Stranded

It had been Synyster's idea. He had suggested the idea following him investing 10 minutes into reading a magazine, and discovering an intriguing article about the small Holiday Islands, one with a supposed "Haunted past". Naturally, he wanted to investigate, and seeing as the band were taking a break, he suggested it as a perfect holiday adventure.

None of the guys had objected to it. It sounded like an amazing idea, despite the obvious risk that there is an island that was somewhat fucking haunted or whatever. What resulted was everyone (The band and their wives) packing their things and, within two weeks, they had boarded the boat that would take them there. It was in the middle of nowhere, and it would take them a week to arrive. Surrounding the main Holiday Islands were reportedly many smaller islands, which the guys intended to explore too.


It was day 5 of 6 when the incident happened.

They had been travelling for a while now. Most of the guys were straight up drunk of their faces and on the verge of passing out. Either that, or they had gone to bed. The only two who hadn't joined in the fun (Very surprisingly) were Jimmy and Matt, who stood at the back of the boat, resting against the safety railings, admiring the gorgeous moon-lit midnight scene before them. In the perfect, cloudless skies, tiny pinpricks glistened, glowed and twinkled, whilst the moon's bright beams radiated all across the sky, like a lantern. The hum of the boat's motor combined with the gentle lapping and soft crashing of the waves gave the night a relaxing feel. It was truly beautiful, and both Matt and Jimmy felt at peace and ease.

Matt smiled softly as he took in the lovely view. Hell, he thought that this was probably the best bit of the trip. He watched as the water rippled from behind the boat, spreading far and wide until they either couldn't be seen or they faded away. Then, after a few moments, the vocalist turned his head to face his best friend, James.

"Y'know Rev, this is my favourite thing about boat trips." He said, breaking the silence between the pair. "I mean, it's absolutely beautiful out here. Look at the moon, look at the stars, look at the sea. It's wonderful."

"Can't disagree there, Shadows. I've never seen anythin' like it." The Rev replied, brushing a few long, black, silky strands from his face.

"It's really relaxin', isn't it? It's got that feel to it that puts you at ease, hasn't it?"

The drummer nodded with a smile. "Again, I can't disagree there."

The vocalist chuckled and leaned against the railing, his arms crossed over each other. The drummer followed suit with a grin, and they both continued to watch the ocean around them. They stood in silence for a while, only turning around upon noticing the sound of gentle footsteps on the deck. Matt turned first and smiled warmly. His wife had joined them on the far end of the boat, away from all the commotion of the inside of the boat.

"Hey there baby, I thought you were asleep." Matt said, pulling his girl into his embrace.

"You really think I can get any sort of sleep with those drunken maniacs around?" Val asked, looking up at him with her head on his chest. Matt shook his head and chuckled.

"Yeah, you've got a point." He agreed. "You look really tired though... You want me to go tell them to pack it in?"

"Please?"

"Alright, my love. I'll go do that and you can get some rest." Matt spoke, turning his attention from his wife to his best friend. "Jimmy, are you comin' in with us or are you gonna stay out here?"

The drummer shook his head, keeping his grip on the railings. "I think I'll stay. It's beautiful out here."

"Fair enough dude, I'll catch up with you in a few minutes."

Taking his girlfriend's hand, Matt and Val headed inside the large boat. He lead Val to their room and helped her get settled down into the king sized bed. "You stay here and make yourself comfy. I'll go deal with the guys and then I'll come back to check on you before I go back to see Jimbo, okay?"

"You've forgotten something, babe.."

The vocalist chuckled and leaned down, planting a delicate kiss on Val's head, earning a smile. "You really think I could forget?"

"You're very forgetful sometimes, Matty."

"Pfft... Okay, maybe I am. But I don't forget things like that. Anyway, you get comfy and I'll be back in a bit" The vocalist smiled, stepping out of the room and closing the door silently behind him.

From there, he headed over to the gathering of his drunken friends. Their bassist, Johnny, was passed out in his own puke, Zacky was sprawled out on one of the couches and Syn was stumbling around, singing out whatever nonsense came to his mind.

Matt just chuckled, then cleared his throat loudly. "Alright you crazy fucks, bed time!"

"Huuuuuh?!" Syn howled at the vocalist, spinning around on his heels to face Matt.

"You heard me, bed time. You're keepin' the girls awake."

Synyster just blinked at Matt once, twice, three times before huffing and puffing and crossing his arms over his chest. "Nuh. Uh."

"Bed. Time." Matt repeated sternly, pointing to one of the doors leading to a small bedroom compartment. "You're keeping Val awake. Go to bed."

Reluctantly, the guitarist huffed again and dragged himself to the compartment, sighing as he stumbled through the door and threw himself onto the bed beside his wife, Michelle.

Right, that's one down, Matt thought to himself, now just for the other two.

He decided to deal with Zacky next, since moving Johnny was a simple task, but moving an awake Zacky was a little bit trickier. Sure, he wasn't stubborn like Syn could be, but it was more of a case of when Zacky was comfy, he would refuse to move. Not without a convincing compromise, anyway.

"Vengeance" Matt called as he stepped over Johnny's body and over to the couch. "Time to head to bed, buddy."

The younger guitarist grumbled and shook his head defiantly. "I'm comfy. I'm not movin'."

"Zee, that doesn't look too comfy. Surely you'd rather be in that nice comfy bed in your compartment, cuddled up with your girl? Hm? Wouldn't that be better?"

Zacky thought for a moment, considering Matt's (very valid) point. After a few moments of silence as he racked his brain for a solution, he came up with a compromise.

"I'll move if you carry me to my bed."

"Who do you think I am, your slave?" Matt joked, cocking his head to the side.

"No, but I can't get up and I wanna go cuddle with Meag..."

Matt let out a dramatic sigh and reluctantly nodded, bending over and heaving the younger man from the couch to over his shoulder. Zacky gripped his shirt as if his life depended on it and smiled as he was carried from the couch to his nice warm bed, where his sleeping wife rested. Matt quietly laid him down on the bed besides Meag and couldn't help but smile as he happily cuddled up to her underneath the covers.

Right, just Shortshit now, Matt told himself. This was easy.

Except for the fact that Matt had clearly forgotten that Johnny was resting in his on puke. Ew...

He strolled back into the couch area and sighed, looking down at the passed out bassist. His body was sprawled out, his head tilted to the left, jaw hanging open and loud snoring being emitted from him. The vocalist crouched down to his right, being cautious as to avoid the puddle of puke.

"Oh Johnny, you royal pain in the ass..." Matt muttered under his breath, covering his nose with the collar of his shirt so he couldn't smell that rancid, alcoholic stench and stripping the bassist of his soaked shirt and tossing it aside. He'd make a note to get that washed ASAP. Next, he got up and retrieved a towel from the bathroom, returning to Johnny to clean him up and the puddle around him. It didn't help the smell much, but at least Matt wouldn't cover himself with the vile substance while he carried Johnny to his compartment.

Finally arriving at said compartment, Matt knocked twice before letting himself inside. From the bed, Johnny's wife Lacey looked up at cocked her head to the side.

"Matt? What happened?" She asked, eyebrows raising in confusion, watching as Matt laid her boyfriend on the bed.

"Oh don't worry, he's just had too much to drink. Please make sure he washes though." Matt answered.

"Oh dear.." She said with a slight chuckle. "I should've known. Typical Johnny. I'll make sure he's all freshened up tomorrow, don't you worry."

"Alrighty. I'll see you two in the mornin' then." Matt smiled, stepping out after they both said their goodnights to one another.

The vocalist heaved a heavy sigh after closing the door behind him. He was essentially babysitting the whole band, with the partial exception of Jimmy, who he watched over anyways. It's what good friends do though, right? They look after each other, don't they? With this in mind, Matt shrugged off the evening's events with a smile and headed back to his compartment to check on Val.

As he slowly opened the door, the hinges creaked, but the sleeping beauty did not awake. With a soft sigh of relief, Matt silently approached the bed and crouched down beside the edge, resting his arms on the framework to support himself. He fixated his gaze on the gorgeous girl before him. God, she looked so damn beautiful, and Matt couldn't help but feel lucky as fuck to have her as his love.

He slowly brought a steady hand to her head, softly brushing a stand of her silky hair out from her stunning face. He leaned in close and planted a delicate kiss to her forehead, whispering, "Sleep tight, my sweet angel. I love you." He spotted her smiling that infectious smile, and, after a few more precious moments, Matt raised himself to his feet again and quietly left the room.

The vocalist had grabbed a beer from the fridge when it happened. He had heard the desperate scream of help from the back of the boat right as he cracked open the can. He froze for a moment, before he heard it again.

"MATT! MAAAATT! HELP ME! HEEEEELP!" The voice screeched. Matt dropped the can, swept up his backpack from the floor by the door just in case, and shot out to the back of the boat, horrified to see his best friend and drummer on the other side of the railings, clinging on for dear life, his legs dangling just above the water and his eyes as wide as the moon.

"Shit!" He yelped in shock. For a moment, he couldn't think. His mind was clouded by panic, and then he realised he had the bag. He ran over to the railings and held the bag out, the straps dangling within Jimmy's grip. The drummer hesitantly reached a long, slender arm out, his fingers locking around the strap.

"Matt!" Jimmy cried after a few seconds as the vocalist tried to haul him back onto the deck. "Matt! The strap's breaking!"

"Fuck.. Hold onto the railing with both hands, I'll be back in a second!"

"Matt!" Jimmy cried again, but Matt had already taken off in desperate search of the life ring, located at the front of the boat. On his own, all Jimmy could do was pray he had the strength in his arms to hold on and look around in horror. The waters had become much more uneasy during the time Matt had sent dealing with the drunken men inside, with the waves they had watched together gradually becoming larger and larger. By the time Matt returned the first time, they were big enough to rock the boat.

Now they were even bigger. If one were to strike, Jimmy would be sent flying, plunging into the deathly depths below.

He could see and hear Matt hurtling towards him with the ring under his arm. Out of the corner of his eye, he spotted the one thing he feared in this situation. Rising up. He was screwed.

"Jimmy, grab onto this!" I'll pull you up!" He roared over the crashing of the water, holding out the ring by the rope around the edge.


Jimmy didn't respond. Instead, glacial blue eyes widened further in fear, and he could do nothing but indicate with weak arms to a sight Matt had been foolish to not notice. By the time he spun around, it was too late.

A colossal wave enough to rock the boat over on its side violently crashed into the boat, tossing Matt, Jimmy and the bag by the railings into the water with a loud splash. Both men then found themselves struggling to surface, but luckily or the pair, the ring had stayed with Matt, and Matt had fallen near Jimmy. Upon surfacing, Shadows took in several deep breaths before diving down to grab the struggling, shocked drummer's hand. As Jimmy surfaced, the vocalist pulled him closer to the ring, forcing a lanky arm around it.

"Oh... holy fuck, Matt... You saved my life..." He panted heavily, gripping the ring with every ounce in his body as he wrapped his other arm around it. Matt nodded and scanned the area around them. The boat was too far away at this point, so there was no hope of getting back onboard. Besides, everyone was either asleep or didn't hear their cries. Matt felt like a right idiot for not calling for assistance. Right now though, it didn't matter. They had to get to safety.

He then spotted the backpack and swam over to it, dragging the ring and the drummer with him. Upon retrieving the soaked bag, he slung it over his shoulder. Hopefully it would come in handy later on.

"What do we do now, Shads? We're stranded out here!" Jimmy wailed in panic, looking at Matt with those wide, horrified eyes.

"Look... Don't worry, okay? We're supposed to be in an area with lots of little islands dotted around. If we hold out until sunrise, which, according to my watch is in... 4 hours, we can try find and get to one of those islands and swim over."

"4 hours?! Matt, we'll never survive that long! Not with these waves!"

"We've got this ring. As long as we don't separate from the ring, we'll be fine. Maybe someone'll find us before then!"


Jimmy sighed and reluctantly nodded. All they could do now was wait it out and hope for the best.

Notes

Hey guys!
So, you've most likely already seen this chapter from the previous version of the story. Unfortunately, I got locked out of my old account (Deathbat666) and so I've had to make a new one!
I'm going to be reposting all of my stories so I can continue and finish them!