Desolation, J. B. Everett [reading a book txt] 📗

my vision blurred from the tears welling up in my eyes. I know what Ian said is true, but some for reason I am sad. I never thought it would get to the point where we would be eating deer that we killed.

"What's wrong?" he asks, looking into my eyes and pulling me close.

I shake my head, wiping the tears from my cheek.

"I...I...I don't know" I stammer.

Wow, I am an emotional wreck. I guess being on this island has turned me into one.

Ian cups my face in his hands, wiping tears from my cheeks with his thumbs.

"Tessa, I know it's sad but had to do it. We need food" Ian says.

I nod, then give him a weak, forced smile.

"Are you okay?" he says.

"Yeah, I'm fine" I say.

He gently wipes one last tear away from my cheek then lowers his hands from my face.

"What the hell did you do that for?" I hear Tristan's voice shout from behind us.

We both turn around to see Tristan, Dylan and Nikki standing right by the deer. Nikki looks down at the deer, petrified.

"We need food" Ian says bluntly.

"And we're going to eat a that?" Tristan exclaims incredulously, pointing to the carcass.

"This is not a gourmet restaurant, okay? You're not going to get a five course meal" Ian snaps, an edge of irritability in his voice.

I look up at Ian, raising my eyebrows. He needs to learn to control his temper.

"Okay, calm down. We'll eat it" Tristan says.

"I'm not eating that" Nikki announces, disgusted.

"Yes you are Nikki" Dylan says.

Nikki sighs, then says,

"And what the hell is a deer doing in the middle of a jungle on a tropical island?"

We all shrug. It is kind of weird.

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"I don't know. This is a strange place" Tristan says.

You said that right.

The sun has begun to set, turning the sky a beautiful blend of deep orange, pink and purple.  I find it ironic that the place we are kidnapped on is so tranquil and beautiful. We decide to set up camp here tonight, with someone keeping watch at all times throughout the night.

Tristan sets up a fire to cook the deer, and the three boys work on cooking the deer. Both Nikki and I cannot watch, so we walk away, sitting down together on a rock.

"So, how did it go?" Nikki asks.

"It...it went fine" I say.

I can't stop the grin from spreading across my face when I think about our kiss.

Nikki smiles, raising her eyebrows.

"So tell me, what happened?" she asks, a playful glint in her eyes.

"I told him that nothing was going on between Tristan and I. And then...well then..."

"Then what?" she asks.

"We kissed" I blurt out.

Nikki grins.

"You're blushing" she teases.

"No I'm not" I say, trying to suppress the burning feeling that I can feel in my cheeks.

"Yes you are" Nikki says.

"Okay fine, maybe I am" I say.

"How was it?" Nikki asks, smiling.

I close my eyes for a moment, remembering the feeling of Ian's lips on mine. Remembering when he lifted me up in the air.

"Really good" I say, my cheeks blushing even redder.

Nikki grins again.

"He's probably a better kisser than Dylan" she says.

I laugh, then ask,

"Oh so you two are together?"

"Yeah, I guess so. We kissed when it was just us together in the jungle. But he wasn't too good of a kisser" Nikki says, laughing

I laugh back.

I find it funny that Nikki and I are having a conversation about kissing when we are stranded on an island and being hunted down by our captors. But I guess we need to have a little bit of fun and silliness to get our minds off of everything.

"Food's ready!" I hear Dylan's voice shout from across the jungle.

"Mmm, can't wait!" Nikki calls back sarcastically.

We both stand up and begin to walk towards them.

"This is going to be interesting" Nikki whispers to me.

When we arrive, I almost lose my stomach at the sight in front of me. There, roasting over the fire is the deer. The three boys are all sitting around the fire, and Tristan is cutting off hunks of the deers flesh with a sharpened stick.

I sit down next to Ian and Nikki sits down on the other side of me.

"Here you go" Tristan says, giving the first hunk of meat to Dylan.

"Well here goes nothing" Dylan says, then takes a huge bite of it.

I watch as Dylan chews it slowly. Once he swallows, he exclaims,

"Hey, it's not that bad! Actually it's pretty tasty!"

"Ew" Nikki says, rolling her eyes at Dylan.

Tristan gives the next piece to Nikki and she looks at it, repulsed.

"C'mon Nikki, it's really not that bad" Dylan with a full mouth.

Nikki plugs her noise, closes her eyes, then takes a tiny bite.

"Yuck!" she exclaims, spitting it out onto the ground.

Tristan comes over, handing one piece to Ian and one piece to me.

I stare at the blackened piece of meat, my insides churning. Ian glances at me.

"On the count of three. One..."

I swallow hard.

"Two..."

I close my eyes.

"Three"

Bracing myself for the worst, I open my mouth and take a bite. At first, I don't really taste anything. But a few seconds later, the flavor starts to come in. It is pretty nasty, but I guess it could be worse. The entire time I'm chewing I try to block it out of my mind that I am eating deer. But since I am absolutely starving, I end up not minding.

Once we are done eating, the sun has almost completely set and the night of jungle comes alive with the chirping of crickets. The night sky is speckled with bright stars that appear to twinkle. Ian volunteers to take watch first, and I volunteer to go after him. We will all take one shifts, keeping watch to see if anyone comes.

If they find us.

Tristan, Dylan and Nikki all lay down around the fire, which has begun to die out. Ian sits on a log and I decide to sleep beside him so that he can wake me up in an hour without waking the others. Before I lay down, I lean in and kiss him softly on the lips. He kisses me back softly, wrapping his arms around me.

"Good night" I whisper when I finally pull away.

"Good night Tessa" he murmurs huskily, letting me go.

I lay down on the ground, a few feet from him and close my eyes. The melodious chirping of the crickets lulls me off into a dreamless, ephemeral sleep that seems to last only a second because before I know it, I feel a hand tap me on the shoulder.

My eyes flash open to see Ian kneeling beside me.

"Hey, I can stay up with you for your shift if you want me to" he whispers.

I sit up.

"No, it's okay. You need to sleep" I say.

"Are you sure?" he asks.

I nod, then get up and sit down on the log that Ian was sitting on.

Ian lays down on the ground beside me and closes his eyes, drifting off to sleep almost immediately. I watch him as he sleeps. He looks so peaceful and relaxed; it is the only time that he can forget everything that is going on.

I yawn, my eyes feeling heavy. I try my hardest to force myself to stay awake, even though all that I want to do is sleep. I turn around and look at the others, who are all sound asleep as well. Dylan and Nikki lay next to each other by the fire. My heart warms slightly when I see that Dylan's arm is wrapped around Nikki, keeping her close to his body. But then my heart pangs when I see Tristan, laying all alone.

I turn back around and stare out into the dark jungle.

And that's when I hear it.

Snap

At first, I think that I'm just imagining it. But when I hear another snap, this time much louder, I know that I'm not.

Something is out there.

On impulse I stand up, my heart pounding in my chest. I am frozen, rooted to the ground with terror and unable to move a muscle.

The snapping of twigs becomes louder and louder until someone emerges from the trees. At first, I cannot make out who it is through the darkness. But then, once my eyes adjust, I see who it is.

And I cannot believe my eyes. Chapter Twenty-Six

"Alyssa?" I whisper out into the darkness.

She stands there, motionless, staring at me.

"Alyssa?" I ask again.

She still doesn't respond. She just stands there, frozen in place, staring at me through the darkness. Something about her looks off. I take a small step backward, slowly inching away from her.

She is starting to scare me.

I start to bend over to wake Ian when all of a sudden she breaks the silence.

"You have to come back" she says robotically.

I look up at her, my heart begin to pound in my chest.

"What?" I ask, trying to hide the fear from coming out in my voice.

"You have to come back. Or bad things will happen. Really bad things" she says mechanically.

It seems as if Alyssa is possessed; her voice does not sound like it belongs to her body. I stare at her, widening my eyes. She still hasn't broken her penetrating gaze, her eyes boring into mine.

"Why...why we would we come back to the cages? Why would we go back to the people who are holding us captive?" I ask nervously.

"Bad things will happen if you do not. This is your final warning; you have until tomorrow at sunset to return" Alyssa says.

"What bad things?" I call out, my voice trembling.

But it's too late. Alyssa stiffly turns around and walks away in the dark depths of the jungle. I stand there, listening to her footsteps fade away as I try to process everything that just happened. I turn around to see that everyone is still asleep.

Bad things will happen if you don't come back...

Alyssa's words echo in my mind, sending shivers down my spine. There was definitely something off about her; they must of somehow programmed her and sent her to say that. I shudder when I try to think of how they could of programmed her.

I don't want to know.

I then realize that I have to tell the others.

After taking a deep breath, I bend down and shake Ian lightly. He grumbles, then rolls over, turning away from me.

Great.

This time, I shake him harder.

"Ian" I whisper.

"Huh?" he says groggily, rolling back over and opening his eyes.

He looks at me for a few seconds, his eyes adjusting in the darkness.

"What is it?" he asks, propping himself up on his elbows.

I immediately blurt out everything that just happened. When I am done, Ian stares at me for a few moments.

He then asks,

"Are you sure this actually happened?"

Does he not believe me?

"Yes I am sure" I say flatly.

He nods slowly, still looking at me curiously.

"So you're positive that you didn't just imagine it?" he asks.

Now I am mad.

"What, do you not believe me? Do you think I'm crazy?" I exclaim hotly, raising my voice.

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