WICKED PARADISE | JENLISA

TWENTY-ONE

JENNIE
***

I’D FOUND THE HAREM.

After no one came to claim me, and I grew bored of bobbing in the ocean, I returned to my villa, showered, dressed from the copious choices of summery things in the wardrobe, and then went for a stroll.

The island was a different dimension once the sun had set.

The sandy pathways were arteries leading to some slumbering black beast. The palm trees were sinister umbrellas blotting out the stars, and the roosting of birds was replaced with the steady buzz of cicadas and courting ribbits of frogs.

Without the flickering tiki torches, finding my way would’ve been impossible. Each puddle of light beckoned me forward, leading me in a direction I hadn’t been before. At each bend in the path, I braced myself to meet someone. To bump into a guest, to argue with Lisa’s minion, or even battle with Lisa herself.

However, I hadn’t come across anyone, and I’d continued my paint by numbers, padding in bare feet, travelling from torch to torch, lantern to lantern until the dense jungle of the gardens thinned out to the humid breeze of the shore.

I’d slammed to a stop.

Stunned and stupefied by awe.

This place… it was dazzling.

Every adjective to describe something that far exceeded extraordinary paled in the view before me. Of the way the sea sparkled with mirroring stars. Of the way far-off lights from other islands winked. Of the way my gaze soared skyward, making me sway at the endless infinity of it all. The sky wasn’t just black with night; it was alive with so many wondrous delights.

Stars and planets, milky ways and flickering clusters.

I’d never been a stargazer, but in one second, I went from confident in my worth as a human, aware that I existed and breathed air and ate food to survive, to not having a clue what I was.

How could I matter when faced with such vastness?

What inconsequential little thing was I when witnessing the untold magnitude of worlds outside our world? The solar system where we bounced around like a Ping-Pong ball, thinking we were absolutely important and special and real, when really… we were utterly insignificant.

I stood transfixed.

My neck ached from looking up. My feet sank deeper into still-warm sand. And tears came unbidden and trickled down my cheeks. Was Taehyung looking at this vista? Were my mum or dad? Had that guy in Mexico given them my note? Did they hate me for abandoning them or were they happy I’d left them for true love?

My heart hurt.

True love?

More like rotten hate.

Lisa had trapped me here; she’d shown me the cosmos and surrounded me with Eden…all for one purpose.

To use, abuse, and ultimately destroy me.
I cried silently for a while.

I let the liquid tracks dry into sticky salt, and then I heard a female laugh.

For the first time since arriving, I was in the presence of women.

Normally, I’d run to them. I’d find solace in my sex and spill my entire tale. I’d ask them to help me escape, to band together and kill the woman who thought they were boss, but these weren’t just any women.

They were goddesses.

They were her.

So I’d faded into the undergrowth and waited.