gold rush [the wilds, toni shalifoe]

chapter 28

Current Day

"I want to see Hunter," Leah demanded, her arms crossed over her chest as she looked at Dr Faber. The man stared back at her, cold and hard. He knew that Leah would be concerned about their friend since the duo had discovered that her twin brother was on the boys island, but he also knew that letting them see each other again would be detrimental to their operation.

Gretchen and himself had pre-discussed what would happen if one of the girls had learnt the truth, but having two of the girls roaming the halls was a bigger risk than they were willing to take. Besides, Leah was much harder to contain than the blonde cheerleader sitting down the hallway.

"She's unavailable at the moment," Dr Faber informed her, his eyes not leaving Leah's for a second. "What you... convinced her to do, what you made her learn... it really hasn't helped her mentally."

Leah blinked, fully aware that the man was trying to gaslight her into thinking that she had done something wrong - when it was in fact them who had staged an entire plane crash and numerous traumatic incidents, seemingly not just once but twice. She went to open her mouth but he cut her off and continued speaking.

"She won't let anyone near her. You're irrational need to drag other people down with you has caused Hunter to regress to an almost worse version of how she was before you and your friends stepped on to that plane," Dr Faber told her, picturing an hour before where he and three other nurses had restrained the girl as they tried to make sure she was eating her food.

Since their discovery the night before, Hunter had been refusing to take any food or water from them. She was paranoid about everything now, and Kirin's reaction to her mentioning her brother had caused the girl to enter an extreme state of distress.

"Is Hudson here? At least let him see her!" Leah snapped, her eyes narrowed into slits as she thought briefly about Rachel and Nora's bond that was forever severed now - not just because of her death. Leah knew that it would break Rachel again to find out that the Californian girl had been right about her sister all along: she had been involved in all of this and it had killed her.

Dr Faber paused, letting out a breath Leah hadn't realised the man was holding.

"Hudson..." Dr Faber murmured, his eyes looking away from Leah as she sensed that he was feeling some sort of guilt about what he was about to say next. "Hudson didn't make it off the island."

Leah slammed her hands on the desk, fed up of the man's constant beating around the bush attitude. She was furious, and she was getting riled up again. She just wanted answers.

"What is that supposed to mean? You just forgot to get him and left him running about the trees?"

"Hudson is dead."

The room was silent for the first time since Faber brought the brunette into it. All that could be heard were the shaky breaths that fell from her lips.

"What?"

"We're telling Hunter today, now that she knows he was on an island like yours," the man replied, the emotion now gone from his voice. "So yes, Leah, you've caused her irrevisible pain by convincing her to join you on your tyrade to find 'the truth' about this. She could have continued with the hope of seeing her brother until you forced us to tell her about his fate. You caused this."

Leah knew that they would have said anything in that moment to make her feel bad: but that didn't excuse the fact that it was working.

In that moment, Leah wondered if her need to find the truth had really been worth it.

_____

Day 34

As her blood warmed, he drew her closer and deepened, deepened the kiss a whisper at a time until everything blurred. She went pliant, and the sigh she made was surrender.