The Haven

Something about the gentle fall of rain always made Coen feel so gloomy. Perhaps it was the cold feel of it against his skin, or the smell that lingered in the air… Or perhaps it was simply because it reminded him of his plight. Pulling out a locket with a photo of an infant, he sighed. How old was she now? Five? Six? How long had he even been gone?

“Coen!” A familiar voice called, pulling his gaze back to the stone pathway just outside of his home. It was Sheila- she was supposed to be keeping watch in the East, if he remembered correctly. “Why are you wet?” She asked, peering at the man curiously.

Coen shrugged, “It feels good to be wet in the heat.”

“But you’re sitting on your bed.”

Snorting, Coen stood up, turning to face his bed again, and concentrated, wiggling his fingers as water droplets reversed themselves off of the palm fronds and coalesced into a hovering ball of water, which then flew forward to splat on Sheila’s face. “Better?”

“I hope you know I hate you, water boy.” Sheila grunted, shaking her arms out, “Anyway, I didn’t come here to make you use your hydro powers to clean your room. There’s a life raft drifting this way.”

“From the East?” He questioned, and was met with an eager nod. But that didn’t make sense, that was impossible. The direction of the rain indicated an eastward wind and the current was always eastward this time of year. “You’re seeing things.” He determined,flopping down to lie back on his makeshift cot.

“I’m not, Coen! It’s bright orange, it looks like it’s maybe off a plane or something.” Sheila urged, grabbing Coen’s wrist and pulling him back up.

Begrudgingly, Coen stood and followed Sheila to see what was happening. It was his responsibility to make important decisions, after all. Since he had come to the island, things had really turned around, and he had been more or less appointed as the unofficial village elder, despite being younger than many of the other residents… But he was the one who had truly saved them, after all. Before he had come, there were a lot of people who didn’t make it. The island couldn’t sustain life, and the limited food supply they were given when they were dumped off was ever-dwindling, but with Coen’s help, they had truly turned the place into an oceanic oasis full of life and with plenty of food to go around. As he was the direct cause of the changes, he was uplifted by the community to be more or less their leader, though there was no official title to go along with it.

When they made it out to the shore, Coen could clearly see what she was talking about. There was a life raft moving against the current and against the wind towards them. “What the hell? We have to approach this with caution, Sheila. We don’t know what’s happening and we don’t know if they’re safe. I’m going to keep them away from the village until I can see what they’re about. For now, do a roll call and keep everyone in the village.” Sheila nodded and disappeared into the brush.

Focus. Calm. Coen inhaled deeply, his hand lowered at his side beckoning. The raft gained speed, moving even faster toward the island. As it neared, Coen could see a very wet, sunburnt and obviously shaken young man was the sole occupant of the vessel. As it was about to run aground, Coen ceased his beckoning and moved to the stranger. “Are you alright?” He asked.

The man blinked up at him, wild-eyed. He was scared, understandably. “It’s alright, I’m not gonna hurt you. I’m unarmed, see?” Coen lifted his hands in a show of trust. It wasn’t exactly true that he was unarmed, however. After all, his body alone was a deadly weapon. “My name is Coen.”

“Evander- um… Call me Evan.” The man said finally, hesitantly standing up, though he wasn’t quite ready to leave the raft yet.

“That raft wouldn’t protect you if I really wanted to hurt you, Evan.” Coen pointed out with a chuckle, “Come here out of the rain and we’ll put some aloe on that burn.” Leading Evan into the shade, Coen plucked some aloe from a nearby plant and handed it to Evan,suggesting, “Rub and squeeze like you’re applying toothpaste with a deodorant stick.”

That got a chuckle out of Evan, “If my toothpaste tasted like deodorant I would be extremely upset.”

Sensing that Evan was at least a little bit more at ease, Coen smiled and asked, as the other man was applying the aloe, “What happened to land you in a life raft in the middle of the ocean?”

“Our plane went down,” Evan replied with a shudder, “I don’t know what happened. The lights were flickering and the engines stalled. I looked for more people that made it out but I didn’t see any.” Tears welled up in his eyes then, “I was taking my little brother to see our dad… I couldn’t find him. I couldn’t save him.”

Coen’s heart lurched. The poor guy… “You’re safe now,” He soothed, “You’re safe, and the only thing you can do now is live your life the way he would have wanted you to, right?” Evan nodded, sniffling and rubbing at his face with a tattered sleeve.

“Where am I?” Evan whimpered, bloodshot eyes looking to Coen.

“Who knows?” Coen admitted, “I have no idea where we are. I don’t even know if it’s on any kind of map. It’s a tropical island, that’s about all I can say for sure.” This was actually not a lie. Coen truly didn’t know where in the world they were. None of the islanders did. They hadn’t exactly been told where their captors were taking them, and had been stored in Conexes like cargo on the way over.

“Do you live here?” Evan asked, finally beginning to calm down again as the conversation was distracting him.

Gesturing to his woven clothing, he asked, “What’s it look like?” Laughing, he added, “Yes, I live here. It’s not bad though, I’ve never really felt like I needed rescuing from this place. There’s plenty to eat and drink. It gets kind of boring sometimes, but I don’t mind too much.”

“Don’t you get lonely though?” Evan asked, tilting his head slightly.

Coen shook his head, “I’m not alone.” He pulled his locket away from his chest to show Evan, “That’s my daughter, Laila. She’s not here with me physically but… I’m always with her, in a way.” He lowered his gaze then, “In high school, my girlfriend got pregnant. I was seventeen at the time. She told me and I… It just broke something inside me. I don’t know how else to explain it.” He paused for a moment or two, though his body language suggested he wasn’t done speaking. “For now, I’ll just tell you that I’m a hydrokinetic… It’s all a bit traumatizing, as you can imagine.”

“I thought they hunted people like you?” Evan asked, obviously stunned by the admission.

“They did,” Coen laughed hollowly, “I managed to avoid death by moving out of state with a fake ID. It made them harder to find me when they had the cops just killing people like me, but after the protests they eventually caught up with me. They loaded me in a Conex with a few others like me and dumped us all off here with limited rations of food and water. When I came here… This island had nothing. No trees, no plants, no wildlife, no fresh water… Just a whole lot of dead ‘freaks.’ Using my power, I’m able to purify the salt water to make it potable, we built a raft out of kelp and driftwood and I manipulated the current, the same way I did with your raft today, to visit other islands and even mainlands to bring seeds and wildlife back here with me. These trees are probably only about two years old.”

Looking up at the massive palm they were currently resting under, Evan said, “No way in hell.”

“You’d be surprised what Joe’s green thumb can do.” Coen chuckled, “But we’re safe here. We have food now and water. We dug a well and rain catchment system. I put the purified water into the well- it’s not actually connected to a water source or anything. If it were, it would probably get contaminated with salt water. We bring water up from that for the animals. None of the wildlife here is truly wild because they depend on us for water, but we let them roam free anyway.”

“How did you get them here? I mean, how would you keep a deer on a raft?” Evan wondered aloud.

Coen grinned, “You’re a little off the mark again. That’s all Jenny. She has this weird effect about her that just calms people and animals? It’s like a sedative effect. It’s really helpful for deescalating any conflicts in the community.

“Community?”

“We have an entire village of outcasts. I’ll take you there if you want but you have to answer a question for me first. How did you get here?” Coen questioned, raising a brow toward the stranger.

Seemingly confused, Evan asked, “What do you mean how did I get here? You saw me, I was on a life raft.”

“Going against the wind and the current ‘drifting’ towards us at high speeds.” Coen challenged. “You’re one of us, aren’t you?”

Evan averted his gaze and mumbled, “Aerokinesis.”

Humming, content with having solved the mystery on his own, Coen stood and held out his hand, “Well, welcome to The Haven, my friend.” Taking it cautiously, Evan allowed himself to be pulled up by Coen, though the momentum of the man’s pull sent him tumbling into Coen’s chest, where he was hugged tight, “You’re gonna be alright.”