Isola

They were going to spend a week on an island located in a remote lake in the northern forest, and their parents were fine with that. They were driven to the lake and then unloaded their tent, food, and essentials into a boat, then waved their parents off.

They all called their parents on their phones to make sure they had a signal, which was not great, but it worked. Then they sailed off to the isle of Isola for a week away from everything.

Tying the boat up the checked their phones again, and on the island, there was no signal, but they were ok with that. If they needed to call, they just needed to go to the far shore, inconvenient but not an issue.

They put up the tent and lit a fire. Tonight's meal was just going to be beans on toast, as long as the fire kept going.

The island was not that big, but it had a sandy beach, and the trees were fairly close together, so they could not see side to side. Tomorrow would involve a little exploration, but that would be when it was light.

Someone joked that there were no locks on tent doors and they would have no privacy from each other. They were really going back to nature here. Because of the trees, they had a little privacy and dug a few holes in the ground to use as latrines.

During the night, the wind blew, and it rained, but the tent kept them dry. They checked their phones during the night, but there was absolutely no signal. They had brought solar chargers, so they had power and could keep in touch with each other on the island via their phone signal wifi connections.

Finally, they were asleep.

In the morning, they knew there was something wrong. One of them was missing, but their clothes and phone were still in the tent on top of their sleeping bag.

Maybe they were having a naked wander around the island, but there was no sign.

"We need to call our parents. This is not good"

They knew they would have to sail to the far shore to make a call, but when they got to the boat, it was gone. The tie-up cable was in the water, not broken or snapped, just disconnected. They had been four and now were three. Had four absconded with the boat? If they had, they had done it naked and with no phone, and the far shore was twenty miles from anywhere.

The other thing they realised was that none of them could swim, so they decided to wait and see if Four came back.

Another night, and in the morning, there were only two.

The situation with Three was the same as with Four. The remaining pair searched the island, but there was no sign of Three.

One and Two were scared. They were certain that tomorrow morning there would only be one of them left, and the following day they would all be gone.

Something was taking them one by one, and there was no way they could escape. They held each other and cried themselves to sleep, certain in the knowledge that they would not be together in the morning.

🪦☠️🪦☠️🪦☠️🪦☠️🪦☠️🪦☠️🪦☠️🪦☠️🪦☠️🪦☠️🪦☠️🪦

What they were unaware of was they had been chosen by their village as a sacrifice for the prosperity of the village.

Shadowy figures said that for the souls of four young people of the village delivered to Isola, the village would be prosperous for twenty years, and then the same sacrifice would have to be made again.

This had been happening for centuries though no one knew what lived on Isola and why it needed souls, but the elders ensured that prosperity continued by sacrificing the sould of the chosen young.