STORY ARC # 5: VACATION ROULETTE

The Fallen Vacation

You throw your arms around your partner and hug them tight, your tears streaming down your cheeks.

This is part of a Choose Your Own Adventure story, ‘Vacation Roulette.’ Go to the first chapter by Linden Schneider here. Or return to the previous chapter: ‘Leaving the Fateful Vacation.’ Find out how you can collaborate with other authors on choose your own adventure stories here!

You never told your partner about the mysterious messenger, who had warned you that Vacation Roulette is a trap and will lead to nothing but death.

And now, you have left that vacation behind. The messenger could not guarantee that the vacation organizers would leave you alone if you cut ties with them. Yet, the organizers did refund your tickets and even paid for your plane ride home.

So there you sit on the plane, though your ride is in economy class now, not first class. Not that the luxuries should matter. Beside you, your partner remains silent until they ask, “Hey, I’m sorry if I pushed you into Vacation Roulette when you actually didn’t want to go.”

You raise your eyebrows. “Oh no, I was excited about the vacation at first, but later, I just wanted to go home.” You shrug your shoulders, unwilling to tell your partner about the troubling text messages you got, especially as your messenger had already deleted them when they erased their tracks. But you wonder how long you can keep this all a secret.

Briefly, you consider confessing to your partner what you answered on the Vacation Roulette morality quiz. On the quiz, the last question asked if you would kill your partner to save ten lives. You said yes, since you couldn’t selfishly refuse to save ten innocent people just to protect your partner, right? Nevertheless, it was just a hypothetical scenario and you need never let your partner know.

On their part, your partner isn’t too happy about missing the coveted vacation, but they thankfully don’t judge you for it.

A few years later, you go on a beach boating trip with your partner. It’s a sleepy afternoon, with you yawning and leaning against your partner as you sit side by side on your little boat. It’s sturdy, even when you’re both sitting on one side of the vessel.

You’re about to fall asleep when you hear a cry in the distance.

“Help, help!”

Just some meters away from you, ten children in floats are flailing about, and a dorsal fin of a shark encircles them.

“Christ!” your partner exclaims. Without a second’s hesitation, they strip to their bathing suit. They’re about to jump into the water, but you yank at their arm.

“What are you doing?” you yell.

Your partner wrestles to get their arm free, but you aren’t letting go. They glare at you. “I’m a proficient swimmer and I’ve been a lifeguard before. I can fight too, so a mere shark isn’t going to stop me. Let me go!”

You throw your arms around your partner and hug them tight, your tears streaming down your cheeks. “No, no, please don’t, I beg you…” When your partner continues to resist, you cling on even tighter and exclaim, “I love you! I’m so sorry that I answered that way on Vacation Roulette’s quiz. I regret my choice now and clearly this incident came up to haunt me.”

“What are you talking about?” Your partner frowns, looking panicked about the children, but also flabbergasted at your incoherent babbling. Thankfully, the shark seems to be playing with its prey, just circling the swimmers, not yet attacking.

You take a deep breath. “Vacation Roulette gave us a morality quiz, if you remember. The last question asked…If I would kill my partner to save ten lives.” You grit your teeth. “I answered yes, because it would be selfish not to. But I don’t actually want this to come true in real life!”

Your partner’s eyes widen, then, with a look of fury and determination, they push hard away from you and break free. Their parting words are: “I can do what I want with my life, with no thanks to you.” In the next instant, they dive into the water, then swim with startling speed towards the children and the shark.

Alarm runs through your body like electricity, but you’re a mediocre swimmer at best. The kids would be in even greater danger if your partner has to protect you as well. So against all your instincts, you make yourself stay in the boat.

Before long, the shark finally rears its ugly head above the water. Your partner punches the shark, and you see a glint in their hand — they brought their special dagger that can slice through steel.

The children scream with fear throughout, but the shark is focused on your partner. Any moment now, the beast will clamp its jaws around them. But your partner manages to dodge or parry with their sharp weapon.

Soon, you see blood, but you don’t know if it’s the shark’s or your partner’s, or both. Then, after a last stab from the dagger, the shark screams in pain and flees like a banshee.

You’re ecstatic and frantically call your partner back. They check on the children and escort them back to the shore first, before swimming back to you.

But your elation disappears when you see how weak and tired your partner looks. Hastily, you pull them back up onto the boat. They have a deep gash on their leg and left arm that are still bleeding profusely. You panic as you think about how much blood they must have lost: they swam a long way to get the kids back to shore, and then swam all that distance back to you.

With your first aid skills, you clean, disinfect, and bandage up their wounds as quickly as possible. But your partner’s breaths are coming in wisps. You lay them flat on the ground and blow air into their mouth.

Yet, your partner’s eyelids droop, their limbs grow slack, and their body goes still. You quickly put your ear to their chest, but can’t hear or feel their pulse. Gradually, their body grows cold and stiff, and there’s no use in denying the truth anymore.

You hug your partner’s body, unable to stop your sobs, and unwilling to move from the spot. In your grief, you eye the sharp dagger that your partner still has clutched in their hand. You carefully pry the weapon free, and consider joining your partner.

But in the end, your rational mind takes over and you steer the boat back to shore. You will give your partner a proper burial, and you will honor their memory by donating to the causes they support, and volunteering to help those in need.

Eventually, you find a new partner because you can’t stand the loneliness, and hope that your deceased partner, wherever they are now, will forgive you. After all, you were always the weaker one.

The End

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