The Lost Island

Chatterbox: Inkwell

The Lost Island

The Lost Island

 

 

The man was wearing a black jacket; a size or two too big. The wrinkles of fabric along the back of rectangular body were easy to see, but the rest of him came together in patches and blips, like the pixelated screen of a faulty c-com. His face was all blurry, except for a traingular, pointed nose. He was wearing fingerless gloves in an odd color. Green, maybe. His hands were doing something, but it was too difficult to make out. There must have been something there. Anything at all. Some loud thought pulsing in his mind; some displacement around him that would garuntee a location. Some connection...it was getting closer, closer now. It had a sound, a shape. A letter? No, a word, a—

 

"Kennedy? We found the—" 

"Shhhh," the sudden interuption was cut off by another voice, but it was too late. The word was gone.

Kennedy banged his fist on his desk. The handmade wooden carvings of circles, squares, traingles, rhobmuses, and countless other geometrical shapes that lined his desk jumped. 

"Is five minutes of silence really that hard? Does every second of every day have to be filled with so much noise? I think that the world would be a better place if NO ONE talked at all!" He swatted a rectangle off of the table, which hit the floor near the doorway where his two friends were standing.

"For the record. It's been twenty minutes," piped up Laura.

"And you were just sitting there at your desk. You didn't look very busy," chimed in Justin.

"For the record," Kennedy retorted, "I was VERY busy. Where's Nadia?"

"I'm here! I'm here." Nadia Erdilaya's low, soothing voice dominated the room as she slipped into Kennedy's "office." Her petit form made her the shortest of the group, but she was the only one everyone listened to. Laura and Justin jokingly called her "Mom" behind her back. Nadia only dressed in one color at a time, and today, it was pale pink. There were pink lotuses flowering across her pants, and a matching headband tied back her short, dark hair. 

"I'm sorry, I tried to stop them," she continued her fingers straying up to her head to adjust a short, wide ringlet, "but they just wanted to tell you they found the man who was stealing from the dockworker's district." 

"Yeah, he was exactly where you said he would be. How did you even know about—"

Kennedy cut Justin off.

"That's not important. What's important is absolute silence. Why don't you two go home and we can meet again tomorrow?" He looked at Nadia, who easily took over. 

"That's a good idea. Laura, are you okay sailing home alone? It's getting dark. Maybe Justin could go with you."

"No way! I'm good to go," Laura replied, shaking her chin-length hair out of her face to reveal two bandaids crossed over her chin.

"If we got into trouble, I'd probably be more help than Justin. No offence," she said, giving a sideways smirk to her friend.

"None taken," Justin replied. But he rolled his eyes nevertheless as walked out of the room and tramped down the creaking stairs of the rickety house. Nadia softly closed the door behind them. Kennedy sat back heavily in his chair, playing with the edge of his white button-up shirt.

"I was so close this time," he sighed.

"To what, the island?" Nadia asked.

"A clue," he clarified, "something about the island, something about where to find it. It was some sort of—" he gasped and clenched his fist to the bridge of his nose, knuckles driving into the lines of pain around his eyebrows.

"I went too deep that time...but I was so close," he repeated.

"Kennedy, what if they're gone? What if the island really was destroyed?" Nadia had asked the question countless times. She asked it on the orphan's ship as days were filled with endless sea. She'd asked on dark nights while they moved from home to home, on the ferry boats, the long bus rides, or by windowsills in the moonlight. How many times had she asked in this very office, while staring at decrepid copies of the poems of Horace and the diagrams and shapes straight out of a Geometry text book that filled the room? 

Kennedy never answered. And as long as he didn't have an answer, Nadia promised to believe him until he did.

"Tell me about the island," she said suddenly.

"No. I can't."

"Don't tell me about that day," she replied, "just tell me something about your island. About the school. About the things you did there."

He was silent, and for a second Nadia wondered if she'd gone too far.

But then he spoke, slowly, without looking at her.

"We had a group...a club of sorts, my friends and I. A writer's club. We called ourselves The Chatterboxers."  

submitted by The Inscriptor
(October 10, 2019 - 2:41 pm)

bruh

*leans in*

BrUhhhHhHh 

This looks amazing! What is it and how do I sing up lol

(Also, Inscriptor, your writing paints cool visuals. I like it) 

submitted by Tuxedo Kitten, Playing Xbox with Hawkeye
(October 10, 2019 - 6:15 pm)

This is a solo write. I was poking around and saw a thread asking about more solo writes, and I coudln't resist. You can just sign up by commenting. Everyone will appear in the story. A description of your CB self is unnecessary but welcome. 

submitted by The Enforcer
(October 10, 2019 - 8:42 pm)

FLEET IS IN!!!

submitted by Fleet, Yaaaasss
(October 11, 2019 - 8:37 am)

Alright! Sounds great, Inscriptor. Consider me sold. 

submitted by Tuxedo Kitten , Playing Xbox with Hawkeye
(October 11, 2019 - 10:23 am)

Oh yah, appearance. I don’t really have a specific CB appearance, but I guess I’ll make one up. I have blond wavy hair, and wear white washed jeans, a sweatshirt and a jeans jacket on top, which has a painting of a wolf on the back. 

Also, I am a girl, but if there are too many girls (cause the CB is mostly girls lol), I guess you could change my appearance to a guy. It’s just a story :P

submitted by Tuxedo Kitten, Playing Xbox with Hawkeye
(October 11, 2019 - 3:47 pm)

I'll join. 

I'm not going to decribe myself. I'd like to see what you come up with. 

submitted by Tafinx, the storyweaver
(October 11, 2019 - 10:24 am)

I'm in, I'll give ya an appearance since I recently changed it:

Very tall, long ginger-goldish hair kept in a ponytail, pale tanned skin, faintly glowing ice blue eyes, wearing a lonngsleeved and longlegged skintight black bodysuit with a white symbol of a hawk with it's wings outstretched, black skintight gloves, and black slipper/sock foot coverings instead of shoes. 

I can also control and create water, ice, snow, or frost, if that's helpful.  

submitted by Nyx, age 12 years, earth
(October 11, 2019 - 11:00 am)

I’m in! BRUH ISH BEAUTIFUL

Appearance: Brown, short, curly hair, yellow and maroon oversized sweater-with a maroon beret to follow,- and since the sweater is oversized and reaches down to my knees... yellow tights, (don’t forget I’m short) black converse. Green eyes, rosy red cheeks, tan skin, freckles.

oh, and my personality. I AM SO FLIPPING HAPPY ITS INSANE(Please stand by, as La’Crosse has temporarily lost her sanity.) Okay, sorry. I’m bouncy and bubbly, but a tomboy. I love singing... even though I’m pretty bad ;-; 

submitted by La’Crosse, I’m here!!
(October 11, 2019 - 2:50 pm)

I'm in!
Discription! Personality: I am high energy, dramatic, and loyal.

submitted by Hummingbird, age 13, WA
(October 11, 2019 - 1:32 pm)

Count meh in. This looks great so far.

submitted by Dusk S., age ????, ????
(October 11, 2019 - 1:50 pm)

Whoah. That drew me right in, your writing style is so descriptive. I'll sign up!

submitted by Quill
(October 11, 2019 - 3:06 pm)

Oh yeah, and a short appearance. I have long brown hair with the ends dyed purple, tanned skin, freckles, and usually wear a t-shirt, jeans, and a maroon leather jacket.

submitted by Quill
(October 12, 2019 - 3:59 pm)

This looks awesome!! Count me in!!

submitted by Moonlight
(October 11, 2019 - 4:49 pm)

Totally in. :D

submitted by Rogue Wildling
(October 11, 2019 - 4:51 pm)

Here's a description of my CB self. 

Personality first. I'm energetic, though I can be very shy when I'm in a situation when I don't know anyone. I'm geeky, fierce, sometimes a little violent lol, emotional, smart, and witty. I tend to rush into things, and I have a tendency to say I'm fine when I'm not. I'm often quoting Star Wars and the Destiny games. And appearance: I'm fairly tall, with short hair that fades from teal to cobalt blue and violet eyes. According to my best friend, I have a very cute smile. I wear a black stocking cap, a cropped white hoodie with OH MY COTTON SOCKS on it in teal (a reference to my favorite video game, Destiny 2), and black yoga leggings. Also, black combat boots bc they are AWESOME. 

Kanib just repeated a Captcha!

submitted by Fleet, Running
(October 11, 2019 - 5:10 pm)