“Welcome to Paradise” Pt. 3
“Ugh, my head”,Ezra groaned. He rubbed the back of his head and sighed deeply. As he rubbed his head, he felt cool grass on the back of his hand. He felt what seemed like the warmth of the sun on his face. He raised his hand over his face and slowly opened his eyes. “Ah,” he said as he slowly began to sit up. “What happened? Aaron, you good,” Ezra said. He looked over to his side but no one was there. “Aaron? Where you at?” His chest began to tighten. He rose to his feet and started to frantically look for Aaron. He ran between trees and searched other areas of the island he thought Aaron might be. He can’t be far, Ezra thought to himself. As he continued to search, he heard faint voices coming from the beach.
He ran towards the sound of the voices. The voices grew louder and he could hear Aaron.
“What do you mean Paradise? Where the hell are we? And why are you barefoot!? And where is Ezra? He was just here!”
“Calm down,” another voice said. “He’s fine. You’re fine. You both are fine.” As Ezra got closer, the voice sounded like the one he heard on the TV before Hurricane Katrina decided to take place in his bedroom. He saw Aaron pacing back and forth trying to comprehend what was happening.
“Aaron!” Ezra yelled as he ran towards the beach. “Yo man, where were you,” he asked. He brought Aaron in for an embrace, trying to calm him down.
“Man, I don’t know what is going on but…this is not the move. I repeat, not the move! And homegirl here isn’t even trying to tell me anything,” Aaron yelled pointing at the girl. Ezra looked over at her. She was tall and dark-skinned with an athletic build. She had long purple locs and bright, hazel eyes that almost looked yellow. She was also barefoot and wearing a black and white long-sleeved bodysuit. He then realized it was the woman from the video. She looked younger in person as if she was his age.
His eyes grew big. “You’re the woman from the video! Wha…what’s going on? What can you tell us? How did we get here? How can we get home?”
“Don’t bother dude. She’s not gonna tell us anything. I’ve asked her several times and the only thing that she said was that ‘the chosen two’ have finally come or whatever the fuck…”
“The chosen two? What does that mean,” Ezra asked her.
She took a deep breath. “Well first, my name is Miko and you’re on Paradise Island.” Her voice didn’t match the way she looked at all. On the outside, she looked strong while her voice was calm, almost soothing. “It was my job to make sure the chosen two got here safely.”
“What do you mean? This was on purpose?” Aaron asked, as his voice escalated.
“Well, let me start with the specifics,” she began. She inhaled sharply. “You were transported to another dimension…on an island, this island, called Paradise. There are other smaller islands that surround us but Paradise is the main island. Almost like what you call Hawaii? Correct?”
“Okay…so we’re in another dimension? On an island?” Aaron said, slapping his hands on his face. “Are we the only ones here?”
“No. There are other people here. We have cities and what you call small towns too.”
“Oh great,” Aaron said, dropping to the ground. “At least we’re not alone,” he said laughing sarcastically.
“Okay, but why are we here? Why were we sent here? And the chosen two? What does that even mean?” Ezra asked, trying to hold back the irritation in his voice. “We just wanna know why we got sent here and if it is possible to get back home!”
“Well, that I can’t tell you. Boss man will have to tell you that one. My only job was to get you here.”
Ezra’s eyes grew big. He looked over at Aaron. Aaron hopped up and stormed over to Miko. “What do you mean you can’t tell us? You just said you could!”
“I can tell you where you are and how you got here…not why. My only job was to come get ya’,” she said as she smiled, crossing her arms.
“This has gotta be some kinda joke,” Aaron said as he placed his hands on his hips. Ezra shook his head.
“I know it sounds crazy and I know you have questions. Whatever you wanna know, I can take you to the guy in charge of all this. But you just gotta trust me,” she said. She looked directly at Ezra. He stared back. He looked into her eyes and he could tell she was telling the truth. Something about her made him trust her. If we trust her, we may possibly have a way home, he thought. But, if we don’t, we might not ever get out of here.
He looked over at Aaron who was too busy rolling in the sand having a nervous breakdown. Ezra sighed and ran his hands across his face.
“Alright…fine. We’ll trust you.”
Aaron jumped up and stared at Ezra in confusion. “Are you serious? Dude, we’re in another dimension and you wanna trust a girl who’s not wearing shoes!?”
“This is the only way we’ll have answers on how to get out of here. And plus she hasn’t killed us so…”
Aaron shook his head. “I guess man. I trust you so…what the hell. But I’m keepin’ an eye on her,” as he squinted his eyes.
Ezra looked back over at Miko. “Alright. We’ll follow you to whoever is in charge. Lead the way,” Ezra said as he held out his hand.
