Chapter 8
Ariana
I jolt upright, awakened by a sound I don’t recognize. In the darkness, there was a sharp crack in the underbrush, low and heavy, not like the wind or the shift of branches. And there was a deep, guttural sound humming beneath it…almost like a growl.
My heart pounds. My body stiffens. For a brief moment I think I must have dreamed it, but then it comes again, closer this time. Something moving. Something alive.
My breath catches in my throat. I don’t dare move, not even to scratch the itch on my face or wipe the sweat from my neck. My eyes dart through the shadows, where shapes blur together, black against black. The hair on my arm lifts as I choke back a scream.
Then I see a small glow, a tiny orange circle of fire.
Oh.
It’s him.
My eyes adjust enough for me to make out that he’s propped up against a tree, smoking yet again.
“Villain,” I croak. “Did you hear that?”
He blows out a ring of smoke. “Yeah. It wasn’t nowhere near here.”
“An animal?”
He’s quiet long enough for me to know the answer.
His head turns just enough for me to make out his face in the firelight. He looks calm. Too calm. Finally, he answers.
“Yeah. It was.” He slaps at something on his arm. “But it was far away.”
Easy for him to say. He still has two working legs. My ears strain for the sound again, but all I hear is the crackle of the fire and Ms. K’s uneven breathing. The silence presses in on me like a weight, my stomach twisting as I wonder what I’d do if it, whatever it is, got close to us.
“Lay back down,” he says softly. “You need your rest.”
I’m surprised by his gentleness, but it’s not winning in a fight against my fear.
“What if it comes?” I ask, my voice rising in panic. “I can’t run. Ms. K can’t run.”
He’s still. And quiet. Moments pass like heartbeats. I can hear my own, now. A relentless metronome beating in my ears.
Something’s crawling on me. I slap it away and shiver violently.
“I’ll stay up,” he finally says.
“What do you mean?”
“To keep watch. I’ll stay up. You sleep.”
I wanna tell him I don’t trust him to keep me safe.
Maybe because I saw too much earlier today.
Or was that yesterday? Either way, he already showed me who he is, and that boy I saw isn’t strong enough or brave enough to protect us if something comes charging out of the dark.
He doesn’t exactly inspire confidence, skulking in the shadows, smoking reality away.
But I don’t say it. It wouldn’t do any good, and I’m too tired to argue.
My body hurts from sleeping on hard earth.
My head throbs. My leg aches and stings.
Every ounce of me wants to fight against the dread and stay alert so that I can fight my own way out of whatever horror awaits us deep in those trees.
But I can’t. Exhaustion is pulling me under like an undertow.
I lie back down on cold, unyielding earth.
The fire’s warmth barely reaches me, but shivering is preferable to moving.
My eyes flutter shut, disobeying my brain, which is screaming at me to stay awake.
In my mind, I whisper a prayer. Please God, send somebody to find us.
To rescue us. Please heal Ms. K. Please heal my leg.
Please comfort my sister. My other half.
Just as I’m drifting off, a sound next to me jolts me awake.
“It’s me,” Villain says as he lays a second blanket on top of me. “It’s just me.”
I dream of nothing. Dark emptiness interrupted by brief flashes of light. I wonder if I’m asleep, and it’s only when I wake again that I realize I must have been. Pale grey light seeps into the clearing. It’s almost a new day.
Someone is in pain. I hear it in their voice.
I open my eyes to see Ms. K with a grimace etched onto her face. I push myself up, panic nudging the last remnants of sleep from my brain.
“Where does it hurt, Kiara?”
She winces, clutching her stomach. “My pelvis,” she breathes. “It’s…it’s spreading to my back.”
I freeze. It’s a bad look for somebody in my profession, but my extensive training didn’t cover this. I could give her CPR, administer insulin, give her the Heimlich, or shock her with a defibrillator. But this? This is beyond my skillset.
Villain approaches slowly, a baggy of pills in one hand and water in the other. His face stops me cold…he looks distraught. But he doesn’t say a word as he goes to his knees next to Kiara.
“Shouldn’t she eat something first?”
“Ain’t no time for that,” he snaps, his face quickly twisting in anger.
I leave it alone, watching as he feeds her one pill, then holds the bottle of water to her dry lips. He repeats the process, then strokes her cheek.
“I’m worried about you,” he tells her. “How you feel? Be honest.”
If she has any words to say, it must be too taxing for her to say them. She simply moans again and closes her eyes, her breathing shallow and erratic.
I slap away another bug, hitting myself a little too hard in the process.
The silence that follows is unbearable. Finally, I lift my gaze to Villain, surprised his eyes are already on me. We don’t say it out loud, but it’s right there in the look we exchange.
This is bad.
Really bad.