Total pages in book: 62
Estimated words: 59521 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 298(@200wpm)___ 238(@250wpm)___ 198(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 59521 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 298(@200wpm)___ 238(@250wpm)___ 198(@300wpm)
Rachel throws her hands up and turns away. “I can’t. We’ve all lost it.”
Aggie is still laughing, her eyes wide, like she’s in some sort of dream she can’t wake up from.
“I’m with you,” Tatiana says, disappearing. “Ew.”
“I’m goin’ to get to work makin’ a contraption that Adrian can get around in,” Zeke says, shaking his head, still looking utterly confused.
This day feels almost unbelievable.
“Are you in pain?” I ask Adrian, kneeling down next to him and putting a hand on his head. No fever or clamminess.
“No,” he shrugs. “It’s like it is still attached.”
Oh boy.
Bless you, Adrian.
“Well, we’re goin’ to give him the antibiotics from the new kit now,” Kellen tells me. “We don’t want a repeat of Iris.”
Nobody argues.
Not this time.
We will do everything we can to keep everything clean.
“I’m goin’ to get some water,” Ace says.
“I’ll come, we’ll do a big run,” Kellen claps his hands together.
“We’ll get Adrian comfortable and fed,” I tell them.
They disappear and Aggie helps me adjust Adrian so he is sitting upright. He doesn’t want to lay down. We also elevate his leg, or what’s left of it. Then, we give him a protein bar. He needs that more than any of us right now. He insists he doesn’t want strong painkillers, so we stick to just Tylenol which he seems to have no problem with.
This man is something else.
“Are you sure you’re not in pain?” I say, adjusting a blanket behind his back and the rock wall so he is comfortable.
“No pain,” he says, casually, as if his leg wasn’t bitten off by a fucking shark a few hours ago.
Maybe he’s in shock still, that’s possible.
“Adrian, I’m asking in the kindest way possible,” I begin. “You do know that you were attacked by a shark earlier and went through an incredibly traumatic situation?”
He looks at me. “Yes, I am aware. I am alive though, aren’t I?”
“Yes, but...”
“That’s good enough for me.”
Okay, maybe it is shock.
I don’t argue.
“Okay, well I am going to get a couple of coconuts so you can get some electrolytes.”
He nods, already picking up a stick and using his knife to sharpen it.
When I die and come back to life, I want to come back as Adrian.
I set off into the jungle, heading towards the watering hole to get some coconuts. I’m just appearing out of the track we have slowly paved through the jungle, when I hear Ace and Kellen talking. Usually, I wouldn’t stop, I would just bust right in, but one sentence stops me in my tracks. It’s like someone has a remote and presses pause, because suddenly, I can’t move.
It’s like the whole world stops.
“You two are gettin’ serious,” Kellen is saying. “You need to tell her. We got fuckin’ paid to deliver them, Ace. We knew what was waiting for those girls at the end of that boat trip and we were very willing to hand them over. If she finds out from anyone but you, that’s it. Everything you two have—gone.”
A long silence.
“I know, but if I tell her, I lose her. I can’t fuckin’ lose her, man.”
I just stand there, numb, the words rearranging themselves in my head, looking for a different explanation for what I’m hearing. But I keep spiraling back to one.
One horrible truth.
I know I need to move, to run, to do something.
I have to make it back to camp, right now, because my heart is a wild, terrified thing and if I don’t keep moving, I’ll collapse on this path and turn to mulch in the dirt. But my legs walk me forward, not toward the fire or the circle where everyone waits, but toward the sound of those voices—the men I trusted, the men I was starting to think of as family. The man I am so hopelessly in love with.
They’re still talking, and I half-walk, half-stumble out of the jungle, leaves scratch my shins, and I almost trip on a gnarled root, but I need to know, I need them to see me like this, because I am hollowed out and shaken all the way to my core, and even then, I am praying I’m wrong. I need to be wrong. Kellen sees me first, he goes rigid, like a statue, and Ace turns, his entire body going tense.
I can see it in his eyes, even before his mouth opens.
Everything I heard is true.
“Gracie—” he starts, voice low, caught.
“Don’t,” I croak. My voice comes out a ragged gasp, but I don’t care. “Don’t fucking say my name. Is it true?” I’m shaking so violently a numbness climbs up my fingers to my shoulders. “Tell me right now, is it fucking true?”
He tries to close the distance, but I stagger backward, nearly falling. “Don’t you fucking come near me,” I scream, so high-pitched even Kellen flinches.”
Kellen steps away, gives us a wide berth, but doesn’t run. He stays around, why I don’t know. Maybe moral support. Maybe he knows that this is the only way it could ever go. Ace looks at me, and there is something in his eyes I have never seen before—maybe he’s always had it and I was just too blind, too desperate, to see. It’s shame. It’s regret. It’s knowing that everything you touch gets stained.