Tom and Caroline fought a lot and since they got married and were with each other more, it only got worse. Therefore, they went away on a romantic vacation to try and spend some quality time together and solve some of their problems. It was sweet how Tom took out his time and planned to rent a private island for a weekend so they would have it to themselves.

The island was arguably small with one very tiny, old and dirty hut on it. Trees surrounded it and when the sun went down, the scene was beautiful. It almost looked like a post card. The crystal clear water with the white sandy beach made it incredibly tropical. Also, the various palm trees and hut had an effect that could not be explained. It smelled like heaven and looked like paradise.

Tom and Caroline got to this island by a boat; the boat took all of the couples to different scattered islands around Cuba. The program was called Getaway Forever and is set up so the people staying have a weekend alone on an island. What the couples were unaware of was that the program really meant you were getting away forever…

The first day was pretty relaxing; Tom and Caroline went swimming in the crystal clear ocean sea and caught and cooked fish. They had no worries that day and finally had some quality time together just like Tom had wanted. However, Sunday came along and Tom woke up from a nap in panic. Sweat was dripping from his forehead and down his back. It seemed like he had just woken up from a nightmare because he was breathing so heavily. Of course, this had woken up Caroline.

“What is wrong? Are you okay?” Caroline questioned Tom.

For some reason, he had a bad feeling that the boat was not going to show up that afternoon. After he had calmed down and Caroline reassured him that it would arrive, they packed and waited for the boat. However, Tom was right. They stood out in the sandy beach for hours waiting for the boat to come. It never did.

“How are we going to get home? What are we going to do? How could this have happened?” They started to question each other.

“There isn’t even cell phone service this far out! There is no way we are going to get home. We are going to be left out here to starve and die!” Caroline started yelling at Tom.

“Maybe the boat will come tomorrow,” Tom suggested even though he knew it wouldn’t.

Suddenly, it was like a light bulb clicked on in Tom’s head.

“I know what to do!” Tom exclaimed.

He was ecstatic. One of his favorite things to do was to sit and watch those survival shows on the Geography Channel.

“We need a stick. Go find me about a one-inch thick stick that is small enough for me to write in the sand with. Go!” Tom demanded.

Caroline had a confused look on her face. She thought to herself, “How is this going to help me get home?”

“Go on now!” Tom shouted.
By the time that Caroline came back, Tom had already found the stick that he had been searching for and he had written HELP in large block letters in the sand. Caroline understood that if any sort of airplane or helicopter flew over them, they would see their cry for help and hopefully come to rescue them.

“What are we supposed to do now?” Caroline asked. “Just sit here and wait for someone to find us?”

That is exactly what they did. Tom and Caroline waited on the island for three days. Luckily, there was a small stream on the island so they were able to drink that water and they had fish to eat. Anyone would’ve gone crazy out there. The both of them had to constantly rewrite HELP in the sand because the ocean waves kept continuing to wash it away.

On the fourth morning, Tom and Caroline looked horrifying. Tom’s beard was shaggy and Caroline’s hair was a mess. They only had the ocean water to clean them and nothing else to bathe in. They both noticed that there were thick heavy and dark clouds in the sky. The clouds almost looked unrealistic because of how dark and scary they were.

“Here we go again!” Caroline was getting very aggravated.

Tom and Caroline could not understand why the world was out to get them and why every single little thing kept going wrong. It was only straining and putting more stress of their relationship.

“The vacation was supposed to solve and help our relationship, not destroy us even more,” Tom explained to Caroline.

After he said this, the both of them heard a loud roar of thunder. This isn’t going to be good, they thought to themselves. Caroline was afraid of lightning, so she went into the hut to take a nap and bypass the time.
It started to downpour everywhere. Tom felt a wet drop on his head and looked up at the ceiling. Whoever had made the hut did not think thoroughly about the possible weather. Water was dripping all over the place.

“We are cursed!” screamed Tom.

Tom once again woke up Caroline and she noticed that water was dripping from the ceiling. Of course, all of their stuff was going to get soaked. Their sign in the sand was slowly washing away and they had absolutely no way of getting out of this terrible mess.

Hours went by and everything in the hut had been rained on. It was flooded as high as the table, and Tom and Caroline were standing in the middle without a clue what to do.
The rain had finally stopped when they suddenly heard a rustling of leave outside of the cabin. Following this sound were footsteps. Their hearts sunk to their stomachs with fright. Slowly and steadily they walked to the door to travel outside.
“Do you think it could be an animal?” Caroline asked Tom.
“Be quiet!” He yelled at her.
Once they got to the wet hard ground, they heard something behind them. Before Tom and Caroline had time to turn around and even see what was behind them, and odd looking man hit them in the head with two wooden sticks. They fell to the ground unconscious. The man had long shaggy hair with a thick black mustache. He was tall and skinny with fair skin wearing rain boots and a rain jacket. It looked like he had come fully prepared for the weather. Then, he grabbed a sixty-five pound weight out of the old black backpack he was carrying. Quickly, he fetched for a rope and tied the weight to Tara’s foot.

He picked her up and carried her out into the ocean. All of a sudden he heard a sudden rustle of leaves behind him. He quickly turned.

What the killer was not aware of was that Tom had woken up and saw what he was doing. Tom was hiding behind a thick palm tree scared for his life. Sweat was dripping from his forehead. He was panting with fear. He didn’t even have enough energy to think. What was he going to do? The attacker suddenly started walking towards him. All he could do was run.

In the blink of an eye, Tom began to sprint with fear written all over his face. Left foot after right, leap by leap, he ran for his life. Through the rocky wet sand and around the scattered trees, he had nothing on his mind but getting out of there.

Once he got to the other side of the island, he noticed a small paddle boat with a Getaway Forever logo on the side. Tom realized this was how the attacker got on to the island and decided that would be his way of escaping.

He sprinted to the boat with excitement and hopped onto the bench. He started rowing the boat away from the island when something strong grabbed onto the back of the boat. Various thoughts were going through his head at this point in time.

“I thought I already got rid of him! What is he getting out of attacking all of these people? What is he going to do to me? I’m going to die!”

He slowly turned around with his heart beating out of his chest. There the man was standing with the scariest look on his face. His dark green eyes looked like they were about to pop out of his head because he looked so incredibly petrifying. His chest was going up and down from breathing so heavily. His black rain jacket had some how been removed on his way chasing Tom; he was just standing there in a bloody white shirt.

“Bye, bye now Thomas,” he said in a deep and threatening voice.

Tom was about to ask him how he knew his named when the man pulled a knife out of his pocket. Tom had the biggest look of shock on his face when this happened. Suddenly, he saw an elderly looking man running from the jungle.

“Where do all of these people keep coming from?” Tom thought to himself.

Luckily, the killer did not see the man. Tom noticed when the man cocked a gun and pointed it towards them that he was not aiming for him; he was aiming towards the killer. He pulled the trigger twice and shot at his head. The murderer fell slowly to the ground.

The older looking man motioned him to follow him towards the shoreline.

“Follow me!” he shouted.

Once they got to the shore, Tom panicked when he realized that the tide was coming in and he had to save his wife. The elderly man and Tom ran to the other side of the island to find her floating in the ocean water. They ran through the water as fast as they could to try and save her.

“Grab her legs, I will get her arms.” Tom told the man.

They dragged her out of the water and tried to blow water into her lungs.

“Please! Caroline, wake up!” Tom shouted.

She coughed up a lot of water and began to breathe. Tom explained what had happened to her and freaked her out.
“My son and daughter in-law came here last year and never returned. Since then, I’ve been trying to come after who ever was planning to steal all of these people’s money.” the man told Tom and Caroline.
“I drove a boat here; we can go back home on it. I’m sorry for all of this,” the man said.
Tom picked up Caroline and walked towards the boat. He was just happy to have her alive despite what happened that weekend. From their horrifying experience, Tom got what he had wanted and they were a lot closer.