------ eleven ------
"We used Fatin's suitcase to transport the water to camp, so we wouldn't have to go fetch some that often. Good thing, her parents felt guilty about shipping her off to "The Dawn of Eve" against her will. Their guilt made survival a lot easier."
"So you went back to the lagoon after returning to camp?" inquired Dr. Faber. They had given her a night to think, to reorganise all her memories, putting them in a right order. Grace had told them about most of the day already at this point, leaving out some details, she didn't want them to know off. They didn't need to know everything.
"Yeah, Dot, Shelby and I did. The rest stayed behind. We didn't all need to go anyway and we were all pretty exhausted; Rachel was merely seconds away from literally being swallowed up by the earth, Martha was still recovering from her injury, Toni didn't want to go as soon as Shelby volunteered to, and Fatin - well - we didn't want to lose Fatin again. All in all, it was quite the eventful day."
Everything in the room was the same as the day before. The walls were painted in the same shade brown, the small amount of sunlight entering the room didn't make it seem any less cold than the day before. Then there was the loud ticking of the clock that interrupted her thoughts every now and then, just like it did the day prior. It was too loud, even a bit unnerving.
But what was most prominent, was that men in front of her acted just the same, from their clothes to their voice to their aura, nothing had changed. She thought the same wave of excitement would overcome her as yesterday, but there was nothing new to be excited about like she hoped. It was a monotonous day.
"Of course, we boiled the water, before actually drinking it, to kill off the germs," Grace said.
"That was a smart thing to do," Agent Young commented, reassuring the blonde.
"I know, Dot was the one who told us to do so. She's really smart. I'm not sure if we would have made it without her and I'm not just talking about the water thing because if she hadn't told us, Nora would have. But Dot always knows what to do and is a pretty great leader."
------ eleven ------
"Do you really think there is something out there?" Grace asked the brunette wearily. Dorothy's words haunted her 'I'm not so concerned about going hungry. I'm more concerned about something hungry finding us.' "Maybe Toni just thought, she heard something last night? Maybe, she imagined the howling and the screeching?" Her voice was almost shaky at that point, the girl's fear could not be overheard.
But Dot knew that her answer wouldn't satisfy the cheerleader. Most of the time, honesty isn't what people want to hear, but what needs to be heard instead. Dot's world had always been brutally honest. It allowed her to see the world in a clearer light, which she had gotten used to by now. Yet, Grace was far away from that, honesty wasn't her cup of tea.
"We should be prepared for anything," she answered carefully, attempting to be gentle with the blonde. Thus, that was exactly what they did, they were prepared for the worst and to be prepared for a wild, dangerous animal to be on the island with them, they needed to make sure that something else was even further away from them.
------ eleven ------
"Predators ain't no joke, man," Dot's statement was followed by a loud howl coming from the woods, making Grace shiver a bit. She couldn't deny what Toni had heard anymore. She couldn't or wouldn't deny reality. Noticing the girl's fear, the brunette sent her a small, yet comforting smile.
"That was disturbingly on cue."
"Yeah, and coming a hell of a lot closer every night," Dot added to her worry. It was then that Toni came closer to the blonde as if to make her feel safer, to protect her from the predator in the woods.
"Then why exactly are we traipsing around in the dark, making ourselves easy prey?" Shelby questioned, referring to their current situation. The sun was long gone and replaced by nothing but pure darkness, the moon being their only source of light.
"This," the other Texan sighed from the front of the group, seemingly stopping in the middle of nowhere. "It's Jeanette's grave. Or what's left of it, anyway. Keeping her here was fine when we thought rescue was coming right away-"
"But it's been a week," Rachel concluded, bidding farewell to her dreams of rescue coming soon. She had been the one to hold on to those hopes the longest.
"A shallow grave, right near camp, it's going to attract company we don't want." It looked different the last time the girl's had seen it. Both, the nosegay and the little heart they made out of seashells, weren't there anymore, making it appear even colder and sadder. Yet, it was still recognisable. Grace knew for sure that this was where Jeanette rested.
Only that it wasn't. The plan was to bury her deeper and much farther away. There was just one problem with their plan, Jeanette's corpse was nowhere to be found. Grace had to swallow her morals as they tried to dig her back up. It felt "sacrilegious" as Shelby had put. But no matter how deep they dug, her body wasn't there, it disappeared, not leaving a trace of its existence.
"Where the fuck is her body?" Leah asked as they sat around an empty hollow.
"Do you think whatever is out there has already-" Grace paused a second, searching for the right word, "taken her?" Her question was more directed at Dot than at any of the other girls, but the Texan didn't get to answer her.
A huff was heard from the other side of the hollow. "Yeah, a wild animal fed on her body and cleaned up everything afterwards." Rachel commented sarcastically. "God, stop being so stupid, Grace."
"Stop being such an asshole, Rachel," Toni defended the blonde, starring the athlete down.
"Maybe, we didn't dig deep enough," Martha said, ignoring what had been said beforehand.
To which Toni shook her head. "No, we didn't bury her any deeper than this. There's no way." Her statement earned approval by Dot.
"Then, maybe this isn't the right spot," Martha concluded.
"No, it is. I counted," Dot confirmed. "120 feet away from camp." The whole situation grew stranger with every second.
"So, what, are we saying that she just, like, re-animated or something and walked off like a zombie?" Fatin spoke totally weirded out.
"A resurrection?"
"No, this is weird as hell," Rachel spoke up again, trying to figure out the situation like the others, but just like them not having any logical explanation for the corpse's disappearance.
"Gracie's animal theory doesn't seem too far fetched," Martha mumbled looking down.
"Her body wouldn't just disappear," the blonde and Rachel said at the same time.
It was then that Shelby spoke up. She had the biggest problems with digging the body back up. Grace had seen her pray before she even touched the area where Jeanette once lied. "Maybe she got taken out by the tide." Her's was by far the most realistic suggestion.
"The marker's gone. The ground's wet. The elevation of the sand has shifted," Dot voiced her thoughts, agreeing with the blonde.
Leah however wasn't convinced yet. "The tide could take a body out?"
"Tides can pull anything out. Cars, entire houses. The ocean is incredibly powerful," Nora explained, adding up to the theory. By this point Grace was convinced that this was how it happened. After all, it was the easiest explanation.
"So Jeanette's just out there on the waves, floating alone," Martha concluded. It was truly a dreary thought, all alone in the middle of the ocean, with no one to hold on to.
The cheerleader's gaze met the gentle waves, crashing on the beach shore, whilst creating a soothing tune. A natural white noise. It was peaceful almost. It was hard to believe that something so beautiful could be so dangerous. But danger usually lies in the most beautiful things.
"Hey, it's kind of beautiful, though," Shelby turned towards Martha, comforting her. "Mother Nature holding her arms around Jeanette..." she pulled the girl into a hug "carrying her away." What Grace liked most about Shelby - why she once was her best friend - was how she saw beauty in everything. It was a quality she wished to acquire herself, yet failed to do so.
"Adios, J," Dot finally said.
Unbeknownst to the girls, someone had been there before them.
------ flashback ------
It was March when Grace's world began to crumble. It was 20 March. When she came home from school, she entered a house filled with screams and insults. She didn't quite know what was happening in front of her. Her parents were in a heated argument, but what were they arguing about.
They didn't care to tell her when she came home. They didn't even realise she did, or it took them several minutes to do so, several minutes Grace just stood there quietly watching their marriage fall apart.
Thomas and Maria Hart had two things in common; their two children and their love for money and prestige which they were happy to pass onto their children. Money and prestige. A big mansion. Expensive paintings. Fast cars. Fine resorts. Fancy clothes. Lavish parties.
Money made their loveless marriage bearable, maybe a little appealing. But just as one can run out of love one can run out of money. And marriage without either, well, there is nothing appealing about that.
Mr. Hart earned good money, but however he was quick to spend it. After all, he had to afford the extravagant lifestyle they had. Everything would have been fine though, had he not lost his job at the bank months ago. Thomas Hart had spent the last months putting on a suit, taking his briefcase and leaving his house, usually greeting the neighbours on his way out. Then, he would eventually come back home, when his wife wasn't home, entering the house through the back entrance, before officially coming home at five p.m.
His pride forbade him to tell his family or to ask for help. He tried to get a job at another bank, but no one wanted to hire a man in his late fifties, almost at the end of his career. What they wanted was a young man.
And this was only the beginning of the charade.
------ eleven ------
"After that day we became... well, it just sort of clicked," Grace smiled at the thought of the girls who she was eager to see again. Their experience made them grow close. Sure, they didn't always get along well, but at the end of the day they were there for each other.
"It wasn't like we were friends or anything, but for the first time we were an "us". We laid out rules. We each had tasks. The rules were faire and the tasks we shared and we each were entitled to one rest day. Because it was brutal out there and we all just needed a chance to mellow to be alone with our thoughts. We formed our own little society."
------ eleven ------
The sun was at its highest point, flooding the island with its sunlight, making the island appear a bit friendlier and warmer. There was no denying that it was a beautiful day. The clouds looked like they were made out of cotton and the sky was painted in just the most lovely shade of blue. The water was warm and welcoming. A light wind breeze washed over Grace's body as she watched Toni, lying on the ground, looking up at the sky.
Grace had to smile at the scene, displaying in front of her. Toni had already finished her work for the day and was spending the rest of it with pleasantries. The blonde felt bad about interrupting her peace as she let all twigs and branches fall down, creating a loud noise in process.
She mumbled a weak "sorry" under her breath, being exhausted from the work she had done for the last couple of hours. It were her heavy breaths that caused the brunette to sit up.
"Do you need help?" she asked the blonde who only shook her head, not wanting to bother the other girl. "Are you sure?" she tried again. Just as the cheerleader was about to reject her offer once more, she added "Look, I wouldn't mind. I'm already done with my tasks and I'm pretty sure I'll die of boredom if I lie here for much longer."
Thus, they made their way into the outskirts of the woods, holding up a light conversation, laughing at each other's jokes. Out of all of the girls, Grace had grown closest to Toni.
She gave her good vibes. There was almost a special bond between them. Maybe, that was the reason why Grace had gone after the brunette on so many occasions. At least, it wasn't because the girl had been nice to her anyway because Toni Shalifoe wasn't the easiest person to be around at first.
She needed some time to warm up to the blonde. Unbeknownst to Grace was that she warmed up to her awfully quickly. Toni Shalifoe never thought she'd like a girl like Grace Hart, a girl like her lived in a different world, a world she didn't want to be a part of, yet somehow the blonde made it into her heart. She cared about her.
"I'm glad we have no mirrors here, I'm pretty sure I look terrible at this point," the Texan complained as she picked up more wood.
"I think you look beautiful," the brunette said without a second thought.
"You're just saying that to make me feel better," Grace huffed, not even giving her second glance.
"When did I ever say something just to make you feel better?" Toni queried. "Honestly, Texas, I'm disappointed. I thought you knew me better than this," she joked, before getting more serious. "I'm telling you that you're beautiful because you obviously are and if anyone ever told you that you aren't they are full of shit."
"You know, you're really cool," she said, giving the brunette her attention, studying the girl, getting lost in her eyes, before her gaze met the girl's lips that somehow still looked soft, even after over a week stranded on the island.
There was a silence surrounding the two of them as they each looked at the other. It was only then that Grace realised how close they were standing next to each other. Her eyes shifted up to the brunette's brown orbs, before once again landing on her lips, just that this time she took a step forward, placing her lips on hers.
The kiss lasted for merely a second, before the blonde interrupted it as fast as she started it. Having realised what she had just done, she began to panic. "Oh my God, I'm so sorry. Please, don't ha-" she started to apologise.
However the girl couldn't finish her apology, being interrupted by Toni's soft lips.
------ eleven ------
written: 7 March, 2020
A/N: I'm back. My past three weeks have been really stressful, so I couldn't find the time to update last week, but my next week is going to be calmer, so here I present to you "Part Eleven". I hope you enjoyed it. As always thanks for all the comments and votes.