PANIC ROOM • KENJI KON

XXI. Kenji Is A Pretty Little Princess

"And how do you plan on getting up there?" Sammy asked, swallowing loudly.

She studied the wreckage, nodding. "I'm gonna climb the vines."

"Eva—"

"Hey, if Dylan O'Brien can do it, so can I."

Darius shook his head. "That sounds really dangerous, Eva. I'm sorry, but I can't condone you to do that."

"But our bunks!" she protested. "Okay, okay, what if I climb the elevator shaft? Takes the fun out of it, but it's safer."

"Okay..." He hesitantly agreed. "But you're taking Kenji with you."

"Ew! Why?"

"Because he's strong, and unlike Yaz, he's not injured."

Brooklynn supplied them with vines, and they took to climbing the elevator shaft. At the top, they carefully walked around the sky bridges, headed for the bunks— or whatever was left of them.

The girls dorm room had caved in from the top, showing off wet floorboards and small puddles of rainwater. Eva gasped as she spotted a familiar red suitcase across the room.

She took careful steps across the room, freezing when a step would creak, or became too noisy to bear. She finally reached the outer edge, hands wrapping around her suitcase, which she tugged free with minimal effort. She also grabbed a broken picture frame on the ground that held a pretty brown cow inside.

Meeting back up with Kenji, the two scoured the other dorms, searching for personal luggage and supplies, and anything else they could possibly need.

Once they collected everything useful they possibly could, they headed to the edge of one of the sky bridges to create their pulley system. Eva tossed the vines around a slightly thick branch above them, then grabbed the edge of the vine, tying it off around her suitcase.

"Okay, attempt numéro un," Eva said, handing the back half of the vine to Kenji.

Eva kicked her suitcase off the platform, and the two slowly lowered it down to the others. At the bottom of the tree, Brooklynn and Darius untied the suitcase, giving a small yank as a sign to bring the vine back up. Eva sighed in relief, happy her plan worked.

They began lowering down the other bags they had found. When they got to Kenji's, Eva yelled down to the others to empty the bag so they could refill it up top with more supplies.

As they were pulling the bag back to the top, Eva yelled out, "Castaways, we are castaways!" much to Kenji's annoyance.

"If you say 'castaways' one more time, I'm pushing you off the ledge," Kenji threatened.

"Oh, like you pushed me off the monorail?"

Kenji scoffed, "I saved you!"

"All good that did, we're still stuck here all alone," she muttered bitterly. Then added, "Castaways!"

Kenji groaned as he reached out, taking his duffle back. He squatted on the passageway and began to fill it with more supplies, including Sammy's framed photo of her cow, Bessie.

"We are castaways! Ahoy there, ahoy, we are castaways! We're stuck where we are, with no house, no car. Castaways, ahoy, we are castaways!"

Kenji rolled his eyes and flipped off Eva, who cackled in laughter. Eva re-tied his bag, and the two got to work, lowering it back down.

"You know, it could be worse," Eva said without looking back at her mortal enemy.

"Really?" He scoffed. "How could it be worse? We're stuck on an island with a bunch of animals that want to eat us, and we're stuck with each other, but it can be worse? Yeah, right."

"Yeah, it could be worse," she repeated herself. "What if you were stuck here without someone as amazing as me?" She looked over her shoulder, smirking.

Kenji's cheeks tinged pink and he looked anywhere but at her.

"Mhm, mhm, what a sha—"

Eva's foot slipped and instinctively she screamed, her body falling several feet as the wood beneath her gave way. Kenji was quick to rush forward, his hands grasping around Eva's wrists, stopping her from falling to her death.

"I got you, I got you," he panted, biting his tongue as he slowly lifted her up and back onto the skywalk.

Once she was safe, save for her rapidly beating heart, she jerked her hands from his, whilst trying to regain her breathing.

Kenji furrowed his eyebrows and snapped, "You know, you being here isn't exactly a walk in the park, either. I was basically put on babysitting duty for you." He rolled his eyes, then, added as an afterthought, "If I could, I wouldn't have carried you when we were trying to make the ferry."

His eyes widened as Eva's narrowed, and she scoffed, pushing past him.

He was going to leave me for dead.

Eva's cheeks flushed in anger, and she quickly turned back to face him. "Yeah? Then why did you? You wanted to leave me for dead, you fucking should have done nothing— cause that's your thing, right? Sit around on your ass waiting for everyone else to do all the hard work? Sit around like a pretty little princess expecting everyone else to do what you refuse to?"

"I don't just sit around doing nothing—"

"Oh, really? Because last I checked, you were goofing around doing the absolute bare minimum while we've all been working our butts off to build camp. But you? You just like to sit around and take the L. You wouldn't know hard work if it slapped you across the face."

"Oh, and, like, you do?" He snapped, pushing forward towards her.

"Guys! Eva! Kenji!" Darius yelled from below.

Kenji continued, "You think you're all that just because you have a penchant for survival. Well, guess what, you're just as much a princess as I am. All self-absorbed and egocentric.The only person you care about is yourself."

"Guys!"

"Then why catch me just now?" She asked in a rather sharp tone. She stepped forward, inches away from Kenji. "Why push me off the monorail in the first place?" She rolled her eyes and stepped away, muttering a snarky comment under her breath.

Kenji scoffed, "I can't believe you sometimes."

Eva raised her hands, flipping him the bird twice. She headed for the only intact sky bridge that led to another portion of the tree house.

"And where are you going?!" Kenji shouted after her.

"Away from you!" she snapped, stomping away.

The audacity of Kenji to call her self-absorbed. As if he didn't care more about himself than her.

He was going to leave me for dead.

Eva scoffed, taking off her glasses and rubbing her eyes with the corner of her hoodie sleeve.

Her? Egocentric? Yeah, right. She'd show him... She would show them all. 

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ahhhh I loved this chapter!! Did you? 

- Atha