𝘼𝙐𝘿𝘼𝘾𝙄𝙊𝙐𝙎 » 𝙟𝙪𝙧𝙖𝙨𝙨𝙞𝙘 𝙬𝙤𝙧𝙡𝙙 ✓ [1]

XIV

But nobody called back to this face caked with mud and sweat and blood and exhaustion, stinging the grazes on my cheeks and bruised lips.

I resume running, stumbling over rocks and pathetically brushing branches aside. I didn't know how long I needed to do this. Until I got an answer to my fate, I presumed.

But my body was falling to the ground with a thud, a wince evacuating my lungs in a harsh breath. There was a grazy kind of throb in my shins. I had tripped over something. I grit my teeth, heaving myself up with shaking arms as my battered hands pressed uncomfortably into bitumen.

Bitumen.

I look down. I could just make it out by squinting my eyes through the watery veil over them. Pale, yellow paint stroked over the ground ahead of me in a thin line. A road. My stomach began burning with motivation. All the roads on Nublar lead back to the resort, or to a dock.

'C'mon, Laura,' I seethe, pushing my body up to all fours, arching it up to soften the fierce sting of the slash across my back My knees were buckling under the weight of this entire day. This indescribable day that my body couldn't hold. Not anymore. I didn't want anymore of it.

A stifled cry pierced through the silent jungle as I pushed myself up off the ground, joints clicking into place and muscles tensing as they bared the load of a body buzzing with so many things. I sway ever so lightly, feeling my shoes stumble over the road. I teach myself how to walk again. I had to keep going. One step. Two step. Two little stumbles over the toe of my boots. Clutching my right leg still throbbing from the trip- in the hopes that by holding it, just like you hold a person in pain in your arms, it would drift away from the hurt for a while. An owl cooed softly somewhere in the distance.

I could just feel it. I didn't know how many little shuffles I had taken before I properly realised. It began trembling in my ankles and filing quietly into my ears. A little hum dragging it's way behind me.

The rumbling of a car heading towards me.

A soft glow crept along the road, expanding out from the deep navy blue, harsh against my eyes now used to navigating in the dark. The engine grew louder and louder. I stood cemented to the spot, dripping with sweat, gasping for air, shivering all the same.

The car slowed, and then it stopped, steam dancing in the headlights. I couldn't see the model of it or who was behind the wheel. The few moments where neither of us moved had passed like lifetimes. I grit my teeth, ready to defend myself if need be.

The person I had least expected to see out this way at this point in the night emerged from the car, ducking out, softly closing the door not to startle me. He sucks in a deep breath, elevating his shoulders.

I take a step back.

'You stay the hell away from me,' I croak fiercely, my throat still clenching with the lump that had somehow doubled in size. Any larger and it might make me dizzy.

My Uncle stood in front of the car headlights, his untouched arms and clean palms held up in defense. His eyes were clouded with defeat, and yet, he still stood with dignity and wore an expression tinged with impatience. Like seeing me in pain was slowing him down. Even though the entire island and resort had collapsed to the ground, the place we had both called home for as long as I could physically remember, he was still on a schedule.

His niece stood before him, stranded, alone and afraid in a jungle in the dead of night, and he couldn't bare a frown. Not a single strand of heart.

'Laura,' he says.

I shake my head violently. 'No,' I spit. 'Don't you Laura me. How dare you-'

'Let me explain,' he interjects, raising his voice a little. I stop, knowing I shouldn't have, knowing this man didn't deserve any ounce of space to justify anything he'd ever done in his time on this island, and well before it.