Anomaly; Stranded The Series (bxb)

Chapter 20: Not An Accident

Eli sat on the edge of his bed, staring out the window at the night sky. His fingers tapped against his knees, the rhythm quickening with each passing second, an anxious habit he hadn't been able to shake since they got back. Since the island.

His life, on the surface, had returned to normal. Or at least, that's what it looked like from the outside. His parents were relieved, his friends supportive, and even Jonah... well, Jonah had started letting his guard down again. It felt like they were finally beginning to heal.

But inside, Eli wasn't healing. He was crumbling. And it was only a matter of time before everything collapsed.

The truth, the secret that had been gnawing at him since the moment they'd been rescued, sat like a lead weight in his chest. It wasn't just survivor's guilt anymore. It was something darker, something more dangerous.

He'd tried to bury it, tried to push it down and pretend like it didn't exist. But it was there, lurking in the back of his mind, waiting to rip apart everything he and Jonah had tried to rebuild.

He could feel it coming—the implosion. The way it was bound to tear through his life like a storm, unraveling everything he'd held on to so desperately.

His phone buzzed beside him, pulling him from his thoughts. It was Jonah, sending him a quick, lighthearted text about dinner tomorrow. **They'd been trying—**really trying—to ease back into something normal. Something real. But how could it be real when Eli had been lying to him this entire time?

Eli's stomach twisted as he stared at the screen. He couldn't keep doing this. He couldn't keep pretending. Jonah deserved better than that.

But how the fuck was he supposed to tell him the truth?

Jonah had noticed the shifts in Eli—the subtle ways he'd pulled back even after their reconciliation, the haunted look in his eyes when he thought Jonah wasn't paying attention. At first, he'd chalked it up to Eli's adjustment to normal life. They both had scars from the island, after all.

It hadn't been easy coming back to the real world. Everything felt too big, too fast. People expected them to just move on, to act like survivors, to be strong. But Jonah knew better. They hadn't just survived the island; they'd survived each other.

And that wasn't something you just got over.

Every day was a struggle—a fight to keep himself anchored, to keep the memories of the island from swallowing him whole. The fear, the danger, the constant tension of survival. Even now, with their lives seemingly back on track, the echoes of the island still haunted Jonah's mind.

But Eli? Eli was different.

He didn't talk about it. Ever. Not the crash, not the island, not the things they'd gone through. Jonah had pushed him once or twice, but Eli had always brushed it off, saying he wasn't ready. And Jonah, trying to be patient, had let it go.

But now, as he sat at his kitchen table, staring at his phone and waiting for Eli's response to his message, Jonah felt that familiar pang of doubt creep in. Something was off. It had been for weeks, and no amount of time or reconciliation seemed to be fixing it.

Maybe Eli wasn't telling him everything.

Maybe there was something Jonah didn't know—something Eli was hiding.

Eli couldn't sleep.

The weight of the secret had finally become too much. He lay awake, staring at the ceiling, the familiar sense of dread clawing at his chest. It was going to destroy everything. But what other choice did he have?