Disclaimer: Victorious belongs to someone else, not me. I just borrowed the characters because I had this convenient deserted island. Also, warning, thing get weird towards the end.
:}
Tori didn't know what to think about what was happening in her life. How she'd wound up in that position, lost in so many ways. It had started with a kind of USO tour.
In order to help her name get out there, Tori'd agreed to do a series of performances on small U.S. Bases in the South Pacific. She'd agreed to the tour partially because it would give her a chance to visit our troops, and they could always use the boost in moral, but mostly because she wanted to see the exotic locations. The trip was supposed to be over now, with her safely in a four star hotel, waiting for the long flight home. But what she hadn't counted on was the pilot of the puddle jumper they were taking to the main land from the small island base would insist on beating a storm. Not just a storm, but a cyclone.
Jade said it wasn't worth the risk racing a storm in such a small sea plane. The goth was only there because Mason had convinced her to perform, be Tori's opening act, claiming she owed him a performance due to her missing the Platinum Music awards. And Jade, not trusting the weather any more then she trusted the sailors stranded on that small island, had argued argued that just cause it was called a cyclone didn't make it less dangerous.
But Tori had insisted on going. "Whats wrong, you scared?" Tori remembered telling the goth, even as the world got prematurely dark. It was almost revenge for the way the horror movie lover had made fun of Tori the flight in, when the singer hesitated at seeing how small the sea plane was. Right before Jade reminded her that this base was too far away for a quick helicopter ride, so they'd had to take the plane for this one performance.
They'd flown in without any hassles, finding themselves entertaining a small American military outpost on the island. But now, as they flew away from the storm, Tori was regretting not letting the sailors have the thrill of one more night with them visiting. 'If only they hadn't said how happy they were when the playboy models visited them, or how both girls could rock the magazine.'
Every time Tori had run the numbers, both before and during the flight, the plane outpaced the storm. It should have distanced it, had them safely landed and under cover by the time the storm hit, possibly hours after they'd landed. They should have been safe. But somehow they couldn't make it ahead of the raging winds.
When they lost a wing, and started to plummet, Tori was so sure they were gonna die. When they crashed into the water, having flown lower then expected, and made their way out into the emergency raft, Tori pulling her friend over the dead and mangled body of their pilot, Tori was sure they would join the pilot in the next life. When the storm blew them away from the islands, from the shipping lanes, from anything, Tori was sure they'd become shark food. Yet, for the sake of her companion, she had to keep her hopes up.
"Jade, hold on. It's gonna be okay." The singer said, holding onto the still warm body of her friend. Jade was knocked unconscious in the crash, a condition that didn't change as Tori pulled her out of the water and into the raft. Tori thanked her father for forcing her and Trina to take the lifeguard class, cause it gave her the tools to yank a hundred and twenty five lbs of Jade, plus the extra water weight her cloths had acquired, onto the little raft, while losing strength from the cold and wet. Jade remained unconscious through all the hectic activities that followed, like Tori pulling a life vest onto her and inflating it, or pulling a safety blanket over then to give them some measure of warmth.
Now, as the night slowly passed, and they drifted, Tori hugged the goth to her and both of them to the bottom of the raft. She knew, knew, that if she let the other girl go for any reason, she'd be alone in the raft, assuming that they didn't flip over and drown first. "I know the nice sailors will be looking for us, just as soon as the storm passes. The storms what, category three, four at the most? That can't be that bad." Tori said, trying to reassure her unconscious friend.
Even then, desperate, talking to the unmoving girl in her arms, Tori knew she was lying. She'd heard it over the radio as their now dead pilot was trying to call for help. It turned out the storm was category five, a tropical cyclone as strong as anything that could hit the isolated island. In the Caribbean, it'd have been a hurricane, and near Japan, a typhoon, but just calling it a cyclone made it's power sound deceptively weak. The storm brought disruption, probably flooding and destruction, to whatever islands were in it's path. It'd blown them off course, away from the shipping lanes. They were on their own. Their only hope was that someone was out, away from the main shipping lanes, and would find them and bring them someplace safe. Someplace where the sarcastic girl could get medical attention, and Tori could forget crawling over the body of their pilot as she was struggling to get herself and Jade out of the quickly sinking plane.
Tori was exhausted, fighting for each moment of clarity as the storm lessened, passing them by at last. She needed sleep, but Jade needed someone to watch out for her. Despite the life vest, Jade could well drown if she slipped into the tropical waters. Tori held on, staying awake, talking to the goth about anything she could think of. Of what Robbie was going to do the next time he visited her, or how Cat and Sam were running a business. But time and emotional exhaustion were cruel enemies. Part way through telling Jade about the cute girl she'd set Beck up with, someone he could date while the two of them were off on this mad tour, she faded. It felt like just for a moment.
Tori did remember hitting sand, being on some kind of land, washed ashore by the waves. Groggally she pulled the boat further onto the shore, looking through the early morning darkness to find anyplace they could lay where they'd be safe from the midday suns full power as they slept. She wasn't sure if she found a place, or just collapsed wherever. She just knew that Jade was cold. They'd both been soaked through, were likely going to catch a cold, or worse, and had no idea what kind of natives would be found on this island. Tori hoped she didn't dream about dragging herself next to Jade, and putting her arm around the goth. Or of feeling the girls body expand with each breath, and shiver from the cold. Under her layers of denial, she knew Jade was fading, and she'd be alone.
"Please, Jade don't leave me." She thought she'd said, trying not to drift back unconscious. "You owe me. You've been such a bitch to me, and now we're finally becoming friends. You can't just leave me." Tears flowed, taking the last of Tori's reserve of strength. She hadn't eaten in over a day, she was wet, cold, tired, and she just couldn't take it any more. Slumping on the other girl, Tori repeated "Don't leave me."
Tori woke up, her head hurting, but she wasn't bothered by the sun, or the cold. She pulled a blanket of of her, and gingerly got to her feet. Around her were wooden walls and furniture, with a bad wrapped in some kind of linen.. "Jade?" She called out. The goth was gone. The room she was in had two doors, both open. One led outside, to a balcony encased in bamboo bars. Tori didn't know what was happening or where to go, so on jelly legs she walked towards the bars.
Closer, she could clearly see the bamboo bars were set about s foot apart, all along the balcony, which itself was some kind of walkway around the building. By looking out over the edge of the balcony, She understood, she was in some kind of tree house. The ground was tens of feet below. "There are Tigers in the jungle." A male voice startled her.
Tori turned so fast she almost lost her footing, only standing due to her holding the bamboo bars. As her head cleared, she could see a tall tanned muscular boy with dark brown hair standing with a wooden bowl of something. He was wearing what was probably a loin cloth, but over shorts. "Who?" She managed to get out.
"Sorry, I thought..." He blushed, ever so slightly. "No, I didn't. Here, I brought you something." He offered her the bowl. "I have water when your ready. You were out a while. Exposure dose that to you. Plus the fever. You should be ready for something to eat now. Just, be ready, in case you need to adjust."
"Jade?" Tori asked. "My..."
"She's... Not doing well." He told her. Tori's eyes started to cloud up, a storm of tears threatening to break. "She's stable... for now. But I've had to do something desperate to keep her alive. I don't know if she'll ever wake up." He saw Tori's face, and added "No, I'm sure she will. We just need to give her time."
"Can I see her?" The Latina asked.
"Later, when you're stronger." He insisted. "Look, I think we got off on the wrong foot. I'm Auggie. Thats short for..."
"Augustus." Tori cut him off. "I know that. Don't know how, but I know." She blushed. He was tall, maybe six foot two inches, attractive, maybe just a smidgen older, and seemed to be a perfect gentleman. "How long have you been here?"
"A while." Auggie said. "You should understand, I'm not unhappy to be here. Yea, I was cast away, but I'm comfortable in my jungle home." He looked into her eyes, and his aura was magnetic, pulling her in. There was something familiar about his eyes, but she couldn't place why. He looked familiar, even thought she was sure she'd never met him before that day.
"Tigers?" Tori asked, looking into the island. She thought she'd seen movement.
"A tiger, actually. Just one, but it's here. I never could understand that." The hansom boy said. "There are these islands in the Asian sea, far from the mainland, and tiger grow naturally there. I don't think thats how this one got here though. Nor the dogs that rule most of the land. Not any of the animals who populate this island. Oh, yea, I should point out that I didn't build this house either. I found it, in need of repair, but conveniently here."
"I guess it's a good thing you found us." Tori admitted. She then reached for the bowl. "Please..."
He handed to her. "Let me get you something to drink."
Tori found it full of berries, with some grilled fish of some sort. She didn't question what was there, just ate. It filled her, and when she was done, Auggie was back with a skin full of water. Tori drank heavily, filling herself.
After eating, she looked at her savior. "Tel me the truth, Jade's dead."
"Might as well be." He replied. "But no, she's alive, and will live. There's a place where she can be put into a kind of suspended animation. It's kinda gross, but it works. I've used it once to keep a sailor alive, in the past. But he never woke, and I eventually tried to wake him..." The tall boy fell silent.
"It didn't work?" Tori asked.
"No, it didn't." Auggie repeated. "I didn't know what else to do. But with Jade, I think I can keep her alive, for a long time, until someone comes to rescue us. I don't know."
"Show me, please." Tori said. "I want to believe you. I want to know I didn't lose my almost friend, that I was able to save her."
"I don't think she wanted to be saved." The boy spat. "Sorry, she reminds me of someone. Cruel, reactionary, lashing out at anyone who could be a friend out of fear that she might be vulnerable. The girl I knew, also names Jade, decided if she was miserable, even by her own hand, then everyone else should be too. She was a monster."
"My Jade is.." Tori tried to find something nice to say. "She's opinionated, and mean, and lets be honest, I was so sure this one time she would have buried me in the desert. But she's my friend. I think, maybe, we were getting closer. It's why I asked for her to open for me on this mini tour of the southeaster seas." Tori couldn't even laugh at her own joke. 'or asked mason to get her to open.'
"Okay, humor isn't your strong point." Auggie said, leading her to the center of the tree. "The tree house is build along and around the tree and it's main branches. There are stairs, wrapping around part of the trunk, which is huge. I have no idea what kind of tree this is, but it's big enough to hold the whole house. The top most story holds something..." He stopped again. "You cannot unsee this."
"Show me." Tori asked again. After eating, and drinking her fill, she was feeling a lot stronger. She must have slept off the feaver. Now she was tired, but needed to know.
"You sure?" He asked. "You're still sick. You need your strength. I don't want to upset you. Jade's alive, and I wish you'd take my word for that. But you, your gonna get better, and you need to take things easy for a while. Seeing Jade, how she is now, might not be the best thing for you."
"I can take it." Tori insisted. "That is, unless she's dead. Then, I still need to know. I'm not dying. I can handle the truth. So tell me, show me. I need to know. I know, I'll carry this image with me, but please, for the love of god, show me Jade."
"She's not worth it." Auggie said, looking at the floor. "She's alive. I couldn't let her die, no matter how much I thought she deserved it. Not if it would hurt you." He looked up to see her eyes.
"Please." She said, placing a hand on his well defined arm. With a sigh, he relented.
"Stay behind me unless I tell you otherwise." The tall, muscular boy said. "If I say run, you run. We shouldn't have any problems unless it's feeding." He looked over at Tori. "It's part of the price. I just tell myself they can't feel anything. But it doesn't kill them, she's almost in the same shape she was in back when I dragged her up there."
Tori nodded, and followed him up the stairs. They wound up past the second story, where several rooms lay unused, covered in dust cloths, or were full of random stuff that Auggie said had washed ashore from previous storms. They continued up this unusual spiraling staircase to the top pat of the house. They were just under where the foliage grew thick, and the light that penetrated was heavily shadowed. There was no longer stairs above them to protect them from the weather, just the canopy of the tree. And off to the side, opposite the now much thinner trunk, there was a single unusually wide open doorway. The handsome guy led her through the door into what was the attic of the house.
The room was dimly lit by the outside sunlight, even darker then the stairs had become. The room was hard to see through, beyond even the dark. It was large, almost an open attic, but the view was blocked by the webs. The attic seemed filled with webs and cobwebs. They formed a maze that the two traversed, cautiously moving deeper into the room. Tori looked up to where the roof slanted up to met at a peek, high above them, giving plenty of room for the webbing to fill. As she followed the muscular boy in, she marveled at the number of spiders it must have taken to weave this labyrinth. Then they walked into an open space in the room, and the two occupants became clear. One of them was Jade, wrapped in webbing from her toes to her neck, her head the only thing showing as she hung from the roof, feet dangling just above the floor. The other looked like a ten foot diameter spider, multifaceted eyes watching them both.
Tori waned to run. She needed to, to place as much space between her and that giant spider as she could. But fear froze her to that spot. Fear, and a dark fascination at how peaceful Jade's face looked, bound by the spider's web.
Auggie chose this moment to speak. "She needs a living host to keep her eggs in, but unlike most insects and arachnids who do that, after a while her eggs grow too big to share a host. So she keeps one host alive, occasionally biting them to inject nutrients, and the host only had to incubate the eggs for a while. After thats over, she removes them to place each in their own individual host, and starts again the next season. Jade's her current host. I don't know what happens to the young after they hatch and eat their way out of the other hosts."
"And Jade's okay?" Tori asked, clearly not believing it.
"From what I learned from the journal I found, yea." Auggie told her. "It takes effort to make a host like Jade, so the spider keeps them around as long as she can. Jade could last years. The last one did."
It was all too much for her. Tori ran out of the attic, finding herself a place to throw up the meal she'd only recently consumed. After emptying the contents of her stomach, and whatever else she could force out, Tori slumped down to the floor. The railing had been a descent place to throw up, with her vomit now on the jungle floor. "You okay?" The tall boy asked.
"That spider, it's gonna eat her, right?" Tori asked. "Or one of it's young will?"
"No." He said, smiling a sincere smile. "Jade's safe. I told you, I could never let anything happen to her. Not while you need her."
Tori was now crying again. "I's all my fault. She didn't want to try to fly out in front of the storm. I told her the plane was faster then the storm, that we would outrun it. The storm, it was traveling maybe sixty miles per hour. How'd it overtake us?" She looked to the boy for answers she didn't have.
"Your pilot was probably flying perpendicular to the storm, or at some angle where he wasn't putting enough distance between you and it before it reached you. The storm was about six hundred miles across, with a center of over a hundred. You were caught in the storm, then the strength of the storm, and it was all over." The boy said. "But if he didn't tell you that, then there was no way for you to have known. And I'll agree, you probably didn't want to be stuck on one of those islands after a storm like that."
"How'd you know we came from an island?" Tori asked.
"You mumbled in your sleep." He smiled. "Lets get you something to calm your stomach down. I have things to show you."
he helped tori walk until they reached a room, then he sat her down. She could see that there were poncho's outside the room, one of which he put on. Also, the room inside was noticeably colder, necessitating the poncho. She realized the room was probably the pantry. "The air circulation cools this room down. Kinda like the ice Caves of Idaho. Ever heard of them? Outside of Shoeshone? The shape of the lava tubes cause the winds that blow through to cool down and freeze the water that bubbles up in the caves. Temperatures in the caves on a ninety degree day stay at or just above freezing. Back in the eighteen hundreds, someone figured out how to manufacture ice from observing those caves." He smiled at Tori, only to falter. "Sorry, I forget not everyone is as fascinated by that chiz as I am."
"And this rooms cool because of that?" Tori asked, happy to be sitting. She reached out to pull a poncho on, feeling the warmth. "No, it's fascinating. I'm just kinda distracted." She stopped smiling. "No, still feel guilty. I dragged Jade on this trip, and it's my fault she's hanging there, incubating spider eggs to survive. She will survive, right?" That one question lingered, cause Tori couldn't imagine the spider wanting to keep one subject alive like that. Surly Jade was slowly being eaten alive from the inside, one batch of eggs at a time.
"I'll tell you what." Auggie said. "I'll try to build something to sail us to the shipping lanes, if you agree to be my companion while I'm doing it. Jade'll live at least that long. In the meantime, eat this." He handed her what looked like a small loaf of bread. "Don't laugh, but it's breadfuit bread. Eat it, it'll ease your stomach. Then I want to show you the view from my room."
Tori ate, watching the boy. After a while, her suspicions were rising. He knew too much, but was somehow trapped on this island. 'Is he here by design? Is this some kind of exile location? Maybe he tried something with Jade while I was hanging from that spiders web, and switched us out when she rejected him. Makes sense, cause his Jade sounds a lot like mine. Plus, I get the feeling he's not just projecting his hate onto my Jade.'
But she did agree to go with him to his quarters, or outside of them on the balcony, where she was able to see a lake. "It's beautiful." Tori gasped. The tree was above a waterfall, with the edge of the balcony just protruding over the edge. Tori could look straight down, dozens of feet, to the churning waters. The roar of the falls somehow was diluted by the leaves and branches, fading to a dull roar.
But the banks of the water was what got her. The banks were lousy with flowers and trees and greenery that was thick at the edge of the water. "Is there a way down to the water?" Tori asked.
"It's a bit of a walk, but yea." Auggie replied. "When you're stronger, I'll take you. There are fish in the water, but the eels that used to live there had long ago died out. I think it was a project of the previous owner of the cabin in the trees."
"Then I look forward to being healthy enough." Tori said.
"Lets get you back to your side of the house." He told her. "You'll sleep better there, and I think there are so many things to show you, I don't want you distracted by the falls."
Tori spent the next three days getting her strength back. He had her walking around the balcony every day, getting her exercise. He also had her accompany him to the upper story, where the various stores of things he, or the previous owner, had recovered from the beaches were stored. Tori was amazed at the things there, including a kimono, and several summer dresses. She changed, loving the clean cloths she could wear. In a strange sense, it felt like shopping, with a limited selection, but everything was free. She enjoyed the rush of finding things to wear, to play with, to use as she stayed on the island.
During those nights, Tori was treated to the things that hunted the dark jungle when the sun was down. The dog packs stalking through the trees. They moved quickly, almost patrolling more then hunting, as if they were at war, and didn't wish to lose prime hunting grounds to any of the other dogs, let alone the big cat. The Tiger also stalked through one night. It didn't take long to decide that each group had their own territory, and they overlapped. But all of the predators, the dogs, the tiger, the others who were too small to count yet as a threat to Auggie, they all eyed the house hungrily, while keeping a healthy distance from it. Auggie told her the tiger could jump up to the lower floors. It was the reason he believed the bamboo cage was in place. The tiger wouldn't have the strength to rip it's way through. And from the way it watched her, she felt like it knew that too.
On the third day, I rained, but she didn't worry. Instead, she watched the world turn dark, but the jungle was beautiful in it's own way. Birds didn't fly, not so she could see them, but the flowers in the rain gave the whole world a sweet smell unlike anything she'd ever experienced before. And the water refracted the light that pushed it's way through the canopy, making dark rainbows. It was so unreal.
Then there was Auggie. Tori knew he wanted her. He was a boy, a very handsome boy with the most intense eyes, while she was a girl, and the attraction was there. But he kept himself under control, instead dazzling her with his vast array of useful facts he'd picked up along the way. He seemed to have spent as lot of time learning the most obscure things. Slowly she was finding it harder and harder to believe he was responsible for what happened to Jade. "I'll admit, she reminds me too much of my Jade, but because she's your friend, I would never hurt you." He would insist.
But Tori wondered, was he smitten with her because she was the first girl he'd seen, awake, since he'd been there, or was there really a connection? That thought would resurface again and again as they grew closer.
After four days, he took Tori around the island. First was the small lake, where they went swimming under the warm daylight, then dried off under the suns gentle embrace. Then he showed her the various plants, beautiful to deadly to just useful. He showed her where he'd placed markers to warn him of when he was entering one of the predators known territories. "The other threat is the pigs. Now they aren't as big as many wild pigs, having a major strain of the pacific pigs used by the Polynesians. But there is some European pig in their blood, giving them some size, and aggression. Still, occasionally I trap me one, and I have pork. I make great bacon. Then there are the birds. I found some chickens, wild, and while their eggs aren't as big, I still add that to my food supply." The tall boy told her. He seemed to enjoy pointing things out to her.
Tori was still not sure about the spider, so she asked about it's habits. "The spider is a hunting type spider." Auggie told her. "She's most active during the daytime. But she also hunts mostly the four legged animals. We should be safe as long as we keep our eyes open."
Tori nodded, and learned to watch for signs that the monster spider had left to go hunting. Sometimes it would climb down the tree, others it would lower itself by a strand of webbing. But as the days passed, and Tori found the island to be a dangerous paradise, she learned to habits of the spider. Then, after watching it for a week, she waited until it left to go forage food, and snuck up into it's lair.
Auggie had repeatedly told her never to go there without him, but today the boy had left early to resupply. He'd return that evening with food, meat, and maybe salvage washed ashore from the cyclone. He'd told her "Even thought the storm was a while ago, some stuff will be floating for months before it finds a place to be washed up on the shore. I like to check periodically, just because you never can tell what useful things might wash ashore."
So Tori snuck up the stairs, slowly making sure no one could notice her, despite being alone. She found her way to the attic, and walked in. The low light and abundant shadows were making everything more creepy. Still, she pushed forward, finding her way, until she found where Jade had been hung. The beautiful goth was still hanging there in her cocoon of webbing, only her face showing.
With a trembling hand, Tori reached for the goth. Jade hung there, unconscious, looking dead. Tori was sure she'd be feeling the cold of the girls body, if there was a body left under the mass of webbing. Instead, she felt warmth. 'She's alive.' The singer thought, feeling relieved. "Jade, listen, I'm sorry I haven't been by to visit in a while. I met this guy, Auggie. You'd li… Who'm I kidding, you'd have hated him. He's everything you're not. He's kind, and thoughtful, and not afraid to let people know he cares, and god do I miss you. You have to get better. Wake up. I need you. Auggie hot, and I'd be willing to share. We wouldn't have to be rivals. Please, just wake up." Tori would later admit she was begging.
Jade didn't respond. It took a short while to confirm that the girl was breathing. Like many sleepers, she wasn't using as much air, but she still needed to breath. The webbing around her was so think Tori had to place her hand over the girls mouth to confirm breath. "Probably the only reason we can still see your face." Tori mused.
"Look, Jade I know… I hope you can hear me. I'll find a way, get you out of here. Beck to the safety of the modern world. Please, just don't die on me." Tori felt an impulse, just for a second, for a more caring physical contact. Figuring that Jade would never know, she placed a gentile kiss on the girls head, and wanted to place another one on her lips. Tori resisted, stepping back, hurting at seeing the goth like this.
Tori then made her way out of the attic and down to her room. 'Auggie, please, take me with you when you go out.' She thought. 'There's no one to talk to here.'
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Thoughts?' Also, what do you think of the island so far? Or Auggie? Do you think Tori will be rescued, or will they build a boat and escape? And what about that spider?
Okay, now you can read chapter two.