One by One

One by One

In a small town called Swift, there lived many warm - hearted people who had great families, fabulous smiles, and everything they wanted. If there ever was a flaw, it was merely that some of them did not have a job.

Then, on one day, a fancy paper that says a famous scientist wants to hire three people to participate in his experiment appears at city hall.

The most astonishing part was that all the employer wanted them to do is to survive on an island that was known to be a popular tourist site. However, there was one requirement that needed to be concerned; that one should be from the town of Swift.

Amazingly, a rumor was told to friends, but only four people volunteered for the job.

One was Andrew Tucker. He was a young man with piercing eyes and he was the kind of person who would have been followed by many women going after him.

The second one was Claire Bets. She was a lively college student who went to Swift College. She got numerous set of eyes when people heard the news of her because she already had a part time job as a private teacher that paid her well.

The third volunteer was Ethan Red. He was a silly old man who always said that he used to   be a detective before retiring but no one believed him.

The last one was Emily Meyer. She was a best selling author who wrote many novels based on her life. The people of Swift  celebrated Emily to go to Reggie Island because they knew a good book can be expected from her adventure.

Even though the four very different people didn't have any connections or personal relationships, they had two things in common; tremor of excitement and a feeling of timorousness.

Andrew Tucker had an absolutely monotonous life before knowing about Reggie Island. If he was ever interested in ladies, it would have been a fabulous life but he never showed any signs of it which made the ladies who were smitten with him feel heavyhearted. Heading to the port of Swift, he daydreamed about his life in a state of tranquility.

Walking along a sidewalk with a old bag over his shoulders was Ethan Red. Recalling his glorious days as a detective, he was humming along a song that was sang by the street musicians. He began to wonder, would anything mysterious happen on Reggie Island? He hopes so, a life without a mystery would be so tedious.

Dark, bright, dark, and bright again. Emily Meyer continuously closed and opened her eyes to get things straight. She was going to Reggie Island. Wow, that beautiful island, she grabbed her notebook and a pen the moment she heard the news. She smiled with a secret thought.

When Claire Bets arrived at the port, two men and an old lady were waiting for her. They were talking excitedly about Reggie Island. Only if they try to prepare for this trip by at least reading the booklet. We are not kids going on a school trip. She hoped that they will behave better soon.

When the four volunteers got on the ship that will bring them to their destination, they were very surprised about how luxurious the ship was.

"She is a very nice one, indeed," said Ethan.

"I agree, but aren't the wines the most gorgeous ones? Such delicacies! Would some of you like to have a sip of wine?," said Andrew. Both of the ladies rejected the offer.

There sat two men drinking and talking together. Andrew was especially obsessed with drinking the wine. In fact, he was already dancing around without clear eyes.

"I think I had enough," said Ethan. Even though Ethan was gone, Andrew kept on drinking until he was seeing yellow sky instead of a black sky.

Then he walked and walked until he was very close to the sea and then he walked straight into it. Andrew was swallowed by the sea.

The next day, Andrew was no where to be seen. The others were dumbfounded when they heard the news of Andrew missing.

"Where could he possibly be? We checked every room and it could not be the employer who made him move since he isn't here as well," said Emily.

"I think I know what happened. There were foot prints on the deck. He probably slipped since he was drunk," said Ethan.

"Poor man, but he should've realised that drinking wine without the owner's permission won't do any good."

Even though there was a depressed atmosphere in the morning, eventually the conversation shifted to another topic.

"I guess we didn't have enough time to introduce ourselves last night. Well my name is Emily Meyer and you might have heard of me because I wrote quite a lot of books," said Emily.

"Wow, amazing! I never thought we'd have a writer here! No offense, but you must have earned a lot of money, so why are you here anyway?"

Emily shortly laughed and continued, "To write something, of course! It sounded like a great journey, didn't it?" After talking for few hours, they got really close to each other and Claire carefully spoke of something strange.

Looking over a booklet that explained about their visit to Reggie Island, she said "There is a little poem like story on the back of this booklet, it is written like this,"

Today, I fought with three other girls. We used to be friends, but not anymore. I was going to apologize to them afterwards, but one girl died at a swimming pool because there were no life guards. Another one died fighting against me. What should I do now? I was going to say sorry but there is no one left except me.

"That's a bit creepy, seems like a diary of someone," said Emily.

"Probably not, I mean why would one post a part of a diary on to a booklet? Especially stories like this seem unusual,"  said Claire.

"Okay, okay. It's no big deal isn't it? Let's just move on, shall we? We should respect the employer's interest, alright?"

Nodding to Ethan's opinion, they all went back to their rooms

After a few hours, Emily suddenly screamed.

"Oh my god! Someone stole my necklace!" Ethan came running after the scream.

"Huh, huh? What happened, miss?"

"I lost my dear necklace. It was a beautiful gift from my father."

"Do you have any idea where it is? You might have lost it."

"Probably not, I had it right here before taking a shower."

"Okay, miss. Maybe you should run down to find Claire to see if she has any idea where it is. I'll look around the room, I am used to these kind of situations."

Nodding quickly, Emily ran down to Claire's room  and told her about what happened.

Surprised to hear the news, she closed the book that she was reading and said, "Oh, dear. I hope you find it soon. By the way, is there any chance of someone stealing it? It surely can happen."

"Oh, I never thought of that," said Emily. Thinking for a while , she came up with a suspicion.

"By any chance, do you think Mr.Red might have stolen it? I mean, he is a humble man and he is looking through my room."

"It makes sense. Hearing your story it seems like there is no other reason why he would want to look at your room as wanting to hide something like his footprints."

Furious at  the thought that Mr. Red that they trusted was a thief, the ladies marched down the room. Ethan was just trying to find the necklace in Emily's room when he was suddenly faced with two set of cold stares.

Emily first started, "Be honest, did you steal my necklace? It is not a belonging of yours, so hand it back!"

Claire continued on, " I should've known that there was something wrong about you, spreading rumors that you used to be a detective while you were nothing but a poor man!"

Shocked and hurt, Ethan said, "Don't you dare to speak of false truth! I might have been a humble man but I never spoke of something false in my past. How could you treat me like this, I was merely trying to help you!"

Wrong, wrong, and wrong! If you are keep going to refuse to talk with me, just go in your way!," said Emily. 

Leaving the room with a shocked face, he never came back again and never out of his room.

With two of the humorous men gone, there was only silence left between the two ladies. After a few tedious days, the news came by that only one person is invited to be a part of the experiment of the employer.

Even though Emily and Claire were in a state of exhaustion of handling so many tragic news, hearing this news made them upset.

Never ceasing to argue with each other all time long, the fight was unstoppable.

Click here for Ending 1

Click here for Ending 2

Click here for Ending 3