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

The Royals: A Royal Secret (Slowly Rewriting) by bri1128
Book 1 of The Royals: A Royal Secret (Slowly...
By bri1128
63.1K 2.1K

A few moments later, I hear groans and grumbles as the others wake up. Whoops.

"No, it's just that it seems a little strange that Alyssa came here, told you all of this, then left"

I stand up, glaring at Ian and crossing my arms.

"So you really don't believe me" I say bitterly.

"Tessa, I don't know, it's just that..."

Before Ian can continue, I turn away angrily.

"Tessa..." Ian starts.

"What happened?" Tristan asks, sitting up.

Dylan and Nikki sit up as well, looking at me attentively.

I retell everything that happened; how a possessed Alyssa came, told me that we had to return or bad things would happen, then left.

When I am done, they all stare at me.

"Oh, so you guys think I'm crazy too?" I say sharply.

"No, I don't think you're crazy Tessa. I believe you" Tristan says softly.

Thank god, at least someone believes me

"Me too" Nikki whispers.

"But don't you find it strange that they sent Alyssa to tell us to return when they know exactly where we are? I mean why didn't they just come and take us?" Dylan asks.

I don't have the answers. I wish I did. I wish I knew who these evil people are and why they captured us on this island. I wish I knew what the hell was going on.

"I don't know. All I know is that if we don't go back to them, something really bad is going to happen" I say

"Maybe they're just trying to scare us. I mean c'mon, how much worse can this get?" Dylan says.

I don't want to know how much worse they can makes things get.

We are all silent for a moment, thinking. The only sound is chirping of crickets and the crackling as the fire slowly dies out.

Nikki breaks the silence.

"We're not going back to them, are we?"

"Of course not. Why the hell would we choose to go back to being imprisoned in cage?" Dylan says.

"But she said really bad things would happen if we don't" Nikki murmurs.

"Just forget about it Nik. We're not going back" Dylan says flatly.

"Let's just go to sleep and think about it in the morning. She said we have until sunset tomorrow to go back" Tristan says.

"You would actually go back?" Dylan asks incredulously.

"Look, I don't know right now. But for now let's go to sleep" Tristan says.

I turn around, my head spinning, and sit down by the edge of the dying fire. Just as I am about to lay down to go to sleep, I feel a hand touch my shoulder lightly and turn around to see Ian kneeling beside me.

"Tessa, I'm sorry for not believing you at first. I believe you now" he says quietly.

He looks at me, his dark eyes locked into mine.

"I understand if you're mad at me, but I just wanted to say that I'm sorry" he says.

I decide to have a little fun with him.

"Yeah, I'm mad. Really mad" I say, trying to suppress myself from smiling.

Worry spreads across his face. I look at him, trying to look as angry as possible. I can feel a grin curling on my lips and try as hard as I can to keep a straight face.

"I am so mad that I'm going to do this" I say, then lean in and kiss him on lips.

For a moment, he is taken aback by surprise and pulls away, looking at me with wide eyes. But when I grin at him, he leans in and kisses me again. His lips press against mine softly and I feel his arms wrap around me. I wrap my arms around his neck and just as Ian deepens our kiss I hear someone catcall.

I break apart from Ian and turn to see Dylan, laying on his side, grinning at us playfully. My cheeks immediately burn bright red and I turn away as Dylan whistles again. Ian smiles at me and I force myself to smile back.

"Good night Tessa" he whispers, then lays down on the ground.

I lay down on the ground as well, then find myself move over closer towards Ian until I am laying next to him. I close my eyes as I feel his arms wrap around me, pulling my close to his warm body. Then somehow, I drift off into a dreamless void.


I wake up to the bright sun shining down from the sky. For a moment, I am blinded by the brightness, but then my eyes adjust. Ian's arms are still loosely wrapped around my body and I turn around to see that he is still asleep. A few moments later, his eyes flutter open and he looks at me.

"Good morning" he says groggily.

We both sit up and a few minutes later, Tristan, Dylan and Nikki wake up as well. Today feels hotter than the past few days. The air is thick and the bright sun shining down through the canopy of the trees does not help.

"We should get going. We need to find water" Tristan says.

Ian grabs the gun, slinging over his shoulder. I don't like the gun, but I guess it's good to have it. We all stand up and begin to walk through the jungle. The sun beats down on us and in a few minutes I am already drenched in sweat. I cannot imagine how disgusting I must look.

Ian and I walk together up front, navigating our way aimlessly through the jungle. Every part of the jungle looks exactly the same; the same trees, the same plants, the same rocks. We walk in silence, too tired and out of breath to talk. The dryness of the mouth begs for water and I try to suppress my longing thoughts of cool, fresh water.

Finally, to my relief, we stop for a break. Completely exhausted, I walk over to a tree, leaning against it and closing my eyes. Beads of sweat roll down my face and neck.

Damn, it is hot.

When I open my eyes and when I see what is on the other side of the tree, my blood runs cold.

I scream as I look right down at a girl's body, sprawled out on the ground.

The body of Alyssa. Chapter Twenty-Seven

The scream that comes out of my mouth is blood-curdling. I stand there, rooted to the ground with fear, staring at the pale, lifeless body of Alyssa.

Immediately, the others rush over and gasp when they see her.

"Oh my god..." Nikki whispers, her voice shaking with terror.

I turn away, unable to bear looking at her body for any longer. Ian wraps his arms around me, pulling my close against his chest. Suddenly, I begin to cry. Hot, angry tears roll down my cheeks, burning my eyes.

They did this to her.

"It's okay" Ian whispers soothingly, running his fingers through my knotted hair.

Nothing is okay. Alyssa is dead.

I look up at him, shaking my head miserably.

"This is not okay. Nothing is okay" I sob.

I force myself to turn back around and see Tristan, kneeling beside Alyssa's body.

"She looks as if she was poisoned or something. There's no wounds or anything on her" Tristan says.

I close my eyes for a moment, shuddering.

Then, I hear Tristan shout,

"Hey, she's holding something!"

I open my eyes to see Tristan uncurling Alyssa's fingers, which are closed around something. He finally wrenches a balled up piece of paper from her hand.

"What's that?" Dylan asks, taking a step closer.

Tristan unfolds the paper then scrutinizes it.

"What is it?" Nikki asks.

"It's a map. A map of this island" Tristan murmurs.

We all instantly crowd around Tristan, peering over his shoulder at the map. I try as hard as I can not to glance at Alyssa's lifeless body because I know that if I do, I will most likely lose my stomach. The map of the island is neatly hand-drawn in black pen on a tarnished piece of paper.

"Whoa, this place is huge" Dylan murmurs.

All across the map are various locations, marked in pen. The first one that I see is a black dot with the word "CAGES" written underneath.

That's where we were.

"Look!" Tristan exclaims, pointing his finger to a spot on the map.

I look at what he is pointing at and at first I don't believe my eyes. There, on the beach, marked under another black dot is the word "AIRPLANE"

"Airplane? They have an airplane on this island?" Nikki asks in awe.

"Well if there is one, let's go find it!" Dylan exclaims, standing up.

"Whoa, whoa. Wait a second" Ian says.

Dylan turns around, looking at Ian.

"What?" he asks.

"Stop for a second and think. What if this is just one of their traps? What if they are trying to lure us somewhere so that they can capture us?" Ian says.

I glance behind me, looking at Ian who is standing there, with his arms crossed. I have to admit, he does have a point.

"So you're saying that you don't even want to check it out? C'mon, we are trapped on this island no matter what, so we might as well check things out. And if there's an airplane on this island, we could escape" Dylan says.

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"Oh please Dylan, you're telling us that you know how to fly a plane?" Nikki asks, raising her eyebrows.

"No, but I could figure it out" Dylan says resolutely.

"Yeah, but what if there is no airplane? What if they are there, just waiting for us to come? Think about it; they obviously put this map in her hand. They wanted us to find it" Ian says.

Dylan is silent for a moment, staring at Ian. I can feel the tension raising between them and I want it to stop.

Finally, Dylan announces,

"Well I'm going. Whoever wants to come with me can come"

"I'm coming" Nikki says firmly, standing next to Dylan.

"How about you three?" Dylan asks, looking at me, Tristan and Ian.

"I'll come too" Tristan says.

Ian glances at me.

"Are you going?" he asks impassively.

I look at the others, then back to Ian. I am torn. I want to go with them, but I know that I can't leave Ian alone.

"Ian, please come with us?" I ask, looking at him pleadingly.

He stares at me for a few moments, then shakes his head.

"Ian, I promise, if we suspect anything, we'll leave immediately" I say.

"Fine" Ian says abruptly.

He then adds,

"But if anything seems fishy, we are turning back"

"Of course" I reply, nodding at him.

"Alright, let's go then" Dylan says.

After examining at the map, somehow Tristan figures out what direction to go to get to the airplane. I have no idea how he figures it out because I have an absolutely awful sense of direction. Once he figures it out, we begin to walk through the jungle, leaving Alyssa's body behind. I felt bad not burying her body, but the others said that we didn't have time to. We only have until sunset. That is when the bad things are supposed to happen.

I don't want to think about that.

Every few minutes Tristan stops and looks at the map, and then we begin to head in a different direction. No one questions how Tristan know where we are going; we just keep walking, hoping that we