Lost {Ongoing:In Editing}

The Monster Inside

Chapter XXIX

JOEY, WITH HER CHIN to her chest, scanned her sleeping companions. They rested peacefully on the thick branches above, below, and to her sides. She stared at Alex watching his chest rise and fall in a steady rhythm, and she envied his sleep. She felt tired, but at the same time, like sleep couldn't come. Not with all the voices racing through her mind.

Her cheeks suddenly flushed as she felt a familiar warmth against her chest. Shifting her eyes down towards her crossed arms, she quietly lowered them an inch or two from her chest—afraid her jackets nylon would make noise as the sleeves rubbed—until the top of her fathers compass peeked her view. Slowly, she reached down and picked it up, caressing it in her palms as she stared at its gentle glow.

"Monster!"

She jerked her head up, startled by the voice. Frantically glancing around to find the source, she found that no one had stirred. Gazing back down at the gold metal in her hand, an image flashed through her head.

She scooted away from her friends as they glared at her. "You're a monster, Joey!" Alex shouted.

She grasped the compass tighter in her grasp as her hand began to shake, and she couldn't draw her eyes away from its glow as another image played out before her eyes.

She stood before David, condensation pouring off him as rage etched his features. "Please, David! Help me!" she cried out, tears spilling down her cheeks. "Don't give up on me yet."

Unexpectedly, David swiped a hand through the air, and the back of his hand came into contact with her cheek in full force. Her body was swung to the side from the blow, and her palms smacked the white, powdery ground. Reaching up with a shaking hand, she felt the sting on her cheekbone as tears welled her eyes.

He leaned in close, the hair on her ear standing as she felt his cold breath."You're nothing but a monster, Joey," he whispered. "Like one of the putrid creatures Agcorp created."

Gasping, she shot up straight and releases the compass that had felt glued to her hand. She jerked her hands down to her side and her fingernails dug into the bark as she shook violently. Gulping, she recognized her quick breathing and started taking slower breaths. She rubbed her hands up and down her arms, shivering as bumps rose along her skin under her jacket.

From the corner of her eye, she eyed David and Alex. The people that had called her friend. The people she thought would stick by her now called her monster. A part of her wanted to deny it, but after what she had done ... to Chase, Kathleen, Alex, and Evangeline ... denying it was just foolish. All these things were just signs that pointed to one thing. Signs that proved that she would never beat the darkness and eventually it would change her into what her friends would one day call her to her face. A monster.

"Trouble sleeping?"

Her heart lurched and she jerked her head towards the voice to find Thomas sitting on a branch across from her. Leaning against the bark, he sat there with his arms crossed and eyes closed, his legs extended, one overlapping the other. A small smile pulled at the corner of his lip. "I can tell something's on your mind."

She rolled her eyes. "Your ability tell you that?"

Thomas snickered. "No." He heaved a sigh and twisted his neck to eye her. "I couldn't sleep either and just happened to notice you were awake." He paused. "So ... why are you awake?" She averted her gaze and heard the swooshing of his jacket as he moved. "You know you can tell me. I'm not going to, like, judge you or something." She looked back over to find him now sitting towards her with his feet dangling over the side of the branch. "It's the compass, isn't it?"