CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE:
I believe you, Lennon.

               LENNON.

We had momentarily returned to camp. Hattie was giving everyone a once-over, checking for any new injuries. It was mostly just scratches, bumps and bruises. She had been putting a large plaster over June's neck from the FirstAid Kit when she spotted me trying to sneak by. Like a mother scorning me, she had insisted she wanted to give me a look over before I went anywhere. I hadn't wanted to. I really wanted to ignore my injuries and her the fuck out of camp.

Hattie had examined my head, saying that Ivy did a pretty good job at sealing up the wound and that it would last for quite a while—most likely until the wound itself healed, and then the glue would begin to peel. She had cleaned out the scratches on my arms and legs with antiseptic wipes before putting some plasters over the larger once. With the thumbs up from our Camp Doctor, I went and met up with Ivy.

It had felt weird watching Ivy toss a shotgun over her shoulder as we packed up to head down to the lake. I didn't have much experience with guns, except for when dad would take us on hunting trips when we were younger. But that stopped by the time we were nine—since I always cried when he would shoot down the game he had been stalking all morning. June didn't mind it as much as I did, in fact, she had been pretty interested in hunting and continued to go with him, whilst I would stay at home with mom. But the way Ivy handled the gun, showed me that she did have some experience with it.

We explained to the group that we were going to head down to the lake so that I could freshen up—and despite their concerns about us heading out alone, they didn't argue. It was more than obvious how I looked was making everyone uncomfortable—shit, it was making me uncomfortable. I never thought I'd see the day where I'd be covered head-to-toe in blood.

Together, we walked down to the lake which ended up being a shorter walk when we found an easier route than the one before. It seemed the landslide had paved a quicker way.

For once, Ivy wasn't stalking off ahead of me, and instead, walked directly beside me the entire time. It threw me off a little. I wondered why she was staying so close since it was clear she'd never given a shit about me—so I doubted it had anything to do with her worrying about an attack by the creatures. But then again, she had been the one to offer accompanying me to the lake.

When our feet sunk into the sand, I trod forward, my feet sinking with every step. I dropped my backpack near the shore line and took off my shoes and socks. It felt like I was moving on autopilot as I stripped out of my clothes, standing in only my white bikini. From the corner of my eye, I noticed Ivy begin to undress too, sliding out of her clothes with ease. She was still covered in mud from the landslide, and a little bit of blood was on her chest.

When I took my first step into the water, it sent a chill up my spine. It was freezing cold, except for on the surface, where there was a slight heat from the sun. I took another step, and then another until I fully submerged myself under the water. Holding my breath, I ran my hands across my face and hair, scrubbing at the my skin until it was raw and I was almost out of air.

Only once my lungs were screaming at me did I push my head out of the water, gasping in air. I slicked my hair back and rubbed at my eyes so that I could see clearly. The cold water made me feel fresh and alive once again, even though it wasn't exactly clean. But anything was better than being covered in mud and blood like some kind of animal.

I swam for a moment, tipping my head back to the sky. The last time we had been here, a storm had blew in from nowhere. It made me feel uneasy. The island had a way of switching up on us and delivering fatal blows from out of nowhere. I found myself fearing that something bad was going to happen once again, because why wouldn't it? I was completely convinced we were on the same island as my mom. And that island had demanded blood—all of the time. A part of me wondered if that was why it had taken Nora and Hailey—as some kind of sick sacrifice. My mom said the island would give back. Maybe, for a while, we would be okay.

Turning around, ridding myself of those thoughts, I looked to where Ivy was in the water. She was in till her waist, bent over as she splashed water over her face and scrubbed at her arms. She had her eyes closed, enjoying the feeling of the water on her skin. The sun was hitting her just right, making her skin glisten as the water droplets clung to her. I felt slightly relieved Ivy was with me. We had both been alone for an entire day, with only each other to rely on. And she knew how to shoot a gun.

I went back to the shore to retrieve the small bottles of shampoo and conditioner I brought with me. It was the first time I'd had the chance to use them—in fact, none of us had had the time to wash our hairs since we crashed. It was something that felt so trivial. But we did have a few bottles saved by that would do us for a short period of time.

Once I felt clean enough and could no longer feel any of the crusty blood on my skin, I stepped out of the water. I sat down by my backpack on the shoreline, ringing my hair out, some of the water trickling down my back. I watched on as Ivy dove under the water, fully submerging herself before coming back up. It was never any surprise to me that Ivy was an athlete—she was good at just about everything sporty, and had the perfect build for it. I had once gotten told I was too 'top-heavy' to join the cheerleading squad when I first started high school. But I was sure Ivy had never experienced such things, not with her lean, athlete's build. I was almost envious of how she looked.

I had been so lost in my daze that I hadn't noticed Ivy come out of the water and sit down beside me. I turned my head, looking at her as she rifled through her backpack. She pulled out a towel and when I gave her a risen brow, she scoffed, "Kitty's super weird about towels being used by other people—so she brought her own. It was one of her three items," She explained to me as she used the towel to wipe down her wet arms. "But she let me borrow it just for now." She added, moving the towel up to scrunch at her hair that had began turning into loose ringlets.

"Jeez, I just brought a t-shirt to dry myself off." I said with a scoff, feeling a little lighter than before now by body was clean.

Ivy glanced at me, before shoving the towel into my chest, "Here, you can at least use it to dry your hair off." She said, turning away from me, staring out at the lake.

I nimbly took the towel, "Thanks." I said, bringing it up to ruffle at the top of my head, massaging the scalp a little. It felt a lot better—more clean, the tangles in my hair now separated. 

I scrunched the tips of my hair, soaking up the water that had been dripping from it before passing the towel back to Ivy.

                   We sat in silence, staring at the water rippling in front of the mountains behind the lake. I wondered where those creatures were. I was curious as to if they were curled up in a cave, thinking about their next meal. It made a shudder coarse through my spine.

"Oh, you, uh..." I turned at the sound of Ivy's voice. She was staring at the side of my face. She gestured with her finger. "You've still got a bit of blood in your face." She told me, her brown gaze settled on where the spot of blood must have been hiding.

I reached up, my lips parting as I tried to rub at my face whilst Ivy watched, "No, it's still—just hold on a minute." She reached out with her thumb, using it to wipe away the blood whilst I watched her the entire time.

She had leaned closer to reach the blood and her eyes were focused down on my face, her thumb rubbing at my skin. I couldn't help but stare at the concentration on her face as I felt my cheeks heat up. I found myself thinking back to Halloween—how we had kissed in that bathroom and how much of a massive dick I had been. Ivy and I had been rivals with competitive banter; but after that night, she straight up despised me.

"There." Ivy said, feeling pleased wish herself after she removed the blood. Then she froze, as if realising how close we were. Our noses were practically touching, her hand hovering by my face.

I swallowed hard, my eyes flickering between hers, "Ivy, I, uh—I wanted to apologise. For, you know, how I acted last Halloween," I began stuttering out before I stopped myself. Did I even want to apologise or did I just need to distract myself from how close she was? Ivy's brows furrowed. "I acted like a total dick—and you had every right to hate me after. I'm just, yeah, I'm just really sorry." I inwardly cringed. Couldn't I just shut the fuck up? Ivy probably didn't give two shits about last Halloween after what happened the night before—it was so small, insignificant.

Ivy let out a low scoff, "Look, I'm not much for apologies, cause, you know—I'm never wrong," I couldn't help but smile at her words. She shrugged carelessly. "But I acted like a bit of a dick too." I guess that was as close to an apology I'd ever receive from Ivy Kingston.

Ivy sat back a little, finally giving me room to breathe. She reached up, scratching at her wet head, "And I just wanna say I believe you, about what you said before," My brows turned downwards in confusion. Reading my expression, Ivy went on. "About the island... I believe you, Lennon." I stared at her, barely blinking, thinking I must have misheard her.

"You... believe me?" I asked for confirmation.

Ivy breathed through her teeth, "Against my better judgement," She said before wrapping her arms around her body, making her look tiny. "First I thought you were batshit crazy and maybe you are—maybe I'm even more nuts for believing you. But..." She trailed off, looking into the unknown that stretched beyond our gaze.

"After last night, after seeing what we all saw—I can't not believe you. Somethings wrong with this island, very fucking wrong. Believing you isn't the most crazy thing about this damn place." I watched her talk, listening to her every word, confirming that I hadn't gone completely insane. For a while, I began questioning my own sanity—and not for the first time in my life. It felt good to know that I was being believed for something that would be otherwise insane.

I swallowed down the lump in my throat, "Thank you." I said, relief hitting me square in the chest. It felt like I could breathe again, even after everything that had happened the night before.

Ivy gave a nod, holding my eyes. I blinked, realising she hadn't tore her gaze away from me as she often would. I found myself moving forward before I could even phantom the consequences, "Wait." Ivy said in a whisper, her eyes focusing on behind me. My body stilled, the fear of rejection creeping in. I wanted to hit myself. Of course it wasn't the right moment—but since last night, it was the first time I had felt semi-normal again, like a functioning human being. My body had just acted on impulse.

I was about to begin to profoundly apologise for being such an idiot—blame it on the night before or possible sun-stroke. But when I caught the sight of Ivy's hand reaching for the shotgun, I realised I wasn't being rejected for the reason I thought. There was something behind me.

I slowly turned, my heart thumping in my chest, fearing that one of the wolf-like creatures were creeping up on us. But after a moment, my eyes fell in the harmless creature at least fifteen foot in front of us. A male deer—who was clearly unaware of our presence in the beach as he shoved his nose into the sand, sniffing as he went.

Ivy's hand clasped around the gun and she got to her feet, making me quickly stand up alongside her. I grabbed onto the barrel of the gun, shoving it downwards, "What're you doing?" I demanded, my eyes widening.

Ivy's eyes was trained on the stag that had yet to notice us, "We need food. And that could feed us for a week, maybe more—"

"We have plenty after raiding the catering suite," I spoke over her, a pleading tone to my voice. I grabbed her arm. "Ivy, we don't have to kill it." I tried reasoning. I knew deep down, that it made more sense to kill it than to not. If we were out there any longer, our rations would start to go down and we would die of starvation before anything else. But still, I felt like that same nine-year-old girl, begging her father not to shoot the bunny rabbit that had stumbled upon us.

Ivy's eyes finally met mine, "Not anything that's giving us the protein we need to survive out here," She argued, making me purse my lips, knowing she was right. "Lennon, you need to let me do this or there's the possibility that we'll all starve. That June will starve." I held her gaze, my eyes flickering back and forth between each one.

"I..." I trailed off, not knowing what I had planned to say. I couldn't deny that we needed the extra sustenance. I just couldn't wrap my head around the means.

Noticing I had given in without realising, I stepped out of Ivy's way, turning around as I fixated my eyes on the sand beneath me.

Ivy crept forward slightly, angling the gun at her shoulder and bringing it to eye level, "Sorry, big guy." She whispered under her breath, making me look up, my eyes settling on her back and then the stag—who had no clue his life was about to come to an end. Just like Hailey and Nora.

When the shot went off, it made me jump slightly. I was momentarily reminded of the night before by the flashing image of the creature lunging at me with its mouth wide before Brooke had put a bullet in its head. But the sound of the stags body hitting the sand brought me back to earth, pulling me from the reality of the night before.

I found my eyes glossing over as Ivy lowered the gun, smoke oozing from the barrel. She stood there for a moment before waking ahead, crouching down by the animal and I followed her nervously, my stomach churning. I begged myself not to cry—especially not over something so silly in front of Ivy. But I couldn't help it, the tears wouldn't stop burning my eyelids.

Ivy crouched down, putting her hand on the stags chest. It's eyes were wide open, staring into nothing. I stood behind her, a tear slipping down my cheek for the fallen creature. It felt ridiculous to be crying over something so juvenile after all we had endured, but it was also the most human I had felt in days.

                 AUTHORS NOTE.

                 Double update! I repeat! Double update! I decided to do another update bc I hadn't posted in a week, so I hope y'all enjoyed it!! Limme know what u thought!

                 — taylor xx