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I was torn betanting to cal to let myself be absolutely livid over this

"Where the fuck do you fucking get offfather! I don’t need this, this pseudo–parenting from some hypocrite like you!"

"Hypocrite?" he asked softly

"You had no right!"I said, ignoring hi ot it?" I leaned across the table and jabbed er at hi in my throat

He sed carefully and nodded, quick and swift

"OK"

He got up and started up the path Obviously, hethe tiniest bit I noticed my hands were cramped up into heated little fists I didn’t really knohat had coet the point of all of this I didn’t want to be babysat or policed by someone who didn’t knohich as up half the tis about him, his assumption that because he was older or that I was a fuckup, he kneas best Sometimes he did But that wasn’t the point

I walked behind hih the forest I was too irate to feel creeped out by the feeling of nothingness attrees left on the forest floor

Dex s the butts into the bushes I made a mental note to come back later and pick them up, but I knew that wouldn’t happen At least the chance of a forest fire was nil in this weather

It wasn’t until we reached the creepy glade, that I found ht at Dex’s back

"Did you see the raccoons when you ca hie stillness around us The wind didn’t see in another world of drippingleaves

He shook his head "No I didn’t but I got h here pretty fast"

I didn’t blame him I was still scared and I had so in silence as we left the glade behind us The closer we got to the other side of the island, the ain My hair was still wet from the water, which only added to the cold I started to wonder if maybe I would die of pneumonia at this rate I shoved my hands deep in the jacket pockets and hunched up ht e came to the well–trah the waving branches, seeing gli waves between them I couldn’t see the boat at first That ot off the path and the beach opened up, I saw her She was shuddering with each upward thrust of the colorless, foa

"She looks like she’s going to break away," I said to Dex as we carefully led trail and onto the slick pebbles of the beach The wind here was razor sharp and relentless It blew our jacket hoods straight back and messed up my hair within seconds

"I know I double–checked the rope though, and the anchor She should be OK"

With the choppy surf and increuess oing to be a bit of a challenge Dex had stopped in front of

I looked again at the Zodiac sitting high on the beach And realized why he was staring It was half the height it was before, the pontoons seriously deflated like a squished loaf of bread

"Oh fuck no! No, no, no, no," Dex cried out and started running towards it I followed

He reached the Zodiac and pushed his hands down on the wet pontoons They sank even deeper under his weight, a puff and hissing noise coht?" I asked hopefully, trying to squelch the panic that was bubbling up inside

He didn’t say anything He stood in the boat and bent over, inspecting the botto doith his other hand He didn’t have to say anything I could see ere fucked The Zodiac would sink like a stone

And now the panic was co fast I put my hand tostarted to sway and the world beca waves that crashed so close I closed ha panic attack would not do us any good here

Still if anyone needed a reason to panic, being stranded on a haunted island during a storood of a reason as any

"Fuck, no"

I openeda bit off balance, and looked at Dex He was looking up at ed," he said darkly

"What?!"

He pointed at the left and right pontoons near the back of the craft I stepped in the boat with him and kneeled down There were identical slash

"Could…could this have happened so this boat Those were not there"

"Maybe the equiplared atthe stupidest question in the world "It was not the equipear off on the boat and uploaded soe, I came back on here I drove it to shore The boat was fine If the boat was like this when I was on the water – I wouldn’t havethe slit The fabric was very tough and very thick The edges of the tear were serrated like someone had used a knife I told Dex that

"I know But who the fuck would do this? Who the fuck is here?"

I turned my head to his Our faces were only a few inches apart He looked closer to losing it than I was I wanted to say so about how adamant he had been earlier that there was no one else on the island but knew I shouldn’t presseasily today and he was too

I stood up and looked at the Mary Contrary, rocking and rolling in the waves She ht have been a short Zodiac jaunt away but there was no way she was in swi distance

"What do we do?" I asked myself out loud

"We have to co up beside me in a determined stance