When Spencer found Vera, she was crouched down by a nearby stream splashing water on her face. She looked up sharply at him, as though he had startled her.
"Just me," he said.
"Hey."
"I'm just filling these up." He held up their canteens.
She nodded and he knelt down beside her to scoop up some water.
"Thanks for telling us your story," he said after a pause.
"Oh, yeah. Thanks for listening."
"I realize it was probably difficult to recall."
She gave a little shrug. "Like I said before, I'm quite over it." He could tell by the way she said it though that she knew she was lying too. You didn't just get over a betrayal like that.
"Hey, thank you again, for earlier, with the snake. I'm deathly terrified of them, bugs too." She chuckled a little. "Not ideal for an archaeologist working in the jungle. And not so ideal when the man you once had feelings for suddenly has bugs crawling all over him." She chuckled at the absurdity of it. "And I don't know, when I saw the snake I just, froze."
"No problem." He smiled.
"I like your Dr. Bravestone, Spencer," she said.
"You do?"
"Yeah. You're sweet and funny. And cute. Different. But a good different. And I'm glad you're here. All of you. I said I wanted to do this alone, but it was getting difficult. Perhaps I needed some additional support. I was becoming rather uncertain."
"Well uh, thanks." He smiled. Then he asked, "is he a real jerk, like in real life?"
She chuckled. "Not exactly. He's very self-centered, and flirtatious. Loves attention. And loves to joke around - he put a rubber snake in my desk drawer once."
"Oooo..."
"Yeah. Still haven't forgiven him. Never will." They both chuckled. "No, he's just not much of a team player. If anyone was the team, it was Russel and I." Recalling the memory, she didn't catch herself and called him by his first name and not just 'Van Pelt' as she had before.
He nodded. Then he turned more serious. "Vera," he said, as gently as he could. "I don't think the jewel corrupted him."
She was quiet for a moment before she sighed. "No, I think you're right. I just didn't want to believe it was him."
"I'm sorry." She shrugged. "You know, I kind of get it, the whole betrayal thing, feeling betrayed by a friend. I know this isn't really the same thing, but Fridge and I used to be really close friends, back in elementary school. But then suddenly, I wasn't 'cool' enough to hang out with him anymore."
"I'm sorry."
"So if you ever want to talk, I'm here."
She smiled a little. "Thank you, Spencer.
He smiled back. Then his smile fell and he turned serious again. "Vera, have you noticed that everyone besides us here acts kind of strange? Like they repeat themselves and only say a few things?" He was curious as to what her extent of awareness about the game was. So far, it seemed like virtually none.
Now she appeared thoughtful. "Not really. Why?"
"Or that no matter how many we take down, Van Pelt still seems to have the same number of men?"
Now she looked confused, and shook her head.
"Because-" Here goes. "-There's no real easy way to say this but - they're not real. It's not real. It's all just a game - Jumanji. It's a video game me and the others found and got sucked into. You're one of the characters. Same with Nigel. And Van Pelt - he's the classic video game bad guy." He paused, trying to read her expression. "And Alex - he's been here longer than us, but we don't know how long..." He trailed off, allowing her to absorb this. She stared at him, he staring expectantly back.
SMACK! She struck him across the face. She looked wounded. "How dare you tell me that this isn't real! That all I've done has been for nothing!"
"Vera I-"
"You think this is some sort of damn joke?"
"No! Of course not-"
"Get away from me!" she hissed and shoved him. While when Fridge had shoved him before he hadn't moved, her shoving him caused him to stumble back. Wow, she really was strong.
"Vera, I didn't mean-"
"Oh shut up! And you wonder why I was so hesitant to trust you. Well I shouldn't have. And no, you don't understand how I feel - don't pretend to." And with that, she stormed off into the trees.
Spencer just stood there, rooted to his spot, shocked. Finally, he snapped out of his trance.
What had he done?
"Vera - wait!" Without another thought he took off after her.
But she was gone. Nowhere in sight. She had fled, deep into the trees, away from them - away from him.
Their task to get home, the person they were supposed to help in order to leave the game, was gone, and it was all his fault. This now weighing heavily on him, he returned to the group.
"Spencer? What's wrong, what happened?" Martha noticed his distress first.
He looked down, guilt written all over his face. "Vera's gone."
"What?"
"She left."
"Why?"
"I told her this was all just a game. And of course, she took offense to that. How could I have been so stupid?" he cried. "But I thought she deserved to know."
The group was silent, absorbing this.
"Now what do we do?" asked Bethany, but everyone was wondering the same. "We're supposed to help her right? That's how we complete the game." But how were they supposed to help her now if she wasn't here?
"We do what she would want us to," Spencer decided. "Complete the quest."
(Ahhhh 2000 reads! :D That's so amazing you guys thank you so much! I'm so, so glad you guys are enjoying this story! It is starting to wrap up I'm afraid, but there's still a few chapters left! Thanks again so much and I hope you enjoyed as always! :))