PARADISE PARADOX (#1 PARADISE ISLAND duology)

-- eighteen --

The person who'd spoken—Kera's potential savior—finally showed themselves.

Kera's shoulders sagged in relief when she visualized who it was—Ms. Moreno, in pantsuit style pajamas, her brown hair bouffant, blowing around her head, her eyes serene but sparked with curiosity. The torchlight blared over her, and she squinted and covered her eyes as she approached the veil.

Kera ran up to her, as close as she could get—she still smelled the charred flesh from Misty's body, though it seemed to have been removed.

"Perfect. You're the person I really wanted to talk to," she said, glimpsing Ms. Moreno as if she were an angel with wings that would pierce through the barrier and save her.

"What's going on?" Ms. Moreno folded her arms and peeked into the forest, left and right, then re-focused on Kera. "I came as soon as I heard your scream. Where are the others? Are you alone?"

"Yeah."

Kera scrunched her nose; she was well aware how stupid she looked, shivering from the ominous cold, scratches on her arms and legs, tears in her clothes. Why had she made such a drastic decision when there was no guarantee Ms. Moreno could—or would—do anything to help her?

There was nothing to be done about it now.

"It's not okay, back there—in there. This place is... Ms. Moreno, please, I need answers."

Ms. Moreno winced. "Call me Milla." Arms still crossed, she took hold of a pendant hanging around her neck. With the light nearby, Kera realized it was a cross, and Milla was caressing its surface in slow, steady strokes. "What happened?"

"It's a fucking nuthouse." Kera shuddered; the sparkly barrier was glowing, pulsating, as if sensing her near and eager for her to attempt to breach it. As if it were calling for her to do so, hungry for her flesh. "We met that ruler person—she's insane. They're all insane. These gods of Paradise? They're keeping us captive, feeding off our violence and cravings! They want us to have orgies and drink until we're intoxicated beyond belief and they're satisfied! Which is likely never! And they promised to keep us young but threatened that if we try to leave—"

"—threatened you?" Milla's eyes widened, and she tipped forward, once more scanning the depths of the forest. "With what?"

"You..." Kera gestured behind her; the glowing eyes were still there, she felt them burning her skin. She picked up on the growls, their intensity rocking the ground beneath her feet. They hadn't left, so were they waiting for Milla to go away? So they wouldn't have witnesses to their carnage? "You can't see them? Hear them?"

"I hear growls, yes." Milla squinted at Kera. "But I can't see anything. What are they?"

"Failures, I guess? Experiments that went wrong? Who the fuck knows what they're called." Kera kicked at the dirt. "But they're monsters, for sure. Once they were humans, sentenced to be stuck here, like us; but they failed to live here, or attempted to leave and were transformed into zombies because of it. And now they guard the area and they can sniff out our intentions... and they don't like it. They don't like," she suppressed a chill, "me."

"What are your intentions, Kera?" Milla's voice was serious, yet Kera detected a slight crackle in her words, a small falter in her demeanor. She was shaking, but her shoulders were squared, tight.

She was barefoot—which prompted Kera to wonder why she was outside, in her pajamas, with no shoes on. How had she heard Kera's cry within her cabin, and how had she shown up so fast?

"I have no intentions, I just want answers. I want to understand all this, and why I'm a part of it, though I didn't do anything." Kera shrugged her hands through her hair and winced at the tangles. "I never should have been on that plane, okay? All I did was sneak into a party, for fucks' sake! To report what I saw, to write it up for a fucking paper. I have an excellent record, I'm an excellent student, I was set to graduate and do great things—"