It’s not that I didn’t care about Megan. Of course, I did. If I was wrong, which I was starting to realize I must’ve been with each passing moment, I was going to feel horrible. I should’ve stayed with her. I was supposed to protect her, but instead, I left her alone and accused her of something awful. If something had happened to her, I’d never forgive myself.
I think Natasha knew I was beating myself up. Despite the permanent worry etched on her face, occasionally, she’d place her hand on my back, mumbling something about how we’d keep searching, how it was okay. She thought she was helping me, but I think it was to help herself just as much.
We all needed to hear it. We all needed to believe it.
But I don’t think any of us did.
Deep down, we knew something had happened.
I think we all knew we’d never see her again.
I was hot. My skin burned despite the sunscreen I’d applied, and my body was sore. I didn’t want to admit defeat, but as the sun started setting, the forest around us going from dark to darker, I knew it was time to call it.
The thought of them—either of them—spending the night in the jungle alone was enough to destroy me. I forced it from my head. Who was to say we were any safer closer to the coast? For all we knew, they were the ones protected in the forest, while we were exposed.
My stomach grumbled loudly, making its emptiness known. Try as I might to ignore it, I was starving. My throat was dry. As much as I wanted to deny myself any sort of nourishment until we found the girls, in the extreme heat, none of us would last long if we weren’t able to get something in our systems.
“Does anyone have anything to eat or drink in their huts?” I asked. Brad cleared his throat.
“You read my mind,” he said softly, no power left in his voice. I guess that's how we all felt. Powerless. Empty. No idea who or what we were running from…no idea who would be next.
“There may be some wine left in our hut,” Andy said. “Emily had Fraser bring us three bottles of wine our first night, and she only managed to drink one. She brought the mixed drinks back the first night, so I think they’re all still there.”
“There were two,” Brad said. “When I was in your hut, there were two. We could make those last between us for a while if we had to. What are you thinking? We should avoid the pavilion?”
“That’s not a good idea. We can’t live on wine right now. We don’t need alcohol at all,” Natasha said. “We need water. And food. We aren’t going to make it much longer in this heat if we don’t hydrate. I’m starving. My legs are weak, and my feet hurt. We need to keep our strength up.”
“So, what do we do? It’s not like we have many options,” Jaren said, staring at her. “We go back?”
“We have to. Natasha’s right. We can get a good meal at the pavilion. As long as we stay together, we’ll be okay, right?” Brad said.
“Can we trust them? What if they poison us?”
Brad shook his head. “Why wouldn’t they have already done that? They’ve had plenty of chances.” He waited, each of our breathing growing heavy as we labored across the sand. “I mean, seriously guys, if they wanted us dead, don’t you think we’d be dead? Why wait? Are they just dragging it out? Torturing us? One by one?”
“Picking us off, you mean? Why would they do that? What do they want?” Andy groaned.
“They wouldn’t,” Natasha said. “Brad’s right. Whoever’s doing this isn’t just going to come out and do it… They’re playing a game. They won’t make it obvious. We have to find out who, and why, but we have to be alive and nourished to do that. We’ll go to dinner together. Act like nothing’s wrong. Like we suspect nothing.”
“Fine,” Andy said. “I don’t care as long as I can get something to drink.” He huffed out a breath as we trudged across the sand, my throat growing drier as we saw the glowing yellow string lights from the pavilion.
We took seats at the usual table, the obvious differences from our first dinner weighing on me. There were just the five of us now—three missing or dead. The pain of what had happened, what we’d lost, was evident in our heavy, vacant gazes. On our expressions. No one seemed to know what to say. It hit me then…would we ever recover from this? If we made it off the island, would what was left of our group still exist? Would we ever be able to look at each other without being reminded of the pain? It seemed doubtful.
Before the waiters could appear, Manu walked through the door, looking relieved to see us. “Thank goodness,” he mumbled, loud enough for us to hear. He made his way to our table, the hem of his dress-type outfit swaying with his quick steps. “We had not seen you all afternoon… We were starting to worry.”
“We just went for a hike,” Natasha said quickly.
“I hope you were able to enjoy yourselves,” Manu said. He truly did look relieved. “Did you make it to the falls?”
“The falls?”
“If you follow any of the paths in the woods, they lead to the waterfall at the center of the island. It is a beautiful place.” His eyes moved from me, to Natasha, then to Andy, Brad, and Jaren.
“We didn’t make it that far,” I said, though we’d
