Page 62 of Stranded

It’s clear that Zee is a handful, but a handful I wanted with every fiber of my being, even if I had to share her with these two.

“Bower,” King says, getting my attention. “We always wondered how we’d get two girlfriends to coexist in a house with us and Reece. This would make that easier.”

“You’re talking about moving her in with you after we get rescued?” West asks with furrowed brows. “Doesn’t Reece hate women? How would that even work?”

“I’m sure we’ll get him to come around to her eventually. Besides, with the three of us there to take care of her, we wouldn’t give him a chance to scare her off.”

I nod, agreeing with King’s assessment.This could work.

“Wait—you’d want me to move in with you, too?”

“Right now this is all speculation, she might not have any interest in—”

“AHH!” A piercing scream shreds the air, sending a jolt straight through my chest. I leap up, heart pounding like a drum in my ears, and spin toward the tree, desperate to see what’s happening. My mind races, gripping for any clue, any sign of her. That scream, there’s no mistaking it. It’s raw and terrified, slicing through the quiet like a flare in the dark.

Zee.

For a fraction of a second, everything freezes. Then the panic ignites, raw and fierce, pushing me forward. We all race for the ladder, each step pounding beneath me like a countdown. West is already ahead, his urgency fueling the rest of us. The scream cuts off abruptly, and the sudden silence feels worse than the sound, like the world is holding its breath, waiting for something terrible to happen.

“ZEE!” The shout bursts from my lips, raw and trembling, mingling with the others. I scramble up the ladder, hands shaking, and my mind spinning with every possible horror. Behind the hut, I strain to catch any movement, any sound, anything that tells me she’s still there. Fear claws at my throat, but I push it down, desperate to be the one who finds her.

As I try to follow the other two into the tree, my mind races with a million reasons she could have screamed, none of them good. The thought of her being hurt sends an unwelcome tightness to my chest, making it hard to breathe and leaving me with only one thought.

When did she manage to sneak her way into my heart and how do I keep her there?

Chapter twenty-five

Darla

They won’t stop touching me. Their fingers feel like daggers against my skin, digging in and dragging me across the ground as I scream at the top of my lungs. Panic tightens in my chest, raw and suffocating.

They laugh, like this is all some big game to them, their cruelty twisting the air around me into something heavy and dark. I manage to twist an arm free from their grasp. But as I try to free the rest of my body, I’m slapped across the face, making me cry out in pain.

A bitter sting blossoms across my cheek, but worse is the helplessness clawing at my gut, threatening to break me. I try to breathe as another hand comes speeding towards my face…

I gasp, my eyes snapping open wide as something slips from my fingers. I watch in horror as Steve slides off me, out and out of the hammock, heading straight for the ground.

“Steve!” I cry, lunging to grab him, but instead I lose my balance and twist right out of the hammock.

Before I can even process what’s happening, I start falling, face first, towards the ground. A scream catches in my throat, strangled anddesperate, as I reach out, desperate to grab a branch. But I’m moving too fast and at too awkward an angle to catch anything.

Leaves and branches tear at my skin as I fall, the world flying past me. Then suddenly, a sharp, searing pain shoots through my ankle, ripping a scream from my throat as I come to an abrupt stop. “AHH!” I tilt my head up and see my foot is caught tight between a couple of branches. I’ve never felt anything so painful in my life.

I try to grab hold of a branch to get the weight off my foot and get it free, but my arms are twisted up in a few vines.

I scream again, the movement causing pure agony in my ankle. “Crap shells,” I whisper, as tears roll up my forehead and drop to the ground below. My breathing quickens as I start to panic. I can’t stay here, but my ankle hurts too much to move.

How the hell am I supposed to get out of this?

Suddenly, previous fears of dying alone on this island from an injury come crashing back into my mind. This can’t be how it ends, strung up, upside down in a tree like a damn boar!? Just when I thought things might be getting a little better, I have to go and get myself killed.

I don’t want to die alone.

“Mo-Mo, where are you?” I whisper, wishing my best friend could be here with me. He’d know how to get me out of this mess.

I sniffle as the tears start to fall heavier. I’ve either been upside down for too long, or I’m starting to have a panic attack, because my vision is starting to darken around the edges, making my breaths come in quick sharp gasps.

No, no, no, this can’t be happening!

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