Lady Retsiela’s Island

There were an endless amount of stories and rumors about Lady Retsiela’s Island. It was known for being occupied by demonic entities and witches. Old storytellers and believers knew that many who entered the island never left and only a few escaped to tell their horrific stories. There were reports of demons possessing their victims, witches performing cannibalistic acts, and ghosts of the victims roaming the land.

The island had about 25 acres of land, and it was 400 miles from South Jersey in the Atlantic Ocean. A few yards beyond the shore were thousands of colossal bloodwood trees that were occupying the majority of the land. What lies in the deeper part of the island is unknown.

The day was February 1, 2023. The sun was ready to set in about an hour.

A man in his late 20s, Josh Peters, was dragging a sailing skiff from the shores. After he parked his boat on the wet sand, he dropped his body out of exhaustion. Even though he had no clue about his location, he was relieved that he did not have to be alone in the middle of the ocean. He took a moment to catch his breath.

“This island better be the Bahamas,” Josh boldly said.

He slowly rose to his feet and looked at the bloodwood trees behind him and wondered what he would find beyond them.

Suddenly, he heard angry foul language from afar. After he followed the sound, he saw something about 50 yards away from him. It was a small plane with a man on one of its wings. At that point, there was a sign of relief because he knew that he was not the only person on the island. He started to walk over to the plane to see what the man was doing.

The small plane was a Honda HA-420 HondaJet. The other man, Steven Brown, was about the same age as Josh. He was having trouble repairing one of the engines which made him extremely disgruntled.

“This is a piece of crap,” Steven growled.

Josh finally approached the plane and looked up at Steven. “Hi there.”

Steven was a bit startled by the voice. After he gasped, he turned to Josh and was stunned to see another person on the island. “Oh, hi.”

“Are there other people here?”

Steven shook his head out of disappointment. “I didn’t see anyone.” He jumped off the wing to take a break from repairing the engine. “Looks like it’s just us. How did you get here?”

“By boat.” Josh pointed at his skiff. “It’s way over there.”

“Damn, where did you sail from?”

Josh was overwhelmed with embarrassment as he rolled his eyes. “It’s a long story.”

“I have time for long stories. It’s not like I’m going anywhere anytime soon.” Steven pulled out his hand. “I’m Steven.”

Josh reluctantly shook his hand. “Josh.” He noticed that Steven was wearing a green, black, and silver cap and recognized the design. It was a Philadelphia Eagles cap. “I see that you’re an Eagles fan.”

“Born and raised,” Steven proudly responded with a smile.

Josh gave him a hard stare and recognized him from his past. “I remember you. You’re Steven Brown! That loser in the Temple Owls.”

Steven came to a realization that he was stuck on an island with a man he despised during his college years. “I knew you looked familiar. You’re Josh Peters! The prick who stole my girl.”

“First of all, I didn’t steal Amy. She dumped you and started dating me. It wasn’t my fault that she chose to study at Penn State instead of Temple.”

“That’s a lie! She cheated on me, and the Penn State Nittany Lions cheated in our games.”

“I was the better man for Amy, and the Nittany Lions were the better team than the Temple Owls. Those are facts.”

“You can say that all you want, but one thing is for sure. I’m a better wide receiver than you.”

Josh laughed hysterically. “You just violated my ears when you said that.”

“Hey, I scored more touchdowns than you did.”

Josh angrily paced in different directions as his hands were on his hips. He felt defeated being in a life-threatening situation with a rival from college. He wanted to clear his head.

“Trying to think of a comeback?” Steven jokingly asked.

Josh abruptly stopped and glared at Steven. “There are about seven billion people in this world. Maybe eight. Of all the people I’m stuck with on this island, it had to be you.”

“Well, if you don’t want to be stuck with me, get on that rickety boat of yours and sail away. Find a different island. See if I care.” Steven climbed onto the wing to resume the engine repair.

“You dislocated my jaw during that barfight in 2016. I’ll stay on this island and make your time here a living hell as payback.”

“Just remember this. I’m the one with the plane. Once I get this engine fixed, I do have the power to leave you here on this island. But don’t worry. I’m sure Lady Retsiela and her minions will keep you company.”

Josh was in a state of confusion. “What?”

“Lady Retsiela. Have you heard of her?”

“No.”

Steven jumped off his plane and took a deep breath. “Lady Retsiela was a very powerful witch in the 1800s. She was from Maryland, and she did some crazy stuff in Maryland. She summoned demons and placed curses on a lot of people. She was also a cannibal and even turned other people into cannibals. When other people heard about what she was doing, they wanted to hunt her down to kill her. Supposedly, she escaped to this island, and this island became haunted. Lady Retsiela’s Island is what they called this place. If you come here, you either get killed or survive to tell people about your horror experience.”

Josh took the time to process what Steven told him. “So, what does she do to her victims here on this island?”

“Anything that involves pain. Also, there were stories that a few witches from other parts of the world came here to join her.”

Josh sighed out of hopelessness. “I was hoping that this was the Bahamas.”

“Look at those trees over there,” Steven chuckled. “Do they look like palm trees to you?”

Josh looked at the trees that were covering the deeper part of the island. “Sadly, no.” He turned back to Steven. “What makes you think that this island belongs to Lady whatever her name is?”

“Those are bloodwood trees. Even though they are popular in Australia, her island is known to have thousands of them on the Atlantic Ocean. So strange.”

Josh carefully walked to one of the trees. He made a thorough observation of the tree. He noticed the grayish-green lance-shaped leaves, the small lime-green round fruits, and the creamy white club-shaped flower buds. He turned his attention to the reddish-brown rough bark, and there was bright red sap oozing from one of the cracks. He widened his eyes and nonchalantly went back. “You’re not kidding.”

“You know something. I wouldn’t worry too much about the island. Both of us are still alive. The stories are just rumors. I also heard that Lady Retsiela actually drowned at sea when she was trying to sail away. They found her body and burned her.”

“But what is the truth? She’s here killing people on this island? Or did she drown?”

“Who knows? These are just rumors. Crazy stories that people tell each other so they can hear each other talk. I wouldn’t worry about it.” Before Steven climbed back on the wing of the plane, he noticed an arrowhead tattoo on the left side of Josh’s neck. He realized that it was a Kansas City Chiefs tattoo, and a look of distaste emerged on his face.

“What the hell are you looking at?”

Steven sneered. “Are you kidding me? You’re a Chiefs fan?” He sighed and sarcastically said, “This gets even better.”

“You have a problem with that?”

“I thought you were an Eagles fan.”

“I have been a Chiefs fan since day one. My whole family is from Kansas City. I moved out of Missouri only to study at Penn State.”

“It’s too bad that you will watch your team lose the Super Bowl this year.”

“Chiefs played in more Super Bowls and won more Super Bowls than the Eagles.”

“Yeah, for now.”

“And if you haven’t noticed, my team’s offense is a lot better than your team’s offense.”

“It doesn’t matter. We have the best defense and the most team sacks in the NFL. Therefore, your offense will be destroyed by our defense.”

Josh laughed. “Maybe you should give me your address. That way, when I go to the Super Bowl, I’ll take pictures of myself celebrating the Chiefs’ victory and mail them to you.”

Steven climbed back on the wing of the plane so he could finish the repair. “I’m going to pretend that I didn’t hear that.” He looked at the sun and knew that sunset was very near. “I should get this fixed in about 15 minutes.”

“How did you get here?”

“I decided to teleport myself to a wicked island. Then, I saw this brokedown plane and decided to fix it just for fun.”

“Come on. Seriously.”

“This is actually my uncle’s plane. He was having issues with it. Since I am an aircraft mechanic, I decided to go to Virginia to help him with his plane. I took a test flight. Things were going well until there was smoke coming from one of the engines. I had to make an emergency landing. I didn’t even realize I flew that far. I guess it was a good thing I saw this island.”

“Of all islands, it had to be the haunted one, huh?”

“I guess I’m that lucky.”

Suddenly, Josh unleashed a thunderous laugh. “I don’t think you’ll be singing ‘Fly Eagles Fly’ anytime soon since you couldn’t fly that plane.” He continued to laugh.

“Well, you better hope I fly this plane very soon if you want to get off this island.” Steven quickly delivered a deceiving smile. “What’s your story? How did you end up on a small boat?”

“I was in South Jersey. I was partying with a bunch of friends. We were on a dock, and there were a group of guys wanting to start fights with us. All of us were drunk.”

“Were they Eagles fans?” Steven interrupted with a smirk on his face.

Josh rolled his eyes. “Let me finish this story. And I would not be surprised if they were Eagles fans. So, we were all drunk and fighting. Then, I fell into the water. The next thing I know, I woke up on that boat in the middle of the ocean. That’s all I remember.

Steven turned speechless and confused. He could not comprehend the short but crazy story that he just heard. “I thought it was supposed to be a long story.”

“Well, I didn’t want to talk about it earlier.”

“Because it’s embarrassing that you got your ass kicked by a bunch of drunks, and they put you on a boat so you could sail away?” Steven giggled. “Now, I know why you didn’t want to tell me the story.”

Josh scoffed. “Can we please change the topic?”

Steven glanced at the sun. “Hopefully, I can get this plane flying before dusk.” He switched his Eagles cap around and tried to finalize the repair. “So, are you really going to the Super Bowl?”

“I sure am.”

“I have tickets too.”

“I’m not surprised since you are an Eagles fan.”

“I’m just being curious. Where are your seats at the State Farm Stadium?”

“I’m at the lower level in the 120 section.”

Steven paused and turned to Josh. “Really? So am I. What row are you in?”

“I think it’s 11.”

Steven jumped off the plane and aggressively approached Josh. “Tell me you’re joking.”

“Why?”

“I’m in row 11.”

“Are you serious?”

“What’s your seat number?”

Josh reached for his wallet in his back jeans pocket. “I don’t remember but I do have my ticket.” He pulled out his Super Bowl ticket only to have it snatched from his hand.

Steven looked at the ticket and glared at Josh. “You’ve got to be kidding me! Your seat is next to mine.”

Josh snatched his ticket from Steven’s hand. “I don’t want to sit next to you at the Super Bowl.” He put his ticket back in his wallet.

“The feeling is mutual. Do you think I want to sit next to a Chiefs fan who stole my ex-girlfriend, cheated in college football, started fights with me in bars, and totaled my 2014 Mustang?”

“Hey, you started that road rage and hit my BMW.”

“Whatever.” Steven climbed back on the plane to finish fixing the engine of the plane.

“Hurry up and fix this thing. I do want to make it in time to go to the Super Bowl.”

After Steven finished the repair, he proudly smiled and jumped off the wing. “I’m done. This plane should be good to go.”

“Thank God.”

“I should leave you here so I won’t have to sit next to you at the Super Bowl.”

“You wish.”

As the sun was setting, a young woman emerged from the bloodwood trees and stared at Steven and Josh. Her skin was pale. Her eyes were glowing red. All of her teeth were sharp. Her nails were long and black. She wore a black hooded cloak, and there was no sign of her having any hair on her head. A few demonic shadows were standing behind her. They watched the plane fly off the island with the two men inside.

Josh looked out the window and saw the woman and the shadows looking up at the plane. He could feel the cold stare of the woman and realized that he almost encountered Lady Retsiela.