Round One of the Shipwreck Creative Writing Challenge Option 1: Amanda’s Honeymoon

The idea behind this contest, is to pick a beginning of a story in which @steemfluencer has begun and continue the story. Each of the stories are about passengers boarding a ship that has historically been involved in a shipwreck. I picked option 1: Amanda’s Honeymoon.

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Amanda woke up teased by the sounds of the teapot whistle. Rayan has just finished preparing a tasty breakfast. She stayed one last minute in the bed trying to imagine their trip today. They were going to a beautiful island of Java. She felt so excited about everything that she couldn’t stay in the bed anymore.

It was her who suggested a ferry trip to the exotic island. They were enjoying their honeymoon in a five-star hotel on the beach line. As beautiful as those beaches were, and as much fun as they were having, Amanda couldn’t help but be excited to visit Java with Rayan. The cultural experience alone was worth the two-day ferry ride.

Amanda became a famous fiction writer residing in her favorite house at Monterey with a view over the bay. One autumn night, one year ago she presented her latest fiction novel at one of the San Hose’s art galleries. And there she met him. He approached her holding a glass of red wine and asked her if she would give an interview for Reed Magazine. That was her future husband Rayan.

About a year later they got married and here they are. They were all over themselves enjoying the beginning of their family life. They planned to have two children, the first of which they tried their best to conceive the night before. Amanda still blushed at the thought.

She ate the tasty Bubur Ayam and finished her cup of Jasmine tea that she enjoyed so much! Rayan carefully finished packing their things, being sure to check the bathrooms and couches for forgotten items. He didn’t want to leave anything behind because they would not be here again.

Once she was done with the makeup, Amanda took Rayan by hand and they quickly escaped from the hotel with broad smiles on their faces. Rayan would have rather visited Ireland for their honeymoon, but this is what Amanda always wanted. He hoped once they were home, she would give up her life of traveling. But, then he knew better than to think she would ever want to stay still.

Ten minutes later they arrived at the port and saw a beautiful white board of their ferry Senopati Nusantara.

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The memory now seemed to have happened years before. Amanda had wished it was a distant memory, but that was less than 24 hours ago. Looking around her, she could still see remnants of the ship and the passengers’ belongings washing up on shore. In her mind she could still hear the screams.

The first three hours of the ferry ride, Amanda and Rayan enjoyed the landscape of the trip. The ferry was very crowded, but in the evening, they managed to find a nice, quiet spot in the dining room. They ordered drinks and talked about the new upcoming year.

They had both carved out time in their schedule to make this trip. They had both dreamed about the romantic ferry ride, and the destination of Semarang, Java. Amanda had their entire trip planned. They would spend the first of the days visiting the temples, and then on the third day, she had planned a nature trip for them. It all seemed like nonsense now.

Amanda watched as other passengers scrambled to find items from the wreckage. There had only been a handful of them that made it to the beach. Her arms were still sore from the swim. Had she and Rayan not seen the life raft, they would have gone down with the ferry. As much as they swam, they never did reach it.

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It was the storm that had awoken them some time during the night. Rayan rushed to the deck to see what was happening. When he returned, he was panicked. She could hear the commotion in the hallways. Then, she heard the screaming.

When they left their cabin, Amanda could see the entire ship had began to shift to its side. She tried her best to keep her balance, as they fled the lower chambers, and reached the top deck. People were out of their minds with panic, and fear.

Rayan saw the life boat out in the water, and then put a life vest on Amanda. “I overheard one of the crew say there is not enough of these to go around.” He said, and then tightened her strap. “Don’t let go of my hand. We are going to have to jump.”

Amanda thought he was crazy. But, as they made their way to the port side of the ship, she could see the other side sinking. She knew that the ferry was going down, and that the crew did not have a handle on this situation.

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Now, they stood there waiting. Amanda estimated that they had been on the deserted island for about seven hours by the time the sun greeted the day. Seven hours of darkness and uncertainty. The sun helped to light up the beach, and she could see the drowned, bloated bodies floating in a nearby bay.

She could smell the dead sea smell of the ocean plants, and even the salt in the air. Such a contrast to the Jasmine tea she had drank just a day earlier. Not exactly how she imagined spending their honeymoon, or the new year.

She wished now they had not made the trip, but Amanda being the creative soul that she was, had found a solution to every problem along the way to that ferry, and had overcome all the obstacles preventing them from having the perfect escape from reality.

Little did she know that she was not escaping anything but was in fact sealing her fate here on this island. Rayan didn’t want to say a word, but he knew what she was thinking. “You couldn’t have ever known this was going to happen.” He said.

But his words brought her little comfort. She wondered now, if they would ever be rescued, and tried her hardest not to think of what it would be like if they could never leave.

“If we get rescued…” Amanda began.

“When we get rescued…” Rayan corrected her.

“When we get home. I never want to travel again.”

The End

Made by @son-of-satire