Bluff

The hail only just eased up in the last five minutes and it made everyone on board the yacht more agitated.

Even the naturally stoic Zinc felt disturbed by the restless rumblings of the sea.

Above them the white gulls made frantic squawks that he could hear through the transparent glass.

Charm woke to find herself lying down on a couch, the only female surrounded by men.

Yet none of them were paying her any attention.

She was grateful for whichever kindhearted soul that put a blanket over her underwear clad body while she was knocked out.

The yacht was bobbing from side to side, making quite a few on board nauseous and only one person noticed that she had awakened.

Charm wondered if the Nietzsche saying, 'that if you gaze long enough into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you,' would apply here.

"You're finally awake," muttered Zinc as he moved to stand beside the bed but still giving her a wide berth.

Charm couldn't tell if Zinc was happy or sad; his facial expression was completely devoid of emotion.

The sound of his voice jolted Charm out of her reverie and seeing Zinc's face brought back memories of the two of them alone on the beach.

Alarmed she pulled back the sheet instantly to look at her leg where she had come in contact with the poisonous fish.

Zinc's eyes narrowed as his cold gaze followed the direction of her thoughts that were written plain as day across her face.

It couldn't be that she remembered his healing of her body.

He had done the incantation spell properly and she had black out as expected while draining the last of his energy.

She scanned the entire surface of skin, even pressing down hard to see if she felt pain.

Nothing, it was completely healed and blemish free.

To her chagrin no one else in the room noticed that she was awake.

Probably preoccupied with their own thoughts concerning the shelf life of the yacht.

The rest were too busy staring out through the large window at the dense gray mist lying across the sea which looked ominous in itself.

Brendan was sitting in a corner by his lonesome questioning his life choices.

For him no matter how much money was spent on the yacht to make it indestructible mother nature had a way of laughing at humans and calling them on their bluff.

The sky had completely darkened and blotted out the sun while the rising waters continued to swell heavily while lapping against the yacht. 

The water just kept getting rougher tossing the yacht high before dropping it low once more.

Forty five minutes had passed and still there was no sign of Isla Serpiente Brendan began to get frustrated with the Captain who kept repeating, "where almost there."

"He keeps repeating that like a robot," he complained to Adam.

Adam being the peacemaker of the group pulled him from out of the Captain's sight.

Feeling that it wouldn't do to frustrate the man responsible for them and who held their lives in the palm of his hands while he navigated the ship.

Brendan felt like Adam was putting him in timeout like he was some kind of unruly child and he told him to, "get the hell out of my sight."

That explained the reason why he looked so broody and alone sulking in the corner.

Since nothing had gone Brendan's way from morning.

What was supposed to be a last hoorah before he started at his new school turned into a living nightmare.

Yet it was more to it than just being moody and out of sorts.

Even as he shared the room with his so-called friends just knowing that one of them tried to kill him earlier made him uncomfortable to be in the same room as them. 

Also, it would not reflect well on him to go about accusing his trusted friends without proof since it would just make him look like a complete fool.

Whoever the attempted murderer was, he was smart too.

Made sure to attack Brendan at a blind spot, an angle where none of the camera's on the yacht could reach.

Just knowing that they did their 'homework' well did not sit well with Brendan, a person like that would not stop trying until they succeeded. 

Six of them were originally on the yacht, five friends plus the Captain.

Now that Zinc and Charm joined the crew it brought those on board the yacht to eight. 

The Captain came down below to check on Charm seeing her awake he breathed a sigh of relief.

"You," the Captain said while tossing a life jacket Zinc because he was the closest to Charm, "help her put on the lifejacket."

Since some of the guys were fumbling with the life jacket the Captain demonstrated while he continued to talk.

"As for the rest of you, if you hear an alarm go off all of you are to head to the deck immediately but that's only in case of an emergency."

The Captain quickly inspected the bunch to make sure everyone did as told.

"The chance of that happening next is next to zero, this is the Zephyr. The latest edition with the finest state of the art nautical technology. Not even God himself can sink this ship."

The Captain chuckled at his own joke and it became even louder when he saw the blanched faces staring back at him as he made his way back upstairs to navigate. 

"What's going on?" Charm asked Zinc confused while he helped to put on the life jacket.

His hand fumbled with the strap at the sound of her voice and he accidentally brushed against her bra with his right hand.

Zinc's face turned beet red but Charm knew it was an accident so she ignored what happened and yanked on the edge of Zinc's T-Shirt.

"While making our way to the pier the strangest thing happened, several waterspouts formed and the water became turbulent, so the Captain felt it was better to avoid it and changed the final destination to Isla Serpiente," he tried to make it sound as simple as possible but it did not look like he succeeded.

Before she could ask him to clarify further, the guys yelled out loud whoops.

Giving thanks to the heavens that soon they could set foot on dry land.

Finally the island was in sight, everyone got to their feet to stare through the window.