All Chapters of Stranded in Thoughts: Chapter 11 - Chapter 20

The body was removed from the cabin already. The crew found an open area near the shore where they buried the corpse along with its head. Other passengers were still crying in their makeshift tents. Our hope of leaving the island felt more distant than ever.I peeked outside my tent and spotted teacher Mary at the far corner of the shore near the coconut trees, surveying the area and trying to identify suspects. She seemed unable to fully believe what had happened, though the experience wasn't unfamiliar to her.She had shared with me a bit about her past before we disembarked from the barge after finding the captain's body. It was perhaps to distract me from the horror. She had once been an investigator and still carried her ID—illegally—believing it might be useful one day, which it had been. It had been a long time since she'd last seen a corpse, and it had terrified her, making her scream in an uncharacteristic way.Lately, things had been better for her. Her husband had stopped dr

Red. Blue. Yellow.After deciding to split the crowd into three groups for different tasks, I trudged back to my tent and collapsed onto the makeshift bed, the thin fabric barely softening the impact.I couldn’t believe any of this was real.Everything felt wrong. Traumatizing. Unreal.Was it really too much to ask God just to let me meet someone romantically?I hadn’t signed up for this nightmare.The whole reason I even agreed to join this retreat was because I’d hoped—expected, really—to meet someone. Maybe have a little fun. I wanted, just once, to feel what it was like to be held by a guy. I wasn’t picky. Handsome or not didn’t matter as long as he was, well, a he. That was the only thing I’d been asking for.I was so desperate. And instead? This.I shivered, and I wrapped my arms around myself. But I knew it wasn’t from the cold. I couldn’t stop thinking about the captain’s cabin.The body. The blood. The fact that there had been no head.It was the first dead body I’d ever seen,

While the men buried Alyssa's body beneath a tree that looked like a coconut palm, the three of us bawled like children near the cliffside. Wind whipped our faces, but we hardly felt it. The waves roared far below, yet all I could hear was our sobbing.We still hadn’t processed what had happened with the captain—and now this.What else could possibly happen?Vhina and Ritchelle sat on the damp grass, both staring blankly into the distance, their mouths slightly open. They had cried themselves dry, their swollen eyes bloodshot and empty. Out of the three of us, they were the most broken. Maybe this was the first time they had ever seen a body like that—so ruined.Vhina was the first to move. She pushed herself unsteadily to her feet, wiping at her cheeks with trembling hands.“This is stupid. So stupid!” Her voice cracked as she shouted into the void. “How could something like that even happen? It—it doesn’t make sense!”Ritchelle stood next, fists clenched so tight her knuckles turned

It was our second day stranded on this island, yet no rescue had arrived. We hadn’t found any locals either. The sun blazed overhead, likely marking noon. Rico walked ahead, leading us deeper into unfamiliar territory where the foliage thickened and the coconut-like trees towered even higher than those near the beach.Now that I paid closer attention, the trees were oddly familiar. It was not just the shape but also the texture. The way their leaves curled at the edges tugged at something buried deep in my memory.“Jelly, check this out!”Rico’s voice snapped me from my thoughts. He stood at the edge of a clearing just past the foliage. I hurried to his side and froze.We were standing on a vast cliff—far broader than the one Alyssa had fallen from. The painful memory hit me hard. For a moment, the grief swelled, but I swallowed it back. Not now. I had to stay strong. For myself. For Rico. Survival wouldn’t allow me the luxury of collapsing into sorrow.Before us stretched a breathtaki

"Chevonne! Look at this!"How could I not?The landscape glowed beneath the moonlight. It was so breathtaking it seemed to drain every worry and fear the island had planted in me. I’d never seen a night so bright. Lavender light bathed everything, revealing the landscape in full detail as if darkness held no power here.I squinted, realizing the soft glow came from the cocohair trees. They shimmered like the candescent Christmas trees I used to see in P-Mall during those early September displays.The silent waterfalls didn’t unsettle me anymore—not after everything Chevonne had told me about strange powers and whatnot. The abnormal was starting to feel normal. I refused to keep acting surprised every time reality broke its own rules.Because I wasn’t normal either. I had a power. I was a thinker. And honestly? I was proud of it.If I could, I’d show off my ability—flaunt it in front of my friends, brag as much as I wanted. I wasn’t some superhero hiding their gift from the world. If th