Escaping the Lost Island (working title)

Chapter 24

The best current solution seemed to be to play along with Isaac's delusion. There was no obvious harm in doing so and contradicting him was pointless. He did not often address us by our false names so we were mostly just refraining from correcting him.

Aside from a few outbursts over imagined creatures in or around the raft, Isaac was calm and quiet, busying himself spinning walnut shells on the surface of the raft. We left him to his own devices, figuring the less we interacted with him, the more collected he would remain. I steered as much as possible to keep my mind off of him and the others kept to themselves.

Several days into this arrangement, I was at the front of the raft, reflecting on how quiet everything had been lately when Isaac's sudden shout nearly made me jump out of my skin.

"Look!"

I turned from the front of the raft. He was pointing excitedly towards to the east. Following his finger, I saw nothing. "What?"

"Don't you see it?" His voice was incredulous.

"See what?"

"The island!"

I left my position, heart pounding, and knelt next to Isaac, squinting as hard as I could. All I saw was water. "I don't see anything."

"It's right in front of us! Don't any of you see it either?" He turned to the others.

Toby, Jessie, and Rita were staring to the east, their faces mixtures of excitement and confusion.

"Is it, like, really far out there?" Jessie asked, bringing a hand to shield her eyes. "I think I see a smudge of something, but it'd be a long shot to call it an island."

"It's literally RIGHT THERE! I can see the trees and everything."

My heart sank. It was just another hallucination after all.

"Well I'll take your word for it," Toby said finally. "I can't see anything."

He turned back to where he was stacking empty coconut shells and Jessie, Rita and I prepared to resume our various activities.

"Wait, what are you guys doing?" Isaac asked us in surprise.

I turned back to him. "What do you mean?"

"Aren't we going to stop there? I'm so sick of being in the raft."

Toby and I exchanged a look. "Well no," I answered slowly, searching my mind for a reason we weren't going to the fake island. "I mean, it's in the opposite direction that we need to be going."

Isaac gaped at me. "You've got to be kidding. We're looking for land, right?"

"Yes, but-"

"Well I found land! What's wrong with you, Ang?"

I broke. "Isaac, look at me! I'm not Angie, I'm Meg!! Remember me? Your best friend? And I'm telling you there is no island!"

Isaac's eyes flashed at me. "Angie stop it, why are you acting like this?"

"MEG! I'M MEG!" I was screaming and I couldn't stop.

He glared at me. "I can't believe this. My own sister won't save us. Give me that." He reached for the rod in my hands.

I wrenched it away from him but he got one hand on it and pulled.

"Isaac!" Toby grabbed his shoulder and yanked him backwards. The whole raft rocked violently.

"Let...go...of...me!" Isaac grunted, thrashing to try and free himself.

Toby held on. "If you don't calm down, we're all going to end up in the water!"