Silence Follow story

It was the day I thought everything I hoped for would finally come true, it was the last summer break before college and my childhood best friend invited me to spend a week on a boat. We didn't get along well the past few years, he became captain of the football team and I felt well spending hours over hours in the library sticking my nose into old books. He loved the loud parties after the games, and I enjoyed the silence and company of nothing but written words.

Maybe this short trip would bring us together one last time before we head to college and start meeting each other surprisingly when visit our families on the holidays.

The fact that other friends of him would join us on the trip didn't bother me much, I planned to focus on our friendship and maybe find some inspiration to write a new story. A story I could send to all the publishers that probably threw all my other manuscripts into the trash.

The first three days I had lots of time to write, because he was busy with his so-called girlfriend, while I knew every wave, he knew every corner of the rooms of the boat.

Day four started with something smashing against the boat, it must have been big and heavy enough to wake all of us in just one second. As soon as we made it out of the beds to the upper level, we couldn't find anything that could have caused such noise, but it caused something worse. There was water running through some cracks in one of the rooms. Just some minutes later, we found ourselves panicking and trying to get the water out while my best friend tried to get someone to help us. By then, we didn't know how far we were from where we supposed to be at that point. None of the phones were working, and the compass was going crazy as soon as someone was stepping closer.

Day five almost made us give up, no one of us got sleep and the ocean was about to swallow the rest of the boat that was still above the water. But, as I said, almost. I was watching the waves crashing and mysterious, disappearing in something that looked like fog. There was no chance for us not to get through it, after all the waves we were disappearing in it too. What we found after the fog made us wish it was just a bad dream, and we would wake up after a party somewhere next to a stranger or naked next to a pool.

This place was dark, darker than everything I knew, and my hobby was sitting in dark huge halls surrounded by dead writer's words and just the small lamp on the desk in front of me. All I could see was the blurry silhouette of my best friend staring into the dark. No, actually it wasn't dark where he was looking, there was a light.

A light coming from a lighthouse not so far away, without thinking twice we all jumped into the water heading to the piece of island that was barely surrounding the lighthouse. We were like moths flying into the light without caring about the consequences that could come with it. For now this island seemed more safe than the boat that was now sinking faster the closer we got to the land.

Once we stepped on the sand, the ship was completely swallowed by the ocean and the dark while the lighthouse kept pulling on us. Of course, we had to get inside, someone must be here, the light couldn't turn itself on, but there was nobody.

I suddenly felt sleepy like never before, and I wasn't alone with that, I sat down on the first steps of the staircase that was leading up to the upper levels, from here it looked way higher than the whole size of the tower from the outside. We didn't know what would come over us while we thought we were safe.

I woke up to a loud scream of one of the girls that was with us on the trip, before I could ask what was going on, my best friend was pressing his hand on my mouth. The rest of our group was hiding behind the couch, and the panic in their eyes was clearer than a glass of water. Silently, we moved closer together behind the couch. I have never been in such a silence, it was like nobody was breathing, we couldn't even hear the ocean outside until one of us couldn't hold back anymore. I never thought someone would ever regret to say these few words, just a simple "what in the bullshit is going on here?" changed everything around us. My hand that was holding onto the back of the couch felt like it was sinking into it, and the curtains behind us started to run down our backs and shirts.

The louder we were screaming and moving around, the faster we were surrounded by furniture that turned into a warm, extremely stinky substance. I've never been a loud person and besides dark libraries I was into horror movies too, not a single scream or word left my lips, I could swear that even my breathing became calm in a way that was very strange. I noticed the floor under my feet was still like it should be, I tried to gesture to everyone to be as quiet as possible and suddenly everything around us stopped and turned back to normal.

After a deeply relieved breath we thought we would be fine, but we were wrong this was just the beginning, I was able to see how each one of us fell to the ground into a deep sleep again. I hardly managed to sink down on the first steps again before my eyes closed too.

I woke up to everyone still deep asleep, and before you wonder, of course I went to check on them quietly. My next thought lead me upstairs to find out what was going on here. The further I got, the more waves I was able to hear through the walls and the small windows, I could feel some light touches of air crawling through some cracks in the wood next to the staircase.

A small sound behind my back almost made me fall backwards down the stairs, but a look over my shoulder was calming me down again. My best friend had the same idea and we both went higher to the top. As we reached the last steps, we were again in the dark. I was using my hands to make our way through the darkness until I was touching glass and the darkness suddenly disappeared. The lightbulb behind the glass was so bright that we could see all the way to the beginning of the fog, but as soon as I took my hands off it the darkness came back.

I put one hand back where it was before and used the other to give my friend a light push, he smiled and went downstairs to get the others. Not long time later he came back, alone, telling me they are gone, all of them without a trace with the door open.

We both went down the stairs again but ended up in shock as we noticed the door was gone. I was looking at the necklace around his neck, it was still the one we gave each other when we were kids and handed him my small notebook that I was carrying with me everywhere before I told him to run as fast he can once the door is back and not to look back for one second. I ran up the stairs again, as quiet as possible, reaching out my hand to the glass until the light came back and I heard the door shut after it opened to set my best friend free.

I don't remember how long I kept my hand on it, neither do I remember how much time went by since I last touched it. I got used to the silence, all its darkness and all I do is making sure nobody else will get lost in the fog and this lighthouse again.