CHAPTER 11

Miguel slowly opened the paper, his hands faintly trembling. He felt like they were in the middle of a movie, first with crashing onto the island, then with the shipwreck he found. He opened the sheet of paper fully to reveal a scroll, with untidy handwriting on it.

"What does it say?" Tory asked, just as intrigued as him. Miguel squinted and leaned closer to the paper as he attempted to read the peculiar handwriting under the low evening light…

The HMS Cornelius was a beast of a vehicle, taking to the seas in 1799. Deemed the vessel of the future, the Cornelius was due to sail many a voyage in its lifetime but tragically its time was cut short. For on its maiden voyage, set to travel from Houston to Madrid, a fire in the engine room swiftly spread across the entire ship, damaging it beyond repair and causing it to sink somewhere in the Gulf of Mexico. All of the passengers on the ship died, all but one. It is said that a certain Mr. Jonathan Phillips survived the wreck, making it to a unique, star shaped island with nothing but his most prized possession: his 1010 carat diamond. Valuated at 200 million dollars, Phillips refused to let the diamond sink to the bottom of the sea and instead hid it somewhere on the island. He eventually died there, explorers never finding his remains when they discovered the island many, many years later. All they found was a note he had carved into the side of a tree, stating that just before his death, he had buried the diamond somewhere on the island, to be found by someone worthy of finding it. Many scoured the star-shaped island, searching desperately for the near priceless gem, but much to their dismay, their searches yielded nothing. They eventually gave up, many even doubting that the diamond was still there, leaving the island once again unmarked by mankind. Throughout the years, the island was forgotten about by mankind, nobody even knowing where it is. The only sign that the island had ever been discovered is the diamond, ever waiting, ever hidden…

As Miguel finished reading the bottom of the page, his voice trailed off in shock. This was definitely not what they were expecting, but it wasn't at all a bad thing. Even though they had no clue whether it was true or not, it gave them something to talk about for the rest of the night. They talked about whether it was true, where it could be, how they could find it. Even after they had eaten and built a fire, when it finally came time for them to sleep, they were still talking about it. The two lay down together for the first time in nearly a year, sharing body warmth as Tory lay with her head resting on Miguel's chest, their bodies intertwined, both staring up at the glittering night sky above them. They were both perfectly at peace and a long, comfortable silence overtook them. As Tory rested her head on her boyfriend, she listened to the steady sound of his heartbeat. She couldn't believe how close she had come to losing him so many times in the past few days. The plane crash itself, the crocodile, the shipwreck… all of these things had given her new gratitude for what she had, and made her extremely happy that with Miguel, despite the hopeless circumstances of the island, she was exactly where she wanted to be. She thought about everything that had happened over the past few years and realised that she loved life most during her time dating Miguel, and she didn't know what she had done to be able to feel a fraction as happy again, but she wasn't going to complain. In fact, she tightened her grip on him every so slightly, and feeling that, Miguel did the same, kissing her softly. On the island with Miguel, there was nobody there. No society to incense their hatreds. No karate war. No stress about Tory's living situation. Everything that contributed to any negative emotion either had was gone, so they were able to feel more free, be more vulnerable, with each other than they ever had before.

Suddenly, the sound of waves in the distance lightly crashing against the shore was interrupted by Tory.

"Hey, when we find the diamond and split the 200 million…" She said. That's what they had decided earlier that day. As soon as they got off the island, they were going to go looking for that missing diamond, find it and then split the money between them. "What are you going to do with your share?"

Miguel thought for a moment about this. What was he going to do with it?

"I don't know." He replied, honestly. "Donate it all probably."

Tory looked up at him and raised an eyebrow.

"Donate the whole 100 million dollars?" She asked, surprised. "Seriously? You're not gonna at least buy a nice house? Nice cars? I mean that money is more than enough to retire on."

Miguel nodded.

"I know it's a lot. But I wouldn't want to keep it myself." He replied. "I mean don't get me wrong, it's not like I don't want a mansion or a garage full of Ferraris or any of that. It's just… it'd feel a lot sweeter having earned them myself. What would be the point of life if I don't have to work, don't have to do anything for myself. I'd just wake up, do something superficial, sleep, repeat. Not my kind of thing. Besides, there are a ton of people in the world who need that money more."

As Miguel finished speaking, Tory looked down. Although he didn't mean to, Miguel always made Tory secretly feel slightly bad. It would make her realise how insanely out of her league Miguel really was. How much better of a person he was. Of course Miguel never gave any inclination of thinking that was the case - he always treated Tory like she was the one who was out of his league - but Tory knew. And the first time around, Tory never mentioned it to Miguel but this time, too scared to mention it to be honest. But this time, Tory decided to speak up.

"Hey, Miguel? Can I ask you something and you have to answer honestly?" She asked. Miguel nodded.

"Sure, fire away." He said. Tory took a deep breath.

"Do you think last year, if you weren't still broken and lost over Sam, you still would've chosen to go out with me and stayed with me?" She asked, in a quiet, vulnerable voice that Miguel had seen so little of from his normally fierce girlfriend. Her question took him aback, especially everything he had admitted about their relationship to her the night before, so he had to raise an eyebrow as he looked at her.

"Tory…" He murmured, staring into Tory's soulful amber eyes. "If you think that that was why I wanted to be with you… because I was broken… then I am truly sorry because that means I didn't make you feel important enough to me and so I failed as a boyfriend."

"You didn't fail, Miguel." She mumbled. "I was just being…"

"Tory, I didn't fall in love with you because I was lost. Or lonely. Or broken. Or needed to be fixed." Miguel told her. "It wasn't about me. It was about you. And how despite however pitiful and depressing I was, you saw through that. Saw the me I truly was and managed to bring that back in a way I hadn't managed to do myself in… well, ever. You showed me how to live in a way I had never done before and that's when I fell in love with you because after getting to know you, and who you are, I wanted to make you a permanent part of my life. And I still feel that way about you now. I was so scared of my feelings that I made one of the worst mistakes of my life that night at the party with Sam. But I'm smarter than that now. I understand my feelings, overwhelming as they may be. I don't want you for a night. Or a weekend. Or a week. I want all of you. I wanna sleep with you. Wake up to you. Live my life with you. And I want to build memories because with you… that's exactly where I want to be."

A lone tear trickled down Tory's cheek as she listened to Miguel talk and when he was done talking, she rolled on top of him, pulling him into a long kiss. In that moment, their love for each other practically radiated, making out for several moments before they had to break apart for air.

"I love you so much." Tory murmured against his lips.

"I love you too." Miguel replied, kissing her again. At that moment, Tory's lack of clothing became extremely obvious to the both of them, and Miguel soon mirrored that. The two made love long into the night, before eventually falling asleep in each other's arms.

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The next morning, Miguel's eyes slowly opened his eyes to see that the sun had fully risen. They had slept in after their long night, and Miguel couldn't help but smile as he thought about it. It had been his first time, and it was with a girl he truly loved… it was one of the best nights of his life. He immediately felt extra weight on his arm and looked down to see Tory sleeping, her head resting against it. He sighed contently as he watched her for a while. She looked so peaceful. Untroubled. With all the crap Tory was being forced to face in her life, it was a welcome sight. Suddenly, at that very moment, Miguel heard a noise…

It was a noise Miguel had never heard since he had gotten into the island. A loud sound that sliced through the air, silencing all of the chirping birds. It was so out of place, like a polar bear in the savannah. It was the sound of a motor in the distance, far out at sea. Immediately, he gently shook Tory, trying to wake her.

"Tory, hey Tory." He whispered. Tory's eyes snapped opened moments later, initially tense but relaxing quickly as she remembered her surroundings.

"Hey." She mumbled sleepily, kissing him.

"Tory, Tory listen!" Miguel exclaimed, pointing out towards the sea, unable to hold in his excitement. They were getting off the island! Someone was out there! They could save them! Tory heard the sound and she shot to her feet, her ecstatic expression matching Miguel's.

"Oh, my God! A ship!" She shouted. Miguel nodded and hand in hand, the two raced out towards the beach. As they stared out at the water, they could vaguely see the boat in the distance. Over the sound of the engine, It probably wasn't close enough to hear them shout, so they knew they needed a different method of getting their attention. Along with their yelling, they quickly managed to rebuild their fire to full-strength, smoke billowing into the sky.

"HEY! OVER HERE! HEY!" They both yelled, waving their arms and jumped up and down in the water wildly. They both prayed the boat would hear them, wouldn't just turn away and sail away with noticing. For this was their first sight of human civilisation since crashing onto the island and for all they knew, their last. For a heartbreaking moment, the boat seemed like it was turning away from them, preparing to sail off, but thankfully, it continued turning until it was facing towards them, soaring through the waves in their direction. As it did, a MASSIVE relief rushed through Miguel and Tory's bodies. The two embraced tightly, tears of joy streaming down both their faces. They were getting off the island!

"You know, I might actually miss this place." Miguel remarked as he watched the massive ship sail their way. Tory raised an eyebrow.

"No you won't." She replied. Miguel nodded.

"Yeah, you're right I won't. Fuck this place." Miguel responded. Tory laughed, squeezing his hand in jubilance. She couldn't believe it. She was less than 24 hours from seeing her mother and brother again!

But as the ship got closer and closer, Miguel got a feeling that something wasn't right. Despite the ship clearly noticing them, it had made no attempt to communicate with them. In fact, Miguel couldn't even see a single member of crew on deck. That continued for a while as the boat drew nearer and nearer, until suddenly it happened…

Just as the ship drew extremely close to the shore, the crew members leapt up from beneath the upper deck, revealing themselves to Miguel and Tory. Their hearts stopped and they were immobile in shock. These weren't crew members. These were pirates, who had clearly hijacked the ship! Miguel and Tory tried to turn and run but it was too late. The pirates quickly made it over to them, knocking them out and carrying them onto their ship…