeding rather seriously. Oh, no, what should I do? From what I understood, I could create anything in this realm, so that might mean that I could also create a doctor to help him or something. I imagined the image of one to appear beside Dr. Shawn, but nothing happened. How the heck was I supposed to create, anyhow? At the far north of the island, I noticed Josh and Rex on the ground. They were both wincing and crying in pain.How could I help Josh? Please, someone or anything on this island, help J
Stranded in Thoughts Chapter 20 - The Battle at the Silent Falls
My head hurt.My surroundings were a blur, and I found it hard to stand. My ears were ringing. I felt like there was blood flowing out. I tried to lean sideways using my right arm, but the ground was not solid. I touched my head to check some damages.It hurt.I twisted my hip and noticed that something was beside me. No, someone.And she looked familiar.I shook my head a little bit, and gradually the environment became clearer. I first noticed that everything was dark blue. And very murky.And that I couldn’t breathe. Right then, I flew my eyes wide open and flung my hands around the water. Jelly was in suspension, floating beside me, unconscious. I grabbed her by the waist and swam upward, moving some debris away from the path.The moment my head broke the surface, I hungrily gasped for air. The moonlight rained down on my face then I saw the hillside and swam toward it. I carried her off the water and laid her on the grass. What should I do? Should I perform a CPR?I couldn’t affo
Stranded in Thoughts Chapter 19 - The Young Bloods
My mother was teacher Mary.So that was why I frequently dreamed about someone I didn’t know but I somehow knew she was a person close to my heart. It was teacher Mary all along.Fuzzy memories came rushing back: the faint “I love you…” from someone who had a blurred face; the tender, long arms; the curly hair that was swaying with the wind; and the sweet and encouraging “I love you” again when I was about to sleep. Everything was blurry, but then it all made sense now as to why I was having short episodes about the blurred woman every now and then.Mom143.Rico brought me back to my senses, “Hey, seems like your friend is about to say something important.”“Everyone, I want you to listen properly. Yesterday, the day we got stranded, I managed to talk with my father using my thought, and he shared with me everything that’s happening here. True, it’s shocking, but I needed to keep my composure to not give a member of the Young Bloods who was in our group,” she gave Josh a look, “an ide
Stranded in Thoughts Chapter 18 - The Artifact
“Chevonne! Look at this!” How could I not wonder at this scenery? The picturesque view drenched in the moonlight was so majestic that it sipped all my worries and fears that were caused by everything on this island. I had never seen such a bright night in my life. Everything was glowing in lavender, and I could clearly see the details of the area: darkness didn’t mean anything at all. I squinted and found out that the cocohairs were the ones responsible for the wonderful light display. They looked like those candescent Christmas trees in P-mall that were displayed early in September. The silence of the waterfalls never bothered me that much ever since knowing about strange powers and whatnot from Chevonne, so anything else that would happen that was not normal, was going to be normal for me. I wouldn’t intend to get surprised every time my mind couldn’t perceive nor accept things that normal human beings couldn’t normally do.That was because I was also not normal. I had a power. I w
Stranded in Thoughts Chapter 17 - The Burster and Them
We went to the meeting place where Sir had his conjurer friend build a building a long time ago. It was where we were supposed to lure everyone to after getting stranded at the beach. However, with how things turned out, we didn’t manage to do it as exactly as it was, but somehow still got a few people to go inland.I was surprised when I found out everything in ruins. It somehow got me mad.“Hey, what happened here?” the weak-ass slasher asked with both of his hands resting at the back of his head, still as carefree as ever.“Well, a lot of things might have happened. Am I right, Momo and Mimi?” Our controller turned around and gave the twins a menacing look masked as a smile.They looked at each other with indifference. They surely looked alike: same squinting eyes, small noses, and pale, thin lips. Even their height and built. They were as small as elementary students but ferocious in some ways. You wouldn’t find them dangerous if you didn’t know what they could do.I hea—my ears ca
Stranded in Thoughts Chapter 16 - The Strange Old Man
It was our second day of being stranded on this island, yet no rescue had come. We didn’t find any locals as well. The sun was at its peak, indicating that it might be noon already. Rico was walking ahead of me, leading the way to the unknown territories. The foliage here was thicker and the coconut-looking trees were much taller compared to the ones at the beach.Now that I had a good look at them, and for the first time that I ever gave focus and attention to the details of the trees, they looked familiar. “Jelly, check this out.”Rico called me out from where he was standing, which I supposed an opening just outside the foliage. I quickened my pace and for the first time since being stranded here, finally found something beautiful and mesmerizing. We were standing on a wide cliff, wider than the first one Alyssa fell from. The memory struck like lightning and got me sobbing again, but I nodded it off. I needed to always remind myself to move on. I might not be able to forget, but
Stranded in Thoughts Chapter 15 - The Thinkers
“Lucky Kid, do it now!” The experience was like a rodeo. I was riding this crazily strong, rhino-looking beast for almost five minutes straight while it kept on swaying sideways and jumping up and down, or sometimes, if my senses served me right, a mixture of the two. I was able to keep a firm grip of its horn and it was dashing straight to Chevonne’s way, who somehow lured it to go inside Lucky Kid’s thought, then—BANG!Before I’d expose what happened next, let me first go back in time.Right after the giant incident, we moved to somewhere else and stayed for the night. We woke up early and Chevonne was keeping an eye on Lucky Kid who might escape. I got the gist of what was happening and a little bit about the thinker thingy, but I still couldn’t understand why it was happening to me. I mean, I was not a special person to obtain such an extravaganza.Along our stroll, we heard a strange sound that brought us down to our knees. We hid behind a shrub of berries. Lucky Kid picked and a
Stranded in Thoughts Chapter 14 - The Familiar Ruins
While the men were burying the body of Alyssa near a coconut-looking tree, the three of us bawled like children a few meters away from the cliff. We couldn’t fully process everything that had happened with the captain yet—and now this. What else could possibly happen? Both Vhina and Ritchelle were staring at nothingness with gaping mouths after they emptied their tear glands. Out of us, they were the most affected because it looked like it was their first time seeing a corpse such as that. Vhina got up to her feet first.“This is stupid. So stupid. How could something like that happen in such a way?” she cried. Her eyes were all swollen. Ritchelle followed suit, and with clenched fists added, “That’s right! It looked like someone has pushed her and arranged her shoes in such a way that gives off a message.”“But who?” I wailed. Before anyone could answer, teacher Norkie returned alone. He looked lost and drained. His cheeks were damp and sunken. He didn’t look at any of us and jus
