PARADISE PARADOX (#1 PARADISE ISLAND duology)

-- twenty-one --

Lightheaded and weak at the knees, Kera glanced towards where Miles had vanished. The growls didn't follow him, of course—he had no intention of trying to leave the island, so the monsters had no need to maim him. He'd resigned to his fate of serving these nasty gods with everything they desired. Heck, he'd resigned to Kera's poor description of him—drinking, drug-abusing, delinquent.

That's not him... I didn't mean him!

The forest was still gloomy, its delimitations impossible to make out. Where did it start, where did it finish? Did it end at all? Towards the sparkles there was light; but if she distanced herself, Kera would be drowning in obscurity once more. And obscurity meant danger, for someone like her; for someone with so much hesitation and a desperate need to escape.

Her flashlight had disappeared—she didn't recall losing her grip on it—and she wasn't sure she'd locate it before the monsters still lurking in the shadows attacked her.

She raked her hands through her hair and glared up at the slowly lightening sky. The stars were faded, but blinked down at her with interest, as if asking her to speak, to pose her query.

Are those gods up there, observing me?

"Hey!" was all she managed before collapsing to her knees. Pain spread all over her kneecaps, and they became numb for a few moments. How many times had she fallen since she'd trespassed into this treacherous place? How many more times would she fall?

What she needed were a few Band-Aids and some ointments, which she knew her cabin's bathroom was stocked with; but she'd been banished from said cabin with Miles, and likely from the group altogether.

She had nowhere to go.

At her wits' end and unsure what other resort was available to her, she yelled up at the heavens again. "Hey, you! Gods or monsters, or whatever you are!"

A few growls echoed around her; so close, the vibrations from their sounds skidded up from her wrists to her shoulders. Chills undulated up her spine, and a bit of raw dirt dislodged itself from where it had been stuck between her teeth.

The motion of spitting out the dirt eerily made her queasy, and her stomach groaned. Not in fear or sickness—but in hunger. When was the last time she ate? Had she eaten anything?

Fuck, even without the poisoned water I can't remember anything.

Hungry and afraid as she was, she wouldn't give up; and whether these monsters were also hungry—wanting to feed on her—there had to be a way to address the gods directly, to file for an appeal before their precious beasts slurped her up whole. There had to be a means to plead her innocence in all this.

A voice in the back of her head kept prodding, reminding her what Miles said—you're no better, Kera. And though she wanted to dismiss it, she couldn't deny that he might have been correct. Only a smidgen; but there was truth to his words. She had crashed a party. And she'd intended to write about all she saw, exposing the party-goers' behaviors to her professors, and to whoever else read her paper. But she'd never meant it as a slight; she'd wanted to show what the world was doing to young adults. How the pandemic had affected them, how its effects still rippled through the population. How its lingering damage messed with people's minds, despite its overall spread being contained, over.

All in all, Kera had meant well—but was that not enough?

"I don't belong here!" Her throat throbbed; she should have brought water on her journey, knowing full well it would take her a while to get to the barrier and back. She was parched, but didn't recall seeing any streams or creeks on her way there. "There's no violence in me! I'm not a drinker, a smoker, a sex-lover; so let me out! Choose someone else in my place!" She winced—Milla had mentioned that option, and Mr. Reynolds had deflected it, but she'd reached a point where she had to try. "Someone more deserving, who'll provide better substance for you, more entertainment! I'll be boring! I've got nothing to give you!"