Visiting the meat shed was the first thing that Agami did when they got back to check if Shauna had already started cutting the remaining meat from last night and offer some help if the other woman needed it. She would do anything, any chore, just so she could stay out of the cabin but still be useful. What she didn't expect she would see was Jackie and Shauna hugging each other quietly, and she must have accidentally disturbed some private moments between the two friends. Agami was about to turn around and pretend she didn't see anything to not make things awkward, but Jackie had already seen her.
The girls then let go of the embrace, and Agami could only stand in silence, too embarrassed to move a muscle or even say a word. Jackie left immediately, saying she couldn't take the smell of the raw meat and the sight of it anymore, which made Agami roll her eyes. She finally approached Shauna, who was now starting to cut the deer meat into strips.
Agami took the liberty to prepare and clean the long table where they could arrange and place them to dry. They were both working in silence when Shauna decided to end it, asking Agami a question that the wind thought was out of the blue.
"You're working in a pharmacy, right? I think I saw you there once when my mother asked me to buy some meds," said Shauna.
Although confused, Agami responded to the question. "Not me, but my father. Maybe I was just there to chill or man it for a while when you saw me," she told Shauna. "Why?"
Shauna put down the hunting knife she was holding. Her bloodied hands were shaking badly, and Agami saw the woman turn pale as she faced her.
"Do you think you can help me with some drugs without a prescription once we get back home and are rescued?" asked Shauna in a serious voice.
Agami didn't answer right away. She stared at the woman with furrowed brows, contemplating Shauna's odd request.
"It depends on what it is," she responded to the woman, waiting to hear further details from Shauna.
"I might be pregnant," Shauna replied straight to Agami.
The woman smirked at her, shook her head repeatedly, then laughed.
"You know, Shipman, that could have been funny if I hadn't cracked that joke earlier," said Agami.
She then turned her back on Shauna and went back to prepare the table. When Agami didn't hear any response from the woman, she threw another glance at her, but Shauna was just all quiet and still staring at her. That's when Agami realized that the woman wasn't joking.
"Shit," said Agami in a low voice, her hand running over her own mouth. "For real?"
Shauna nodded her head and leaned on the table, then massaged her temple.
"I'm late, and what you said earlier gave me the idea. Their questions to you made me realize that I'm the one who's actually pregnant."
Agami understood what the woman meant to say. Clearly, Shauna had sex before they boarded the plane, and that resulted in her current situation. She didn't need to ask who the father was since that's none of her business, but what she had to give the woman was a response to her favor being asked.
It's not the first time that Agami was approached by a girl and asked the same thing. Students in Wiskayok know that her father was a pharmacist, and she herself had access to all the medicines and drugs in the store. Some of their schoolmates came to her, pleading for help, and even offered to pay her huge money if she would sell them medicines that would cause serious bleeding if a pregnant woman drank them, which of course would lead to what they actually want. Miscarriage. But she never said yes to anyone, not wanting to be part of such acts that would risk her father's job or even get him jailed.
With Shauna standing in front of her, looking far worse than any of the girls who approached her before, Agami couldn't help but think about it. She placed her hand on Shuna's arms, looked at her with so much emotion, and finally gave her response.
"I would, sure," she said to the woman. Shauna smiled at her and was about to thank her when Agami spoke again. "You know that your life would be at risk, right?"
"It doesn't matter," Shauna replied quickly. Agami nodded her head, respecting the woman's decision.
"But the real problem is, when are we getting rescued, Shipman? A few more weeks? Months? Years? Are we even gonna get rescued?" Agami stated, taking a deep breath. "The point is, the longer that fetus stays in your body, the bigger the risk once you try to get it out."
Shauna closed her eyes, feeling more helpless. She knows she might die in the process, and even if she survived, it's impossible that there would be no side effects. There's no other person to blame for her problem-not Jackie, not Jeff. Just herself. But she's not yet ready to be a mother either, especially not when they are in the middle of nowhere.
"Then I don't know what else to do," she choked in her own words, trying not to break down.
Agami exhaled heavily, not sure how to help the woman at the moment. Shauna's life is already at risk with their current environment, since not a single proper health care will be given to the pregnant woman. But for Agami, Shauna's own survival should be their top concern.
"Does anyone else know about this?" she asked Shauna, who then shook her head as a response.
"It's just you. So if this gets out, I know who to kill," she warned Agami.
The woman immediately raised her hand in surrender and gestured to zip her lips, indicating that Shauna didn't have to worry about that matter.
"But you don't think that nobody is going to notice this, right? Turner's gonna figure it out, whether you like it or not. That woman is skeptical all the time, so if you want to hide this from everyone for as long as you can, you should be careful around her," she told Shauna.
Their conversation about the matter ended there and remained quite unresolved. Agami knows that Shauna telling her about pregnancy doesn't mean that the woman trusted her about it or that she was a friend, but simply because she might be able to help her with the situation. Although she admires Shauna's bravery in confessing such a thing to a complete stranger, Agami wouldn't be able to help her as long as they are stuck in the wilderness. But she was the woman of her word. Once they get out, she'll help the woman with whatever she can give her. The only thing she can do for Shauna at the moment is to shut her mouth and pretend she doesn't know a thing about the woman's pregnancy.
Agami let Shauna go back to the others first and just volunteered to finish off everything. Once she is done cleaning, Agami follows after washing her hands. She was on her way back to the cabin when she accidentally caught another pair of girls sharing an intimate moment with one another again. This time she didn't hide her presence and watched them with a grin visible on her way.
They seem to notice her and immediately shift their gaze to Agami in sync. She quickly brought her right hand up and covered her eyes, as if she hadn't witnessed the whole thing already, then peeked through the spaces on her fingers as she spoke to the two.
"The world might feel like it's ending for us, but hey, at least some people are getting it," she mocked them.
"What, you're not familiar with privacy?" Van asked.
"The two of you making out here in a tree near the cabin and looking for privacy at the same time doesn't sit well," Agami replied.
Taissa rolled her eyes at the woman. "Well, the show is over. Go back to whatever shit you're gonna do," she told Agami.
"I think Lottie went that way, in case you're wondering," said Van, pointing on the right side from where they were all standing and a teasing smile visible on her face.
"Awesome. You can read my mind now, huh? Like, what are we now? Souls connected and telepathic bullshit?" responded Agami, then slowly turned to the right where Van said Lottie went, leaving the couple to do their thing.
Agami smiled in amusement when she heard a loud scream coming from the cabin, seeing Van and Taissa rushing back to the others without a choice and possibly still horny from their now twice-disrupted making-out session. She ignored everyone and just continued to search for Lottie.
Her search for the woman didn't last that long when she found Lottie standing in front of a tree, staring at something. She slowly approached the woman and called for her attention.
"Hey," she said, which almost sounded like a whisper.
When Lottie didn't look at her, Agami checked whatever the tall brunette was looking at and groaned in frustration when she realized what it was.
"C'mon, I think they're cooking lunch," she told Lottie, choosing to ignore the mark on the tree.
Without sparing Agami even a quick glance, Lottie spoke. "It's everywhere. But I don't know what it is," she said.
"No one knows what it means, Charlotte. Just ignore it," replied Agami in a gentle voice, then slowly traced the symbol carved on the tree with her fingers.
"That doesn't mean we shouldn't try to understand it. I think we have to."
When Lottie turned to face her, Agami stared at the woman with horror when she saw the woman's face covered in blood, which continued to drip from the top of Lottie's head. Scared of the disturbing sight in front of her, Agami stepped back slowly, getting away from Lottie out of fright.
Her fixed stare at the woman was broken when her right foot stepped on a twig, which she checked absentmindedly. But when she shifted her eyes back at Lottie, the woman's face was no longer bloodied and was now back to how it was earlier.
"Are you okay?" Lottie asked the now-pale Agami.
The woman avoided her gaze as she nodded her head and started to walk again.
"Yeah," replied the woman, uneased. "We should head back."
Night came, and Agami felt the consequences of choosing to move all day as she refused to rest and stay anywhere near the cabin. After their lunch earlier, she and Van resumed their hunt for dead logs, which consumed the remaining energy she had left for the day. But she's not complaining because, after all, they were successful in finding enough logs to build a raft that could carry at least two people. Since the sun had already set when they finished, the pair of them decided to just continue their work the next day.
It seems that tonight was the last time they could have a full dinner. Just as Shauna and Taissa announced after eating, they will be preserving meat to make sure they will still have food in the next few days. No one was happy about it, but they all knew it was the right thing to do.
But despite the announcement, the girls seem to be so eager to finish their dinner quickly, which confuses Agami because, contrary to what the other girls were doing, she decided to take her time eating her last full supper. She watched them silently, still enjoying the meat she had left in her bowl, but didn't wonder in silence anymore when the girls went to the attic one by one.
"Okay, what's happening?" she asked everyone, then took another bite of the meat.
"Wait, you didn't know?" Gen asked her. Agami shook her head.
"We're having a seance in the attic tonight," said Mel as she stood up from sitting across Agami.
"And nobody told me?" she asked in an exaggerated tone, looking at the remaining girls who still hadn't gone up. "You guys are horrible, horrible people," she told everyone.
"Don't be dramatic. Besides, seance is just for kids, and the lunatics up there are just wasting their time," said Taissa, who was busy taking care of the dirty dishes and obviously doesn't have any plans to join the other girls.
Agami finished her dinner just a few minutes after the girls started their seance in the attic. The only remaining people with her were Laura Lee, whom she was not really surprised didn't join the rest, Ben, Taissa, and Javi. When she heard more laughs coming from the attic, Agami grinned to herself and looked at Taissa, who was now busy sharpening a knife, as she spoke.
"Well, I'm a kid. I guess I should play with the others," said Agami, who then immediately went up.
Everyone was sitting and busy laughing, circling around the candles, with their foreheads marked with a cross she guessed was blood out of blood. She didn't dare join the circle or put some blood on her forehead; she just simply stood behind them.
Her arrival was first noticed by Natalie, who then gave her a huge, teasing smile when their eyes met.
"I have another one," said Natalie, as a starter. The blindfolded Shauna nodded her head, prompting Natalie to continue.
With a loud voice and imitating a host on some shows, Natalie asked her question. "Will Dick finally get laid once we get back home?" she yelled, which earned different comments from other girls, especially Van, who seconded the question.
Agami kicks Natalie on the back playfully, but she joins the others in waiting for whatever will happen in the pendulum. Slowly, the pendulum moves up and down, which means no. Everyone started laughing at what was waiting for Agami once they got back home-nothing.
Shauna peeked through her blindfold and looked at Agami. The woman mouthed 'seriously?' at her, but she just shrugged her shoulders at Agami innocently as if she didn't cause the commotion that was happening at the moment. Agami then raised her hand to get everyone's attention and get back to the seance.
"My turn to ask," she said, thinking of a question to get back to Natalie.
Shauna gave her the cue to ask the moment a question popped into her mind. "Will Scat consider banging her friend tonight in the cabin then?" she asked the pendulum, or rather, Shauna.
"The fuck?" complained Natalie, but laughed as well.
Shauna started to move the pendulum in circles. Natalie removed one of her socks and threw it at the woman, who just ignored it. The noises coming from the other girls get louder as they encourage the silly banter of Agami and Natalie.
And as their eyes met, everyone started to be quiet, which added to the tension building between the two. Without breaking their eye contact, Agami launched herself at the woman and grabbed her face, tackling her to the ground, which resulted in her ending up on top of Natalie. Since both of them couldn't take it anymore, they started hitting each other, which added more entertainment for the rest of the girls.
"Get off, get off, get off!" said Natalie between her laughs.
The session resumed immediately after that, with the girls taking turns asking questions. But then the fun moment they were having ended when Javi, who had just joined their seance, asked a question that made everyone uneasy.
"Are we all gonna die out here?"
The loud attic turned quiet as the smile on their faces disappeared. And just a few seconds later, it was as if Agami had lost all her senses, and the only thing that she felt was the cold shiver crawling down her spine.
A scream coming from Lottie was what brought her back to reality as chaos unleashed in the attic. The once-lit candles all died when the window rushed open following the cold, harsh wind entering the attic. Some of the girls got up and looked for matches while the others checked on Lottie, but Agami remained seated. She couldn't even tell what they were talking about or why they were panicking because of the overlapping chatter.
The next thing she knew, Lottie was speaking in a different language and muttering words that they couldn't understand, as if she were possessed.
"Was that French?" asked Van.
"Since when does Lottie speak French?" Natalie then looked at Agami. "Dick, weren't you in a fucking foreign language class?" she asked Agami, who shook her head in panic as she responded.
"No hablo francés! Hablo español!" she yelled at Natalie, who just gave her a confused look.
"Jackie, wasn't she in your class?" Shauna asked the woman, who replied immediately.
"Yeah, but she sucks at French."
"Well, what is she saying?"
"I don't know, I suck at French too!"
"Damn it Jackie, try not to!"
Lottie continues to speak French, repeating the same thing she had been saying earlier. Jackie, who was obviously having a hard time but still tried to translate everything, didn't help at all once she was able to interpret Lottie's words. Agami watched as Lottie stood up from sitting and faced the glass window, as if she were looking at something outside.
"Shit. More blood stuff? I don't know," said Jackie.
The mumbling stopped, and the next thing they could hear was Lottie's heavy breathing. And finally, the woman spoke some words they could understand but still didn't make any sense.
"You must spill blood. Or else..." said Lottie.
Agami didn't understand why, but the image of Lottie with the bloodied face she saw earlier flashed through her mind. That's when she got up from the floor, as if some force was pulling her towards Lottie, so she ignored the rest of the girls and marched to where the woman was standing.
The tall brunette leaned her head back, all ready to hit her own head in the window, which confirmed Agami's guess of what the woman was planning to do. And just in time before Lottie could bump her own head on the glass window, Agami was able to place her left hand in the pane, which successfully protected Lottie's head when she finally rushed forward. The problem was that the force that the woman made was so strong that it still ended up breaking the thin glass of the window, resulting in the shards of it piercing on the back of Agami's hand. Unfortunately, a piece of it still escaped the blocking she made and grazed Lottie in the head.
She moaned in pain as blood dripped from her hand, but she could only watch as Lottie sat down once again, screaming louder than earlier and rocking her own body as if she were trying to soothe herself. The girls surrounded the woman and tried to calm her down, but failed.
Until Laura Lee went up and tried to imitate the words that priests say to exorcise those people who are supposed to be possessed. Although it didn't help at all, the woman was determined to end what was happening and just threw the Bible she was holding at Lottie and hit the woman in the chest.
"Ow. What the hell, Laura Lee?" said Lottie in her usual voice.
Agami sighed in relief, leaning her own head against the wooden wall of the attic, and slowly slid herself down to sit again, thankful that whatever was happening had finally stopped.
"Seriously, what the motherfuck just happened?" asked Mari, voicing out the same question they all have in mind.
Everyone went down from the attic after that. Akilah and Misty immediately attended to Agami and Lottie's wounds, with Misty getting what's left of their first aid and using tweezers to remove small shards of glass stuck on the back of Agami's left hand, and the younger woman tending Lottie's cut in her forehead. Agami bit her lips to prevent herself from screaming in pain, especially when Misty started to disinfect her wounds. She was only able to cool herself down when the woman began to wrap some improvised bandages on her hand.
"Thanks, Quigley," Agami said in a tired voice. Misty couldn't help but smile, happy to be useful to others one more time.
Agami then went to where the other group was after, all sitting not far from now-sleeping Lottie, who has a small bandage on her forehead, and looking peaceful. She shifted her gaze to Akilah, who was currently taking care of the materials she used to tend to Lottie's wound.
"How is she? Was the cut too deep?" she asked the woman.
Akilah gave Agami a confused look, then stared at the woman's hand. "You're the one with an injured hand, and you're concerned about Lottie?" she asked Agami first before responding to her question. "The bleeding stopped shortly since the cut wasn't that deep, thanks to that hand of yours that you chose to sacrifice."
There was a hint of sarcasm in the woman's voice, but Agami chose to ignore that.
Once they were all settled down, Akilah spoke again, asking a question that got everyone's attention. "Do we think it's still up there?"
"You all need to stop. There's nothing up there," said Taissa, getting up and clearly annoyed by the question. "Lottie has been acting weird for weeks."
None of the girls seemed to believe her words, but the woman didn't back down, standing firm with her belief. "Fine. I'll prove it," said Taissa, getting her sleeping materials as she stood up.
"You're gonna sleep up there?" asked one of the girls.
"That's right," she replied without hesitation. "Who's with me?"
Despite what happened during their seance, Agami chose to follow Taissa and took her sleeping materials to the attic along with her personal belongings. She's afraid, yes. But the desire to prove to herself that there was really nothing up there was stronger than fear.
Since she didn't want to invade the woman's personal space, Agami set up her sleeping bag, not far but not too close to Taissa either. As the other woman was still too busy arranging her stuff, Agami opened the window in the attic to breathe some fresh air, as she had been feeling a little suffocated since earlier.
"Not scared, Agami?" Taissa asked the woman, who was busy rummaging in her own bag.
Agami snorted as she responded to Taissa. "Me? Of the dead guy's ghost?" tried to sound tough but failed. "Hell, I am Turner. I'm not a huge fan of horror stuff," she confessed to the woman.
"Then why would you even come up here if you're terrified?" Taissa commented.
"Yeah, I don't know about that either," said Agami, scratching the back of her head. "So let me calm my shit first before we sleep."
She was holding the flute again, but before she started to play, Agami checked first if the bandage or her aching hand itself would prevent her from playing the instrument. When she didn't feel any problem about it, Agami then started blowing some air into the hole, making the same melody she played last night as her fingers danced gracefully to the perfect tune.
After a while, once she was satisfied, Agami turned around to finally lay down to rest herself after a long day, when she saw Shauna preparing her own sleeping bag just beside Taissa. She just nodded at the woman to acknowledge each other's presence, then let her body fall to her own bedroll.
It didn't even take a full minute when she felt her eyes drooping the moment her body hit the floor, as if she were now passing out from fatigue and exhaustion and not just being sleepy. The last thing she heard from the two girls was Taissa asking Shauna how far along she was in her pregnancy, which confirmed what Agami told Shauna during their conversation in the meat shed earlier about Taissa figuring out the woman's secret one way or another.