"we are all searching for someone whose demons play well with ours." -unknown
•••
two broken soldiers drunk on the idea of finding love.
[I do not own the plots or original characters of Skull Island; I only own Estella Moran and any added moments...
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The boat rumbled and sputtered as they slowly chugged down the calm river. Estella laid on the front of the ship, looking at her surroundings. It was quite a beautiful day. She smiled in spite of herself as her thoughts landed over to James. It did concern her a bit that his name was her brother's name but she didn't think too much of it. There was too much thinking these days.
A medley of songs from the last decade played in the background. Everything was surprisingly quiet, everyone slowly getting used to the idea of being on an uncharted island full of monsters.
Estella could hear Marlow telling Mason and James about his life back in Chicago but she couldn't bring herself to listen. She hadn't got much sleep last night and was suddenly very exhausted. The long forgotten cut in her hip had started to ache once again.
KSSSHHHHHHHH!!
The radio Slivko was toying with suddenly crackled to life, alerting them to the unmistakeable voice of another soldier. Slivko panicked and fumbled for the radio.
"Hey! This is Fox Five! We hear you! Yeah we're on a boat heading up north!" Slivko explained, "We met like this crazy Santa Clause time traveler guy from World War 2, you'll meet him."
There was another pause or silence as Slivko listened to the other end.
"It's more of like a plane boat really. I call it a ploat," Slivko spoke.
Estella rolled her eyes and attempted to raise herself up to her feet. She was startled to find her entire body resisted the mental push. She tried three more times before officially starting to panic.
"James," she said loud enough for him to hear, "James something is wrong."
Leaving his boating duties and handing them off to Mason, he swiftly made his way over. By the time he arrived Estella was already in a full panic attack.
"James I can't get up. I can't move, I don't know what's wrong I need you to help me I..." Estella rattled in hysteria.
James furrowed his brows and grabbed her hand.
"You can't get up?" James inquired.
"Are you deaf? That's what I said!" Estella snapped, her voice rising with every word.
James turned away from her long enough to shout to Slivko to find their location.
"Listen to me," James whispered softly, "This is very common. You're just over exhausted and with the amount of blood lost from that wound, your body is going into fight or flight mode. As soon as we get to land I will find you some water and some kind of nutrients. Just trust me you're going to be fine."
Estella looked into his deep eyes and nodded slowly. His eyes were absolutely mesmerizing. He smiled and placed a kiss on her lips. The tingling lingered as James left her side and returned to driving the boat. Or ploat.
Estella watched a bright flare not too far from the boat light up the sky.
"There!" Victor shouted.
The whole boat of people screamed and cheered at finding another group. It was like finding the light at the end of a dark tunnel.
All was well until a flock of dangerous looking birds swooped in on the boat, grabbing Victor. He screamed as they dragged him into the air. He fumbled for something to grab onto as he was yanked far from the boat. Estella turned her head slightly to see the commotion.
In a split second, her vision was that of a birds. Her mouth was hoarse and she couldn't scream.
"ESTELLA!" James shouted.
She peeked up and found herself trapped by an ugly looking bird dinosaur thing. This was not how she planned to spend her time. Her voice finally returned to her and she screamed with all her might.
"Your knife Estella!" an unknown voice cried.
Estella used the tip from the helper and her smart thinking to retrieve her small dagger and stab the horrid creature. It squawked out in pain and released her from its hold. To evade any other birds catching her as she fell, she formed a diving position and slipped easily into the sea. It was like breaking through glass with its harsh coldness.
Estella opened her eyes underneath the water and it stung like a thousand sunburns. She screamed in frustration and pain. Bubbles of her air flew up to the surface. Her body had gone back into shock and she felt herself sinking to the bottom.
'Move! Move! Move!' her brain shouted.
Her throat burned with the incoming salt water as she continued to will her body to move. The dark water formed a suffocating coffin around her. She could see neither her own hands or any other inhabitants of the deep sea. Only one thought crossed her mind.
She was going to die.
It was a depressing thought, that this was true moment she was going to leave behind all those who loved her. But what could she do. Her body had completely left her control.
So she sank.
I don't usually like doing cliffhangers but eh 🤷🏻♀️
