Ethan:
The boat was called the SS Aventura. No surprise as to what that translates to in English. The only adventure this is going to be is an adventure into a living nightmare.
The crew on deck was busy preparing for departure. There weren't many people on board to begin with, though the boat was about as big as a ferry. It was a double decker, with the top part being a completely see-through glass chamber.
The captain, from the looks of his terribly cliched hat, came down from the platform where he and another heavily muscled man stood earlier. A huge grin hung on the captain's tan face as he went over to shake Stefans' hand and give him a hug.
That was odd. It seemed like they already knew each other well.
"Aah, Stefan, it's so good to see you again!" His English was heavily accented, but it sounded different than the dialect of the locals, it sounded off, but I couldn't quite place what or why exactly.
"Yes, it is! It's been quite a while since I was last here." Catching sight of me, Stefan waved me over and introduced me to Captain Carlos.
"This is Ethan, my son." I stuck my hand out to shake his with an accompanying smile, but kept my mouth shut, for once, and observed silently. Something felt off. "And... my daughter..." Stefan stretched his neck to look around, spying a very pale looking Lana, who was just coming up onto the deck. "Oh, there you are Lana. This is Carlos, and," gesturing at the second man who stood silently, with his arms folded across his stomach, next to Captain Carlos, "this is Adrian, the ships' navigator." Adrian looked pretty hard core for a navigator. He was tall, and muscular, with a military tattoo peeking out from under the left shoulder of his dark v-neck.
"Nice to meet you." Lana looked freaked out, but relaxed some when she saw Carlos. He must of struck her as the non boat sinking type of person. It's way too easy to win over her trust.
"You look just like your father, querida, while your hermano, looks so much like your mother," he said, taking in Lana's pale alabaster skin she inherited from Stefans' side of the family. They were Italian, while moms' family was from the south. Another weird thing, he knows mom too, yet I don't remember ever hearing about him before today. I know it shouldn't matter, but something about it kept bugging me.
"So we will be leaving in about fifteen minutes, once we finish routine checks to make sure everything is in good condition." Adrian stated more for Lana's benefit than anything else before he followed Carlos back up to the steering deck.
"Isn't this exciting." Stefan was grinning happily, while I turned and walked as far away from him possible on the boat. Lana meanwhile, must have realized her best chance for not drowning or falling overboard was to stay far away from the rails, and closer to the awning at the center of the ship.
"Where...where are you both going?" I couldn't help but smirk silently at Stefan's confusion as I walked away.
At the other side of the boat, as I stood leaning against the railing, staring out into the horizon. The sun was still rising in the sky and the orangey-yellow sky contrasted magnificently with the dark ocean.
I looked over and counted the number of crew members. There was Carlos and Adrian, up by the steering wheel, two men working closely side by side, tending to the blinding white sails, and I knew there were two men below the deck. One was the cook, and I'm not entirely sure what the other one does. The last person on the crew couldn't have been much older than me. His short, gelled dark hair, was glistening in the morning light as he transported a coil of rope.
I turned away from my examination of the people who I'd be spending the next couple hours with, as I continued to stare absent-mindedly at the horizon.
I didn't want to come. I could have thought of a hundred other things to do than come. But I promised Lana that I would at least try to get along, and here we are barely a day in and my bad attitude is getting in the way. I want to be able to forgive Dad and move on, but as soon as I do that, he's just going to pack his bags and disappear for months at a time with no warning or contact. Abandoning us like he has done for half my life. And when it does happen I don't want get hurt and I don't want Lana to either.
"Frown any harder, and your face just might be stuck like that perpetually." I looked up to meet the dark eyes and ridiculous grin of the kid I saw earlier.
"Yeah, well, if you decide to smile any harder, you might as well become a rodeo clown. You won't need any makeup to keep that grin on." His infectious grin grew larger and I couldn't help but let out a small smile myself.
"Name's Damian." He stuck out a hand to accompany the introduction.
I paused before replying, "Ethan." What could it hurt to make a friend? I doubt Stefan and I will have a real conversation anytime soon and it looks like Lana's about to enter cardiac arrest. "Are you from around here? You don't have an accent like everybody else."
"Nah. I live in the states too."
"So what're you doing here then?"
"Parents sent me into exile, aka character building by spending the summer here, helping my uncle out with his boat."
A mischievous glint entered his eyes. " Got in trouble one too many times."
"You're Captain Carlos' nephew?"
"Yup. That's the one. But don't listen to all the rumors. Most likely they aren't true."
That piqued my curiosity. I knew something was off about that man. "What rumors are you talking about?"
"I guess you haven't heard then." Damian shrugged his shoulders and leaned on the railing. "Well for starters everyone around these parts thinks my uncle is crazy."
"Crazy?"
"Yeah, crazy. Out of his mind. Lost his marbles. Has a loose screw-"
"Yeah, I get it. Crazy. Why?" I interjected though I couldn't help smiling.
"Well my uncle's the only guy in these parts who took your dad up on the offer for a tour of these islands." He must have saw the confusion on my face. "You see, people around here don't want to go sailing around a few of the islands around here... they believe they're cursed or something."
The smirk on my face must have been huge.
"Yeah, every time people go sailing in that area, you never hear from them again. It's like the freaking Bermuda Triangle, only not as mysterious. They all probably lost control of their boats and crashed. The water around here is dangerous to an inexperienced driver. And the one guy who did make it back alive was a psychotic wreck. He was institutionalized." I stared intently at him, waiting for him to continue.
"He kept going on about giant lizards and monsters. He came back with all sorts of cuts and bruises. He claimed he was attacked by some giant monsters with sharp teeth who made weird bird noises." Damian glanced at me like he was trying to figure out if I bought all that crap. I was looking at him with a funny face, though I could tell he wasn't making this curse thing up just to scare me
"Let me guess the next part." I added my thoughts to the one sided conversation. "Your uncle doesn't believe in curses, and spites everyone else for thinking it exists."
"Right on. He was the only person around here crazy enough to give you guys a tour of the islands." Looking up towards his uncle Damian said, "Yeah I gotta go. I'm the official tour guide and it looks like I'm late."
With a wave goodbye he left, walking towards Stefan. The boat lurched and I heard Stefan curse. He dropped his phone in the lurch and now it was making its way to the sea floor. At least it wasn't my phone. I turned back around and resumed gazing at the horizon, pondering what Damian said.
Hours later I was gravely bored. I had probably walked around the ship a dozen times, sat up in the control room with Captain Carlos for an hour learning about steering, and consumed approximately three and a half sandwiches. Periodically I listened to Damian's seemingly never ending narration of the history of an irrelevant bunch of land sticking up out of the water with a bunch of trees sitting on that still very irrelevant land. The view though, was breathtaking and parts of what Damian was actually pretty interesting, especially how the five main islands were named after different methods of death.
Parts of a particularly loud conversation drifted into my ear, sounding undoubtedly like arguing. I turned around to see Stefan and Lana doing something that resembled arguing in the loosest form of the word, since Lana hates to argue, especially with Stefan. I walked over to see what all the commotion was about, hoping it would make this boring day a little more exciting.
"Come on Lana! You're missing out on all the fun! Damian was just giving me a detailed history about these islands."
"No thanks Dad, I already well informed about the history of these islands. Three hours of information is more than enough." The boat lurched a little, and I saw her jaw clench and face pale.
"Do you really want to just sit there and read for the rest of the ride?"
As I got closer I stealthily grabbed the paperback from Lana's hands ignoring her protests as I scanned the cover.
"Are you really reading Jurassic Park again?" I questioned as I tossed her book back to her, shaking my head grinning. I have to agree though, it is a great book.
"Whatever," she huffed as she stuffed the book back in her bag and pulled out her camera instead.
"Whoa, nice camera." Stefan reached out to get a better view. Lana's face visibly lit up. She's loves taking about anything to do with her latest- and so far longest- obsession, photography.
"You like it?" Lana grinned. "Mom gave it to me for my birthday last year.
"So I guess you're into photography then, right? With a camera like this? What do you take, color or black and white?"
I visibly cringed at this comment. I noticed Damian must have sensed something was off too, since he had already started silently backing away towards the railing. Family drama is something he really doesn't want to be sucked into. Lana's face drained and clouded over. Ever since she got that camera she's been taking these pretty amazing pictures and emailing them to everyone, especially Stefan, pretty much every week.
I watched as she took her camera back wordlessly, hung it around her neck, picked up her bag, and stormed off, seeming to momentarily forget her phobia, leaving Stefan staring after her with a confused expression on his face.
"What did I say?" I shrugged, there was no point in explaining now.
I should go talk to Lana. But just as I took a step forward, the boat lurched.