Horror Island

Horror Island Ch 10

She resumed walking toward the jungle, pushing and kicking and crushing the vines in her way. This she did with a vengeance, even tearing at them with her hands, hands that were soon bloody and ripped, the skin falling off of them in strips. When she got to the line between the jungle and the beach, she realized that the vines crossed it freely, without inhibition. But while the jungle may have had vines in it, it looked nothing like the beach. It was much clearer, Mia realized, because the sun didn't reach it deep in the shadows of the trees.

She turned back to the beach and spat at the vines. They curled up where her saliva hit, as if to say, "you disgusting human." She felt a certain satisfaction at this realization. She spat again and again until her mouth was dry and free of moisture. Then she turned back to the jungle and began marching through it.

She marched this way and that, looking for something that she did not know. She searched and searched but everything looked the same. She kicked vines and trees in frustration.

When she could no longer handle the walking, when she was no longer walking but stumbling, she fell into a clearing.

It was the same clearing that Mark had died in.

No, it wasn't. There was no blood stain or body, the shape was different, it was bigger. There was a bubbling source of water in the middle though, just like before. Mia looked around shiftily before tentatively walking forward. She stopped and started in fits, wondering about the little babbling brook.

Finally she broke into a run, falling to her knees and plunging her face into the cold water and drinking deeply, pulling huge mouthfuls into her body. When the water stopped and the level fell, she was ready. She jumped to her feet and began running. She ran away from the clearing, sprinting back into the jungle, ignoring the pains of her aged body.

She could hear the rats behind her and she grinned wickedly. Then she laughed, screaming laughter that echoed through the trees. She spotted a tree ahead and she jumped onto the lowest branch, scrambling to get higher as fast as possible.

She got fifteen feet off the ground before the rats caught up to her, covering the ground below her. But there was another animal with the rats. Her grin dropped as she spotted the monkeys, squat little monkeys running beside the rats and swinging in the trees, surrounding her. She edged out onto the branch, away from the snarling grins of the little creatures.

As she perched there on the branch, one of the monkeys jumped over to her, crouching on the branch, staring at her. Looking into its eyes, she saw something truly terrifying.

"Please go away." she begged, sobbing. "I'm sorry, please just leave me alone."

The monkey hopped closer to her and she tried to back up. She caught her boot on a knot in the branch and fell, catching it with both hands. She looked down at the ground and saw vines curling beneath her, vines that had not been there when she had climbed up the tree. Among the vines, crawled the rats. While she watched, they sat back on their haunches and hissed at her in unison, moving as one.

She looked back up, at the monkey crawling along the branch above her. The sky behind it darkened and night seemed to fall within a matter of moments, the air cooling rapidly. The only thing she could see was the monkey, with its light blond fur and its little black paws. Its brethren gathered behind it and they all looked exactly the same. They moved forward, moved as one. Just like the rats, just like the vines.

Another monkey came from the opposite direction on the branch. The two monkeys perched on opposite sides of her hands as she dangled above a nest of vines.

One monkey leaned forward and bit her right hand. It bit deep, deep, deeper. Blood squirted, ran down her arm, splattered on her face.

The other leaned forward and looked into her eyes. She stared back, stared deeply into its eyes as it gently kissed her left hand.

She looked into its eyes.

Its bright green eyes.

Mark's bright green eyes.

Full of love.

She closed her eyes.

And let go.

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