Chapter 7
The camp is still, much like the beach. The whole island is asleep, except for myself. Pan left me at the camp alone, probably off to see what the problem with Felix is. Who knows what the Natives are up to, but it's getting more annoying now as the days go on. Last time, they stole everything off the boys hunting in the forest.
They came back essentially naked. At least the Natives had the decency to let the boys keep their underwear. As much of an inconvenience it is, I did find it funny. Especially since one of the boys was Johnny.
I really have to find Walela and thank her. We have to stick together, as girls. It's us against the world.
When I hear rustling in the leaves, I whip the dagger out of my pocket. Over the past little bit, I've grown less cutthroat. I don't pull out my dagger until the last minute. Call it relaxed, call it reckless, so far it's only got me kidnapped once.
Still, I'm not planning on getting kidnapped again.
I step forward, and roll my ankle. Once again, I feel the uncomfortable pull of the muscles in my leg. It was easy to forget I injured my ankle earlier. The pain was minimal. It seems it's only going to get worse the more active I am. When Robert wakes up I'll have to get him to wrap it up.
Limping towards the forest, I tighten my grip on the dagger. I may be injured, but I'm not going to run from a fight.
I hear another crashing, a struggle, and a grunt.
The shadow of a figure moving closer and closer in the forest.
This is no Native. They're stealthy, and sneaky. If the Natives managed to get the jump on Alex, I'd be shocked if they couldn't manage to get the jump on me. Whatever this is, it's not smart.
The dark green leaves rustle, shaking as the creature pounds forward. The closer the figure gets, the louder it becomes. Panting, a groan thrown through the dark, the cracking of branches beneath its feet.
I hobble forward, trying to get a better look at it. My dagger held sideways, ready to slice someone's throat.
It sounds too human to be a bear. Too mortal.
Not lowering the blade, I enter the forest, and as I round a tree, the breath leaves my lungs.
It's a ghost, or a monster, but it's not human. No way.
Before me stands two 'boys'. One has a cloak over his head, as he leans forward. His breathing is ragged, and almost like a whimper every few seconds. His hands are hidden in his cloak, as well as the rest of him. He doesn't even spare me a glance, and his long eyelashes hide his eyes from me. He seems more feral than human, snarling through his teeth when he sees the sliver of my shadow from the moon.
The other boy, he's the monster. He doesn't wear a cloak, it's probably the one draped over the other boy. There's dirt on his face, almost like dust on his cheeks. His freckles are like dust on them too. How could I forget it? His pale skin, and ginger hair. His bright green eyes.
Jared's dead, but here he is before me.
"Finally." He begins, his words slurred together. "I'm Jared, we're lost."
I don't know what to say, so instead I decide to shout. "Pan. Peter."
"Please," He begs.
"Peter!" I scream, my voice echoing off the dense forest. It crawls out in waves, breaking the silence of the night. "Somebody!"
Jared backs up. His accent is warm, even if his body should be cold. "I didn't mean to frighten you Miss."
"Holy shit!" I hear the voice behind me, as I turn around.
Harry is spread out on the ground, as he backs up from the ghost in front of me. He's so very frightened' he must have fallen down.
Alex slows down from the run he once had, his eyes wide but his mouth stuck in the same frown as always.
"Charlie," he begins slowly, a question weighed in anger.
"I don't know." I answer him.
I'm not sure what he was going to ask, but I whatever it was, I have no clue.
The hooded boy glances up at Alex, before grabbing his own skull, wincing and shouting.
I turn to Alex, unsure of what to do. He always knows the answer.
When he turns around, sprinting back towards camp, a terrified expression on his face, I follow him.
Whoever this imposter is, and whoever he's with, are forces not to be reckoned with.
Unless.
The thought stops me in my tracks, and it dances around my head. Keaton said he never killed Jared. He expressly told me that before he died. He stole Jared's thumb, but didn't kill Jared. I had just assumed he had stolen it off Jared's corpse like the coward he is.
He stole it off Jared's body?
I turn around, slowly limping back towards Jared.
"You're Jared?" I ask the boy.
He nods slowly, and I quickly grab his hands. The left has no thumb.
He tips over as I hold him, collapsing to the ground, as if his head weighs a thousand pounds.
Which is when the other boy grabs hold of me, and I screech as loud as I can. My voice echoes through the forest, and I hear his voice like ice on my neck.
"You don't get to do that to me anymore." His spits, dropping his voice into a growl. "You don't get to hurt me."
I rip myself out of his thin arms, pulling my dagger up to his throat. "Who are you?"
He looks at my hands before leaping backwards, hitting a tree. "How is your hand back?"
When I look at him funny, he looks back at me. Baring his teeth, he leaps towards me, and I manage to duck beneath him.
He runs into Harry's arms, who's behind me with his knives ready. Harry tumbles over under the boys' weight.
"Inali, where have you been?" He asks.
That's when I decide this boy has gone crazy.
I pull Jared off the ground, who's currently battling with consciousness. Blood's pouring out of his nose, and I struggle to move him even a foot. I'm thankful Alex grabs his feet, and we move him together. I'd be more thankful if Harry could help, since it feels like my ankle might melt off. At least he's keeping the feral boy away from me.
We quickly dump Jared on the cot in the med tent. The space has gotten much smaller since we moved, and the cot is practically the only thing we have room for in it. Luckily enough, there is enough space on the floor to place the feral boy, who seems to be so spaced out now he doesn't notice he's placed on the ground.
"Alright, what is going on?" I demand, pulling Alex and Harry out of the tent.
"Always with all the questions, as if we'd know the answers?" Alex practically shouts.
"I'm just upset he thought I was Inali," Harry spits, his thick British accent seeping through. "I'm not even aboriginal! I'm Indian."
"I think that's the least of our worries." I deadpan. "He attacked me."
"Jared's alive." Alex jumps in.
A silence runs through the area, and I can't help but smile. Jared is alive. A little frazzled, maybe, but breathing. Which is more than I can say for a lot of people here.
"He's alive." I smile.
"Robert can't know." Harry jumps in. "Not yet. If he thinks he has lost his purpose as the Medic..."
He doesn't have to finish the sentence for me to hear the answer.
I laugh. "Are you kidding? Jared doesn't recognise me, I doubt he's in any condition to practise medicine. If we give Robert those two, he'll have a hayday fixing them. We ought to tell everyone."
"We aren't telling anyone. Not even Pan." Alex's voice slices.
"Why not, Jared is alive and-"
"Enough, will you?" Alex glares at me. "We get it, he's alive."
Why is he so angry? "Why are you so angry?"
"Because Keaton didn't kill him." Harry jumps in.
I guess that much is true. I mean, I already knew that. I just assumed he was dead. Alex didn't know that know, and Alex killed Keaton for it. As an act of revenge, even though there was nothing to avenge. Should I have told Alex and Harry the truth? Am I partially responsible for Keaton's death?
Even if I am, I don't think I care.
Alex is pretending not to as well, but I can see the emotions behind his eyes. The anger, the sadness, the guilt. Harry's hand is on Alex's shoulder and he knocks it off without a second to think. He's Alex, and he'll be fine.
"Listen, Keaton was still a bad guy." I say. "What about all the other stuff he's done? The antagonizing, the beating, the hatred."
"You think you know anything, but you don't." Alex says it sternly. He doesn't even dare look at me.
The boy comes out of the tent, and looks at us. His eyes dance from me to Harry to Alex, lingering on the final boy.
"I knew it." He whispers the words at first. "I knew it!"
Alex quickly puts a hand over the boy's mouth, before he begins thrashing. Alex rips his palm away, holding it. Blood trickles down his hand from where the feral boy bit it.
"You told me there was nothing going on between you and Inali!" The boy shouts at Alex.
He tackles him to the ground, and I bend down, straddling the boy. I rip a torn bit out of the bottom of his shirt struggling to tie his mouth up and silence him. His hands rake down my skin, and I bite my tongue to hold back a scream.
"Get him out of here." Alex grits through his teeth.
"I'm trying." I manage, as we pull on the boy.
Harry, who's not quick to fight but is quick to find a solution, comes back with rope and helps us tie up the boy, as we bring his back in to the med tent.
"Alex," he manages to cry, before I put the gag on him.
My eyes fly up, as do Harry's. Alex knows the boy. He's the only one who he knows, and recognises.
"Who is that?" Harry begins, before he shoves Alex out of the tent. I manage to follow behind, limping.
This injury is getting so very old so very quick.
"Who is that?" Harry's eyes burn with tears.
I don't feel the need to cut in, but I do feel the need to watch. Apparently, Devin does too. He stands, leaning against a tent, picking at something in his teeth. More like he's disinterested than anything. He looks down at his nail, inspecting them.
Harry's face turns red, and the colour quickly grows into his ears. Alex however, has turned white like a ghost.
"It's a long story." He begins.
"Really?" Harry asks. "He seems to know you."
"He does, Al," Devin jumps in. "How do you explain that?
Alex sighs. "That's Rufio."
Rufio. Didn't Keaton get him killed way back in the day? That's probably why Alex is so upset; he started hating Keaton because of that, right? That caused the shift between them? Well, at least something awful did happen to Rufio. Why else would he be acting insane?
"Somebody better call Pan." I jump in.
"Why don't you do it sweetheart?" Devin offers, rolling his eyes. "You're always clinging to him like a magnet."
I scowl, but turn away, deciding it would be better to search through the woods than stand around awkwardly waiting for something to happen.
I'm not sure how to find Pan, though I'm never sure anymore. I doubt he's in his house. I have trouble finding him with ease, let alone when I'm injured.
I let my hands linger along the bark, trailing them down the side. I wonder if he's still attending to the issue involving the Natives. There always seems to be an issue involving them.
I wonder if he'll know it if I do magic. Not sure that I could do it on my own. I've only done it once, when I made the blades of grass fly. Every other time it was with Pan. Don't get me wrong, I've tried on my own, but not with any success.
The sparks flew from my hands so easily though, I didn't even think about it. How did I do that? I snap my fingers together, trying to remember what the warm buzz felt like on my hands, but it's not that easy. I can't do it on my own, and I don't know why.
What makes all those times with Pan different? Am I feeding off his magic?
No, because I accidentally killed Eric with it, and he wasn't there for that either. He didn't even know I had magic.
How can I get those sparks to fly?
Maybe I am feeding off him, it only happens when we are close together. When I can feel his cool breath escape his crooked smile, when I can feel how soft his shirt is, and wonder if his hands feel the same.
Wait, do I like Pan?
I hear the crack of electricity before I feel it coursing through my body. I fly back, landing on the ground harshly. I lean against my elbows, propping my head off the ground. Black, charred footprints mark where I just stood.
Pan's in front of me, offering a hand. I shakily take it, worrying about sending the sparks through him too.
Do I like him?
"That was some power." He says.
I don't meet his eyes. "I was trying to get your attention."
"Attention got." He tells me. "What is it exactly that you needed so badly you almost blew yourself apart?"
"It was an accident." I finally turn my head up to glare at him.
He chuckles, before glancing down at me. "That much power doesn't happen on accident."
I guess it doesn't, which is fair. I'd rather not think about what just happened though, or how I have my hands balled into fists at my sides to stop it from happening again. I can feel the lighting threaten against my skin, as we stand together.
"Jared's back." I tell him, changing the topic.
"Finally," he mutters, "I was wondering when he'd make it."
Of course he knows Keaton didn't kill him. If he knows I killed Samuel, he still hasn't said anything about it.
"He brought Rufio with him." I tell Pan.
He cocks an eyebrow. "Really?"
"Really." I cock one back.
Whatever happened earlier did not happen. Life will resume as previously scheduled.
"Well we'd better get back there." He tells me, placing a hand on my side.
My side?
We disappear.
~~~~~~~~~~
Well, I'm behind on my writing. I love this chapter, but I'm very behind. So its not looking like there is going to be another one until Monday.
That was nuts. Jared is alive, and as it seems a little bit confused. I brought on Rufio, who has gone absolutely crazy, so I'm excited. Did you see it coming? How are you feeling about this turn of events? How do you think Alex and Robert will take it?
For now, enjoy the snow, and I'll see you Monday.