The Island of Ghosts

by

Gulnar Qurbanova

"The most important things are the hardest things to say. They are the things you get ashamed of because words make them smaller. When they were in your head they were limitless; but when they come out they seem to be no bigger than normal things. But that's not all. The most important things lie too close to wherever your secret heart is buried; they are clues that could guide your enemies to a prize they would love to steal. It's hard and painful for you to talk about these things...and then people just look at you strangely. They haven't understood what you've said at all, or why you almost cried while you were saying it."

             -Stephen King

Life is meaningless at all, but we tried to make our life interesting by doing different things and didn't know where these things would take us.

We were 4 friends, Denney, Bill, Tom, and me, Jim. I was the oldest. We used to spend time together by drinking, playing, doing dangerous things and were always scolded by our parents. This time our target was flying over the ocean by hot air balloon. From the balloon the view of the world looks different as if the world only consists of the ocean. There was a profound silence over the ocean. We were crying, yelling, didn't care what would happen at the end of our adventure, but it was brief happiness, it didn't last long. Instantly, the balloon began shaking. There was no storm in the ocean and they were wondering about why the balloon was shaking. The reason was unknown. Perhaps the gas was going to decrease. We threw ourselves in the ocean. Luckily, three of us were good swimmers, but one of us, Denney, couldn't swim. He was drowning. I grabbed him trying to save his life. He became unconscious with fright. It was very hard to carry an unconscious person in the water. We were swimming side by side. I got very tired, but didn't want to leave my friend in the ocean. I felt that I was out of strength and was drowning down towards the infinite depths of the ocean.

In 10 minutes we were on an island and we didn't know from where this island appeared. I put my head in my arms and drowned inside my sadness. The youngest member of our group, Tom, sat in this position the whole day rocking himself back and forth. He was talking to himself. We were all overcome with fright and sadness.

There was a deadly silence on the island. Only our whispers were filling that silence. We couldn't silence the voices speaking inside of us.

The next morning Tom was found lying on the bank dead. There was scratched "REVENGE" with big letters on the bank. We guessed that he had thrown himself into the ocean and the waves pulled him back to the bank. After Tom's death, we began to feel threatened and worried about our own survival. We had no way to escape from the island. We decided to have a look around the island. Fortunately, there were a lot of fruit trees. We couldn't find a shelter, so we spent the second night under the tree. It was a late night when we woke up with alarm.There was a strange voice around the island. We couldn't close eyes on that night. The next morning we decided to build a shelter for us. While walking we discovered footprints. We followed them. The island was big enough. We found a shipwreck on one side of the island. The ship had rust. Maybe this accident had happened many years ago. It was too late to return back so we slept near the ship, but this time the noises in the darkness were as loud as to make us deaf. Needless to say, the sounds came from the ship. The sleepless night made us more tired. Early in the morning when we saw each other we were afraid. We became older with white hair in one night. There was something strange on the island. If we couldn't find escape, definitely death would take our life from us. Suddenly I realized that I had heard about this island. It was called, "The Island of Ghosts" and no one could escape from this island. All of the people who were here had killed themselves. Now Tom's death was clear. The ghosts talked him into death. When I heard this story I hadn't believed this, but now I was inside this story. There were the ghosts of the people who died on the shipwreck. We didn't want to waste time. We rushed to do something for escaping. We made a raft and pushed it into the ocean, but we couldn't go far as if there was an invisible wall and our raft couldn't cross the wall. The ghosts were angry with us. They wanted one more sacrifice again. We had to return back. We were hopeless. I went to sleep when it was daybreak. When I woke up Bill wasn't beside me. I could hardly believe my eyes. He had choked himself from the branch of the tree.

There was a question in my mind. Why were the ghosts angry with us? Maybe they were not comfortable or were vengeful. I run towards the ship. Half of the ship was under the ocean. I wanted to check it. I tried twice, but couldn't hold my breath anymore under the water. Thrice I saw a figure under the water. I followed him and found the door of the ship easily. I picked up the bones of the dead people from the ship and buried them on the island. After finishing this work I thought it was time to go. I wasn't far from the bank when that figure who showed me the right way was standing on the bank gazing at me. It was the ghost of Denney who I couldn't save.