River Island

One

Thalia

Present day

The cool ocean breeze blew past me cooling me down even more. Summers on this island were always hot, or cold, or sad and depressing with rain. Basically life here sucked. And where is here you may ask? Somewhere near the Azores islands. My sister and I have been stuck on this place for five years.

Our family's jet crashed here while we were on our way from New York to visit our grandmother in London. Peyton and I were the only survivors. We buried our parents on the other side of the island and never visited their graves. Never spoke of them. Acted like they weren't there at all.

For five years we've tried to get off this place, and we've constantly failed. You'd think we were stuck in the Bermuda triangle or something. Sometimes that's how it feels. We build a raft and a storm throws us back on this dreaded place.

My name is Thalia by the way. To those that knew me before the island, I'm the bratty rich daddy's girl who always gets what she wants. People said I was a mini terrorist. A real life Regina George. Total menace. But when you're stuck in the wild for years with no technology and little human contact, it changes you. I'm surprised I'm not insane yet. Don't get me wrong I'm still a self centered princess. I'm just one with more survival skills than Bear Grylls.

I get up from my spot on the beach and make my way to the small garden behind our mediocrely built but highly effective huts. Peyton was bending over berry bush, a basket in hand. If we were gonna have fruit for dinner again I was going to loose it.

"Come on Peyton, there has to be something else we can eat tonight." I groaned joining her.

"Are we willing to go check the traps and see of we caught anything?" she asked not looking up.

"Seeing as you won't. I guess I'll have to." I sighed.

"Five years on the place and your attitude is still the same."

"Five years on this place and I still don't like you." I shrugged. "I was mom and dad's favorite for a reason."

"You were adopted." She called out as I walked into the little forest that covered ninety percent of the island.

"Just proves the point that I was actually wanted." I smiled not looking back at her.

You'd think been stuck together for so long would make us closer. We are in some weird way. Insulting each other just feels normal. We've been doing it all our lives. That's what having a sibling is like. It's hating and loving someone all at once.

Peyton and I were two different people. She was put together, humble, hard working and the smartest person I knew. If the fact that we didn't always mention that I was adopted wasn't any indication that we weren't biological sisters, our appearances spelt it out. She had fiery red hair and these big green eyes. Freckles dusted her nose and cheeks. I on the other hand had golden blonde hair and bright blue eyes. No freckles or blemishes or anything.

As I made my way through the trees and towards the first trap I heard a twig snap behind me. I ignored it completely; it was probably a ferret or something. The first trap was completely destroyed when I got there. And it looked like something big had taken it down. There were no big animals on this island. Just wild rabbits, ferrets and hedgehogs.

"What the hell did this?" I asked myself looking around to see if there was any sign of what may have done this.

After seeing nothing I got up and cautiously made my way deeper in to another one of the traps Peyton and I had set up. This time as I made my way deeper into the forest I felt like I was being watched. A chill ran down my spine as I glanced around the dense trees and spotted nothing.

Calm down Thalia there is nothing here.

Pulling out my dads knife I walked deeper. I felt like prey. Waiting for whatever predator was watching me to jump out and devour me. Luckily nothing did. The second and third traps both had rabbits in them. After grabbing both I made my way back to the beach. The feeling of being watched still present.

"Do you think there are any other animals on this thing." I asked Peyton that night not taking my eyes off the tree line.

"What do you mean?" she asked poking the fire.

"Something big destroyed one of our traps."

"Like a deer. If there was anything big in there we would know by now. It was probably one of us that did it accidentally."

"Yeah you're probably right." I sighed. "I think I'm finally going insane."

"You've always been insane Thalia." Peyton chuckled. I shoved her aside and helped turn the meat that was almost down cooking above the fire.

"If we get off this thing we should have a documentary. Or a survival show."

"There are already too many of those." She said rolling her eyes. "We can right a book."

"Or make a movie." I suggested. "Sounds better than a boring old book."

"I'll pretend you didn't just say that."

I went to sleep that night telling myself Peyton was right. If there was anything big out there we would have found it by now. My instincts told me otherwise, but I ignored them. Falling asleep with no knowledge that I wasn't the only one in the room. That the same thing that was watching me earlier was doing it now. Cloaked by the darkness, completely unmoving.