InsaneJournal

Tweak says, "Leave your boyfriend for him."

SANCTUARY ISLAND ↘ moderators (washedashore) wrote,
@ 2011-02-11 00:58:00

P R E M I S E

WELCOME TO SANCTUARY ISLAND.
Just off the coast of Maine lies Sanctuary Island, a little strip of land that can only be reached by ferry, and that's only when you can get in touch with the aging owner of said ferry. With a population that barely tops three-hundred, Sanctuary Island is the kind of place where the word 'stranger' doesn't exist. It's a quaint, quiet island where people go to escape the hustle and bustle of everyday life. The people that are born there rarely leave, and the ones that come to visit find it so charming that, more often than not, they just can't bring themselves to get back on the ferry.

Every town has its legends though, and Sanctuary is just as guilty. According to the locals, a ghost emerges from the rolling waves at night, slinking through the dense fog to find someone to drag back with him into the unforgiving ocean. You see, once upon a time, there was a young man whose name was Steven Hawthorne. Steven had a beautiful wife and an equally charmed life. They built a home by the sea, determined to live out their dream of starting a family. When Steven's wife - sweet, sweet Mary - and her unborn child went missing, the poor man went insane. He would venture out into his boat every night, calling out for his wife and child. No one was surprised when his boat washed ashore one morning, Steven nowhere to be found.

When the teenagers of Sanctuary get in a particularly cruel mood, they'll force the youngest among them to go out onto the rocky shoreline at night, blindfolded and chilled to the bone. If they take off the blindfold before the three hour mark, they're forever known as a chicken. A loser. While some of the braver ones manage, many of them barely make it to the half-hour mark.

Hey, in a place as quiet as Sanctuary Island, one has to find something to amuse themselves, right?

When a massive storm takes out the ferry, the people of Sanctuary Island aren't immediately alarmed. After all, they still have communication to the outside world, and the Maine officials assure them that they will have the ferry up and going again in a few weeks tops. Unconcerned, the lives of the residents go on just as they did before.

Until the first body washes up on the shore.

Under any other circumstances, drowning would be the suspected cause of death. Not this time. The girl, Elena Peterson, has been murdered, and it's all too clear by the stab wounds that riddle her body. On an island of three-hundred people, it takes less than an hour for the news to spread. No suspects are found, there's no evidence that might point them in the right direction. Some people suspect it's the ghost of Hawthorne, finally taking out his anger on the locals. The more skeptical assume it had nothing to do with the supernatural and everything to do with Elena's promiscuous ways.

Just a week later, another body is found on the shoreline. Then there's another. And another. No one can explain why this is happening or who is sick enough to commit such heinous crimes, especially in a community as tightly knit as Sanctuary. The murders rock the community to its foundation, leaving its residence shaken and paranoid.

They only know two things. One, that the murderer is among them. Two, that they might be next.