At the camp—Miles had started calling it that in his head—everyone was gathered around the fire, gazes absorbed by the flames and the food roasting. Miles couldn't quite tell what that food was, but a pungent meat scent reached his nostrils the closer he got. Who had gone out and hunted something to eat, and had they seen him sneaking off after Kera? And where had they found anything worthy of being called meat? Miles didn't recall coming across any deer or rabbit or other game, and he hadn't eaten meat since he was on the good side days ago.

He tried to make it seem he was coming from his cabin, which was luckily near the path leading away from camp. He crouched and climbed onto the front steps, then yawned and rubbed his eyes, pretending to be only then waking up and showing up to join everyone.

Vick, seated the closest, spotted him first, turning to give him a nod of acknowledgment. He wore gray sweats, his hair ruffled, his eyes slightly rimmed with red. Not much different from the manner in which Miles usually found him after a night of drug-induced partying.

"You're back," he said, voice low in his throat as he gestured at a log stump next to him, for Miles to sit on.

Miles squinted at him. "Back?" He scrunched his nose, acting as if he didn't understand him. "You mean awake, yeah?"

"No," said Vick, frowning as he refocused on the fire. He poked at the meat dangled over the flames with a sharp-ended stick. "You left. So you're coming back."

"What are you talking about? I was in my cabin." Miles gulped, realizing he hadn't played this situation out.

He should have entered through the back of the cabin and exited through the front door to maintain the illusion. Instead, he'd walked past the place and feigned walking down the steps.

Busted.

"Don't bother, we know the truth." Vick used the stick to motion at Jessa, who was stalking up to Miles. Streaks of plum-colored veins ran up and down her bare arms, and a similar shade scintillated in her eyes. "She told us."

By she, Miles understood immediately that Vick meant the ruler. The omnipotent, all-seeing, all-hearing being who oversaw this island in place of its supposed gods. The monster who slipped into Jessa's body at will, possessed it to transfer cryptic messages, then left Jessa on the verge of death to recover from how the being ripped at her insides and messed with her brain.

She's here, and she knows I left? Fuck.

"I've been watching," said possessed-Jessa, her timbre treacherous with seduction. That same raspy, raw but rich voice the ruler seemed to employ when using Jessa's body. She sent a hand to her hip, her arm curving into a perfect C.

C for cunt, yeah? Because that's what this thing is.

Miles reigned in his rage, reminding himself that his inner thoughts might be too apparent to someone as powerful as the ruler. He'd ditched Kera for being too obvious, for not hiding her intentions well enough; if he didn't calm himself down, he'd have abandoned her for nothing.

"Yeah?" Miles folded his arms over his chest and took a step back, trying to avoid the heavily charged aura that Jessa dispersed around her. That intoxicating aroma of persuasion, of forceful feelings he didn't understand, of blood thirst and lust piercing into his heart. "So, what did you see?"

"All of it." Jessa offered him a lopsided smile that, under other circumstances, he might have found cute. Almost innocent, almost sexily so. But he knew better, and only turned up his nose at her pretty features and perfect posture. "I can't travel far in my misty form, but I was able to keep an eye on you. I saw your following of Kera, her conversation with that teacher, the teacher's death, and your confrontation. I must say, I wasn't sure how it was going to go for a few moments, there. I'm surprised, but pleased."

"Pleased?" Miles' legs shook, but he rooted his shoes to the ground to not show it. He'd assumed he'd be listened to, even seen; but straight up eavesdropped on by the ruler in some foggy yet invisible form?

Fuck.

"You're pleased that someone else is dead and that Kera is being pursued by monsters as we speak because she's a bit defiant? You're pleased I had to abandon her for my own safety?" He sensed the boiling in his insides and clenched his jaw to stop himself from spewing out any further comments that might trigger the ruler.

"For everyone's safety," muttered Vick, poking at the food as the skin of it crackled, the meat beneath burning and dripping juice into the fire, sizzling the flames.

"Kera deserves what's coming for her." Not a trace of emotion resided in Jessa's words. No remorse for what she'd said, but no anger or hatred, either. Nothing. "So I am pleased, and I applaud you for doing the right thing. She was bad news, nothing but trouble. I sensed it from the start—oh," her eyebrows bunched, and she lifted a finger to the air, "sounds like Jessa agrees with me. She's informing me she suspected Kera was a tattle-telling twerp who'd denounce the plan of creeping into the forbidden side of the forest."

"She didn't," said Miles, his nostrils flaring. "She followed to make sure we were okay, and when I confronted her on it, she chose to come with us and kept her mouth shut."

"But she was tattling a few hours ago, wasn't she? Calling out for help, discussing dark information with Ms. Moreno?" Jessa flipped to her small audience—her groupies, and Patrek, who was groggily staring into the fire. "She's the dead teacher I mentioned, by the way. Ms. Moreno. Punished for her big talking and her sordid plots."

Vick snorted, mumbling something in agreement. The groupies shrugged as if they didn't know who Ms. Moreno had been. Patrek was the only one stunned by the news, and covered his mouth as he looked into his lap.

Maybe he knew her. Was she a professor at his school?

"And Kera? Defend her as you wish, but she would have gotten us killed." Jessa spun back around and before Miles could back away. She shoved her index finger near the junction where his neck met his chest. "Gotten you killed. What a shame that would have been, hm?"

Her eyes were all purple now, not even any black left from her pupil. The whites weren't white, they were a faded lavender shade, streaked with violet lightning. Her skin, so pale, flashed with purple, the veins engorging and throbbing as she kept her finger thrust into Miles' upper torso. Defying him, daring him to speak up and disagree with her.

She was right, he knew it. Kera would have gotten them all killed, and that was why he'd had to leave her behind. But that didn't mean he was happy about it, nor was he happy that others seemed to agree. Or that they even knew about it—he'd anticipated lying to them all, telling them Kera had run off and he hadn't found her, or better yet, that she was dead. Now, with everyone knowing the truth, it put in doubt his motives, but also paved the way for the group to be on the look-out for Kera. On the hunt.

Because they would hunt her down, wouldn't they? Wasn't that the point of this fucked-up island? To sniff out the weak, to aim at the frail, to fight to draw blood and drink it?

The target on Kera's back had grown larger when Miles had left her, instead of diminishing as he'd hoped. Jessa—the ruler had enlarged that target and was rubbing her hands in pleasure for it.

Jessa maintained her destabilizing gaze on Miles, though he had to look away, disgusted with the freakish vibe surrounding her.

"She was weak, too weak for this group. My gods had hope for her, thinking she'd surprise them, thinking she'd be more than what we'd smelled on her—fear, distrust, a cutesy virgin with beliefs that were too solid to break through. I mean, kudos to her for her strength of faith, but even if she'd accepted her fate here, she would have been eaten by this world in seconds. She wasn't open to interpretation, and not open to the violence and adventure and pleasure we offer here."

Vick clapped. "Hear, hear. I felt her bullshit the second I met her," he snickered at Miles, "and I warned you, but you jumped to her defense." He stood up and smacked a hand to Miles' back. "I'm glad you came to your senses, man. She was weighing you down, weighing us down with all her prissy crap. Let the monsters eat her. Let them make her into one of them, fuck if I care. We," he pointed at himself, at Miles, at the group, "need to fend for ourselves. We made a pact, and Kera isn't a part of it anymore."

Miles moved away from Vick, smelling the same stench of violence and lust on him as on Jessa. Was he possessed, too? No; his eyes were the same bland brown shade, and his skin wasn't streaked with mauve-like veins. But his eyes were glossy, and Miles could have sworn he drooled every time he looked at Jessa. Fascinated with her, in a trance when in her presence, he worshiped every word she said and gobbled out all the same nonsense as her.

Is he under her spell, or something?

Miles had predicted that Vick would be interested in Jessa the instant they met. Though he'd been busy flirting with other chicks back on the main part of the island, he'd gotten closer to Jessa here, in their isolation. And even without the ruler's influence, she was a sexy, smart woman with appeal. From a powerful family, she had powerful connections, and a sensual way about her that swayed anyone into thinking the way she did, doing what she wanted them to. It helped that she was, to Miles' detriment, hot as fuck.

But though Vick had succumbed to her, and to the ruler's charm, Miles wouldn't, for as long as he could. He couldn't deny her powers might pry into him at some point, because he was human, after all. But he'd delay the inevitable as long as he was able to.

Something was strange, though. Miles recalled how the day before, Vick had been freaked out and more or less disgusted, disturbed by Jessa and her connection with the ruler. What had changed, and why so suddenly?

He snarled at Vick and moved around the fire, peering at every person in attendance. All seemed transfixed by Jessa and her power, nodding at the cruelties spewing from her mouth, acknowledging every syllable as if they were magic spells placed on them. All were absorbed in her, except for Patrek, who was still gaping down into his lap, staying silent.

He was the only one not dissing on Kera, not adding in his own two cents of how much of a hindrance she was.

As Miles thought of that, as he watched Patrek, he realized that Patrek had been somewhat close to Kera. She'd come to his defense the day before; surely he felt some affiliation to her, and her absence worried him. Or he worried for her. The others wanted her gone, thought her to be a problem. But Patrek sulked, likely still affected by the announcement of Ms. Moreno but also by Kera's departure.

Patrek joined his hands, and Miles noticed his fingers twitching, tightening then loosening then tightening again as he fidgeted, averting his gaze as much as feasible.

"On that note, do continue your morning, enjoy your meal, and embrace your new lives." Jessa twirled on her heels, making sure to exchange a glance with every person in attendance; aside from Patrek, who refused to accord her any attention. And Miles, who wouldn't let her woo him with her piercing purple eyes, not yet. "You have much to look forward to in the future, and we need you strong and healthy for it."

Seconds after her lips sealed, Jessa crumbled, nearly smashing her head on a log encircling the fire. Anticipating her collapse somehow, Vick swept in in record time and protected her scalp before it scraped against the wood, and before her head hit the ground too hard. He held her as she began to convulse in his arms, a sticky violet saliva dribbling from her mouth.

"Is she... is it... gone?" Her voice was a whisper compared to how she'd spoken moments before, confident and sly as a siren. Now she was tiny, the sparkle in her demeanor completely gone. She was washed out, erased, exhausted.

"You tell us," said Vick, swiping a few strands of matted red hair from her forehead. "Are you you again?"

Jessa gave him a weak nod. "I... think so. But I," she blew out a breath, "I need to lie down."

"You need to eat," said Miles, pointing at the roasting breakfast meat, whatever it was. "Regain some energy. I'm betting she'll possess you again, and you need to be ready for her." What he didn't add was, since she seems to creep in without warning.

When had the ruler re-entered Jessa's being? Overnight? Or right before Miles got back from ditching Kera?

Why didn't Jessa have a say in how often her body was used against her will?

But is it against her will? Maybe she welcomes the possession. Maybe she likes the power the ruler puts in her.

"I need to lie down, first." Jessa gestured towards her cabin. "I can barely... move my jaw." She grabbed at her chin and moved it side to side, as if putting it back into place. "It's like she... unhinged it or something."

Vick swept her into her arms as if she were a lifeless doll weighing next to nothing. Miles groaned; Jessa was far from weightless, but Vick was used to pretending to be a knight in shining armor, and had no issue scooping up damsels into his embrace and carrying them off to do whatever he pleased with them. Jessa was much too frail for him to have his way with her, and as much as Miles didn't want to get involved, he also didn't think Jessa should be abused by Vick. Regardless of his distaste for her, she was important to getting out—she was the ruler's vessel, and needed to be preserved.

"Dude, don't be a dick," Miles said, grabbing Vick's arm before he could wander off to the nearest cabin, carrying Jessa close to his chest. She nestled into him, giving into him, unaware that he had no intention of letting her rest. "She needs to come down from the possession, and you stripping her naked and fucking her isn't going to help. Not against her will."

"It's not," Jessa coughed, "against my will. But," she nudged Vick with her elbow, "I do need rest. Just... lay with me, okay?"

Vick's eyes lit up and a smirk spread over his lips. "Of course, I got you." As he started taking her to her cabin, he winked at Miles, and mouthed, "I always get what I want."

There was no stopping him, and if Jessa did indeed consent to him sharing her cabin and watching over her as she rested, Miles wouldn't interfere. No matter how badly he wanted to.

He lowered onto one of the logs and sighed, resting his elbows on his legs.

Patrek looked up at last, exchanging a brief glance of concern, before shuddering. "This is fucked up," he mumbled, his voice getting lost in the crackling flames.

Miles heard him, and he acknowledged his comment with a quick nod. He wouldn't proclaim his opinion, not with the ruler's essence probably whooshing above them that very instant, eavesdropping to better coax them into obedience later.

I've got to dismantle this shit from the inside.

If anyone found Kera, or if Kera dared to return to camp, she was toast. Her blood would be smeared all over the cabin walls, and her entrails roasting over the fire instead of the forest meat. He had no doubt the ruler had caused discord on purpose, had made it evident she wanted Kera's head on a pike. It was up to Miles to keep Kera safe, from a distance.

Maybe, maybe Patrek would be willing to help with that.