Special note from Terrence L. Rathbone: For months we have been trapped, vacationing, stranded, imprisoned, experimented upon, and bewildered - depending upon one's point of view.
The Captain worked with witchdoctors on stablilizing Ponce de Leon's formula for the "Fountain of Youth" (which he had taken the liberty of introducing into our food at an earlier dinner party.) Before long into our stay on the island, some of us became ill; some even turned green and started to look like living zombies. We were all made the "honored guests" (quarantined) by the sinister Ministry of Tourism.
The Captain seemed to view this as an exotic vacation resort, but most of us knew we were simply trapped on this God forsaken Island. It felt like months had gone by. Many had begun to give up hope they would ever leave that place.
Mary Langford had been the first taken and worst effected by the potions negative side effects. She awoke one day with her face looking like that of an 80 year old woman. After fainting, she was the first to be experimented upon. The Captain worked with the Witch Doctors day after day, and finally one of their concoctions seemed to have cured her. With that, we were all given an injection of the antidote for the unstable effects (of Ponce de Leon's less than perfect formula) followed by (for all save for myself) a memory erasing drug.
This drug derived from local berries, combined with voodoo hypnotism, wiped out every memory of what had happened on the Island.
I alone was allowed to retain those memories. Someone has to maintain continuity for The Captain's madness across space and time. I may one day tell these stories in greater detail, but for now it might shatter the minds of some of the gentler souls amongst the the crew and captives held upon the S.S. Diamondback, which was finally back on the high seas. The Captain needs someone to document and maintain some order in his fantastically bizarre world, and I have become that victim, I suppose.
And for now, it seems the entire crew has regained their health. They have been well fed and the ships larders are stocked with wonderful foods from the Island. they are free from the Minister of Tourism's clutches, free from the oppressive heat, free from the experimentation, and free from the the giant insects and spiders that infested the place. In fact they are free from any memory of having ever even left the ship. They woke up today, with no memory of any of these events.
I, however... remember clearly.
There are some things we would choose to forget, if only we could.
Terrence L. Rathbone
