'I threw a man into a volcano. Here's why it felt so good.'

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When Lauren Kekoa was 15 years old, her high school volleyball coach Rubin Bartlett, himself a former Olympian, began the careful, intentional, diabolical process of grooming her.

By the time she was in her final year of high school, he had isolated her, threatened her, manipulated her and cornered her into a sexual relationship. 

Coach Bartlett had explained how things would go for Lauren if she told anyone. He told her that she'd be the one shamed by her teammates, friends and family.

He told her that no man would want to be with her after knowing that she was "damaged goods." He told her that he, on the other hand, would be fine, that he was untouchable — that she'd be the one to pay the price. 

Watch: Naima Brown speaks on her career in media. Post continues below.

Lauren believed him. Why wouldn't she? The world had shown her countless times that women pay the price of coming forward, of disclosing and seeking justice.

She'd seen very high-profile men accused of terrible crimes make it out the other side of the justice system — with the lives of their victims in tatters in their wake.

She'd seen women with far more power and resources than she had torn to shreds in actual courts, as well as the court of public opinion. What chance did she have? 

Lauren wouldn't have told anyone. Her plan was to keep their secret until she was able to escape him by leaving town and going to university.

It was only being caught by the school janitor that brought the years-long abuse she'd been suffering to an end, sending Coach Bartlett to jail. 

Years later, after Lauren had fulfilled her dream of becoming a volcanologist in Hawaii, she saw him on the street, casually getting coffee as if he were just a normal person, and not a predator.

He'd served his time and was again in the wild — and to her abject horror, he was with an underage girl. 

By this time, Lauren had come to learn that the justice system wasn't going to put a stop to Coach Bartlett. She'd come to learn that he would, given the opportunity, continue to cause harm.

So Lauren decided to take matters into her own hands. She called on a private group of girlfriends who were bonded by one core feature: they all had a monster like Coach Bartlett.

Different names, different stories, different circumstances and outcomes — but monsters nonetheless. 

"I want to throw every single one of these men into a volcano. And in fiction, I can," writes Naima Brown. Image: Supplied

Lauren recruited two members of this group — one with a helicopter pilot's license, the other with access to paralytic drugs.

The three of them conspired to get Coach Bartlett into a helicopter under the guise of going on a flyover of Kilauea, an active volcano. 

Coach Bartlett didn't return from that flight. 

Lauren and her friends dropped him over the centre of the open crater, where molten, liquid rock sputtered and flowed, luminous and primal and utterly hypnotic. 

If that sounds dramatic — that's because it is.

The Cruise.

Lauren isn't a real person. She's a character in my new piece of fiction, The Cruise — an audio drama available now on Audible. 

The Cruise is about Bailey Collins, who believed she had outrun what Eli Murphy, her monster, did to her in high school.

Ten years and thousands of miles away from the scene of the crime, Bailey is laser-focused on her career.

She's a rising star at her TV network, newly promoted as senior producer for the reality show, The Cruise. Things are on the up. And then Eli Murphy applies to be a contestant on The Cruise.

It's taken a lot for Bailey to make something of her life and to heal from her adolescent trauma. She's changed her name and chopped her hair into a severe blonde pixie.

But what she really owes her new life to is The Squad, the group of ride-or-die sisters-for-life survivors who have bonded over group therapy and stayed closely linked.

They're always ready to assist one of their own in seeking the justice so often denied them.

Being stuck incognito on a luxury yacht with Eli might actually provide the opportunity for closure that Bailey has been waiting a decade for.

As senior producer, she's in the perfect position to cast him and five members of The Squad as the female contestants on the show.

One of these women is Lauren Kekoa.

As an all-new season of The Cruise sets sail, Bailey and her secret squad begin their own game for the ultimate prize: revenge.

There are seven women whose stories intertwine in The Cruise: Bailey, Lauren, Gianna, Eden, Katy, Molly and Lainey.

These women have experienced domestic violence, sexual assault, abuse of power, gun violence, stalking…and more.

And all of them, in one way or another, had been let down by the systems that were supposed to protect them. 

Very bad things befall very bad men.

Most of the women in my life have experienced at least one of these things, too. And if by some chance they don't have their own personal experience, a woman who they love certainly does. 

And beyond our own families and friend groups we hear stories every single day about women and girls whose lives have been destroyed - or taken - by men.

I'm so tired of it. I am enraged by it.

I want to throw every single one of these men into a volcano.

And in fiction, I can. 

Very bad things befall the very bad men in The Cruise. The volcano was a particularly satisfying end to craft — and yes, a bit Hollywood.

But if you can't throw a bad man into a volcano in fiction — where can you do it? 

All of the endings that the bad men of The Cruise meet were cathartic to write — and incredible to hear them performed by the cast of the sixteen incredible actors who brought The Cruise to life, including Catherine Van-Davies (The Twelve and Home & Away) and Genevieve Hegney (Colin From Accounts & Pieces of Her).

But what was more satisfying and cathartic were the transformations of the women in The Squad from victims to survivors, and from survivors to weapons, to mercenaries hiding in plain sight to protect not only each other, but other women with the vigilante justice that every woman I know - including myself - has fantasised about. 

The Cruise is available now, only on Audible.

Feature Image: Supplied

The Cruise is available now, only on Audible. Image: Supplied